impossible promises, unfailing grace (a sermon for Reformation and the rite of Confirmation)

What a wonderful day it is to gather as God’s people! Together we celebrate all the ways that God is working in and through us to reform and make new the Church. Together we celebrate God’s promises made to us in baptism, especially as Cole, Tanner, Alex, and Andrew affirm these promises and join the ranks of confirmed adult members of the congregation.

Our celebration, however, is tempered by recent events in our community and the world around us. I learned of yesterday’s awful shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill while gathered here with students and parents for Confirmation class. We had been discussing the goodness of God’s creation, the gift of being created in God’s image, and the pain caused by sin, fear, hatred, division, and brokenness in our lives and our world.

Eleven people are dead, six are injured, and we know all too well that things are not as they should be. We know that God’s vision of wholeness and harmony, love and life is so very far from our reality.

It is into this suffering, confusing, hurting world that these young men, our Confirmation students, are sent. Their Confirmation follows two years of intentional study of the Bible, the Small Catechism, and Lutheran theology and practice. This is not an ending in their journey of faith, but rather a stepping stone. They have been equipped with some tools and knowledge to help them make decisions in life that are informed by their faith. But there is always more to learn, more ways to grow, more ways to listen for God’s call for us as individuals and us as a community.

When these students come forward, this is what I will ask them: You have made public profession of your faith. Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in holy baptism:
to live among God’s faithful people,
to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper,
to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed,
to serve all people, following the example of Jesus,
and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?

Each person will respond:
I do, and I ask God to help and guide me.

These are big promises. And all of them necessarily take place in community, with the support, prayers, and efforts of our fellow workers in the Body of Christ. But, there are no illusions here - you will fail.

Someone will say something that makes you mad or hurts your feelings, and you will withdraw from life with and among God’s faithful people.

Life will get in the way, and you will neglect to come to worship, the space where we, in community, hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper.

Overcome by self-preservation, or fear, you will fail to proclaim the good news of God in Christ in word and deed.

There will be moments that selfishness will lead you to serve only yourself, or only people who look or worship or live like you do.

Overwhelmed by the vastness of injustice, or perfectly content with how things are for you personally, there will be times when you will barely shuffle after justice and peace, let alone strive for them.

How am I so certain that you will fail? Because I have failed. And everyone here has failed. When, not if, these times come, I hope you remember that in the midst of our failure, our selfishness, and our fear, God’s promises and God’s faithfulness stand firm. God will hold you tightly and surround you with love even when you feel like you are lost, even when you’re angry, free-falling, or actively running away.

And, at other times, however imperfectly, you will do these things. You’ll join with the people who are the Church, the Body of Christ, and we will raise our voices in praise, prayer, lament, and action so that all might know the goodness and welcome of God. It is not work that can be completed in our lifetime, but the little bit we do has the power to bring the smallest glimmer of light into places of shadows and fear.

There is a collection of Jewish teachings called the Talmud, and this is an especially fitting piece from there: “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”

As Christians, we weep alongside our Jewish siblings, who again have received hatred and violence, who have had their safe, holy space desecrated by bloodshed. And indeed all we weep with all who suffer - our trans and non-binary siblings; our siblings who flee for their lives through danger and toward an uncertain future; our siblings who struggle daily with pain, disease, anxiety, abuse, hunger, natural disaster, or violence.

And, as Lutherans, particularly on this commemoration of the Reformation, we condemn Martin Luther’s legacy of anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism, as well as the hatred and vitriol he wrote against Anabaptists, Muslims, and Roman Catholics. We know that we can disagree with one another without resorting to hatred and violence and dehumanizing words and actions.

Instead, following the example of Jesus, we stand alongside the hurting, the marginalized, and the outcast. Created in the image of God, we are made for love, for relationship, and for community. Marred always by sin and brokenness, we cling tightly to God’s promises, and these promises are the truth that sets us free - that we are loved, that we are forgiven, and that it is grace, and not anything we do or fail to do, that saves us, gives us life, and makes us whole.

You belong to God, and God will never leave you or forsake you. In times of fear, and grief, and confusion, and despair, God is with you. God’s promises are written on our hearts, close to us even when we forget. Thanks be to God. Amen.