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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, amen.
Brothers and sisters, looking at that second reading today from St. Peter’s first letter as a text, please be seated. Maybe you remember your Confirmation Day, those of you who’ve been confirmed in your faith. I remember mine back in 1973. I remember a lot of things about it, but I remember most being so ready for it, ready to move from the middle school confirmation class into the high school youth group, ready to start receiving the Lord’s Supper.
And I was ready. I was just ready for confirmation to be done, for the memorization to be done, ready to be done with the small catechism, ready for that every Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon class to be done. I had to miss the Bugs Bunny Roadrunner show for three years. I did get home in time for Johnny Quest, so that was okay, but I was ready for that to be done, and I was ready for the examination to be done. Some of you remember that—the examination where perhaps you had to sit or stand in front of the congregation, and the pastor asked you questions that you were supposed to know in front of everybody. Who had to do that? You could admit it; it’s all right. Again, there’ll be counseling for you later if you’re still affected by that.
I’m just glad we weren’t wearing white robes that day. Yeah, that was a joke, folks. Yeah, I was ready for that to be over, and it was, or so I thought. Look at that reading from St. Peter today. In that first letter, he says in the very first verse there, verse 15, he says, “Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”
Now, in good Lutheran confirmation small catechism fashion, we should ask, “What does this mean?” Well, I’m sorry to say what that means is the examination is not over. In life, people are probably going to ask you at some time about your faith, your religion, your beliefs, or whatever, and Peter is encouraging us to be ready for that.
Followers of Jesus are often afraid of such examinations. They can be scary. We don’t know what to say sometimes when people ask us questions about our faith. We don’t know what to say, or we’re afraid of giving a stupid answer, or no answer at all and looking ignorant. We may not have answers sometimes, and that’s somewhat normal. We’re not perfect; we often fail at things, and actually, it kind of goes from there.
We don’t always do things that are right, we don’t always obey God’s law perfectly, and we don’t always treat people the way they should. Our intentions in life are sometimes pretty self-centered. We’re all sinful and broken people. But followers of Jesus are also people who want mercy and want to be forgiven of our sinfulness and our brokenness, and that is the hope that Peter is speaking of here in the reading.
Followers of Jesus have hope—sure hope—not just some sort of “I hope I go to heaven” or “I hope some good things happen.” We have a sure hope in life that comes from knowing our sins and our failures are forgiven, and that hope has been given to us through Jesus. As Peter goes on to say in the reading, that Christ suffered once for sins, that He might bring us to God. That’s the hope.
That’s the hope that we’re to be ready to give an answer for when people give us a faith examination, when people ask us about our beliefs. Here’s the answer to give: Jesus Christ died for sins but now is alive again, alive again by the Spirit, promising life after death. Jesus died and rose again to give us that—to give us that hope—not just a “I hope that it happens” but a sure hope that it has happened for us.
Justice and William, wake up. I haven’t been going that long; come on. No, Jesus did that for you. He brought you to that faith in baptism, and now in confirmation, you’re brought to that forgiveness of your sins by His death and resurrection. That’s why you’re here; that’s why any of us are here—because of that hope that Jesus has done for us.
And for you, your faith in that is being confirmed today. Be ready to defend that. Be ready to tell others that the reason for that hope that is in you and that you’re being confirmed in today—the hope of Jesus that you’re saying to all of these people here today—you’re saying to them, “Yes, I believe that. Yes, I have this hope in me.”
And that’s not just for them. It’s for all followers of Jesus to be ready to defend that. Justice and William, I’m sorry; confirmation is just not quite done. It will never be done. The examinations are not done. There’s probably more coming for you and for everyone. And those examinations may not be too pleasant. This is a world that is often opposed to and even hostile towards Christianity.
Peter even calls it suffering in the reading today—a suffering that’s probably worse than confirmation, I have to say, okay? Even worse than the examination. It’s a suffering of being slandered, being reviled, being called all kinds of things like hypocrite, hateful, intolerant, and a slew of adjectives that people will probably throw at you. And I know that can be hard.
For goodness sake, I do ministry at the University of Texas—the 40 acres, the bastion of blasphemy over there sometimes. That’s not always a safe place to be a Christian there—not the most welcoming place for Christians in this world. But what’s happening here in America is nothing. Nothing compared to what’s going on in some other countries in the world that are happening to followers of Jesus there. In Iran, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, China, North Korea—churches there are often burned, people arrested, tortured, and murdered.
It’s not so bad here in the United States. And when you hear about survivors—in these countries—of the persecution that they suffer, they’re ready for it. They welcome it. They’re ready because they’re filled with hope. They’re filled with this hope that Peter talks of—the hope of the suffering Christ in His death and His resurrection and the forgiveness and eternal life that that gives.
We hear their talk of courage and even peace in the face of persecution and even being able to share that hope with those who are persecuting them. It’s good to remember that this is what we’re to be ready to defend when people ask us about it. Even when they ask us in hostile ways, remember that it’s good news that we defend. It’s the good news of the hope of Christ that we want them to know too. It’s hope that we want to give them.
The people who give you that examination, who ask about your faith—even if it’s hostile—really, they need to hear that good news. So, let’s look at how we can be ready to make a defense. Okay, Peter says be ready to make a defense for your faith. How do we do that?
Number one, be ready by being built up in the hope that you have. What do I mean by that? I mean growing in your hope, hearing and reading God’s Word often, regularly receiving the Lord’s Supper, being in fellowship with other believers or maybe other defenders, I should say—being in fellowship with them.
William and Justice, don’t be done with the Bible or the small catechism right now, okay? Don’t be done with what you’ve been taught. Don’t be done with what you’re saying here today. Don’t be done with all of that, but be ready to defend it. You and everyone be ready—growing in faith by reading the Word, by receiving the Lord’s Supper, being in fellowship with others.
And number two, how do we make—how can we be ready to make this defense? Number two, be ready with gentleness and respect. Expect that people may examine your faith, ask you questions about your faith in a hostile way. Oftentimes they’re going to ask you because they oppose it and they want to hear your side of it, but they really are being hostile to you.
Be ready with gentleness and respect. Be confident in your faith, in what you believe. Be confident in that hope that you want them to hear—that you want to defend, that you want to share with them. You see, in that thinking, these examinations that people give us, they shouldn’t be feared but welcomed.
They’re not examinations where we’re really under the gun—where I’ve got to make a certain grade, or I’ve got to say this, or I’d better do that. No, these situations are more of an opportunity where you get to do something. You get to share with them the hope that is in you. You get to share with them that good news that Jesus Christ died and risen again for you, but also for them.
When you talk about those things, you can’t help but do it with gentleness and respect because it’s such good news we want them to hear. And when they examine you, this is your opportunity. You get to tell them that!
I don’t say these things today to scare you or to warn you but to encourage you—that you two guys, but also everybody—the examinations aren’t over. And that’s a good thing because we all have the opportunity to give an answer of our hope in Jesus Christ.
For you two guys, that’s the faith that Bethany and Mr. Newman have instructed you in. Your family has been bringing you into worship and into the education of our church for so many years, and today you’re expressing some strong intentions of that as you’re being confirmed in that faith.
When you’re up here, I’m going to be asking you several things, okay? Some pretty hard stuff in there, actually, about what I’m going to be asking you. And the final question I’ll be asking you—and those of you that have been confirmed, maybe you remember this, maybe you don’t; it’s been too long ago or that day was just kind of a blur (kind of was for me)—but I’m going to ask you this question, and it’s kind of strong. I’m going to be asking you this: Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and this church and to suffer all even death rather than fall away from it?
Maybe you don’t know that that’s what they express their intention in in that question in confirmation, but yeah—do you intend to remain in this faith even to death rather than give it up? Strong words, a strong intention—that’s the hope that we have.
See, today what’s happening for you two guys, it’s no little thing, and when you were confirmed it was no little thing. It was to help get you ready for the examinations that are coming later in life so that you can give an answer for the hope that you have in Christ, so that you could defend that hope in gentleness and respect to others, so that they too might know that hope of Jesus.
So may you guys and all of us continue in that faith and be ready this day and every day to defend the hope that we have in Christ and to be able to share it with others. Amen.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
