EDITOR'S NOTE: On Oct. 23, 2021, I was ordained as a minister of word and sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and installed as pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. I also served the same church for four years from October 2017 to October 2021 a synodically authorized minister. The journey together these past four years has been an amazing one, full of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on March 5, 2023.
This week's scripture: James 1:12-13, Matthew 6:34, Matthew 11:28
James 1:12-13: “Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one.”
Matthew 6:34: “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
The Message:
So here we are … confirmation day!
I hope that this is as special of a day for you as it is me! … You see, you three make up the very first confirmation class that I started teaching all on my own here at Faith.
I had been a part of confirmation prior to your class, but you three were the first to get me full time. … I guess you will have to be the judge about whether that makes you the lucky ones or not!
And in a few years, if you want a refund on your faith education, I guess you’ll have to track me down. OK?
Wewieeee! … We have been through some stuff together right?
Can you remember back three years ago those first few Wednesdays we got together for class? … Three girls, from three different schools, who essentially didn’t know each other at all? … And having to create a relationship online? … You remember that?
I do … because after 75 minutes of blank stares back at me, week after week, I remember thinking, “Oh Lordy, what have I gotten myself into now?”
But then what happened, after a couple of months, you all got to know each other, and boom … a whole new world opened up!
And then week after week, I was stunned at how open and honest you became with each other … and with me! The discussions we had were amazing … and sometimes terrifying for a girl daddy.
We survived the pandemic year together, in which we struggled through each Wednesday night. … I mean, after you’d already spent 8 hours online for school that day, then you had to turn around for another 75 minutes of church school, right?
But, yet, you each dug deep and brought a fresh spirit to class every Wednesday that inspired me.
Alli … the emails you sent me outside of class sometimes drove me crazy because you asked some really hard questions. But I loved your inquisitive spirit that kept our class moving.
Lexi … you always kept us grounded. You kept it real. You never masked your feelings, and I was always so impressed how you found a way to incorporate the night’s lesson into everyday life. It was this groundedness of yours that made the goal of teaching how to live with faith in our lives easier.
And Siri. … You never failed to pick us up. … You made certain that even in the most challenging moments we left class with a smile and feeling good about something.
And I admire you for your courage, because I can’t imagine how difficult it must be sharing your feelings and daily struggles with the pastor when he is your step dad!
So, I guess that brings us to the memories … three years that I will never forget:
Remember those first few very awkward online classes? … Man, there you were with this rookie pastor figuring things out … and I bet those were the longest 75 minutes of your week!
And then remember by October … do you remember that? I couldn’t get you offline every Wednesday? An hour and 15 minute class always turned into an hour and a half class … or longer.
Oh, and remember that one time when we volunteered to create commercials for the Sunday school program that was going to be recorded? … Alli, did you ever make any money off your “Kranch” invention?
And then remember by the spring of 2021 … when all we wanted was to be able to have a class in person?
And then remember in April when we were able to meet for our very first in-person confirmation class? … How weird and awesome was that!
Also, remember the confirmation sleepover at the church? … I didn’t think the church was ever going to be the same!
So many memories … And I hope that you remember these past three years with the same fondness that I do!
But now you move on … because this is the inevitable course in life. We always move forward. … We grow; we mature; we enter new chapters in our lives.
And now you three will enter the next chapter in your faith lives. … But before you do, as your pastor, I would like to give you a gift.
But, just give me a minute to see where it is that I left those … (rummage around)
OK, now … How about those? … Right?!?
What do you mean, you can’t see them! … There are three shiny, bright red tool boxes with gleaming silver clasps. … One for each of you!
So, Pastor, you might be asking, why tool boxes? … Now that is a great question! … And here is why.
All throughout your confirmation, what was it that I said was the most important thing I wanted you to leave with?
I wanted you to leave every Wednesday … having learned how to incorporate faith into your daily lives … even as teenagers, right?
All those confounding conversations we had about grace, and who is our neighbor, and salvation and the Isrealites and Martin Luther and catechism … but what did we always do at the end of a discussion. We applied it to your lives!
And as you walk out of here today with your new bright red faith tool boxes, I want you to think about what tools you learned these past three years that can continue to help you with incorporating your faith into your daily life.
And I’m going to give you a head start … because if you open up each of these boxes, there are already three tools in them. … Which I guess isn’t fair because you’re the ones who provided the first three tools to yourselves … with the three scriptures you chose for this moment.
Yep, I bet you never even thought about that when you picked those scriptures though … did you?
I mean Lexi, let’s take a look at yours: James 1:12-13: “Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one.”
Confirmands, I would love to tell you that from here on out your lives will get easier. … But experience tells me that the temptations you will face in life will only grow from this day forward.
The difficult high school, sibling and boy troubles we’ve discussed these past three years … are going to seem trivial with some of the situations that you will find yourself in future years as you continue to grow older.
And so I challenge you … to remember this tool box, and the tool in James 1:12-13 that Lexi provided you.
When you find yourself in that next impossible situation, faced with the question of do or don’t I … just remember that God is literally standing there beside you and he cannot be tested by evil. So grab ahold of James 1:12-13 in your toolbox and put your trust in God. Because he’s not going to let you down.
And you all can thank Alli for putting this one in your tool box! … This is always a gem! … Matthew 6:34: “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
Confirmands … as both a pastor and a daddy I wish I could assure you that you will not have things to worry about as you grow older.
But I’d be lying to you, and you all know that.
You know that because the conversations that we’ve had over the past three years have gone from pretty trivial middle school stuff … to more serious high school stuff. And it seems to have happened overnight.
Guess what? … The worries only grow more difficult from here. … I don’t need to list them. You’ll find them along the way without any need for me to scare you today.
But what I will say … is that Alli picked out a wonderful tool to place in your shiny bright red toolbox this morning for those moments of worry. And it is Matthew 6:34.
Confirmands … this life will deliver you setbacks sometimes. … It will create situations that will test your courage, your goodness and even your faith. … And none of that means that God isn’t with you.
What it means … is that God is waiting for you to trust in him because all your worrying in the world won’t shape the outcome. … But your trust in God will.
And so … even in your most difficult of times, my advice to you is to choose prayer over worry … and just give over tomorrow’s troubles to God. … That is why Matthew 6:34 is such an important tool!
And then finally, there is Siri’s gift to each of you. The tool she left in the tool box is Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
Confirmands … even after using Lexi’s tool in the moments of temptation, and Alli’s tool in the moments you need to put worry aside … you’re going to find that this life still can sock it to you.
Jesus never promises us an easy life. Being faithful doesn’t mean that everything turns out like puppy dogs and rainbows for you. … I wish I could make you that promise.
In fact, as your pastor, I have to share with you that leading a faithful life just might be more challenging than leading a life without faith, as unfair as that may seem.
But, that’s OK … I assure you that you are not the first faithful person that at some point will need to just throw your hands up and say, “I’m done, God! … That’s it! I have no more left in me!”
Confirmands, take comfort in the fact that the Bible is littered with faith leaders who at one point or another threw up their hands and exclaimed: “That’s it! I’m done.”
And that is when you reach into that shiny new bright read toolbox of yours and pull out Matthew 11:28. … It’s OK to get weary sometimes. … It’s OK to throw your hands up and say, “I’m done” sometimes. … God expects it, in fact.
And that is why he promises to be there in those moments with you. … To give you a rest. To be your support. To carry you over the rough parts of the journey when you don’t have the strength yourself. … Remember this tool, and please remember that you can always rest in God when you need to. He says so.
So that’s it confirmands … three years of class, and lectures and sermon notes and accolyting and listening to the pastor drone on about Martin Luther … and this is what you leave with … one shiny bright red faith toolbox with three tools in it already … provided by you.
My prayer for you is that you don’t bury this toolbox under the dirty clothes in your rooms or stow it away in the back of your closets. … My hope is that you keep on display somewhere really visible, and that you continue to add your own faith tools to it … be they ones you picked up in confirmation or ones that you will learn on your own.
And that is the Good News on this Confirmation Sunday, March 19, 2023. … Amen.
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