Seventeen teenagers from Our Savior's will be saying YES to the promise God made to them in baptism when most of them were babies, presented at the baptismal font by their (then!) young parents.  Oh what a difference 3 or 4, 15 or 16 years can make!

These 17 young people have an amazing amount of accomplishments among them:  Over 100 confirmation students, mentors and family members were served at the confirmation banquet last Sunday night, as each student was showered with words of appreciation from  family & received a blessing from his or her mentor.… and shared a confirmation project on the Apostle’s Creed.   Just a few examples:

The Essay

There’s David.  He’s a young man whose Dad has been having painfully severe, unrelenting headaches for going on 2 years now, and still David and either his mom or his Dad have come to most of the mentor nights.  David has been listening. David has been learning.  David carefully chose his Bible verse for today & wrote a beautiful little essay which included these words:

“God is my Almighty Father who will be there through thick and thin and will never leave my side even when I doubt in him the most and question what his meaning is to me.”

There’s an accomplished young man.

The Trinity Plate

There’s K. who has not hidden the fact that she had her,  hmmmm, doubts about this whole church thing, she’s the one who made the most unique confirmation project I’ve seen, in my 20 some years as a pastor :  K. Made a plate!  A white center on the plate, for God the Creator, the white-hot center of everything;  a blood red rim for Jesus who shed his blood for our sins; clear beads like large water drops on the rim for the Holy Spirit who, (quote) “Like, waters us or something like that.”  And God the father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit give us all the tools we need for life eternal starting now, that’s why the fork, the spoon and the knife.

Well now, who would have thought.  I don’t know about you, but I love that kind of out of the box (out of the triangle) thinking about who God is. K, an accomplished young woman.

The Skeptic

And Danny who did a snazzy 3 minute PowerPoint with about a hundred pictures set to music in the background, Danny who started confirmation just last year, who insisted he was not a churchy person, but would go to confirmation to satisfy his mother,  but now he’s playing in our Sat night band and  I don’t think I made this up (maybe I did, maybe I was dreaming!) I think he actually told me that he just  might do an extra blue worship service report every now and then just for old time’s sake.  

The Musician

Did I mention M. who has been through more medical procedures than probably anyone here, think about that at age 16 he’s probably had more medical procedures than even some of you oldest folks here, and he did that totally awesome musical meditation on the Trinity on his computer.  I guess when you can’t always put your trust in your own body’s ability to do what you want it to do,  it has a way of unleashing your mind and your spirit to put your trust into Someone way more Powerful than yourself.

And that’s just 4 snippets of stories of 17 very accomplished teenagers who are affirming their baptism …later this morning

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The Areopagus

It is in some ways  to similarly accomplished people that St. Paul speaks in the book of Acts, chapter 17 this morning.

St. Paul is speaking to the people of Athens.  He’s at the Aeropagus, at the edge of a large marketplace, near the meeting place of the Athenian Council.  I imagine it to be a place like Madison, near the capital, and the university, which some of you know or will know very well someday.  There, where sophisticated people, accomplished people, bright students, government bureaucrats, and pan handlers all hang out, Paul tells about the One who is the Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

And Paul says to them, what I’d like to say to you today, and that is I can see that you are religious people. 

You see, you and I were born religious people.  People everywhere in the world are born with a sense of God, a thirst for a power bigger than yourself.  That’s why wherever you all have traveled, or will travel in this world, you’ll see temples and mosques, beautiful magnificent cathedrals, humble little altars in people’s homes.  Paris, Rome, Brazil, Africa.  You are religious, the world is religious.

But Paul in Athens tells people about a very specific God.  1)This is a God that is Lord of heaven and earth (most people believe that);  2)this is a God who isn’t far from any of us (some people believe that) and then Paul, instead of quitting while he was ahead, went on to talk about God being a God who 3)commands (not suggests, commands) everyone everywhere to turn to God, in the person of Jesus who was raised from the dead.

And at that point, a) some of the people started laughing. B)some of the people said, “talk to us about this some other time, and c) some of the people believed.

Some 3 or 4 or 15, 16, years ago, Seventeen families obeyed God’s command, and brought their children to the baptismal font, turning themselves and their child, towards a God who is not just God the Creator, not only God the Spirit, but also, very specifically, God the human being who was raised from the dead.

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“If you love me,” says this specific God,  the risen human being, “If you love me”, says Jesus Christ in the Gospel for today “you will do as I command.”

Seventeen teenagers from Our Savior's will be saying YES to the promise God made to them in baptism when most of them were babies, presented at the baptismal font by their (then!) young parents.  Oh what a difference 3 or 4, 15 or 16 years can make, in the number of your accomplishments, the quality of your brains, the creativity of your imaginations, the size of your shoes… the age of your parents.

But the promise they will be (you’re) saying yes to, the very specific God you’re turning towards, the risen Lord who commands them (you)and us  to obey him, is also the specific God and Lord who says that no matter your accomplishments, no matter the strength of your bodies, no matter your level of creativity, no matter your scoring on confirmation tests, or any other kind of a test, you have a God who loves you and his given his own specific life for you.

So, when Each young person (of you) is asked "Do you turn to Christ as your Lord and Savior?"

I am confident that each one will be given the grace & the power to  respond: 

"In faith I turn to Christ"

And I pray that this will be a commitment for each one of you confirmands, and a recommitment for each one of us here today,  to do specifically what God commands, trusting in His power to make our general commitments & religiosity into His specific reality.

Amen.

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