In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Confirmation is the most beloved tradition in the Lutheran Church. Many of us still look back with fondness on the day when we were Confirmed and remember it as one of the most influential times of our lives. I can still remember how my hand was shaking when I reached out to receive the cup for the first time, because apparently, my parents and my pastor, had done a pretty good job of teaching me that it’s actually the real Body and Blood of Christ. Personally, I like Confirmation. And I’m glad that we still do it.

But I also think that we need to be careful about how we approach it. Like every man-made tradition, there’s always the danger that we would elevate it into something that it isn’t supposed to be, and because of that, put aside the real Word of God instead. This is literally what Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing in the Bible. They were teaching as doctrines the commandments of men, and making void God’s actual Word for the sake of their own made-up practices. We don’t want to do that with Confirmation. 

So, what I’m going to try and do in this morning’s sermon is clear up some of the most common misconceptions about this practice, so that we can truly honor Christ in the way that we observe it.

The first misconception about Confirmation is that it’s a Sacrament. That’s isn’t true. In the Lutheran Church we teach that in order for something to be considered a Sacrament it has to have three things. First, it needs a clear command from God in the Bible. Second, it has to join God’s Word of promise to a visible element. And third, it needs to offer us the forgiveness of our sins. Confirmation, of course, has none of those things. God doesn’t tell us that we have to do it anywhere in the Scriptures. It doesn’t join His Word of promise to any visible element. And we don’t get the forgiveness of our sins by going through it. So, Confirmation isn’t a Sacrament, and we can’t make it a requirement as if it is one.

But just because something isn’t a Sacrament, that doesn’t mean that its unimportant or useless. There are all kinds of things that we do in Church, which even though God hasn’t specifically commanded us to, we can observe in Christian freedom because of what they teach us. A good example of this would be something like the vestments. There’s nothing in the Bible that explicitly says that our pastors have to wear certain robes during the worship service. But we still choose to do it in order to communicate the importance of the Office of the Ministry. What matters most isn’t the man who stands in from of us and forgiveness us of our sins, it’s the Office in which he stands. It’s the Word that he proclaims.

And there is something similar going on with Confirmation. Because even though Jesus doesn’t tell us that we have to do it anywhere in the Bible, even though He never explicitly commands us that we need to get up in front of the Church and make certain vows if we want to be Christians, He does tell us that we need to confess Him before others. As our Lord Himself says in Matthew chapter 10, which by the way, is one of the main verses used at the beginning of the Confirmation liturgy, “Whoever confesses Me before men, I also will confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” 

God’s Word calls upon us to confess the faith. Under the threat of eternal damnation, it tells us that we need to “let our light shine before others” and not shy away from identifying ourselves with Jesus and His teaching. This shows the world around us that we actually do believe what’s in the Scriptures and aren’t ashamed of them. And that’s one of the reasons why we have Confirmation. It gives our young people, in particular, the opportunity to publicly confess their faith in Christ. We give them a chance to do what Jesus says in the Bible.

As a side note here, we should also mention the fact that when someone takes their Confirmation vows in our church, we aren’t asking them to simply make a generic confession that fits every single denomination out there. We’re asking them specifically to pledge their fidelity to the Lutheran confession. As one of the questions says, “Do you confess the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, drawn from the Scriptures, as you have learned to know it from the small Catechism to be faithful and true?” Nowhere have we ever said that only Lutherans go to heaven, but we aren’t ashamed to assert that in the Lutheran Church, we have pure doctrine. The teachings of the Small Catechism are the same teachings that we find in the Bible. That’s where we got them from! So, having someone voice their support of the Catechism, and reject everything that disagrees with it, isn’t being arrogant. It’s being faithful.

Not every person who calls himself a Christian believes that Baptism has the power to wash away our sins or that you should baptized babies. Not everybody agrees that the Lord’s Supper is the true Body and Blood of Christ, and that we are saved through faith alone and not our works. Some people even teach that faith is a decision of our free will that we have to make for ourselves if we want to go to heaven. Well, is that what the Bible teaches us? No. So, we make our confirmands be clear. We ask them whether or not they want to be Lutherans, so that they can make a specifc confession about Jesus and not just a generic one, which isn’t really a real confession at all.

The second misconception about Confirmation, and this is very much related to that first one about it not being a Sacrament, is that Confirmation somehow secures us a place in heaven by the mere act of going through it. We’ve probably all encountered that individual before, or maybe we even know someone personally, who doesn’t go to church anymore or live a Christian life at all, but still makes a big deal about how they got Confirmed once, as if that’s some kind of get out of hell free card. But that’s not what Confirmation is supposed to be about. In fact, we could even say the same thing about the actual Sacraments, like Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Yes, God does offer us the forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation through them, but nowhere in the Bible does it teach us that they save us automatically. They only save us through faith. They save us because they present to us something that faith can trust and grab onto, namely, the promises of God. As Jesus says in Mark 16:16, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” not simply “whoever is baptized.” 

And the same thing applies to Confirmation. The mere act of saying certain things out loud in front of other people is not by itself the cause of anyone’s salvation. In fact, it’s possible to go through the motions, and take all of these vows, without actually believing in a single one of them. That’s the kind of scenario that Jesus is getting at in Matthew chapter 15 when He says, “These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” We need to be clear that no one will be saved who doesn’t believe in Jesus. No matter what else they say and do, even if they get Baptized, Confirmed, and take the Lord’s Supper every week, if they don’t repent of their sins and trust in Christ for forgiveness, they won’t go to heaven when they die. It doesn’t matter what else happens in their life, even if they get Confirmed in 8th grade.

The third misconception about Confirmation, and this one also has to do with the Sacraments, is that Confirmation is a sort of pre-requisite for Communion and that it entitles you to receive it whenever you want. Since we’ve chosen to observe the practice of Confirmation in conjunction with first Communion, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s also had some unintended consequences. One of them is the idea that going through Rite of Confirmation itself, and taking the vows, is what makes a person eligible for the Sacrament of the Altar. But that can’t possibly be true. How could the Rite of Confirmation do that when Confirmation isn’t even commanded in the Bible? That doesn’t make any sense.

However, the Bible does tell us that people need to be prepared before they receive Communion. This includes general instruction over the basic teachings of God’s Word, and specific instruction about the Lord’s Supper itself. As Saint Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” If we choose to link together instruction with the practice of Confirmation, we can certainly do that. And asking someone if they are confirmed before we offer them Communion as a quick way to figure out what they’ve been taught and what they’re supposed to believe isn’t bad either.  But we shouldn’t confuse the ceremony itself, with the Catechesis that happened before it. What prepares someone to receive Communion is having the right faith. It’s about knowing what God’s Word says and believing it. Can a person know what God’s Word says and believe it before 8th grade? Sure. Can a person in 8th grade not know what God’s Word says at all and not believe any of it. Yep. So, we need to be careful not to give the impression that being a certain age, or having said certain vows, is what allows you to take Communion. 

Along those same lines, another issue that we run into here is the idea that once a person has been confirmed, they are automatically eligible to receive the Sacrament in the Lutheran Church for the rest of their lives. Confirmation becomes kind of a like a punch-card at the YMCA that gets you into the club whenever you want. You can just come and go as you choose. I can’t tell you how many times in my Ministry I’ve dealt with this exact situation. A person was raised in the Lutheran Church and got confirmed here as a young adult. Then they grew up and left the Lutheran Church and started attending somewhere else. But when they come back home for the holidays to see mom and dad, or whoever, they march right up to the Altar and demand to receive the Sacrament just like they did before. Sometimes they literally say, “I was confirmed here,” as if that makes a difference now when they go to a different church. But what church did we promise to go to when we said in our Confirmation vows that we would continue in this confession until we die? Were we promising to be Methodist or Baptist? Were we promising to be Roman Catholic or Reformed? No, we were saying that we were going to stay a Lutheran. We weren’t not going to depart from the teachings of the Catechism, which are the teachings of the Bible. And what do you think it means when we take that vow that we intend to receive the Lord’s Supper faithfully? Well, it certainly doesn’t mean receiving at a Church that doesn’t even teach that it’s the actual Body and Blood of Christ, or puts up with false doctrine.

Confirmation was never meant to be something that allowed us to avoid doctrinal differences. It was supposed to be something that made it clear which side we took on them. It wasn’t supposed to be passport stamp for getting the Sacrament whenever we want it. It was supposed to be a way to make sure that everyone who received the Sacrament together held to the same beliefs. We’re supposed to have unity in our confession, before we have unity at the table. That’s the point of having Confirmation in conjunction with first Communion.

And, the last misconception about Confirmation, which is probably the biggest one of all, is that Confirmation is some sort of graduation. It’s just another rite of passage like drinking a beer with your dad, or driving a car for the very first time. And once you get it over with, you’re good to go, and you don’t have to do any of the stuff that went along with it ever again.

My father, who was also Lutheran pastor, used to tell a joke that I bet you’ve heard before. It goes like this. What do you do to get rid of bats in the Church attic?  Just Confirm them, and then they’ll leave. It’s terrible. But the only reason why it makes any sense, is because there’s also some sad truth to it. I haven’t been a pastor for very long myself, but even in my short time in the Ministry, I’ve already lost track of how many kids I’ve seen come and go and never come back. It breaks your heart every time.

When then attitude is, “Great, now I don’t have to study the Bible anymore” or “Sweet, now I don’t have to pay attention to the sermon,” or worst of all, “Awesome, now no one is going to force me to go to Church,” you know that that kid doesn’t stand a chance. At least, not unless something drastically changes soon. 

Confirmation isn’t about being done with all the “Church stuff,” it’s about accepting more responsibility for yourself. The Bible teaches us that we are life-long students of the Scriptures. That’s literally what the word “disciple” means. It means a “student.” We never stop needing to hear God’s Word and receive His Sacraments. Even if no one is watching us, even if we don’t have a pastor grading our assignments anymore, or making us do memory work, that doesn’t mean that we can just coast through life and our faith will be fine. On the contrary, it will wither and die if it isn’t fed properly. So, we need to stay close to where God feeds it, and not neglect His gifts. We don’t treat Confirmation like graduation. We treat it like initiation. It’s closer to the beginning of our walk with Christ, not the end of it.

I love Confirmation. I think it’s a wonderful tradition in the Lutheran Church. If this sermon gave you the impression that it isn’t, that’s not what I intended at all. My only point was that we need to do it for the right reasons. It isn’t a Sacrament. It isn’t a get out of hell free card. It doesn’t entitle you to Communion whenever you want it. And it’s not some sort of graduation from going to church and studying the Bible. But it is a good practice. It reminds us of the importance of being instructed in God’s Word and the necessity of being prepared to take Communion. It gives us an opportunity to confess our faith, and makes it very clear which faith we are confessing. 

Mason and Devin, that’s what you’re doing today. It’s not your act of confession that saves you. It’s what you’re confessing. Christ is your righteousness. His death and resurrection ransomed you from your sin. And in His Word and Sacraments He offers you forgiveness for every last one of them. What you learned in the Catechism is the Word of God, because the Catechism takes everything from the Bible. And what you have here in the Lutheran Church might not be automatic salvation, but it is access to the pure teachings of the Scriptures, which save those who believe them.

God is giving you so much today. He’s given you so much already. When you’re old, I hope that you’ll look back on this day with fondness too. But above all I pray that you’ll never forget the promises you made, and more importantly, the promises God’s made to you. “Whoever confesses Me before men,” Jesus says, “I also will confess before My Father who is in heaven.” May you live in this confession all the days of your life, and suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.