Confirmation Sunday - August 9th, 2026

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to be a disciple of Christ. The twelve disciples followed Jesus around for around three years, and they saw a lot of things. They saw him multiply bread for thousands. They saw him touch people who had leprosy—something, I’m sure, that shocked them until that touch healed the man! They saw him calm the storm. Probably the most surprising was when went into the temple and drove out those who were trading, changing money unfairly so people could buy the sacrificial animals with approved temple coins. The same man who said, “as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them” (Luke 6:31) also recognized that there was a time for holy anger, when God’s temple was being used for wrong purposes. Jesus says, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers” (Luke 19:46).

Yes, the disciples saw a lot, but they also heard a lot. They heard teaching that was simple yet profound. They heard Jesus pray. They heard Jesus tell parables. They would later be told to go tell others what they heard and saw, and to make other disciples.

The truth is, none of these twelve men chose Jesus. Jesus invited each one to follow Him. They did not “make a decision for Jesus,” as some churches might teach nowadays. The call—the invitation—was there first. Jesus called Peter while he was casting nets into the sea. He used Philip to call Nathanael to follow him as a disciple.

These men were nothing special. In fact, most of them probably couldn’t write. Some of them had very strong personalities. We know that Peter often spoke his mind quickly and boldly. There was a disciple named “Simon the Zealot”—known for his zeal to follow God and His law. Jesus did not call a particular type of person to follow him. He wasn’t looking for those who were rich, smart, young, suave, or any of that. He chose fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot, and also someone to be the treasurer for his group, Judas Iscariot.

Yes, it is significant that Jesus chose someone whom He knew would betray Him. The call to follow Jesus went out to someone who would turn out to be a bad apple. Yet the call went out. Judas no doubt believed for a time, followed Jesus for his whole ministry, and saw and heard everything that everyone else did. Judas is a warning to us: we can fall away. Not everyone who has received the call to faith has remained in the faith. Not all who have been baptized in these waters still believes. Not all who have been confirmed will continue in the faith. That is not the fault of God. It is a result of our sinful nature, that some follow it to their own destruction.

Nonetheless, it should be remarkable to us that God continues to send out His call, His invitation, to faith—even though He knows that not all who believe at one point in their life will continue to believe for their whole life long. It is a sign of God’s mercy that Judas believed for a time, even though his greed and treachery eventually pushed out faith. It is a sign of God’s mercy for each of us that we believe, that we are His disciples, that He continually calls us all back to faith, back to believing. He also calls us to make new disciples.

God continues His work even now. Jesus continues to call disciples. It does not happen as directly as it did when Jesus said, “Come, follow Me.” But Jesus gives His direction to the church to continue making disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt 28:19–20). Jesus bids his old disciples, the eleven that were left, to make new disciples. For us, this happens in two ways.

First, they must be baptized. Baptism is a washing away of sin. It is a new birth, a second birth from above. Therefore, it is a new identity that is given to us. We have received our bodies from our parents, and therefore they give us our names. We receive a new spiritual life through the waters of Holy Baptism, and so we receive the Name of Christ both upon our foreheads and upon our hearts, to mark us as one redeemed by Christ the Crucified. But just as a baby must be fed and nourished after it is born, so too much the children of God.

That’s why disciples are made by baptizing and by “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (20). This teaching begins in the home, as parents tell their babies and toddlers that Jesus loves them. This teaching continues in the home but also in Sunday School, as the children learn Bible stories and important lessons. This continues to Catechism class, where they learn basic doctrine of Scripture, putting Bible verses together into a simple but logical way of understanding God’s work among us. For us in the Lutheran Church, this culminates in Confirmation, a day where the children can confess what they believe and what they have been taught. It is a day that we are happy about. These youth have taken two summers of classes with me, and I am thankful for the discussions I have had with them.

But this is not the end of the road of faith, the end of learning. Confirmation does not mean that you know everything, that you’re at the end of your learning. Confirmation is not a graduation, where you say good-bye to your teachers and only come back once in a while to roam those halls and greet your old teachers again. Confirmation is a recognition that you are ready to agree to the promises that were made in your behalf in your baptism, that you are ready to receive the Lord’s Supper, and that you desire to keep coming to church with the rest of us.

The truth is, God wants to continue working in your life, just as He is continually working in the lives of all those around you. His lessons will not be easy, in fact, they may be difficult to experience at times. You will be tempted to fall away. You will encounter suffering in this world. Being a Christian does not mean that your life will be easy. But God has put us in a church for every moment of life, that we would encourage one another, share each other’s burdens, and mourn with those who mourn, and rejoice with those who are rejoicing. Today is a day of rejoicing. We are glad for you ten youth who are repeating the words of your baptisms. You join countless others who have said those similar words, and I have no doubt that your picture will find its place in the frames in the back.

But there is something more enduring that we hope and pray will happen. That is that your name would not only be found on a confirmation display in a church or written down in church records, but that your name would be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. We pray—I pray—that you will be in Heaven with us one day. Do not take your faith for granted, but be steadfast in it. Come to church. Read your Bible, especially the Gospels and Psalms and Proverbs. Grow in faith. A plant grows by sending its roots downward into the soil and upward to the sun. A Christian grows by planting roots into God’s Word and upwards into a life of good works and service for the neighbor.

Finally, St. Paul says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9). You are going to make a confession with your mouth. Do not let this be a one-off confession, but make it every day. Confess what it in your heart, which is faith that God raised Jesus from the dead, and He will raise you from the dead one day. Remember always that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). Faith does not come from our own strength or reason, but it comes when God calls out to us. That word will do its job of creating faith, so continue to hear it. Be a disciple of Christ—you have been baptized, but teaching will never stop. Here is the promise of Jesus: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20). Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us. He who died on the cross and rose again will never die again. He remains with you until the end of the age, when He will come again.

Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.