Confirmation Sunday
1 John 1:5-10
Living in the Light of Christ
05/04/03
One of my favorite contemporary Christian tunes is a song by Geoff Moore entitled, Best Days. Throughout the song Geoff highlights some of the most memorable days of his life – a day when his dad took him fly fishing, taught him how to tie a fly, hook a fish and bring her in and how he related that experience being the fishers of men that God has called us to be. He talks about the day he met this girl that brought him to set a new world record that day, for all the stupid things he’d say, of how he made her laugh, maybe at him, maybe not; but how through it all they fell in love. And at the end of each verse he goes on to sing of how “All the world was right, and I felt so full of life, in the wonder of the light. And I would never be the same, for I knew somehow I’d change, even now I’d have to say, it was one of my best days.”
Today is one of those “best days.” I know it is for your parents who have put together all kinds of preparations for celebrating this day. Yet the best part for them is witnessing the faith that has taken root and grown in each of your hearts through your continued instruction in God’s word from the time you were baptized. Today is one of their best days, as I pray that it is becoming one of yours too.
As we heard in the text today, “God is light.” And He’s certainly been light for each of you – enlightening you to the truth of His word, pointing you in the direction you should go, lighting up your guilt-laden lives with the light of His sin-forgiving grace. He would make right out of wrong. He would bring life out of death. He would work a change for the better in each of us as He would adopt us as His children and fill our lives with His Spirit. And today, each of you would celebrate this joy, take note of this very special best of days, and testify to that truth.
But it’s one thing to speak the truth. It’s quite another to live it. That was part of the problem that some in the early church had. In fact, John later writes in greater detail about a group of very religious individuals who claimed a fellowship with God while doing whatever they pleased. They denied the serious nature of Jesus’ death on the cross as atonement for sin. Not surprising then they also denied the seriousness of their sin that made such a death so essential; and the necessity of the life-changing work of Christ’s Spirit in the hearts and lives of His people. They hailed Christ as their Lord and Savior, but their lives confessed a different story.
And there are many like them today. Jesus suffered a cruel, bitter death on the cross; but the worst bit of it all was the fact that He was rejected by God, forsaken on account of our sins laid on Him. He endured the very pangs of hell, not just in His physical suffering; but in His being abandoned by God, the world’s scapegoat for its transgressions. He was left behind by God, that we might not be; but how carefree we often look at sin. We engage in it without a thought. A raunchy movie; an unfulfilled marital vow; a sexual indiscretion; disrespect shown to a teacher, an officer of the law, a fellow citizen, a concerned parent – “Hey,” we say, “It’s no big deal. Every body does it. And if everyone’s doing it, it can’t be so wrong.” But it is, and when we look to the cross we see it’s a big deal; a big deal denied by the trivial attitudes we adopt about sin, by our flippant decisions to engage in it.
Jesus not only died for our sins, he rose to give us new life, strength to stare down evil, power to overcome the temptation to sin. But we live sometimes as though Jesus were still shut in the grave, an insignificant failure, a hopeless cause. What else are we saying with our lives when we know what we’re doing is wrong, yet we give in to it anyway? What else are we saying with our lives when we consider our golf memberships, our two homes, our boats and cars and everything else as more important than seeing to the growing needs of carrying out the Lord’s work and ministry here at home and abroad? Christ has burst his three day prison in the tomb, but we live as if he were still buried, lock stock and barrel; dead and unworthy of our time and effort when we can’t see our way to finding some way of offering our lives to His service as a volunteer, a caller, a teacher, a committee member or even something so small as serving a lunch or sending a token of thanks to one of our service men or women. Christ is alive, but sometimes you’d never know it with our lives of worry, mixed up priorities and sin.
It’s truly one thing to confess with one’s mouth that Jesus is Lord. It’s quite another to be a living testimony to that truth.
How fortunate we are that living and walking in God’s light involves more than just these things that we’ve done. If that were it we’d surely be lost, goners as well as I’ve just described here. For that was us. It’s as good of a picture as I can draw of what’s been going on here at Zion where I’ve heard some describe what the Lord’s been doing here as waste. It’s what’s been going on here where others have suggested that our Lord should just make do with less. But what are we to cut?
This past week a young mother of one of our school students (and one that’s not a member here at Zion or St. John) came up to one of our teachers and admitted that she had nearly cried on Easter Day. Her child came running into her bedroom, screaming with excitement, “Mommy, mommy do you know what day it is? It’s Easter and do you know what that means?” This mother admitted that she thought she was about to here a long list of things like chocolate bunnies and jelly beans, Easter eggs and the like. But her little one said, “It means Jesus rose from the grave. Our sins are forgiven and now we’re saved.” The little boy knew what Easter was all about.
Shall I now convey the message that somehow we do not? Shall I tell this young mother that we’re seriously considering closing our schools as some have suggested? Shall we recall our missionaries from the mission fields as is being done right now because mission giving is down throughout our synod? Shall we tell our Lord to do without, all because we value our petty luxuries and see more life-giving worth in our things than we do our Savior?
My dear friends, we’ve been walking in the dark. If you don’t like that diagnosis, do something about it. Step back into the light. Hear our Savior’s call today to admit that we’ve been wrong. “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God is light, and that light exposes us, so that walking in that light means a readiness to honestly see where we’ve been, what we’ve become. It means a readiness to confess ourselves sinners. But walking in the light also means drawing our life again from Him; because light does that too. “God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Light gives as well as heals and restores things to life. There are all kinds of examples. Sitting in our fields right now are tiny seeds, waiting for the warmth and light of the sun to bring them to life that they might sprout and grow.
Right now, at this moment, there are people around the world who are rejoicing in the return of longer days, shorter nights, having been affected by what is known as Seasonal Affective Disorder – SAD – which is quite appropriate, for it’s a disorder that literally renders numerous people depressed, dysfunctional, sapped of strength, starving for joy and longing for hope every winter season. The only treatment is prolonged exposure to light which literally restores these individuals to life.
It’s not surprising then that the same is true in a spiritual sense too. Sin has a sadness all its own that isolates a person, brings them to feel withdrawn and cut off from others as its guilt grips and burdens and drags him or her down with it. The initial rush that sin brought gives way to the endless burden of its consequences and taps our strength leaving us wanting for something more. And so the struggle goes, endless and hard, until that sin is brought to light, spoken and confessed where our faithful and just God can and does forgive, can and does restore, can and does cleanse; not just on the basis of his spoken word (although that would be enough), but on the basis of word made flesh that verified it in His own blood.
From the darkness of our sins we walk into glory, with Christ Jesus. No longer are we cut off. In Christ Jesus we have a fellowship with God, a membership in God’s household, citizenship in God’s kingdom – all born out of a purity of heart which restores us to a sense of balance by God’s grace through faith in His Son, which affects a fellowship with each other as well.
Perhaps you’ve never heard of Count Pietro Rotari so allow me just a moment to introduce you to him. He was an 18th century artist who received the invitation of the Empress Elizabeth of Russia, daughter of Peter the Great, to come to St. Petersburg as First Painter of the Court. There he was commissioned by Empress Catherine the Second to paint 850 portraits of young Russian women, 850 portraits that devotedly bore an unusual resemblance to Catherine as well as his subjects. It is said that in each picture there was some gesture, pose, facial characteristic, jewel, flower or dress that provided a delicate reference to the empress.
Now I tell you this because it resembles so clearly what Christ and His light brings into our lives. For when we live in fellowship with Him, by God’s grace He paints delicate resemblances of Himself into us – new attitudes, a reordering of our priorities, new found hope, restored confidence. He would stamp into our lives a willingness to give our trust to one another, not because they deserve it; but because they’re our brother or sister in Christ, just as He has undeservedly entrusted us with His gifts, with His life and with His evangelical task of making disciples of every nation. He would imprint on our heart His brand of love, His devoted service, His undaunting concern for the lost that He graciously dispatched for us.
And that, my friends, is what we rejoice in today. He is alive, just as He has been alive in you; which makes this no ordinary day; not for you confirmands, not for any of us here. Christ has triumphed. He is living. All the world would be right. He would fill our lives with life. He give us to never be the same, to know somehow we’ve been changed, so that even now we’d have to say, this is one of my best days – forgiven, restored, renewed, forward lookin’ – not just confessin’, but livin’ in the wonder of His awesome light. Amen!
