Confirmation Sunday. We do it every year around this time of year. One would think as often as we do it we would have a better understanding of what it is, but as a pastor, I often get the question, “What is confirmation?” The word confirmation literally means “with firm-ness.” Confirmation means to make firm or solid that which has gone before or what was done earlier.
The “before” refers to our baptism and, in a broader sense, to our entire faith journey up to this point. Many of us were baptized as infants, although some of us were not. If we were baptized, we didn’t choose it. It was done for us lovingly by parents and sponsors. It was God’s gift to us. Baptism reminds us that God accepts us and loves us even before we can respond. Our parents pledged to raise us in the faith. And the church pledged to help them. Yes, the parents and the church made a commitment to share this journey, and confirmation is another step on the journey of faith.
Confirmation is about the gift God has given us in Jesus Christ. It is about how God has loved us. It is about what we do to receive the gift and make it our own. It is a time of claiming the name of Jesus Christ for ourselves. Baptism is a gift. Our parents may have accepted the gift for us, either by having us baptized or by bringing us to church. Confirmation is the time to decide if we want to “make firm” what God, our parents and the church have done for us, if we want to claim the name. Confirmation is the time we no longer have to depend on our parents’ decision in matters of faith. Confirmation means we are ready to know about what it means to be Christian, what we believe as a church, how we are to live our lives, our history and heritage.
We are old enough to profess our own faith, to say what we believe. It doesn’t mean that we know all the answers (who does?), but we can learn enough to begin the journey for ourselves.
Confirmation is about commitments. Today, the word commitment is not a very popular one. People may be committed to their jobs, marriages, a church, an organization, to friendships (as long as things go well), but when circumstances change, the degree of commitment often changes, too. I remind us today that this commitment to Christ is a life-changing commitment that perhaps we don’t take as seriously as we should. One reason is because confirmation is just something else we do in the life of the church, but as these students have come to make their commitment, may I take a few minutes to challenge us all to confirm our commitment with them? I want to do that by reflecting on the commitment of the early disciples. We get a glimpse of their commitment in Acts 5: 17 – 32. I discover a commitment to Christ that is challenging, costly and constant.
Let me set the scene. The apostles were meeting regularly at the Temple in Jerusalem and they were busy healing people. Literally, people were being brought on beds for Peter’s shadow to simply fall on them and they would be healed. It was amazing! Luke tells us “more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord.” The religious elite (Luke calls them the high priest and other Sadducees) became jealous and had the apostles arrested and thrown in prison.
Something interesting happened while they were in prison. Luke records an angel came and opened the prison door, let them out, and told them to “Go preach again in the Temple.” Well, they did! The next morning, the high priest convened the high council and sent for the apostles, but they weren’t in the prison. That was a bit perplexing for the council until someone arrived with the news the apostles were preaching in the Temple. Guess what? They were arrested again and brought before the high priest and his council. The high priest said, “You’re spreading all this talk about Jesus, and you want to blame us for his death. Didn’t we tell you not to do that anymore?”
Peter’s response is classic, and we do well to hear it again—“We must obey God rather than human authority. God raised Jesus from the dead after you hung him on a cross, and God elevated him the place of honor as Savior so that Israel might repent and turn to God for forgiveness. We are witnesses…”
Peter, speaking for all the apostles, confirms the commitment they made to Christ after his resurrection. We come this morning to confirm with these students that same commitment. Can we learn from the experience of the first disciples the challenge, the cost and the constancy of that commitment?
First, the commitment to follow Christ was challenging. It was challenging for the apostles to preach a unique message of a unique Savior in a deaf culture. It was challenging culturally and religiously. The Jewish religious establishment was balking at the message of the apostles. They thought surely they were done with this whole Jesus thing when they crucified him, but literally, he refused to die, and he was continuing to live on in his followers. It was a message that challenged the religious establishment, and that was challenging to the apostles to be faithful to the message and cause of Christ in the face of that opposition. To say they were marginalized for their belief and their message is an understatement.
It was also challenging culturally to preach the message of a unique Savior to a culture that was as religiously diverse as that of the first century. Remember, Israel was under Roman authority at the time, and Roman culture was one that was very “pluralistic.” It recognized an entire pantheon of Gods that grew out of their own heritage and that of the Greek culture that had been fused through the years. There were gods for everything, and cities even had their own patron god. Temples were numerous across the Roman empire, and yes, it included the Jewish religion of Israel. That was the culture the early disciples faced, and it was challenging for the apostles to speak the unique message of a unique Savior in Jesus Christ to such diversity.
Does that sound familiar to us? We live in perhaps the most religiously and socially diverse culture of all time. Not that we’re more diverse, but that we’re more connected than at any time in history, and it challenges the culture on so many levels to speak of the unique claims made by Jesus Christ—one such claim being that of John 14:6—“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” Yes, there are dialogs we have with those of other faiths, but the fact that other faiths exist do not deter us from our understanding of the unique nature and work of God in Jesus Christ. It is challenging, indeed. Are we up to the challenge?
Second, the commitment to follow Christ is costly. The commitment of the first disciples cost them their freedom and ultimately their lives. They were imprisoned by the high priests, and after Peter refused to quite preaching, they were beaten and released. That didn’t end the persecution. Persecution for the early disciples continued for three centuries, until Constantine issued the Edict of Milan that “tolerated” Christianity. The persecution came because of the unique nature of the message. Wow! Christ is the only way? Intolerable! For the first disciples, their commitment was costly. It cost them jail time and a beating. They knew the depth of persecution for the cause of Christ. Let us never confuse inconvenience with persecution.
Currently, in western culture, if anything we are inconvenienced for our faith in Jesus Christ, and then only really when we push too hard on the uniqueness of Jesus. Don’t talk about the resurrection…no problem. Don’t talk about virgin births…no problem. Don’t talk about turning from sin and changing your life…no problem. Don’t talk about Jesus being the only way…no problem. It’s when we talk about that uniqueness that problems arise. Are we willing to pay the cost for our commitment to Christ, or are we content to be cultural Christians?
There are Christians across the world who are paying the price for their faith. They are in Syria and Iraq. They are in China and the Sudan. They are in North Korea and in Niger. According to Open Doors, and organization dedicated to tracking and aiding persecuted Christians, each month 322 people lose their lives for their faith in Jesus Christ, 214 churches are destroyed and 772 acts of violence are perpetrated against those who proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It happens for different reasons, but it happens nonetheless. It may one day happen in the west, and it may be the best thing that could ever happen to the western church because the church flourishes greatest where it’s persecuted greatest. But, for now, let us not confuse inconvenience with persecution.
Finally, the commitment to follow Christ is constant. The disciples said they “are” witnesses. Not there “were,” or they “will be,” but they are! It is a continuing action. It is a lifestyle. It is a transformation. For them, and for us, it is a life of obedience and faithfulness. It is a life-long journey. There are steps on the journey, but there is never a time when we say we’ve arrived. And, the journey only ends for this life when we die. Even death should be a testimony to the faithfulness and unique nature of our Savior Jesus Christ. We live each day with the core values of living evangelistically, worshipping regularly, studying devotionally, serving faithfully and giving generously. Those are the ways we live out this unique faith…demonstrating obedience and love and hope and life. There’s never a moment when our commitment to Christ is not the overriding philosophy that guides our lives…socially, culturally, politically, financially, relationally. Every area matters to Christ, and our commitment to him should be reflected through our actions, for our commitment is both being and doing.
Our commitment is challenging, costly and constant. If it is not, is it really a commitment at all? When lived fully, it is a commitment that changes us and changes the world. We come today, not only to confirm these young people in their faith, but to confirm ourselves in ours. Amen!
