Ninth Sunday after Trinity

Confirmation in the Christian faith of Greta E. Gramzow and Ian A. Miller

Readings: 2 Samuel 22:26–34 | 1 Corinthians 10:6-13 | Luke 16:1-13

Text: 2 Samuel 22:26–34

“Knowing God vs. Not Knowing Him”

Those who don’t know Him see him as:

• Torturous and cruel
• Permissive and weak

But those to whom the Holy Spirit has made Him known see Him as David described Him in 2 Samuel 22:26-34:

What have you come to learn about God? Is He merciful or torturous?  You’ve been taught the truth: That He is the Creator of heaven and earth; that He so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son; that He sanctifies and keeps us in the true and saving faith.

As you mature and continue in life, keep on striving to know Him to be who He is, rather than what your darkened experience tells you; what the uninformed scoffing of unbelievers tells you. They see the same God, but because of unbelief and a love of sin, they will see God as a spoil-sport.

You have not “arrived” yet. This is only one part of your life in Christ. It’s the part where you are prepared to confess Him before others, but life marches onward. You will be faced with more challenges to your faith, more temptations, surrounded by much darkness.

How is this any good news? “It only gets harder”?! Well, it’s true that it’s harder, but you are not left on your own; you have Christ your Savior who goes with you!

What happens now for you is that God has given you a choice in the Holy Spirit: To remain in His Word, nurturing the life that He has given you; or your choices turn you to despise preaching and His Word as irrelevant. The choice is now yours to make, but you’ve already been given a community who will help you as you pursue life.

It’s when one of us wanders away from this community and this instruction from God which leads each of us to truly know Him. We can’t know Him through our feelings, or even our fleeting memories of Sunday School and Confirmation gone past. From His Word, He shows Himself who He is:

You have come to know the True God, and He has shown you such love that He doesn’t just give you a faint mental picture to concoct; He confirms His Word with signs to assure you of His ever-present help.

Your Baptism into Christ stands as the life-long assurance of the Lord’s work in you. Even though for both of you it was at a very young age, it is nevertheless powerful because Baptism is God’s work. Beginning from that day, He “saved you through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit whom He richly poured out on you through Jesus Christ your Savior.” (Titus 3:5-6) Live in this Baptism from your Lord, remember it each day, knowing that in it He has given you eternal life!

You each have been absolved (washed clean) from all your sins which you have committed and continue to struggle against. That Word of forgiveness stands, even when you are weak.

Finally, today, you will be admitted to the Lord’s Table. Here, you will share in what saints around you and before you have shared: the comfort and strength of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. As He now gives this to you, consider it the continuation of your life in Christ. He gives you food for the journey—a journey which will no doubt become more difficult—yet a journey which will never overcome His ability to strengthen you for it.

Focus on the words from the preface: “Therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy glorious Name, evermore praising Thee and singing…Holy, holy, holy.” (LSB 194-195) That’s because, even though this is Confirmation Sunday for the two of you, you are actually part of the Church which is ever growing until the last day: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”(Hebrews 12:1-2)

So let us all rejoice today that Greta and Ian have had this good work of God begun and continued in them. Let each of us remember our own confirmation vows as we hear our young brother and sister make theirs by the grace of God. Together in Christ our head, we believe and confess who God is, and with our voices we read 2 Samuel 22:26-34 together:

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.