EASTER 5, C – May 2, 2010

The Confirmation of Ryan Evans and Chris Zahlman

SCRIPTURES – Acts 11:1-18; Rev. 21:1-7; John 16:12-22; Psalm 98

I have a dream every now and then that always causes me to wake up in a sweat. I don’t have it very often, probably two or three times a year, but I’ve had it for years. The dream goes like this: I walk into a college classroom and take my seat. Then, the professor walks in and proceeds to hand out the final exam – a long and detailed test that covers all the things he has taught the past few months. My final grade depends upon how well I do on this exam; but, it’s my first time in the class! I haven’t seen or read any of the material! I stare at the test blankly, with no idea what to write. Sweat starts running down the back of my neck. I’m going to fail! (I hope you guys don’t have such dreams about your Confirmation classes!)

Now, just imagine if this were not a dream. And, imagine being tested and evaluated, not by a college professor, but by God. Imagine God calling you to testify to your faith in Him and how you followed in your life what He said, with heaven or hell as the result… and you had never heard of Him and had no idea what He expected of you! Imagine failing in God’s eternal judgment! Well, thanks be to God, we don’t need to lose sleep over this. We can be very confident in God this day! Listen to what God says to the Apostle John in Revelation 21:

“Behold, I am making all things new. Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.” (Rev. 21:6)

To ask a good confirmation question: What does this mean? Just this:

OUR LIVES ARE GOD’S WORK

God is not up there in heaven, waiting for the end of your life when He will evaluate you. He is among us now, and is working in our lives. “I am making all things new,” He says. Am – present tense; God is making things new, making lives new, now.

But, where? Where is God at work: making Himself known, giving faith, forgiving sins, changing and directing lives, and preparing people for heaven? You know, don’t you? Ryan and Chris, you learned this in your Catechism classes. So did the rest of you. In case you’ve forgotten or are unsure, God tells you where He is at work: “To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.”

“The water of life.” Water is life. The April 2010 National Geographic pointed this out by devoting the entire issue to water. The first paragraph of the story begins, “The amount of moisture on earth has not changed. The water the dinosaurs drank millions of years ago is the same water that falls as rain today.” It also points out that our bodies are 75% water.

What a fitting focus on this Confirmation Sunday. Do you guys remember the homework assignment in which I asked you to name some important uses of water and also to find out how much of your body is water? Water is vital for our lives. We began our earthly lives in a bag of water in our mothers’ wombs, and we need to drink water every day to continue to live. Well, your spiritual life, your life with God, also began with water. When water was poured over your head in the name of the Triune God, you were dipped into the “spring of the water of life.” God forgave your sins, raised you up from the death and hell that they bring, and took you to be His own child. And what did you have to do with it? Nothing, for you were an infant who didn’t even know what was going on. God was doing it all. “I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment,” He says. God gave you a wonderful beginning when He baptized you; but, it was just that: a beginning. You need to continue receiving the water of life for your faith, your life with God, to continue.

Why does God speak this way, refer to salvation as “the spring of the water of life”? Why does He command John to write this down? It is not simply so that we have before our eyes a vision of heaven, know what there is at the end of life and see what it is that we are “shooting for.” It is so that we might know how vital God’s Word and work is, know the great treasure that it gives. God’s Word and the works of Christ that it proclaims is the water of life. It is the most important thing for us to know and learn. There is nothing more important in this world than the hearing and believing of God’s words. For, eternity, eternal life with God, is in these words.

“It is done!” What a wonderful cry! This wasn’t Ryan’s and Chris’s cry – nor their parents’ cry, nor mine – at the end of their last Confirmation class. It was the cry John heard from God, as he tells us in Revelation 21. God was not just crying out to announce the end of time. He was echoing Jesus, who cried out from the cross “It is finished!” just before He died. In Revelation 21 John heard God shouting out and echoing the ongoing cry that orders and directs and shapes all of time. By doing so He is telling us that everything goes back to Christ and His death on the cross. His crucifixion is the linchpin of history, the event to which all prior history was directed and from which all subsequent history flows. What this means for you is this: if you believe that Jesus is the eternal Son of God who not only came into this world as a man to live, die on the cross, and rise again but believe that He did all of this for you, to take away your sins, then you have been changed. Oh, you still live in this world and endure the hardships and sufferings that come to us all in this life. That hasn’t changed. In Christ we are God’s children; but, even so, we often don’t understand what He is doing and why things happen.

à        Jesus’ own disciples spent three years with Him, and yet they often didn’t understand Him, as we hear in today’s Gospel reading. Should we expect to be any different? We should expect to have to continue studying and learning God’s Word.

à        The first Christians, who were of Jewish background, had a hard time accepting that Gentiles could become Christians without being circumcised; we hear this in today’s reading from Acts 11. Confusion, and even prejudice and bigotry, remain even among Christians. We haven’t become perfect people.

We are sinners who live in a sinful world and so suffer because of this. Still, God cries out: “Behold, I am making all things new. It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” You have been baptized into Him, and the name of the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, has been put upon you. You are God’s own children, and so eternal people with God! Eternal life fills you, for God fills you! Remember and rejoice in this by drinking deeply of His Word, and don’t let the trials and sufferings of this world cause you to fear. Certainly do not let them control you. And, do not make this world and the things of it your focus. Thirst for God and the eternal life He gives you in Christ! Thirst for His words, His baptism, and the Sacrament of His body and blood. “To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment,” God promises.

Psalm 98 cries out: “Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.” Yes, let us cry out with joy, for the Lord has not only obtained salvation for us by His death and resurrection. He has made it known to us.