At St. Peter Lutheran Church, we celebrate Confirmation Sunday on the same day as Reformation Day, which means there are two sermons for this day. This sermon for the 11:00 service October 27 is primarily focused on the confirmation students, but it touches on the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10. Here’s the full sermon on Zacchaeus from the 6:00 and 8:30 services if you’d prefer that one.
Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
I love today’s Gospel story. Some of you know Christin and I have even named our dog after Zacchaeus.
There’s all sorts of great themes here, like how Jesus invites himself into Zacchaeus’s life, how encountering Jesus changes Zacchaeus’s life, or how the crowd grumbles at Jesus’ hanging out with sinful people.
But in honor of Reformation Day, and for the sake of time, I just want to look at the last verse of the reading. Jesus said, “The Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
This is the good news of faith. This is grace. Jesus doesn’t wait for us to get our act together, or to have everything figured out. Jesus comes looking for us. Jesus is the one who does all the work.
Owen, your confirmation verse is from Hebrews 12. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”
As all of you look around this morning, you’re surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. The people of this congregation are here to support you, to walk (or run) alongside you in your journey of faith. They’re here to help you remember to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, to help you remember that Jesus has come to seek you and save you.
It’s pretty easy here this morning to declare your faith, to make the statement that you trust Jesus with your life. But there will be times when it’s hard to remember to focus on Jesus. Sometimes you have to climb up a tree to get out of the crowd and see Jesus.
Like our Romans reading this morning says, everyone sins and falls short of God’s glory. We can’t get through life on our own. No matter how hard we try to run this race, we never measure up. We can’t untangle ourselves from sin on our own. But, because of Jesus’ death on the cross, we are forgiven. God has set us free from our sin.
We don’t have to run this race on our own; God is on our side. Lizzy, your verse points out how God is helping us.
You picked Romans 8:26, “In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words.”
God the Holy Spirit is helping us, working through us.
Today as we commemorate Reformation Day, we celebrate Martin Luther’s great insight that God’s forgiveness and love are gifts given to us by faith. We don’t have to earn salvation from God. Your salvation is based on God’s love for you, not on your understanding, or your knowledge, or the number of worship notes you’ve done, or on your obedience.
It’s all a gift from God. God does all the work! All you can do is believe in what God has done for you. All you can do is believe the good news in that last line of Romans 3, “We hold that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.”
The Holy Spirit is giving you the gift of faith, stirring you to believe, guiding you in life, giving you the words to pray. Believe God has forgiven you. Believe in the good news that God loves you no matter what you have done or will do.
This is the promise in Colton’s verse, Joshua 1:9. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
You can be strong and courageous, you can run the race of faith, you can dare to pray and to trust and to approach God despite your weakness, because God’s faithfulness is what matters.
You can rely on God’s promise to be with you, because it depends on God, not on you. God doesn’t give up on you.
Dawson, you picked Genesis 27:3 as your verse. “Take your bow and a quiver full of arrows, and go out into the open country to hunt some wild game for me.”
That verse comes from the story of Jacob and Esau, and you picked it because it connects to your passion for hunting. You wrote that you connect best with God when you’re out in nature. The beauty of creation gives us glimpses of the beauty of God the creator.
One of the challenges of celebrating confirmation is recognizing that this is not graduation. Just because you’re confirmed doesn’t mean you have it all figured out. This is a beginning, not an end.
Hunting and being out in nature can be good places to see God, but they’re not a replacement for showing up to worship. Sports can be a good metaphor for faith, but it’s not a replacement for the cloud of witnesses in your church family.
I hope all four of you continue to be involved in church after you’re confirmed. In fact, that’s part of what you’re going to promise in a couple minutes, “To live among God’s faithful people, and to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper.” All the rest of you who are confirmed have already made those promises.
Those promises you make are in response to the grace God has promised you. One word that describes how we continue in faith is “Stewardship.” Stewardship is how we respond to God.
Sometimes we get mixed up about what stewardship is and we reduce it to just giving money in the offering plate (or from your bank account, or through the app). Stewardship includes money, but it also includes much more. As Christians, we believe everything we have is a gift from God given to us in trust.
Our calling is to steward the gifts God has given to us, to use what we have to build God’s kingdom and do God’s work, all in grateful response to what God’s done for us. I put my favorite definition of stewardship on this week’s insert, under the testimony from Kelly. It says, “Stewardship is everything I do after I say, “I believe.’”
What you believe influences how you use your money, and how you use the abilities God has give you, and how you use your time.
This weekend, we’re specifically focusing on serving in worship. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Worship is not a spectator sport. Worship is something we do together. I’m not nearly entertaining enough for you to just show up and watch me.
This is also a very Lutheran understanding of worship. It’s appropriate for Reformation Day, because one of Martin Luther’s big insights in the reformation was the priesthood of all believers, the understanding that through Jesus, all of us have direct access to God. We don’t have priests to do the worship on our behalf.
The work of the church is not the responsibility of one class of people. The “Church” is not defined by the hierarchy of the pope and the priests. The church is not the institution serving everyone else.
The Church is the people of God gathered together. Where the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed and where the sacraments are administered, there the church is.
My job is to lead you in worship, not to be the one doing it with you observing. We worship by singing together, praying together, studying together, greeting each other as a community, supporting each other, giving praise to God together. And to make worship happen each week, we need a bunch of people to help.
In confirmation, we require each student to try at least two worship servant roles, to help you figure out what your gifts are.
I’m convinced there’s a role for every single person to help in worship. God has given us different gifts and talents, so some people are comfortable reading, while some people have an easier time standing and serving communion. You don’t want me doing special music. But anyone can usher and greet people. If you can’t think of a way to serve, talk to me.
Let’s pray, and then I’ll ask the ushers to pass out worship servant signup sheets.
Heavenly Father, thank you for the gifts you have given each of us to steward. Thank you for the blessings you give us so we may bless others through our time, our talents, and our treasures. Thank you for calling people who are too short, or too old, or too busy, or too poor, and equipping all of us to serve you with what we have.
Thank you for your grace that always makes the first move, that does what we could never do, and for your servant Martin Luther who called your people back to that grace shown in Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen