Sermon for September 22, 2024
Pentecost 18B
Confirmation Sunday
Mark 9:30-37; Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-12, 17-19
Rev. Karl-John N. Stone
In our Confirmation Class here at House of Prayer we learn about the kinds of things you’d expect—the Old Testament, New Testament, the Life of Jesus, Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, Luther’s Small Catechism. We teach these things in a way that prioritizes building faith-based relationships, and that connects our faith in God to both the head and the heart.
Part of our curriculum is looking at artwork by the Chinese Christian painter James He Qi. His works of art are based on the Bible, but the style is a little more abstract than what most students are used to. Sometimes they’re easy to figure out, but sometimes they’re difficult. The benefit of this difficulty is that, what often appears a bit strange to our eyes, actually frees us up to ask questions and wonder: what Is the artist trying to communicate? So we approach this artwork in a similar way to “Dwelling in the Word”, which we as a congregation have been learning for the past couple of years.
As our Confirmands look at the artwork we ask: What do you notice in this picture? What questions do you have about it? And finally after discussion those things, what do you think God might be saying to us through this work of art? And even if we begin by being totally stumped by what we’re looking at, by asking these questions together, we always find something that speaks to us, as the Word of God is being expressed through art.
When it comes to growing in our faith, and being formed by the Holy Spirit as disciples of Jesus, it’s good to ask questions! None of us has everything figured out about God or the bible. But still, God’s Word is a living word—meaning that God continues to find ways to speak to us—if we can humble ourselves enough to listen. This was something that Jesus’ original disciples had trouble with. After returning from their visit to Caesarea Philippi (which we heard about last Sunday) they are now back in their home of Galilee. Once again Jesus teaches them about the way he will accomplish his mission. He says: “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” Once again, the disciples don’t understand what Jesus is saying. Once again they remain stuck in the mindset that Peter expressed when he said in Caesarea Philippi “this must never happen to you, Lord.” Suffering and dying was simply not part of the job description of a Messiah, as far as Peter and the disciples were concerned. But rather than approach Jesus in a spirit of curiosity and humility by actually admitting they didn’t understand, and asking Jesus to explain, instead they were “afraid to ask him.” Talk about a lost opportunity!
So, what do they do instead? They start arguing with each other about which one of them is the greatest! Their egos have already taken a hit due to their continued lack of understanding, so their natural ego defense mechanism kicks in. They feel hurt, so they start to fight with one another. Ironically, this just shows how far from great any of them actually are!
As Lutherans we have a phrase that has guided our theology and ministry ever since the time of the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago. That phrase is: “justification by grace through faith.” This comes from the letters of St. Paul, particularly Romans 3, where the apostle writes: “the righteousness of God has been given through faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe. Since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, we are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
It can be a bit confusing, the language St. Paul writes in to describe how God’s love for humanity takes shape—it’s almost like looking at one of those abstract paintings of a Bible story that our confirmation students do. So, what does St. Paul mean?
Start with the understanding that God wants to have a positive relationship with everyone! God loves you, no matter what. As human beings, sometimes we enjoy this gift of having God be part of our lives, but we also often do things that cause our positive relationship with God to be broken. Very often this happens due to our own selfishness, when, like the disciples our egos kick into overdrive, and not only do we want to prove how “great” we are, we want to kick someone else down to prove it. It’s one of the most subversive things Jesus taught—that the way you treat your fellow human beings (especially those who are considered lowly by the world’s standards) is the way you are treating God himself!
So how can our positive relationship with God be restored? Well, we have redemption in Jesus Christ—meaning that we can be set free from the mistakes and hurts and brokenness of the past, because of what Christ has done for us—willingly going to the cross to forgive our sins; and being raised from death to open the way to new life and salvation. And his redemption—the freedom he offers—becomes available to us by faith; that is, by trusting that God’s gift of grace is for you; and that God loves us all, no matter what.
Being set free by Christ means that we no longer need to be ruled by the selfishness of our egos, or the shame of our misunderstandings (once again, just look at the disciples as exhibit A). Being set free by our faith in Christ means that God justifies us—God is the one who repairs our relationship with him—not by our knowledge or lack of knowledge; not by how “great” or how “lowly” we are in the eyes of the world; but by everything Christ does to help us. Therefore, we are free in Christ to give of ourselves and our resources in loving service to others. We’re free to reach out in Jesus’ name to build connections and community.
Being set free by Christ means that we can come before God in a spirit of curiosity and humility, and even embrace our lack of knowledge and understanding, and trust that we can ask any questions we may have (this is actually a form of prayer). We can ask God, and each other, and learn to listen and wait, in hope and faith, for our God of love to reveal an answer.
Our ancestors in faith Abraham and Sarah are great examples of this. We heard about them in today’s first reading from Hebrews 11. When God called them to leave their home and go to place he would show them, they went, with faith—even though they had no idea where they would end up! They must have had plenty of questions. When God promised them that they would have descendants “more numerous than the stars of heaven, or the grains of sand by the seashore”, they must have had plenty of questions. But also they trusted that God would provide the answer for how it would happen, even though they were too old to have children of their own. It took a lot longer than they wanted, and took a lot of strange and disturbing twists and turns, but they “considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead” and God finally did provide the answer to their prayers and fulfill God’s promise.
Our confirmands have considered many questions during their time in Confirmation Class. When you get confirmed, it may be tempting to think “I’m done! I know everything about God that I need to know.” But really, your journey of faith has just begun, and faith comes through the asking and seeking. I can tell you from personal experience, the more you think you know, the more you really still have to learn. You will, undoubtedly, have a lot more questions about life, faith, God, church, and the world as the years go by. So don’t be afraid. Keep asking questions. Keep asking God. Keep asking your brothers and sisters in Christ. Keep a spirit of curiosity and humility, so that you can listen for how God might be answering, and so you can keep offering yourself in loving service to others. Amen.