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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you, from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
That hymn we just sang, eighth graders, that was for you. It was a prayer over you. But not just you. It’s also a prayer for your brothers and sisters. It was a prayer for your moms and dads. It was a prayer for your cousins and aunts and uncles. It really was a prayer for all of us. Because what was said in that hymn applies to all of us as baptized believers in Christ. Whether we were baptized as an infant or whether we were baptized as an adult, this is a prayer for you.
Listen again. Deliver them from every wile, from all that would their hearts beguile, from worldly ways and Satan’s lies. That they may not your word despise. Lord, keep them firm in their intent. To you, your word, and your sacrament. Make them bold, their faith to share. And make them strong, each cross to bear.
Which of you parents have not prayed for your children? None. All of us have prayed for the babies that God has blessed us. It is a great gift and an awesome gift in the right sense of the term. Surely you had to sit back as you held your infant in your arms and said, “What has God placed in my arms to be responsible for?” Oh my goodness. Yes, that. And it’s an amazing thing indeed to have that responsibility placed in our arms. And we as parents pray over them.
Not just we as parents. The church. The church has been praying over them. Just as the church has been praying over you. Whether you grew up in a Christian home or whether you did not grow up in a Christian home, the church has been praying for you. Every time we pray the Our Father or the Lord’s Prayer, every time any Christian anywhere prays that, they are praying for the church. You have been prayed for.
But even more important and more profound, in our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus prayed this prayer that John records in our Gospel reading in the Garden of Gethsemane before he was betrayed into the hands of sinners to be crucified and rise again. But he didn’t just pray it once then, 2,000 years ago, and that’s it. Your Lord Jesus, without rest and without ceasing, prays for you. And he prays this prayer, “Keep them in thy name,” just as he prayed for the apostles.
Now granted, after the apostles reflected upon this as they grew old and as they themselves faced death and martyrdom, they grew in appreciation for what they had no deserving to have God pray for them in Jesus Christ. You as confirmands, as you grow up, you will be awed at the fact that your parents prayed for you, over you, and for you, time and time again. And the tie that you have with them doesn’t end long after you leave the house. You grandparents and great-grandparents already know that. That emotional bond and that spiritual connection will never end. And I mean that. Never.
Because you will be dwelling with these, your loved ones, for eternity in heaven. The great gift that God has given to them is the faith that you share with them. This is that which Christ prays for in the garden and continually prays for you. He wants you in that name—the name that you bear from your baptism. Again, whether you were baptized as an infant or as an adult, you bear that name. You are God’s child. He is your Father. And because you bear that name, you will dwell with Him forever.
And your parents, no matter how much frustration there may be at times, and all in the body of Christ forever. Just as loved ones that you have seen—great-grandparents or grandparents or loved ones who have died in the faith—you will see them again. You will dwell forever with them because you bear that name that Christ has kept you in. And the church has been praying for you.
Whether you and I can reflect upon that and grasp it or not, it is truth. Every time you hear, “I forgive you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” your forgiveness is wrapped up in that name that you bear again. You remember the story of the prodigal son. When the father received the son back, he didn’t have to go through a birthing process again. Mothers around the world say, “Thank you, Lord.” He did not have to go through all the wild two-year-old and three-year-old era and the teenagers and so on.
Because you bear the name of the one who bore you—Christ, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Every time we gather here and hear our sins forgiven, in the name of the God whom you bear, it is a reminder that you are in his name and that you’re not alone. Christians around the world bear that same name and hear that same forgiveness every Sunday.
Whether it is in English or in another language, when you gather together here this morning and you partake of the Holy Supper that God has laid before you, it’s a lot like what happens at home. In your home, the family gathers around the supper table. At home, when the family gathers around the supper table, they’re saying to one another, “We are one family.”
When you gather around this supper table, you not only are saying we are one family, everyone in here, in this house of ours—God’s house—but we’re saying it with all those Christians around the world, and we’re saying it with those who have died in the faith, who are with us even now, because God’s family is never apart. Time in our minds may separate us, space separate, distance may separate us from our perspective, but not from God’s proclamation, for His body is one.
It was nine years ago for my son and 11 years ago for my daughter that I looked at them in the same pew as you’re in. It goes fast. But one of the things that I can’t do anything about and I am impotent to change is God’s decree that of sending them and you out into the world. Just as we have been sent by God’s decree out into the world. As lights in this world of darkness.
Jesus talks about that in the text. He sends us out into the world, but he does not ever desire us to be of the world. And that means there’s a struggle. As parents and grandparents and great-grandparents, we know and live that struggle every day of our life, don’t we? And seeing our children go out and face that same struggle, we are impotent to do anything about it because they’re out of our hands. We don’t control their life. For that matter, we really don’t control them at all. It’s God’s grace, isn’t it?
But the great gift that we give them is what you have given them, and we as a church family have given them, and that is we pray for them as we’ve been prayed for. “Keep them in thy name.” Christ prayed that prayer and continues to pray that prayer for every single one of us. And gives us the same words that we pray. In sending us, in sending you out into the world, but not being a part of the world, we share the same struggle.
All of us here and with Christians around the world share the struggle of living in the world but not being a part of the world. And that’s why we gather here around the supper table to hear again this sermon. The name that we bear being proclaimed over us. To feast upon the name that’s been given among all names as first and foremost Jesus. To gather around him who feeds us and gives us himself—himself in flesh and blood and body, blood, and bread and wine.
But there’s also joy in sending them out. Ask your mom and dad about stories of how they were brought to the church. Some of them were brought to the church because their parents took them to church. Now, before any of you think that simply because mom and dad brought the kids to church, that’s a done deal, that’s the best of error. I can tell you many parents who grieve over the fact that their kids were brought to church and don’t attend.
It’s all by grace, brothers and sisters. It is all by grace. For the stories of those who did not grow up in a Christian home, and God brought you into a church another way, there’s joy there as much. For God is the one who has brought you into his holy place.
Stories of people who had nothing to do with the church and because of a girl or a boy they met were brought into the church. Stories of how a young girl or a young boy, because they were friends and buddies with a member of the church, came to confirmation class with those kids and was confirmed, even though their family has nothing to do with the church. And I’m not talking young people. I know of a very old and elderly woman who was brought into the church that way.
Stories of how God uses people in the church that have been sent out into the world, that struggle living in the world and not being a part of the world, the great joy of being used by God. And before you think, “Well, the Lord can’t use me,” do you really think that highly of yourself to think that God can’t use you? Because it’s a form of pride to think that you can’t be used by God. God can and has, in spite of you. Amen. Because he’s the one at work in you and through you and not you.
He’s the one who has done these great things, and he has used you in their lives. If you were not at Bible class, these young people told the gathering of the congregation there that the congregation was a part of their faith. You can tell me stories of people who said hi to you, who said “How are you doing,” who checked on you when they came back from school, and had an influence in their faith.
This is the joy of being knit into something bigger than we, which is why Jesus said and prayed that they may be one, even as I am one with the Father. All of y’all know that, the pain of a splintered family. Because no family is without some form of splintering. Even though there may be splinters in earthly families, there is no splinter in God’s family. Ever.
That’s the beauty of being knit into one body in Christ. No matter what sin has been foisted upon us or that we have done to others, because of Christ’s forgiveness and because of sharing and gathering around the name of Christ and feasting upon the name above all names given to us, there is no splintering in God’s family. We have been joined together as one body. Neither death nor life separates us from one another. Neither space nor distance separates us from one another.
This is God’s gift to these young people as it has been to you, older people. Whether you were confirmed as a 13 or 14 year old or as older than that, God knits us together into this one body to grow old with, to become feeble among, to be served by, and in the meantime, to serve and to forgive one another.
There is joy in this, brothers and sisters, there is joy. This prayer has been prayed over you young people and we as adults by our Lord Jesus. It has been prayed over us as pastors and over you, our beloved flock. For that we are thankful. Left to our faithlessness, none of this would be done. But because of Christ’s faithfulness, God is glorified and praised. This is our prayer.
Keep them in your hearts. Keep us in thy name to life everlasting. Do it to us, Lord, and continue to do so. Amen. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
