Palm Sunday/ Confirmation
Dear friends in Christ. Today we come to the culmination of Lent—Holy Week. Holy Week brings us back to that final week of our Lord’s earthly life that began with His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday but which then led to His betrayal, trial, beatings, crucifixion and death. That was not the end, though. What ended in seeming defeat with His suffering and death on the cross, was really His victory—His victory over our spiritual enemies of sin, death, devil and hell; on the cross Jesus, offered up His life as that perfect, once for all sacrifice. The Father accepted that sacrifice of His Son and raised Him from the dead. That’s Easter: the Father’s seal of approval on Jesus and the acceptance of His work for us. For us to have the forgiveness of sins and be reconciled with God and to await a glorious eternity in heaven, there had to be Holy Week. It is good for us this week, especially, to ponder these events and to be in church Thursday and Friday for service as we in spirit go with our Lord from the upper room where He gave us the Blessed Sacrament of His Body and Blood, to His agony in the Garden, to His betrayal, arrest and trial and to stand there at the foot of the cross where by His suffering and death He brings us salvation.
Today, we is also a celebration—confirmation—as today Alden publicly confesses his faith—the faith the Holy Spirit created in him at his baptism—and becomes a communicant member of our congregation. Confirmation does not add anything to Baptism as if somehow Baptism were incomplete without it. Instead, at confirmation Alden will publicly answer for himself the questions asked of him at his baptism and answered for him by his sponsors: Do you renounce the devil, all his works and ways? Do you believe in the holy Triune God? And he gives his vow and pledge to remain faithful to our Lord and His Church.
Confirmation is preceded by a period of study of the teachings of the Church. During Alden’s public examination, he answered doctrinal questions. By this he showed that he is able to examine himself before receiving the Holy Sacrament of our Lord’s Body and Blood—just as the Apostle exhorts—and so is welcomed to receive the Sacrament.
At the time of Confirmation we see that the faith the Holy Spirit created at Baptism has been formed by the word of God in the Christian upbringing and instruction in that faith. But now what? Confirmation is not an end or a goal; instead it is merely a marker along the path of our Christian life. We all do well to heed Solomon’s Spirit-inspired words of our text throughout life as here is the distinguishing mark of the Christian’s life: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He Himself shall direct your paths. As we study our text, we will see the now what of Confirmation; or, to put it differently: our lives as Christians will be different from the unbelievers around us as our lives will be marked by trust and hope in the Lord; and they are marked by us recognizing the Lord’s working in our lives.
1. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. That’s precisely what we see in Christ’s life especially during Holy Week: that perfect trust and reliance on His heavenly Father. On the cross the crowds taunted Jesus [Mt. 27.43]: He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God’. Even Jesus’ enemies recognized His trust in His heavenly Father. Even while on the cross, forsaken by His Father, Jesus still trusted in Him, still calling Him My God. Even right before His death, Jesus said [Lk. 23.46]: Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.
It was that perfect trust in His Father that marked Christ’s life and that same trust will mark the life of Christ’s dear Christians. The Christian’s life is distinguished by a hope and trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all your heart is not some dreadful law-filled command; instead, it is the most wonderful and gracious invitation to rely on our Lord’s word and promise alone. When we rely on the Lord and trust in Him with all our heart, the onus, the hard-work is on God. He is the one who has promised here to show Himself faithful and trust-worthy. The distinguishing mark of the Christian’s life is that we look to our gracious Triune God with a confident expectation for His help, for His grace and for His salvation. By our study of Scripture, we see the Lord’s faithfulness to all His faithful; we see His faithfulness to His word and promise. By looking at our own lives we see He is gracious and merciful to us; we see that He is working all things for our spiritual and eternal good. With that background, what a gracious call we hear in our text to commit ourselves completely to our Lord’s grace and faithfulness.
The vow we made at our confirmation and the vow that Alden here makes today is to Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
This distinguishing mark of the Christian is that we do not live apart from the Lord! Instead, we know Him as our gracious God who loves us and is working all things for our spiritual good. We go to Him in prayer, asking His guidance and blessing. We don’t think we can do it alone, instead we rely upon Him for help and we realize that all we have is His gracious gift to us. We go to Him in thanksgiving because He has helped and blessed us.
Trusting in the Lord and looking to Him for every good thing is a confession of our faith; it is the living out the vow we made at confirmation. By relying on the Lord, not only are we taking Him at His word and by that saying/ praising Him that He is faithful and trustworthy, but we are also confessing Him to be the one true God who alone can and does take care of us, His creation in the best way.
Our reliance on the Lord, that we Trust in the Lord with all your heart, also means that we gather around His holy Word and Sacrament to hear what He tells us and promises us there; to receive the gifts He wants to give us in the holy Sacrament. The distinguishing mark of the Christian’s life is trusting in the Lord and not living apart from Him. The faith we have is a gift from God. He created it in us by the water and word of baptism; He nourishes and strengthens it by the word and the Sacrament of our Lord’s body and blood. As we remember what our faith does—it receives the gifts and graces Christ won for us and brought about for us on the cross, forgiveness of sin, Christ’s holiness, eternal life—and how precious it is, we dare not trust in ourselves to remain in the faith: I’ll be in church, I’ll read and study Scripture later, when I think I need it. Instead, we live in communion/ fellowship with our Lord’s Church, where He has promised to meet us in Word and Sacrament to strengthen and keep us in the faith. That’s what we promised to do at our confirmation and what Alden here today promises.
As we live trusting in the Lord, in communion with Him we let His word guide and form our thoughts: and lean not on your own understanding. This means that we listen to and follow God’s word alone. Because we are sinners, conceived and born in sin our thinking and reasoning, our deep thoughts and insights cannot be trusted to be in accord with the word of God. Sinful, corrupt human thinking is opposite God’s way. The human way of thinking says that there is no such thing as a free lunch so we have to earn our way to heaven, gain heaven by our works; God’s way is by His grace through the gift of faith He gives us; faith that trusts Jesus and His work for us. Human thinking says that there’s no way the simple water of holy baptism can save a person; but God’s word [1 Pt. 3.21; Ti 3.5; Rm. 6.2; Gl. 3.27] is that Baptism now saves us; that it is a washing of regeneration and renewal; that it connects us with Christ’s death and resurrection; that it clothes us with Christ.
The Christian’s life is marked by not [leaning] on your own understanding, on our own thinking and wisdom; but instead walking in fear and humility and giving up our own ideas recognizing that excessive “wisdom” makes us oppose the word of God. This does not mean we walk around as ignorant buffoons. We use the gift of wisdom and reason the Lord has blessed us with but realize that it does not and cannot explain the Lord and His ways. Where reason/ our own understanding/ the world’s way of thinking and doing are in conflict with God’s way and word, we confess that we do not understand the ways of God and let His word guide and form our thoughts. Our life as Christians is one of continual learners as God’s word continues to form and enlighten our understanding and reason. Apply what you learned from the Lord in everything you do.
Through it all, as we Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, we have a great peace and rest of soul and conscience. We are relying completely on the Lord’s grace and guidance. As our trust is in the Lord, we are, in a good sense, unconcerned—His loving gracious will toward us is being done; we are in the hands of our heavenly Father. As we rely upon the Lord and His word, Satan and his allies can accuse us of every sin, try to get us to despair and to fear hell closing in on us. But as we do not lean on our own understanding but on God’s word of forgiveness in the absolution, as we make sense of the world around us in the light of God’s wisdom revealed to us in Scripture, we have a glorious peace: I am at peace with God, a peace Christ brought about for me by His life, suffering and death; I am my Lord’s dear Christian and an heir of heaven.
2. Not only is the Christian’s life marked by a trust in the Lord, but also by a recognition of the Lord’s working in our life. Our text: in all your ways acknowledge Him and He Himself shall direct your paths. Confirmation on Palm Sunday is a great time to remember that. Here all of us can look back to God’s grace to us in the past. Of course, this being Holy Week, we remember Jesus’ work to save us. We can all think back to God’s grace to us personally/ individually as He came to us in the waters of holy Baptism and washed away our sins, created faith in Him in our hearts, connected us with Christ and His work and made us His child and heir. We can think back to all the faithful instruction God has given us in His word by faithful parents, pastors and teachers to strengthen and keep us in the faith.
This is all the Lord’s working and know that as He has shown you nothing but His grace in the past, He will continue to do so in the future as He continues to work in His Word and Sacrament. Alden, you are now about to enjoy a new grace of the Lord as you are now able to receive the Sacrament of our Lord’s Body and Blood. Here be assured of the forgiveness of your sins as you eat the very body of Christ that bore your sins and their punishment and drink the very blood offered to bring you forgiveness. Here is for you and for all a source of strength as the devil tries to draw you away from the Church and destroy your faith. Make use of this great grace the Lord shows you.
Whichever way your life takes you, recognize the Lord’s grace to you in the past, His grace to you now and be assured of His grace to you in the future. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He Himself shall direct your paths. The Lord is working and bringing you safely to Himself in heaven. Recognize His love and work and rely on His wisdom to bring you there. Be mindful of Him and serve Him your whole life with a willing and faithful heart/ with true faith and willing obedience.
Alden, God has given you the gift of faith at baptism. All through your life He has formed that faith. Now your life as a Christian will show that faith and be marked by a trust in the Lord and recognizing His gracious work in your life. INJ Amen