SPEAKER_00: My mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be holy and pleasing in your sight, O Lord, or Rock and Redeemer.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: When the apostles had come together, they asked Jesus, Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?
SPEAKER_00: I feel as though today a little liturgical context might be helpful.
SPEAKER_00: We are on the seventh Sunday of Easter, heading toward the end of the Easter season.
SPEAKER_00: But a few days ago, on Thursday, we had what's called the Feast of the Ascension.
SPEAKER_00: It happens 40 days after Easter, this moment that Jesus leaves his disciples and promises the coming of the Holy Spirit, which we will celebrate on the Feast of Pentecost, 50 days after Easter, which is next Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: So in this gap of 10 days, we have that moment between Jesus leaving the disciples and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We are in this in-between time where the disciples are trying to figure out what the next step is.
SPEAKER_00: What is it that we are called to do now that we've experienced the coming of the Savior, but now we have been tasked with taking on the work of being the church together as we await the kingdom come, the second coming of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And it is in this in-between time that the disciples are thinking to themselves, what is our role in this story?
SPEAKER_00: I think it's fitting for us to celebrate confirmations today, which will have take place at the 1030 service, because that is the question before the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the question before us.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for us to own the faith in this in-between time, in this here and not yet of the coming kingdom of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: They say every sermon is a word on target, always a word spoken in a particular time and place.
SPEAKER_00: And every person, I would say, is a word on target.
SPEAKER_00: The call that comes to each of us to live into the Christian life is always in a particular time and in a particular place.
SPEAKER_00: So I just wanted to spend some time with you today talking about what confirmation is, since we will celebrate it later today and what that means for us as we are in this in-between time, in the here and not yet, waiting for the kingdom, while also knowing that the world is not yet right.
SPEAKER_00: The world is not as it should be.
SPEAKER_00: Confirmation is right in the church, in the prayer book, that's found in the pastoral offices of the prayer book.
SPEAKER_00: It's not one of the core sacraments, baptism and eucharist.
SPEAKER_00: Baptism and Eucharist are toward the beginning of the prayer book and frame the rest of it.
SPEAKER_00: So confirmation is not an add-on to baptism.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at the rubrics for baptism, you'll see that it says that baptism is full initiation into the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: You do not need an extra helping of the Holy Spirit after you are baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Confirmation is not a completion of what happened there.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, the prayer book says that it is a time when we make a mature and public affirmation of the faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's that moment when we come to terms with what baptism means for each one of us.
SPEAKER_00: If you were baptized in the Episcopal Church or in many other denominations, you may have been baptized as a young child.
SPEAKER_00: You may not have had the wherewithal to say, I will with God's help, to the questions in baptism.
SPEAKER_00: So confirmation is this invitation to reflect on what baptism means, what baptism means for you personally.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to take on these promises, to love the world as you have been loved?
SPEAKER_00: And that is the key to understanding what confirmation is.
SPEAKER_00: It's a public affirmation of promises made on your behalf, perhaps.
SPEAKER_00: And it's that personal ownership of what it means to be a member of the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: That step is important for each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: We do not do this alone.
SPEAKER_00: We do not have an individual relationship with Jesus Christ, but that is always personal.
SPEAKER_00: That is always a personal relationship that we have to step into.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to say, I will, with God's help, to living into the Christian faith for ourselves within the community of faith.
SPEAKER_00: No one can make that decision for us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the grace offered to us in baptism, what I like to tell young parents as they're preparing is that is a statement of God's yes to us.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I choose you even before you have made the mistakes that will mark your life, right?
SPEAKER_00: We all make mistakes.
SPEAKER_00: Confirmation is that moment where we say, and I choose to live for God and for my neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: That's the call here.
SPEAKER_00: In this in-between time, in this world that is not as it should be just yet, I will do my part to live into the Christian faith in the here and now.
SPEAKER_00: That is what confirmation is about.
SPEAKER_00: There are a couple of other ways that people can participate in confirmation if you've already been confirmed in the Episcopal Church or if you're coming from a different denomination.
SPEAKER_00: The other option is reception into the communion of the Episcopal Church.
SPEAKER_00: If you were confirmed, say, in the Roman Catholic tradition or in another tradition, you can be received and make a public affirmation of the faith that you are joining yourself to the Episcopal branch of the Jesus movement, as Bishop Michael Curry likes to say.
SPEAKER_00: There is also an opportunity for folks who have already been confirmed, but who have wandered away from the faith to reaffirm their commitment to their baptismal vows.
SPEAKER_00: And that is just another opportunity to come forward and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: This is a moment for me.
SPEAKER_00: I was confirmed a long time ago.
SPEAKER_00: I wandered away, but I want to make this public, mature affirmation of the faith I hold in front of this gathered community of faith and in front of the bishop.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the other part of the confirmation service that is a little different than what we are used to.
SPEAKER_00: The bishop celebrates that service.
SPEAKER_00: And the bishop is a representation in that space and time of the larger community of faith to which we belong.
SPEAKER_00: When we make a mature public affirmation of the faith, we're not just making it within the context that we already know.
SPEAKER_00: We're making it in union with every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, as the book of Revelation says.
SPEAKER_00: And the bishop is a representative representation of that larger community of faith that we belong to.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what we step into, whether we are engaging in confirmation or being received into the Episcopal Church or reaffirming our baptismal vows.
SPEAKER_00: Toward the end of the passage from Acts that we read today, the two people in white robes who are looking up toward heaven say, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?
SPEAKER_00: This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: This is the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus may have left, but he has not left us abandoned.
SPEAKER_00: We have the promise of the Holy Spirit, and we have the promise of a larger community of faith who supports us on this journey.
SPEAKER_00: May we put our faith and trust in the God who will not leave any of us abandoned.
SPEAKER_00: And may we do good work together while there is yet time.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.