"Confirmation is not Graduation"

Back when we were members at Trinity – Gadsden, I don’t recall a year that we didn’t have at least two or three young ladies and gentlemen that were being confirmed. My children were all confirmed there, each two years apart. So we were taking kids to confirmation class for six years straight.

Many of you know Pastor Gary Faith. He came here a couple of years ago and put on an ABLAZE program. He is Southern District Mission executive, and part time pastor at Lutheran Church of the Pines in Waveland Mississippi. He was also my mentor as I studied for the ministry. Back then he was the pastor of TLC Gadsden.

There was always one thing you could count on – one thing you knew he was going to say every confirmation Sunday sermon. He was always going to say; "Confirmation is not graduation." The point was – of course – that just because you have gotten through two years of confirmation classes, didn’t mean that you were finished with your Christian education. It didn’t mean that you didn’t have to come to church anymore.

So to each of you confirmands – Andrew, Jeff, Josh, I say; "Confirmation is not graduation." Confirmation is just one step in the journey of faith and life. That’s the neat part about being a Christian. You never know all there is to know – you can never completely understand all the mysteries of the kingdom of God. It seems like the more you learn, the more you realize you still don’t know. At least that’s how it’s been for me.

And I find myself still learning – still suddenly understanding a text only after I have taught it in Bible class or preached a sermon on it. Or read it for the twentieth time. But finally, the light comes on and my heart overflows with awe for God and gratitude for what He has done for us through Jesus. And I know I have so much more to learn, because I have a church full of people who expect me to already know it all, and want me to explain it to them.

Maybe someday, one of you ill be standing in a pulpit somewhere, saying; "Confirmation is nor graduation." Even if none of you ever becomes a pastor, our Epistle lesson for today has good advice for all of us – good advice for the life of all Christians.

Paul encourages the Philippians, and through those words he encourages us, to let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus. Throughout His life, Jesus

In the 11^th chapter of Hebrews, the writer talks about heroes of the faith, all the way back to Abel, the son of Adam and Eve. He talks about how those heroes of faith were still living by that faith when they died, even though the things God had promised had not yet come to pass.

When he talks about Moses, he says that Moses regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. He talks about all the things Moses was able to accomplish through faith.

The writer to the Hebrews talks about how the prophets were stoned, sawed in two, put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goat skins, were destitute, were persecuted and mistreated, how they wandered in deserts and mountains, and how the sinful world, the people they called to repentance were not worthy of them. Even though they never received what had been promised, which was the promised Messiah, they were commended for their faith. God had something better planned for them and us.

And so for today, the Law will be short and to the point. Don’t let the world get in the way. Don’t let the world distract you from what God has promised each of you. Stay focused. Be obedient.

Let the advice of Paul to be of the same mind as Christ guide you throughout your lives, remember that Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve us. He rode triumphantly into Jerusalem, knowing he was just days away from death on a cross. He was obedient to the will of his heavenly Father, and because of his obedience, God the Father exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So remember, confirmation is not graduation. It is just a step in the journey. Remember also these words from the Book of Job, chapter 19 verses 25-27; written some 1000 years or more before Christ; "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes – I and not another." Amen.