This year for Reformation Day #501, we celebrated confirmation with 9 of our high school freshmen, four at the 8:30 service and five at the 11:00 service. With the Saturday service thrown in there as well, that means there are three variations of this sermon, so this is a mashup from the weekend! The gospel reading for October 28, 2018, is Mark 10:46-52.
Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
You might remember that last year’s Reformation Day was a pretty big deal, both here at church and around the world. There were all kinds of events happening for the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses onto the door of the Wittenberg church. This year hasn’t had the same kind of build-up. Nevertheless, happy Reformation Day number 501!
And of course, we’re not just commemorating something that happened 501 years ago, we’re also celebrating today with nine of our high school students as they affirm the promises made in their baptisms and are confirmed as members of this congregation.
Each of the students being confirmed has chosen a scripture verse that’s meaningful for them, and they’ve used their verses as a starting place for their faith projects. Some of them have written essays, and others have done some other creative art pieces as a way to explore where faith fits into their lives.
After service, come out to the fellowship hall and you’ll see a display board from each of them about their faith project.
This story about Jesus opening the eyes of blind Bartimaeus works so well for both confirmation and reformation. Think about all the challenges Bartimaeus would have faced. Mark doesn’t tell us if he’s been blind from birth, or if there was an accident or illness of some kind. All we know is he’s blind.
Because he’s blind, the only way he has to survive is charity from others, so he’s a beggar. Perhaps he has family, or perhaps he’s alone. He’s not exactly an upstanding member of society.
And yet, even though he’s blind, even though life has thrown this huge obstacle in his way, he knows where to look for strength. Even when the crowd around him, this crowd following Jesus on their way to a religious festival, even when the crowd tells him to shut up and be quiet, Bartimaeus persists in crying out to Jesus. And Jesus hears his cry and responds. It’s an amazing example of grace.
My hope and prayer for our confirmation students and for all of you is that you persist in crying out to Jesus. We may not be physically blind, but all of us need grace from Jesus. We need Jesus to open our eyes.
Maddy, you chose 1 Peter 4:8 as your verse. “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” You wrote that you chose it because it applies to everyone, and that’s true. It’s a call from God to each and every one of us. God has loved us, and so we’re called to love each other. Love is what we do as Christians.
Of course, loving each other deeply is a lot harder than it might sound. Love covering a multitude of sins involves us actively forgiving those who offend or attack us, actively looking at others through the lens of faith, seeing them as God’s beloved children, just like us. Forgiving and loving others takes strength, more strength than we have on our own.
Over the last couple of years of confirmation, I’ve gotten to spend a fair amount of time getting to know the four of you. Now, I know some of you better than others, but after getting to know all of you at least a little, I can say with great confidence that you’re all human beings.
The fact that you’re human means a few things. For one thing, it means you make mistakes. You do things and you think things that go against what God tells us to do. Hopefully during confirmation, you’ve learned that all these things we do against God are called sins.
In that second reading we heard from Romans, it says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Sin is something we all have in common, not just as teenagers, but for our whole lives.
Madison, your verse is 1 Chronicles 16:11. “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.”
That verse connects so well to the story of Bartimaeus. Even though he’s blind, even though life has thrown this huge obstacle in his way, he knows where to look for strength. Even when the crowd tells him to shut up and be quiet, he persists in crying out to Jesus. And Jesus hears his cry and responds.
In a few minutes during the actual confirmation ritual, you’re going to promise before God and the church that you will continue in the covenant God made with you at baptism.
Those promises include that you will keep being involved in church hearing God’s word and participating in communion, that you’ll proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, and that you’ll serve all people, working for justice and peace in all the world.
Congregation, you or your parents or sponsors made these promises as well, so pay attention to what you’ve promised too!
I trust all of you are taking those promises seriously and I hope you’ll do your best to follow God and not sin, but you’re going to fail. You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to have times when you turn away from God, times when you hurt other people, when you do things you regret.
Why? Because you’re human. You’re not God. You don’t have the power to keep these promises on your own. In the Gospel reading we just heard, Bartimaeus couldn’t open his eyes on his own. He was blind. Only Jesus could make him see.
That’s where Haley’s and Calvin’s verse comes in. You picked Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Living as Christian, loving each other deeply, requires strength beyond our own. We need the strength that comes only from Jesus Christ.
Haley, you wrote that you picked this verse because of the promise that God is with you through everything, even in tough times.
That promise is true, but it’s often hard to see. In the first lesson from Jeremiah, the Lord promises that a time is coming when God will be with us.
No longer will we need to teach one another or remind each other about God’s promises, for everyone will know God. God’s law will be written on our hearts. It’s a promise of heaven.
Derek, your verse talks about knowing God’s presence with God’s people. It says, “The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.”
That promise in Deuteronomy 28 is written to the people of Israel after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness as they’re looking forward to entering the promised land.
When their farms are successful and their crops grow, God calls them to remember where their blessings come from. It’s awfully easy for us sinful humans to forget about God and start thinking that we’re responsible for our own success.
Farming might be one of the clearest illustrations of God working around us. When you’re a farmer, you can do everything right, and your success still depends on factors beyond your control.
Again, we’re human. We can’t control the weather, as much as we try to manage it. We don’t have the power to control life or death or growth.
It’s not a bad image of our relationship with God. Sometimes we fall into this trap of thinking that we have to do something for God to love us. We think we have to work hard to be good enough people for God. We think we have to earn God’s forgiveness.
Haily and Nathan, you chose the same verse, Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Nathan, you wrote that this promise helps you to calm down when you’re stressed. I believe this is one of the most profound promises in the Bible. In your essay, you wrote that you have trouble understanding why bad things happen and innocent people suffer, and you may never understand.
That’s ok. Faith is not understanding everything. Faith is trusting the promise that the Lord your God will never leave you nor forsake you. That’s true for all of you, wherever you go in life.
Haily, you wrote that you picked this verse because it helps you remember to be yourself. God is with you. God accepts you as you are.
I don’t know if this is true for you, but for a lot of us, sometimes we fall into this trap of thinking that we have to do something for God to love us. We think we have to work hard to be good enough people for God. We think we have to earn God’s forgiveness.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m proud of all of you for the work you’ve done for confirmation. I’m proud of you for showing up and putting in the effort to learn about your faith and taking the time to reflect and put together your confirmation projects. I dare to think God’s happy with that too.
But God doesn’t love more if you get confirmed. God doesn’t love you more if you keep eight of the ten commandments than if you only keep five.
501 years ago through the Reformation, God used Martin Luther to open the eyes of the church to see God’s grace. Luther was human, and as he freely admitted over and over, he was pretty sinful himself.
Part of our Reformation legacy is repenting of the terrible things Luther said about others, particularly about our Jewish brothers and sisters. We can’t ignore that on a day when people have been shot while worshipping in a synagogue.
The nicest way to put it is that Luther was inconsistent about applying his own understanding of God’s mercy to those who disagreed with him. And yet, God worked through him to change the world and point to Christ.
We celebrate confirmation on Reformation day because it reminds us of the key point of the whole reformation. All of us have sinned. We’ve all broken God’s law, and the law says none of our good works are good enough to earn us a ticket into heaven. But look at that last verse of the Romans reading. It says, “We hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.”
That’s grace. That’s the good news of Jesus Christ.
Aidan, you chose a passage from Psalm 56: “When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?” Living a Christian life boils down to trusting in God.
Martin Luther’s great breakthrough was understanding that our salvation, our hope, our eternal life does not depend on us and what we do, but that everything depends on God’s grace. When you trust that promise, there is nothing to fear.
In these last two years, the four of you have had the opportunity to explore your faith through confirmation classes. You’ve gone on retreats, done service projects, watched movies, completed worship notes, and studied both the Bible and Luther’s Small Catechism. Through this entire process, and through the faithful witness of your parents, family, and godparents as well as through your church family and Sunday School teachers, I pray that Jesus has opened your eyes to see the world in a new way, through the lens of faith.
Finally, Sean, your verse works as a good summary of this entire day. You chose Philippians 1:6, which says, “I’m sure about this: the one who started a good work in you will stay with you to complete the job by the day of Christ Jesus.”
You wrote that you picked this verse because it tells you it’s ok to be a work in progress. I love the image on your board of your life as an incomplete puzzle. Hold on to the promise: God is faithful and God is still working on all of you. Your story is not complete yet.
This is not graduation. Just because you’re confirmed doesn’t mean you’ve made it. It does mean you don’t need to worry about worship notes any more, but it’s a beginning, not just an ending. I expect to see you back here next week for Luther League and worship. As adult members of this congregation, just like the rest of us, you are part of this community of faith, a family gathered to worship, study, and serve together.
Did you catch what Bartimaeus did when his eyes were opened? It says, “Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.” Jesus calls Bartimaeus to follow him, and he gives him the ability to do so. I don’t know if that means he followed him for a few minutes, or for a few hours, or for the rest of his life.
But I know when your eyes are opened to see God’s grace, the correct response is to follow Jesus.
And may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus now and forever. Amen