6th Sunday of Easter (also Confirmation Sunday) – May 5th, 2024
Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: John 16:23–33
“Confirmed for a Life of Faith”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Confirmation may not be in the Bible, but it is a good church tradition that provides for two things. First, it should serve as a reminder to all of the promises that were made in our behalf when we were baptized as infants. Second, it gives an opportunity for these confirmands to declare to the congregation what they believe. God commends us when we confess His name. After all, Romans 10 says, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (9). This confession of the mouth that Jesus is Lord is something that should not only take place once in someone’s life, but what our confirmands do today, we encourage them to continue throughout their life.
In this way, confirmation is not a graduation service. I know pretty soon here we are going to be celebrating the graduations of high school students and acknowledge the work they’ve done. We should celebrate these sorts of accomplishments. Confirmation has a hint of this: after all, the students have been in catechism classes for two years.
On the one hand, graduation is meant to send you out into the world with the knowledge you’ve learned. Confirmation, on the other hand, should be pointing you back into the church, not as another sort of school, though learning will continue, but as a community who praises God and whom God has redeemed. At graduation, the two students chosen to given speeches are the valedictorian, who says good-bye to the past, and the salutatorian, who says hello to the future. Confirmation says, welcome, we have a home for you: past, present, and future.
Still, it is a time to celebrate. Bailey and Layla, we are proud of you and the work that you have done. You have learned the Small Catechism of Martin Luther. It is a clear and true summary of the teachings of Holy Scripture. You have learned much about what it means to be Christian. You showed the congregation yesterday in your questioning that you have learned these things.
At the same time, you have much more to learn. This learning will happen by continuing to come to church and Sunday school. You will also learn by experience. Hopefully these two will go together. This is what we call wisdom. Earthly wisdom looks at what behaviors lead to success and which lead to failure. There’s a lot of earthly wisdom out there. God’s wisdom from the Bible adds another layer of instruction on top of it. Spiritual matters impact our earthly lives.
God interprets your life through the Bible. I encourage everyone to be reading the Bible. Especially focus on the Psalms, Proverbs, and New Testament. God helps you understand why you and others act in certain ways. God helps you understand why you feel guilt or joy. Even the simple knowledge of original sin helps you understand that no one is perfect, and we all make mistakes and sin. The Bible will tell you why unbelievers who believe that this life is all there is act as they do.
Not only do we hear from God about our Christian life, but He also invites us to speak with him. We do this in prayer. Jesus Himself invites us to pray, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (23–24). Just God talks to us through the Bible, we can also talk with him. We can pour out to him our “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings” (1), knowing that God in mercy hears us.
As you go through life, it is good to begin and end each day in prayer. Morning prayers are times to ask God for the coming day and all that you want to accomplish. Evening prayers are good to reflect on what has happened that day, good and bad, and send it up to God to leave it in His gracious hands. God is with you wherever you go. Sometimes it might frighten us to think that he sees our sins. But it is also comforting that he is with us when we are at our lowest.
God is with you in both. God gives you good times, and he allows bad things to happen as well. Psalm 139:8 says, “If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” Jesus ends his message to the disciples with these words: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (33). God wants you to find your spiritual peace in Jesus. There will come times of tribulation. There will be temptations to follow the world rather than God’s Word. You will be tempted to sin. You will fall into sin. But take heart. Jesus has conquered this world and its prince the devil. He has established this family, the church, to help you and encourage you. You were brought into this church through baptism, and now you are confessing what every other member of this family has also confessed.
Because here’s the thing: you were not able to choose the kind of family that you were born into. Your family has values, quirks, shared meals, and inside jokes. Eventually the time will come when you will leave that house to make your own way in the world. Your family will remain your family though. So too, baptism has brought you into a family—a church family with values, quirks, shared meals, and maybe a few inside jokes too. Here’s the wonderful thing about the church though: whether you find it here at Trinity or eventually at another one, what should remain front and center is Jesus and his Word. He is the center of our shared faith. Seek him all the days of your life, and you will find wisdom for this world, and salvation for the next.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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