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A sermon is a manner of oral communication and therefore words and sentence structure/order would be added, altered, or deleted at the moment of delivery. + In Nomine Jesu + The Rev. Evan Gaerther We begin our service often with the words of the Trinitarian invocation, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen." With this invocation also comes the invitation that we make the sign of the cross as a remembrance of our baptism. What is so radical about the sign of the cross? It is neither magical nor unimportant. The sign of the cross itself does not do anything the way baptism does things. It does not identify you with Christ and make a new person out of you, nor does confirmation. Making the sign of the cross, confirmation, life-long feeding upon the Word of God are signs pointing us to the identity you have been given through baptism. Through your baptism you have been joined to Christ's death and resurrection. Being bonded to Christ bonds you to the benefits of Jesus' gracious work. Baptism works the forgiveness of sins. Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to people from all over, each person heard the disciples preach in their own language. Some may have thought they were drunk, but it was the power of the Holy Spirit bringing a life-giving message to the people that morning. Now when the crowds heard about Jesus who was from God but had been crucified and died at he very hands of the people to whom he had been sent, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins." (Acts. 2:37-38). Baptism rescues from death and the devil. Paul wrote to the Galatians, "All of you who were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ." (Gal. 3:27). The white robes of confirmation are a reminder of being clothed in Christ at our baptism. Just as the white robe that I wear as a part of my clergy vestments are a reminder that it is the righteousness of Christ that clothes my words and actions in this liturgy. Baptism also gives eternal salvation. Paul wrote to the young pastor Titus saying, "He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." (Titus 3:5) Whenever you doubt your faith or doubt your ability to be a Christian do not look to your own actions for confirmation that you are a follower of Christ. Instead remember your baptism. We have a tendency to as a matter of idolatry look to our knowledge and attendance as confidence of salvation. If I do …then God has to love me, is a dangerous equation to set up, but unfortunately tempting because it gives us something to hang on to that we can measure and control. It is in Christ that we are saved. It is in our baptism, through the water and the word that the promises of Christ has been joined to us. In our baptism many of us were too young to recognize what was going on, but there in the water and the word the spirit of God was at work. It is through our one Lord, one Faith, and one baptism that we are joined and held together. As sponsors, parents and the whole congregation nurtures one another in our Christ-centered faith we obey the Word of God. Christ commanded his disciples, "Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matt. 28:19-20). Confirmation is a continuation of the command that was found in your baptism. Confirmation is in some ways a program that is scheduled with a definite beginning, mid-point and conclusion. Whether it is Adult Confirmation or confirmation as a youth there is a beginning and an end to the formal instructional period. In teaching one another to observe all that Christ has commanded us we are nurturing, feeding, caring for the promises given in our baptism. Needless to say confirmation is not a "one-time event" in our lives. Rather confirmation is a look back to the promises of our baptism. Confirmation is a formal time which is representative of a life-long looking back at our baptism and affirming that we are children of God. Seeing beyond confirmation as a one-time event is the key to the church's health and survival. The Rev. Dr. Al Barry, former president of the Missouri Synod said, "Just as our bodies become sick and weak when they are not properly nourished, so the Body of Christ suffers when it is spiritually starved, or put on minimal rations." Confirmation is preparation for life-long participation in feeding our faith through God's Word and participation in the Lord's Supper and recalling our baptism. There is a story told from a time past, so past that the story includes a streetcar, a trolley like one would see in San Francisco. The story goes that a pastor pulled his overcoat collar up close to his neck and ears and headed around a Boston corner into the icy northeast winds of a winter evening. Hearing a commotion, he looked up and saw a crowd gathering, despite the raw chill of the evening. The people were huddling around a body that lay in agony in front of a stopped streetcar. The minister hurried over to the crumpled heap and pushed his way past the people to where a police officer and a doctor who had been passing by were tending to the injured man. When the doctor learned that the newcomer was a pastor, he said, "It's too late for me to do anything, Father! You take over. You'd better administer last rites." The pastor new immediately what to do, even though he was barely out of seminary and had not yet faced many emergencies. He got down on his knees and set out to address the writhing and desperate man. "My son, are you of a Christian?" "Yeah, yeah…" "Do you know that you are a sinner against God?" "Um. Uhuh. Yeah…" The end was near. The pastor hurried along, with an eye to getting in all the words in the book that was open before him. "Do you believe in the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost?" The wretched man had just enough breath to gasp, "Say, what is this? Here I am dying, and you want to run me all the way through the catechism?" But when that man cried out in agony, "Say, what is this? Here I am dying, and you want to run me all the way through the catechism?" He was crying out not for the things of God, but to be a receiver of the gifts of God. A seasoned pastor used to tell variations of this story about himself as a young pastor as a reminder that the ministry of the church is about people and not things. The church is about delivering the gift of God's grace and mercy enfleshed in Jesus. Whoever has studied baptism, the Lord's Supper, or well for that matter any part of the Christian faith, knows that there are all sorts of things. Libraries are full of books on the things of the church like doctrines and disputes about what these doctrines are. In our confirmation program our youth memorize the Luther's Small Catechism. I suppose that would be in many ways a thing that is learned. Confirmation would be pointless if it is a feeding of things, instead of a feeding upon Christ and his love for you. In our baptism we are not given teachings about God, we are receivers of the very gifts of forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and eternal salvation. It is dangerous and yet all too often that we hold on to the teachings of the church as things to be learned, memorized, regurgitated back for a test, or discarded in one ear out the other. The church, even though sometimes it may seem so, is not about the teachings of the Bible and getting everything right. I know shocking to say that the church is not about the teaching of the Bible and getting everything right. But consider that being a follower of Christ is ultimately not defined by how much you know. Confirmation is not pointless; it feeds and nurtures our faith helping us to trust in the forgiveness of sins given for you by Christ on the cross. The church is about giving, sharing, receiving, the gift of God's grace and mercy. The church is about reaching people, not books in a library. The church is about sharing Christ, not books about Christ. In your life as a follower of Christ you will learn things from the Bible and it would be ridiculous to say that the Bible, doctrine, and the things of the church are unimportant. In fact the Bible and the doctrines we receive from the Bible are the cradle that holds Christ and delivers Christ to us. But as followers of Christ our confidence is not found in knowing the Bible and its doctrines. As a follower of Christ your confidence in the forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and eternal salvation will never be found by knowing things, but by trusting in Jesus. Jesus Christ is your life. Jesus Christ is your rescuer. It is by the power of Jesus Christ that you have eternal salvation. Soli Deo Gloria -->> Home |