8-12-12 Confirmation - Are you building up or breaking down?

Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2

²⁵So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. ²⁶Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷and do not make room for the devil. ²⁸Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. ²⁹Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.³¹Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, ³²and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

5Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, ²and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

            Today marks a very special day.  Today, Ashley Orr affirms her baptism, and takes on the responsibility of the promises that her parents made for her at her baptism.  What promises?  The promises to live among God’s faithful people, to hear God’s word and share in his supper, to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of our Lord Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.  These are promises that are serious, for they are a promise to God and to our community.  But they are not promises that we make fully under our own power.

            For one, when we affirm our baptisms and make these promises, we say that we will, with the help of God.  God helps us to proclaim the good news of God and to serve all people, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.  It is the power of God within us that guides us and we are given that power because of God’s love for us.  Without it, we are but sinners, acting against the will of God at each turn with evil talk of bitterness, wrath, anger, and slander.   When we lose our focus on God in our lives, and we lose focus on the promises that we make, the covenant that we have with God, we begin to fall into that trap of Sin, which tells us to gossip and speak ill of one another and of those that don’t fit within our own little cliques.  This evil talk, which turns our brothers and sisters in Christ into objects of mockery or our enemies, has no place in our lives, as the writer to Ephesus tells us.  Instead we are called to speak in a way that builds one another up, to help heal wounds and to give grace to those who hear us.

            Being a Christian is not just about personal belief, which is why our promises at confirmation are not just “I promise to believe that Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior” or “I promise to believe whatever Pastor tells me.”  Instead, being a Christian, and the Christian faith, is all about community.  It is about how we treat one another, how we treat those that are poor and oppressed, how we treat oppressors, and how we treat our enemies.  And in all of these circumstances, and in all of these, groups, we are called to act with love and compassion, instead of with hate and slander. 

            And it can be hard to act with love.  After all, who doesn’t want the new, juicy piece of gossip?  I was amazed at how many people cared that Kristen Stewart cheated on Robert Pattinson.  Maybe it was because it crushed the imaginary world of those who think Twilight is real, or maybe its because we love to see famous people fail, reveling in other people’s pain.  But seriously, it was all over every website I went to.  Kristen’s apology, did they separate, whose car is in the parking lot, who cares?  Nothing about the whole situation, especially the public’s call for more details, was acting in Christian love that builds up instead of tears down.  And if it isn’t them, it’s the break up with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, or who didn’t pass a drug test, or the neighbor’s dog is too loud, or did you hear that so-in-so told so-in-so that what’s his name did blankety-blank with what’s-her-face.  And one doesn’t need to watch movies like Saved and Easy A and so many others to know the dangers of gossip and ill will.  Yet we fall prey to gossip and clique forming, because it helps us cope with the world, to talk about other people’s problems and to think of ourselves as better than someone else.

            But that is why we live in community as Christians, to combat against those forces of evil that work within us, to remind each other that those are destructive ways of living.  We live in a community that acts in love, helping one another to live more Christian lives, lives that are filled with compassion and grace.  As a community we help one another to rejoice in the Holy Spirit, which is God Himself present within every single one of us, instead of grieving that Spirit and mourning how God changes our lives. We are able to rejoice as a community of faith, and to share the wonderful experience of God in our lives.

            How we act as community helps to form the lives of one another as Christians.  How we act towards one another, how we show God’s love, helps to form the lives of each person here, whether they be a child or a youth or an adult.  Each person here touches the lives of each other person in this room.  It may be through kind words and hope and graciousness, leading to a closer relationship to God through being a part of the community.  Or it could be through indifference in hypocrisy, which can lead people to wonder “what is the point of being a Christian if its no different from the rest of the world.” 

            So when Ashley makes her promises to God and to us, let them remind you of your promises as well.  Are you living among God’s faithful people?  Are you hearing God’s word and sharing in his supper?  Are you proclaiming the good news of God in Christ through word and deed?  Are you serving all people, following the example of our Lord Jesus?  And are you Striving for justice and peace in all the earth?  If we are honest with ourselves, then we will probably see that we are not fully living out these promises.  However we can do better, and we can do this because we have one another.  We have one another to be the light of God, that shows us the glory of God and the joy of living by His will.  We have each other, this great blessing, to help us see God’s love in our lives, in the times that we give each other a shoulder to cry on, an arm to hold onto, and a greeting of peace.  And we have our Lord and God, present with us in worship when we eat the bread and the wine, and He fills our very bodies with himself, out of a desire to be with us and to help us to see His compassion for us.

            So let us rejoice!  Let us rejoice with Ashley as she affirms her Baptism, as she takes upon herself the promises of her baptism and becomes a full member of our community.  Let us rejoice in the gift that we have of each other, who help one another to live out the good news of God.  And let us rejoice that God is with us, every single day through our baptisms and communion.

Amen.