Sermon for May 31st - Confirmation Sunday

As I announced at the beginning of our service, today is a day of celebration for this congregation. It is the day when four young adults from within our midst will be affirming the promises God gave them at their baptism. We call this their confirmation. But in the Lutheran church, confirmation is thought of much differently than in many other denominations so, while you may have a general idea or impression about what is going to happen today, you might still wonder what all the fuss is about or whether it means much of anything.

For some churches and denominations, confirmation is the completion of baptism. When a child is baptized, or dedicated as some traditions call it, the understanding is that the parents promise to raise their child in the faith but, since they believe a child is too young to understand or believe anything, it is not until confirmation that a child can be old enough to enter into a full relationship with God. As a friend of mine from another faith tradition puts it, a relationship with God is like a marriage, where both the believer and God must say, “I do” or else there is no real commitment. Following this line of thinking, confirmation would be the time in a young person’s life where they “make up their mind” after a long drawn out engagement. It is a “coming of age” ceremony, a kind of Christian debutante ball inviting those chosen into the high society of a congregation.

When the event of confirmation is seen in this way, the confirmation classes leading up to the ceremony are pushed in a particular direction. The teaching, reading and the conversation are all aimed at one important goal: a conversion experience. Somehow, the pastor must motivate the youth to believe what a Christian is supposed to believe and really mean it too and prove it at the confirmation ceremony. You can lead a horse to water, they say, but you can’t make it take a drink. But many pastors in many different churches understand that they have two or three years to motivate, scold, pressure, educate and plead to their young horses to take a drink from the fountain of every blessing, Jesus Christ himself. If and when it happens, the pastor is affirmed and so are the confirmands.

Another traditional understanding of confirmation seeks not a conversion experience but an acceptance of responsibility. This tradition believes that while original sin is forgiven at baptism, there is still a smoldering tinder of sin always lingering, ready to get those young men and women in hot water with God. So, when a child gets to the proper age, they learn to take responsibility for confessing their sins and being absolved. But in order to help fend off the temptation to sin in their lives, they need to learn as much as possible about Jesus Christ. Therefore, the pastor, or priest, seeks to educate confirmands so that they understand what is expected of them in their relationship with God and the church. Confirmation is about leading those horses to water and teaching them the benefits of drinking it and the need to drink it often.

Confirmation in the Lutheran church is different than either one of these other possibilities. At confirmation, we do not expect our children to prove their faith, but to affirm the promise that God made to them so long ago. Jesus says, “You did not choose me. I chose you.” During the three years of confirmation, my prayer is that these four young adults, Sam, Meredith, Phillip and Stephen have learned these promises of God. They may not know exactly what they think of God, I pray that God blesses them with many more years to figure it out, but they do know what God thinks of them. Whether or not you were confirmed in the Lutheran church, you also may no know exactly what you think of God. But I pray that you now hear what God thinks of you: at your baptism, you were made God’s beloved child forever. Your sins were forgiven once and forever and God’s promise of eternal life was given to you—no strings attached. “For the call and promise of God are unthwartable.”

Responsibility for your faith does not finally lie in your hands—it lies in God’s hands. But, just as with those who will be confirmed later this morning, though I pray that you will continue to worship God consistently and stay firm in God’s Word, I also know that you are sinners. I know it from personal experience with you as well as from what the Bible says about all humankind, “No one is righteous, not even one.” Jesus told stories like the prodigal son and the lost sheep, not because they are just sweet stories, but because that is a much more common experience for people like us. You may not be a young teenager, but you may still find yourself missing from church more often than you should be, doubting God and even questioning your faith, but remember God’s promise, “My sheep hear my voice, they know me and they follow me, I give them eternal life and nothing will snatch them out of my hand.” Nothing will separate you from God’s love.

In the Lutheran church, when we bring in our young stallions, neighing and stomping with wild unbridled hormones for confirmation classes, we don’t tell them only the benefits of drinking water or attempt to motivate them to take a drink for their own good. We get a bucket of that water and throw it at them, drenching them with the promises of God over and over again. We don’t use confirmation class to demand faith—we give faith—we teach faith. Confirmation is not about trying to tickle the free wills of these young Christians into great feats of faith. Instead, like the rest of us, we believe that they are so bound up in sin that they are unable to freely do anything. So, we give them Jesus Christ so that they might know the freedom of life in him.

In fact, this is the same thing that we do at our weekly worship services. For while you may not have to stand up in the front and give an accounting of the hope that lies within you, each week God’s love and his spirit is poured out upon you and you must make your confession. Just like the confirmands, God gave you each a promise at your baptism and he will continue forgiving you and pursuing you all the days of your life. Today, just like them, you will confess that yes, indeed you know that God has made you these promises. You’ve heard it. You’ve learned it. You believe it actually happened to you. Not because of your own understanding or strength does God love you, but because you are his chosen—his beloved.

Jesus Christ died for each one of you to free you from sin, death and the Devil. For those of you who were baptized, you were each named and claimed by Jesus Christ a long time ago, but this promise is still yours today. For you, as a Christian, everyday is your confirmation day, for at any time, God may call upon you to confess your faith. When the time comes, I pray that you will find strength not in your own power to believe, but in God’s power to give you faith. Not in your own ability to drink water, but in the fact that you are still wet from the grace poured out on your minute after minute in your life. And just as we will pray that the Holy Spirit fills the hearts of the youth in a couple hours with faith to empower them to continue living in the love of Christ, I pray that the Holy Spirit also fills your heart and mind with faith, love, peace and joy to continue in the amazing grace God has given you.

Let us pray, “Father in heaven, for Jesus’ sake, stir up in these people the gift of your Holy Spirit; confirm their faith, guide their lives, empower them in their serving, give them patience in suffering and bring them to everlasting life.” Amen.