It’s Confirmation Sunday here at St. Peter! In this Reformation Day sermon, I do my best to look at the theme of God’s love and grace by reflecting on each of the verses selected by the eight ninth-grade students affirming their baptisms in worship this weekend. The text here is the Sunday version (for the Confirmation service), which does not quite match the recorded version.
In addition to the confirmation verses, the Scripture readings for this weekend are Deuteronomy 6:1-9, Psalm 46, Romans 3:19-28, and Mark 12:28-34.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
Do any of you remember how many commandments there are in the Old Testament? I’ve mentioned it at least twice in sermons, and we talked about it in confirmation class on Wednesday. Anyone remember how many? 613
In today’s Gospel, a scribe comes to Jesus and asks him, “Teacher, which commandment is the first of all?” Which of those 613 is the most important? Jesus boils it down to one: Love God.
And then, he mentions a second commandment, but really, the second is the natural consequence of the first. Love God, and love people. Because if you love God, you can’t help loving your neighbor.
As we mark Reformation Day and celebrate confirmation, our focus is on love. God is love and God has created us out of love—loved us into existence—and it is the nature of love to overflow, from God to us, back to God, and out from us to our neighbors.
The reformation of the church that began 504 years ago was about calling the church back to a focus on God’s love. In particular, Martin Luther called us to look to Jesus on the cross giving his life for us, as the ultimate expression of God’s love.
Each of our confirmation students has chosen a verse for their confirmation, and as you hear their verses, I urge you to keep in mind this focus on love.
Addisyn, you chose a passage from First Timothy, which says, “Train yourself in godliness, for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” You wrote about being the best you can through the strength of God.
The best you can be is God’s child, and that is who you are. In love, God has claimed each of you in the waters of baptism, naming you as God’s own, identifying you as belonging to God.
You all have lots of identities, student, sister, brother, daughter, son, athlete, musician, friend, and many more you could come up with. All those physical roles you have in life are important. But the most important identity you have is child of God. That’s what you’re affirming this morning.
Knowing who you are begins with knowing who God is. In Deuteronomy, as the people of Israel are about to embark on a new chapter of life, getting ready to enter the promised land, Moses gives them some instructions.
He says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.” That’s the first thing I hope you’ve gotten out of your time in confirmation class, knowing who God is. Then Moses gives them a commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”
First commandment: Love God. In the Gospel reading, Jesus says this is the most important commandment, loving the God who loves us.
And Moses tells the people to keep this commandment, to remember these words. Keep them in your heart. Recite them to your children. Pass them on.
Bring your kids to church, tell them the story. Raise them to know who God is and to love God, and to know God loves them. Pass on the faith. Let this promise of God’s love and this commandment to love God sink into your lives and give you strength. Moses says to bind these words as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, write on your doorframe so you’ll see it when you go in and out. Let this love of God be the foundation of your life, guiding who you are.
Carter, you chose Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
That doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want to. Completing Confirmation class does not grant you the ability to fly. You can pray as hard as you want to have a billion dollars appear in your bank account, and it’s not going to happen. You know that. You wrote that to you, this verse means, “No matter what I’m doing, I can power through it with Christ’s help.”
The promise is that whatever you do, wherever you go, God is with you. God is giving you the strength to get through whatever challenges come your way in life, the good times and the bad times.
Christ strengthening you is really about building your life on the foundation of Jesus, the foundation of God’s love for you. It’s about knowing who God is and who God says you are, finding your identity in God, as God’s beloved child.
Meredith, in your verses from Isaiah 43, we get this great promise that with God at the center of our lives, we are never alone. “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”
Life can be hard. Hopefully the number of actual floods or fires is small, but there are storms in life. You can say as enthusiastically as you want today that God is the foundation of your life, that you believe God is with you wherever you go, but know that your faith will be challenged. You won’t live up to the promises you’re making today.
Jesus says the most important commands are to love the Lord your God with all that you are, and then to love your neighbor as yourself. Your faith should shape how you treat other people, what you do with your life, but none of you are perfect.
None of us have it all figured out. We’re all going to fail. We’re going to let God down, break the commandments, miss opportunities to love our neighbors, sometimes even actively harm our neighbors.
But—and this the message Martin Luther focused on 500 years ago—it’s not up to us. As our Romans reading says, every single one of us have sinned. None of us can live up to God’s commandments on our own. But, our faith does not depend on us! God’s love for us does not depend on us. We are saved by God’s grace, justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.
And there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love, nothing with the power to change our identity as God’s beloved children.
Meredith’s verse talked about earthly obstacles we face, and Nolan, your verse from Romans 14 goes a step farther to say not even death can end God’s love. “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”
We can trust that promise, because, as Olivia’s verses say, God is the one in charge. God is the creator of the universe, the giver of life. You picked Psalm 147, verses four and five: “He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”
The one who created the universe, who put the galaxies in place, whose understanding has no limit, is the God who loves you. This almighty, all-powerful God came into this world in the person of Jesus Christ to lay down his life for us, for you and for me, all out of love.
And then he rose again, because even death cannot stop God. God is worthy of our trust. God is able to be the foundation of our lives. The God who calls the stars by name also calls you by name.
Sometimes, that’s hard to believe. Addy, you wrote that sometimes you struggle with seeing God during hard times, and you picked the perfect verse for that, from John 13. It says, “Jesus replied, ‘You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.’”
There are things in life we don’t understand. God’s love isn’t always visible. Our human nature is to look for an explanation for everything, but everything does not happen for a reason.
Sometimes, things in life just happen because we live in a broken world and we’re not in heaven yet. It’s ok to not understand, and to question. But as you wonder and question, hold on to the promise of God’s love, the promise of grace that God has claimed you and is with you in the midst of whatever’s going on.
Alex, your verse is similar, a reminder from Proverbs 16 that “The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.” Not everything happens for a reason, but in the midst of all things, God is at work.
Living a life of faith means trusting in God, and relying on our foundation of faith to show us how to take the next step, to do the next right thing.
Finally, Clayton, your verse is a reminder that this world is not all there is. You picked First Corinthians 13:10, “But when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with.” Confirmation is not supposed to be the end of your faith journey.
Two school years of Wednesday evening classes—some of them over Zoom—is nowhere near enough time to figure out God. The journey of faith is a journey for the rest of your life. You’re not going to reach perfection in this life, to be able to truly love God with all that you are and perfectly love your neighbors.
But as Clayton’s verse reminds us, this is not the end. God is not done with any of you. Today is not a graduation, but a beginning, an entrance into adult life in this community of faith. None of us have it all figured out this side of heaven.
Confirmation (and everything else in church) is not about passing a test, or having the best project, or even doing enough worship notes and then you’re done and you’re in.
Faith is not about having knowledge, knowing about God; it’s about knowing God. It’s about a relationship of love, God’s love for you and your love in response.
It’s about growing in your understanding what God has already done for you, the love God already has for you, recognizing God’s gift of grace for you, and letting that move from your head down to your heart as the foundation of your life.
May God bless you today and always as you live into God’s grace for you.
Amen