Confirmation Sunday         8 June 2003

Rev. Roger Haugen

 

Springfield Community Church is an interesting church.  The pastor is Timothy Lovejoy who all the people of Springfield seem to endure.  His name is a bit of a distraction because he certainly does not love joy.  He is more famous for his fire and brimstone sermons, that come in handy when the furnace in the church breaks down, than for his love or compassion.  Basically he is a shallow, intolerant windbag.  Most of you over 30 may not know whom I am talking about but I am sure that the confirmation class caught on very quickly.  Springfield Community Church is the church where the Simpsons are found every Sunday morning along with Ned Flanders, their evangelical neighbour.  It is a congregation that is welcoming to all sorts of people.  There is Mr. Burns the owner of the power plant, “Cletus the slack-jawed Yokel”, African Americans, immigrants and  even Moe Szyslak the bar tender.

 

The pews are full but there are also some problems in Springfield Community Church.  Worshiper sleep through the services, often with their eyes open, they are rarely moved or even involved in the worship experience, often the pastor, Rev. Lovejoy, is less than inspiring.  But it is a church where people gather, pray to God and expect God to be active in their lives.  It is also where people care for each other.  The people and the church are a lot like us.  God loves them and God loves us.  We gather for worship because we know that here we will be cared for, even though we sometimes get caught up in squabbles.  Sometimes worship is less about worshiping God than seeking to create favour with God.

 

Today, on Confirmation Sunday, we gather to recognize another step along your faith journey.  Today you confirmands, become adult members of Zion Lutheran Church.  Zion, a church that may look a lot like Springfield Community Church from time to time.  A church that has its problems but a church where we know we will be cared for, a church where God is praised.

 

 Today is another step along your spiritual journey that begins at baptism.  Today marks the end of four years of classes and time spent considering issues of faith in the midst of busy lives.  Today is the day when you take for yourself the commitments your parents made for you at your baptism.  Today is a day for parents to be reminded of the promises that were made at baptism: “to faithfully bring you to the services of God’s house, teach you the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed and the Ten Commandments. . .”  Today is also a day to recognize that we are a lot like the Simpsons, people with big plans that sometimes we aren’t able to complete.  People sometimes as blunt as Homer Simpson, sometimes as underachieving as Bart.  But people loved by God.  People who genuinely want to live as God’s children.  People who know that God loves us and is anxious to forgive us.

 

Here we are at the end of four years of learning, years that a great number of people have taken part in as parents, instructors and guides.  These years are only a beginning because we all need to grow and be nurtured in our faith in the many chapters of life.  Much of what you have learned these years you will forget.  Many will do as the hymn said, “in a blaze of light you wandered off to find where demons dwell.”  We may not see some of you again for a long time, some will see no need to gather with us to praise God.  We will all be poorer because of it.  You are entering years that have more and more choices for you to make.  Choices of education, work, friends and family.  It is our prayer for you that these choices will be made secure in the knowledge that God loves you, the Jesus died for you and that we love you.  Sometimes we will act as ignorantly as the Simpsons but remember that behind it all there is a deep love that comes from God and flows through the imperfect people who are near to you.

 

You are publicly making choices today that will lead to a deeper relationship with God and others.  Today you commit yourself “to live among God’s faithful people” to “hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s Supper.”  To be found in places like this where people gather to hear that they are loved by God.  To receive support and give support.  To attend worship because to be a Christian means that we choose to find time in our lives to praise God, to receive the Lord’s Supper and pray together.  To live among God’s faithful people means that in the choice of friends you will seek to be found among people who give life rather than take it away.

 

You choose today to “proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed.”  You choose to make to live your life in such a way that faith does make a difference.  Such a life that others want to share.

 

You choose to “serve all people, following the example of Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth”.  The world needs you to make a difference.  How you treat all those around you says much about your faith.  The world needs young people willing to speak out when injustice confronts you.  Your life will be richer as you allow the Holy Spirit to work in your lives for justice and truth.  Your life takes on new power when the needs of others come first in your thoughts and actions.

 

A lot of times we will feel like Marge or Homer Simpson, not able to get it right, but knowing that God is active in our lives and God will get it right.  You will say when I ask you about these commitments, “I do, and I ask God to help and guide me.”   God is the power for all that we do.  It is God who gives us strength to act, it is God who offers forgiveness when we mess up.  It is God who loves us through whatever life will throw at us.  It is God who has said and will continue to say, “I was there to hear your borning cry, I’ll be there when you are old. I rejoiced the day you were baptized, to see your life unfold.” John Ylivisaker, “Borning Cry”

 

Don’t forget the gifts that God has given you.  Remember that God loves you no matter what.

 

Don’t forget us, because we need you to walk the journey with us, you have much to teach us.

 

God bless you today and always.