Sunday, June 21, 2020

June 21 - A Sermon for Our Confirmands

Matthew 10:40-42

“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven.”

Well, L----, that’s what you’re about to do, isn’t it? In a little bit, you are going to stand up here at the front of the church and streaming live on Zoom, and acknowledge your commitment to following God above all others. You’re going to officially renounce, or reject, all the forces that oppose God, or that try to replace God. You’re going to affirm, or agree, that being baptized was a good thing, and that you are happy to be part of Christ’s family and that you recognize that God claims you as God’s own beloved child. And you are going to announce in front of everyone, in “public,” as it were, that going forward you are committed to “proclaim[ing] the good news of God in Christ through word and deed..., serv[ing] all people...., and striv[ing] for justice and peace in all the earth.”

Wow. That’s a lot of pressure! Especially that last bit, serving all people and striving for justice and peace in all the earth. After all, you’re only a few years into being a teenager and already you’re expected to stand up and do the right thing, no matter what anybody says.

And, just to be clear, when you stand up and do the right thing, people are going to say a lot. Adults are going to say a lot. That’s actually what Jesus is trying to warn us about in the Gospel reading we just heard. Following Jesus in doing the right thing often puts us into conflict with others, especially with those in positions of authority over us. Jesus says, “I have come to set a man against his father,” and “one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.” And then he says, “whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” Yikes! Those are harsh words, especially on Father’s Day! I bet you didn’t think you were coming to church to be told that!

Jesus even says, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Which is weird because when we talk about Jesus we call him the prince of peace, and that he brings peace on earth, and that he gives us the peace that passes all understanding. So how can he be talking about bringing a sword? Well, what Jesus is saying is that God did not send him to earth to support the peace that existed at his time, which was the peace of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire established peace by force. If slaves didn’t like being slaves, and tried to escape from slavery, the Empire’s soldiers just killed them, and look, peaceful again. Jesus definitely did not come to support that kind of peace. Instead, he actually came to expose that peace as a lie and to fight it and to dismantle it. It’s hard for us to believe, but he’s saying that if the government is acting in an unjust way, that establishes peace by force, then he is calling us to stand up to it, no matter what the consequences. 

And that’s because the ultimate authority for Christians isn’t the Roman Emperor, or the government, or even our parents. Jesus is our Lord, our Saviour, our Emperor, our King, our boss, and the one that we should obey even if it means disobeying someone else. It’s right there in Luther’s explanation to the First Commandment, “we are to fear, love, and trust God above all things.” Jesus is very clear. We are to follow God as we see Christ do, even if it means contradicting our parents or our teachers or our pastors. “Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” And by cross, he means bearing the disapproval and consequences of standing up for justice and peace. Sometimes when you stand up for what’s right, people with authority will tell you to be quiet or to sit down because you’re just a kid. 

Now, I’m not that worried about you sitting down and being quiet. And I don’t mean just you, L----. I think that you and other kids your age are a real gift to the church, because you challenge us to think more deeply about what we really mean by following Christ. You all ask us lots of questions, uncomfortable questions sometimes. And your questions expose where we are being inconsistent between what we proclaim and what we actually do. You all truly believe that God loves everyone, and you call us out when we don’t act that way. You all also bring your Christian beliefs into the world. You want things to be fair and right not just in church, but in school, and where people work, and in the world in general. You lead us by example, and when you say to today that you “intend to continue in the covenant God made with you” by doing all these things, I know that you will, because I’ve seen that you already do.

But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that you do. None of us should be surprised that the babies and children who were baptized in the church are growing up and proclaiming the good news through word and deed, serving all people, and striving for justice and peace. We shouldn’t be surprised because when you were baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon you and filled you, and what do we know about the Holy Spirit? We believe “that by [our] own understanding or strength [we] cannot believe in Jesus Christ [our] Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called [us] through the gospel, enlightened [us] with his gifts, made [us]holy and kept [us] in the true faith, just as the Spirt calls, gather, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one common, true faith.”

All baptized Christians are called to take up their cross and follow Christ, and all Christians are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do it. The rite of Confirmation is a bit misleading, because it seems like we are asking you to commit to something new, to commit to a new way of being a Christian, to live out a more adult faith, but Confirmation is actually just a reminder of what we have all already been called to do, from the moment we were baptized. It’s not a new way, it’s not a more adult way. It’s just the way. 

More importantly, it’s not a way that you are being asked to commit to and follow on your own. The Holy Spirit carries you and all Christians along this journey, and works in your hearts, and directs your actions, and guides your words. Every time we renounce the devil and all his empty promises, every time we say the Creed and proclaim that Jesus Christ is our Lord, every time that we stand up for what’s right and work for justice and peace, we are doing so with the power and the authority granted by the Holy Spirit. And the power and authority of the Holy Spirit is far greater than that of any earthly authority, even our parents. (And believe me, I’m saying this knowing that my own children are listening and these words are going to come back to me one day... But I’ll also say, as a parent, that as annoying as it is when our children point out to us where we are not living with integrity, we are actually secretly proud of them for standing up for what’s right, no matter what.)

This is what it is to follow Christ, because this is what Christ himself did. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he stood up to the Roman Empire which proclaimed that only some lives were valuable, which said that there should be unified obedience to the Emperor at all costs, who even said that the Emperor was God. He stood up for those who were silenced, for those who were injured, for those who were insulted or ignored, for those who were shoved to the side. He knew that he would lose his life for it, that the Empire would crush him just like it crushed those he was standing up for, but he did it anyway.

And God rewarded him with new life. God acknowledged him as God’s own beloved Son, and God raised him to new life. And L----, God will do the same for you. God is already doing the same for you. God sees all the times that your heart is open to the Holy Spirit and you proclaim God’s love for all people in word or deed, and serve all people, and strive for justice and peace. God sees all the times you stand up for others, whether it’s a big thing or just a little thing. God sees all the times you help someone out who needs a hand, and all the times you think, “that’s not fair!” when you hear about an injustice. God sees the cost you pay for all those moments, too. And God rewards you, with peace in your heart, for knowing you did the right thing. God rewards you with the satisfaction of knowing that you are indeed following in Christ’s footsteps. God rewards you by freeing you from “the devil and all the forces that defy God, the powers of this world that rebel against God, and the ways of sin that draw you from God.” And God rewards you with the strength to do it again, and then again, for your whole life, until one day, when you are old and wrinkled, you will look back and you realize that you have walked the path of Jesus for your entire life and have been blessed by your Father in heaven. 


Many years ago, God brought you to baptism, L----, by working in the hearts of your parents. Today, God is working in your heart by bringing you to this day. And even though you are the only one standing up here today, you are not alone. All of us who are baptized stand with you, and with one another, in responding to the Holy Spirit’s call to the whole church to follow Christ, no matter what. We will stand with you when you face consequences for doing what is right, and we will be cheering when God grants you new life in the midst of that. But even more importantly than us standing with you and cheering, is that Jesus himself is doing it, on behalf of God the Father, through the Holy Spirit. And so we say, Thanks be to God. Amen.

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