 | Zion Lutheran |
| Church | School | Early Childhood |
| Zion Lutheran |
| Church | School | Early Childhood |
Very early in this month, we will mark a very important day in the life of 15 young Christians. On Confirmation Day, these young sinner-saints will confess publically the faith that the Holy Spirit planted in them in the faith-creating waters of Holy Baptism. They will simply be saying that this faith that has been forming in them is theirs.
It seems like this has been their action. They are the ones who have been furiously scribbling notes in worship as they seek to satisfy the sermon report requirements. They have studied and crammed the blessed teachings of the Holy Scripture as rendered by Dr. Martin Luther in the Small Catechism of 1529 into their memories with the hope that it will stick just long enough to get through public examination. They have done the work. They have amassed the points. They have made themselves ready for confirmation....
WRONG!
The faith that these young people confess is not of their own making. It is a gift to them from God. The Holy Spirit has placed this saving faith in their hearts in Baptism. He has nurtured it through the loving of parents, the shaping of Sunday School and VBS teachers and the formation of pastors and vicars. This faith IS theirs. But it is not their making. It is gift.
It is this gift that is confirmed in them when they confess the faith. They are confessing the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. This is why we celebrate Confirmation. Not for the accomplishments of the youth, but what God has done in them.
But then again, this is what we do every week in the Lord’s House. We have our faith confirmed in us. The Lord, through His Word and Sacrament continues to do in each of us what He did in us at our Baptism. The faith created in us by the Lord is weekly confirmed in us not by our effort, our own inner searching, or our feelings about God.
Rather it is confirmed in us by the means of grace. The preaching of the Word, the pronouncement of forgiveness in Holy Absolution and in the reception of the very body and blood of Christ under the bread and wine of the Holy Supper. For this reason we should celebrate confirmation day EVERY Sunday. For each of us are gathered by the Holy Spirit to receive this.
Confirmation day is a “Can’t Miss” day in the lives of youth and adults. Often family members come from miles around to share in the joy. Nothing can keep them from sharing in the joy of faith confirmed.
In the same way, our weekly celebration of confirmation in the Divine Service should also be a “can’t miss” day. NOTHING should cause us to refuse to receive what Christ offers. Not the weather. Not commitments. Not personal feelings. And ESPECIALLY not your sin. For in the faith that the Lord confirms, we receive the forgiveness of sin. In fact, there IS NO forgiveness of sins apart from the way that the Lord acts in our life. So if you are someone you love is absenting themselves from worship and the Lord’s Supper, they are absenting themselves from Confirming the wonderful truth that their sins are yet again forgiven.
