Everyone Got Confirmed Today

6-9-19 Pentecost/ Confirmation

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.

A few years ago, one of my cousins told me that her daughter, Dana (named changed to protect the innocent), would be starting Confirmation class that fall. I of course shared with Dana herself how excited I was for her… to which Dana kind of looked confused and said, “what is the big deal about Confirmation, anyway?”

Well… boy was she ever talking to the right person to answer that question! She obviously completely forgotten that I was a pastor and was likely not prepared for the rather in-depth answer that I ended up giving her. Poor girl. She give over it though, tolerably well.

So, what IS the big deal about confirmation? And why is it happening today, on Pentecost? Well, almost 10 months ago, we embarked on this experiential and experiential fast-track confirmation adventure, and so here we are, at the culmination – not graduation- of this journey together.

We celebrate Pentecost because it ushers in a new phase and a new direction in the Jesus movement. Much like the rites of baptism and confirmation also signal new beginnings. At Pentecost, the followers of Jesus were given the gift of the Holy Spirit, a constant presence that both comforts and challenges us in our life in Christ. When a person is baptized, that person is forever marked by God’s claim on them as beloved children. At Confirmation, or more correctly known as “Affirmation of Baptism,” the baptized person claims and affirms this faith as their own, like a page break between sections of a book– ending one chapter and beginning another, like any good coming of age story.

I once did a baptism and a confirmation in one worship service, and it was quite an experience… because we were able to see within the span of the same hour, both of these markers of faith, of where our faith live begins, and where our faith can really take off and become our own. It also made the service a little on the long side, but it was totally worth it.

We didn’t get quite the same kind of turn around, but just a few weeks ago we got to participate in the baptism of Stephen and Dawn, and now we are here to witness and support Kyle Campbell’s confirmation. In both of these blessed occasions, it has truly been a group effort on our parts, especially and visibly so for Kyle – we have all participated in his confirmation year, whether it was attending the Eat Pray Learn dinners to explore the Bible, writing your own faith statement to go along with his in the bulletin, taking the Big Conformation Test, or writing your own sermon notes.

As we all know VERY WELL, it’s not just parents who make promises at baptism. We all make promises to every child that is baptized in our font. Remember that part where the pastor says, “Do you promise to support this child and pray for them in their new life in Christ?” we all say, “We do, and we ask God to help us”?

And we make that promise to every child that enters our doors on Sunday morning, regardless of where they have been baptized. It’s been said by some that our youth are “the future of the church.” In reality, they are the church NOW, part of the body of Christ NOW and participating in the mission that we all share NOW. And sometimes we will spectacularly fail in how we try to support and engage our young people, but the important things is that we keep trying and don’t give up. And occasionally, it turns out really, really well.  And I think that this is one of those times.

There are no grades in Confirmation, but if there were, I would give all of you a big A!! WELL DONE, everyone! I kind of feel like we should ALL get confirmed today. But we would run out of robes and corsages, probably.

Fortunately for those of us who are not Kyle, we all can affirm our baptisms every moment of our lives. Just as we can remember our own baptisms every day, we can choose to affirm our baptisms whenever we are able. Not necessarily with confirmation robe and cake, but in our daily interactions and the ordinary tasks we do. And by telling the story of why we continue to drag ourselves out the door every week for worship, long after we’ve been confirmed ourselves.

When we were baptized, we were welcomed into a community of believers who seek to follow the “follow the example of Jesus.” A community that was fully born, commissioned, and sent out when the Holy Spirit alighted on that small group in that shut away room in Acts 2. A community that continued to this day, in this time and in this place. The Holy Spirit showed up that day and has not stopped moving since.

After all, Pentecost is probably the most underrated of Christian Holy Days. Sure, Jesus would not have arrived on the scene if not for Christmas, and Christmas it totally pointless without Easter…. But without Pentecost, Christianity would have remained a very minor Jewish group. But after Jesus ascended to the Father, along came the Holy Spirit, and got the disciples out of the room, out the door, and into the world.

You might have imagined, based on this response alone, that instead of lighting a fire on their HEADS, instead the Holy Spirit lit a fire under their behinds!! At least, by the way they were acting – so excited and animated at such an early hour, that the rest of the population of Jerusalem thought they must have been drunk. As one friend told me she was going to title her sermon today, “It’s 9 O’Clock Somewhere!”

We don’t always seem to be this animated when we are out in the world, affirming our baptisms. At least, it’s not quite to this extent, here, at somewhere around 10 in the morning, Eastern Standard Time. So, in the words of my cousin’s kid, “just what is the big deal, anyway?”  

As we learned in our series on Baptism this last winter, it’s a big deal because in our baptism we are Born anew, Affirmed, Empowered to Trust in God, who Inspires us to Serve our Neighbor and Multiply this Love. That’s kind of a big deal. That is the kind of life we are called to affirm, celebrate, and embody. Which is a pretty tall order.

As I shared in my sermon in Namibia, the response “I will and I asked God to help me,” we say when we affirm our baptisms, should be instead “I won’t, and I ask God to help me.” We won’t always be able, or willing, to do it, nor will we we always do it successfully, but that’s where the Holy Spirit comes in. With the help of God. With flames on our heads…. Or sometimes flames under our butts. And THAT is something that we can affirm. Thanks be to God, Amen.