Affirmation of Baptism, June 15, 2008 John 14: 15-17
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, through your Son, Jesus the Christ, you revealed your Word of truth for all who come to embrace your saving grace in Christ’s death and resurrection. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, enable us to receive your Word with understanding, and enable us to grow in faith, that we might live our lives as your disciples. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
This is a special day in the life of our congregation, not only because we rejoice in receiving two new members to our congregational family, but also because one of our youth will be affirming the faith of his baptism. Traditionally, we would celebrate the rite of confirmation on the Day of Pentecost or on Reformation Sunday. But due to my illness, Eddie has graciously agreed to postpone his confirmation until this morning.
However, as you may have noticed, I have chosen as my text for this morning, one of the Gospel lessons normally assigned for the Day of Pentecost, and in particular, verses 15 through 17 of the 14th chapter of John. It is a text that is not only appropriate for the rite of confirmation, but one that might help us all to affirm anew the faith of our baptism – the faith of the Christian Church.
Listen again to these words of Jesus, as he prepares his disciples to
understand his coming death and resurrection. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and will be in you.”
Here, Jesus is promising his disciples the gift of God’s Spirit, what he calls the Spirit of truth, which we believe we receive in baptism. But what is this Advocate that will be with us forever. What is the role of this Spirit of truth, that Jesus promises will be in us?
One of the things that I try to pound home to “my kids” in confirmation class, is to understand the difference between “belief” and “faith.” And in order to do this, I try to use examples from everyday life that illustrate the difference. One of those illustrations, which you may have heard me describe before, centers on the sport of rock climbing and rappelling.
When I was a bit younger, I would take my confirmation students to the big rocks at McConnel’s Mill, for a day to enjoy this sport. However, before we left, we would spend an hour or so explaining safety and letting the students hang on the ropes and harnesses that we explained were tested to hold over 2000 pounds. We even let the students hang on the equipment, suspended from a tree, and then asked them, do you believe that this equipment will support you? They all said, “Yes, I believe that the equipment will support me.
But when we got to the rocks, secured the ropes to the base of a tree and to the kid’s harness, asked them to stand on the edge of a sixty foot cliff, and to lean back so that their weight would transfer from the top to the side of the cliff, it more often than not, took a lot of encouragement to help them through their first rappel.
It was then that I made the point that it is one thing to believe that the equipment will hold you. It is another thing to stand on the edge of the cliff, and trust your life to your belief. That requires faith – to trust your belief in the safety of the equipment, to act on that belief, even in the midst of great fear. That is faith.
During my illness, another illustration surfaced that I might be using with my kids over the next few years. About a week into my hospitalization, Dr. Reasbeck, my primary care physician, whom I had been seeing since my first year in Greenville, informed me that he would be taking the weekend off. This also happened to be the time that from my point of view, my condition took a turn for the worse.
I developed some unknown allergy, which left my body covered in huge hives. This caused my immune system to attack all the joints in my upper body with an acute rheumatoid infection, including my jaw. I could hardly move or eat. Several good doctors were called in, who consult in trying to find a cure for the problem, with little success. In fact, I became very frustrated, even agitated with one of the doctors.
However, on Monday morning, when Dr. Reasbeck entered my room, I actually, physically felt a tremendous release of stress and tension, and a peace that had been lacking over those few days. It was then that I realized that even though I believed that these other doctors were quite talented and working to resolve my medical problems, I had faith in Dr. Reasbeck, with whom I had over a twenty-year relationship. And even though this was not a naïve peace, that is, believing that he could make everything well, I trusted him with my life.
There is a difference between belief and faith! We can believe many things throughout the course of our life, but there are only a few things in which we will trust our lives. And to understand this distinction, is to begin to understand the message of our text for this morning.
In John’s Gospel, the author’s use of the word “truth” carries a double meaning. According to John, truth not only conveys something that we can believe, something that is the opposite of falsehood. His use of this word also conveys the meaning of faithfulness – of remaining true to our spouse, true to our ideals, true to the convictions which help to mold us and define us as an individual.
So, returning to our text, Jesus tells his disciples that although he will soon be departing this world to return to his Heavenly Father, through his death and resurrection for our redemption, he promises his disciples that God would send us the Spirit of truth to be our Advocate.
If I might relate these words of Jesus to our celebration of the rite of confirmation this morning, I would put it this way. In infant baptism, a child is given the Spirit of truth, and united to the fellowship of Christ’s church. In this child’s ongoing relationship with the church, the child is given the opportunity to hear the stories of the Scriptures in Sunday school and worship, and to participate in the life of the congregational family.
In the child’s early years, they come to believe the stories of Scripture, and to develop a familiar bonds with the members of Christ’s church, who gather around his table of grace. It is a natural process of growth in Christian identity, as natural as the identity formation that takes place in and around the family table at home.
But then, as an individual begins to mature, and question early beliefs, and how these beliefs impact their identity, they begin to wrestle with issues of faith and trust, as we all do. In many ways, faith is a process in which we mature as adults. Many of the things in which we once believed in as children at Christmas, has since been discarded. And yet, we come to believe, and place our lives in the providence of the one who brought us the greatest gift of all – redemption from our sins, and the hope of eternal life.
There is a difference between belief and faith! And today, I am pleased to welcome Eddie to make his Affirmation of Faith this morning. As you
know, it is always my privilege and honor to speak on behalf of our confirmands. After all, it is one of the few things that I hold over them in order to keep them on their toes, even though for some, they wait until the last few weeks to get on my “good list.”
But I don’t have to say this for Eddie. He has always been a good student. In fact, I told him at the beginning of this past year of classes, that I was counting on him to take over the leadership role of the class, since he was the only older student. I should have just left that happen naturally! Because Eddie felt that he should have had an answer to every one of my questions, even though he had no clue as to what I was asking – he always offered the first response!
But he was a good student! There is not doubt about that. He rarely missed an answer to our weekly tests, and was able to relate his classes at high school with our questions of faith.
And although I usually ask that our confirmands read lessons or take part in reading the liturgy, I didn’t have to do this for Eddie. He has been providing worship leadership for us for the past few years, playing our organ. In fact, he regularly takes organ lessons, and attended an educational retreat last year for young organists. I couldn’t ask him do any more in demonstrating his willingness to become a part of our adult fellowship of faith, than what he already does.
Today, Eddie affirms his faith – states that he trusts God and places his life into the hands of Christ, for his ultimate redemption. It is my hope that not only Eddie, but that each of us come to know the significance of what this rite we celebrate today truly means. Through the power of this Spirit of truth, may each of us truly place our lives into the hands of God, and trust in his gift of redeeming grace in his Son, Jesus the Christ.
Amen.
