Strong With the Light Side

Third Sunday of Easter and Confirmation Day

It’s May 4th. May the Fourth. In the worldwide Star Wars fan community, today is Star Wars Day, because of the play on words: ”May the Fourth, May the Force be with you.” In the Church, it’s the Third Sunday of Easter. In Grace Lutheran it’s Confirmation Day. And if you think I can’t fit all those things together AND the three readings for today in one sermon, well, hang on to your lightsabers. Listen as I talk about the New Hope we are given in Jesus’ resurrection, the Phantom Menace of the Empire of evil which Strikes Back against the followers of the Light, and the Force which Awakens in these young men--and all of us--the commitment to follow Christ.

This is the Way—quite literally, as you heard in the first lesson from Acts. “The Way” was what the first Christians called the path of Jesus Christ, and when these two were baptized, their feet were set on that same Way. Today, they become knights—not of the Jedi or of the Old Republic—but of the Way of the Living Force, which is the Holy Spirit of God.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem in the year 350 preached a series of sermons after Easter, and in one of them he said that Confirmation makes us “soldiers of Christ, fully capable members of the Church Militant” here on earth. Today isn’t graduation from church or a box to check off on the way to adulthood. Today, Bradyn and Paxton, is the beginning of your adult life of faith. Confirmation is God’s call to arms, to take up the whole armor of God and the sword of the Spirit, to relentlessly wage peace and bring truth to a broken world consumed by conflict and lies.

Every day, the world cries out to God for deliverance, for salvation, for heroism. And in answer to those prayers, God has chosen to send... you.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

Because honestly? You don’t look like much, though I say that in all love and you know how proud I am of you padawans.

Your parents and siblings are proud of you, too, but I’m guessing they are sitting here wondering why I am talking about spiritual knighthood and greatness, when they struggled to get you out of bed this morning and to actually pick up stuff in your room like your dad told you.

Except… as old Ben Kenobi says to Luke Skywalker, “Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them.” God is always working in the world in ways that don’t look like much: a bit of water on a baby; a bite of bread and a sip of wine. A tortured man writhing on a cross. A charcoal fire and breakfast on a beach to forgive a betrayer. Saul the persecutor, who we know as Paul the Preacher. Fishermen and farm boys who0 spread across the known world and the galaxy preaching the Way.

And this is where the fun begins: you are part of this. Heralds of a greater Lord, ambassadors of Christ, soldiers who establish little outposts of the coming Kingdom in the most ordinary of ways, whether in a classroom, on a football field, in your living room cleaning up like your mom asked you to. And later in your life: a wife, some kids, a job.

You think I’m talking about grand adventures as the world defines them? Hmpf. Excitement? Heh. Adventure? Heh.  A Jedi craves not these things, and neither does a Christian. Instead, it’s a daily, ordinary life lived by an ordinary person in the power of God. But it’s not easy. Just look around you—you can see the works of the Dark Side everywhere these days, as fear leads to anger and anger leads to hate and hate leads to suffering. Satan loves these things and uses them to attack Christ and his Church and you.

Jesus tells Peter in the Gospel lesson that he will die a martyr’s death. Paul, blinded to the truth of the Way, has his eyes opened and proclaims that “Jesus is the Son of God”  until he is arrested and executed. Every single one of the 12 disciples died in blood or exile for the Truth of Jesus. Today more than 100 million Christians live under active persecution-- imprisoned, crucified, beheaded simply for keeping the commandments of God, for proclaiming to the world that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, for daring to “feed my lambs, tend my sheep.”

These are your brothers and sisters in Christ, dying for the exact same faith that we preach and teach and live right here, the same faith that you just spent two years studying and today stand up here and confess before God and Satan, angels and demons.

But look—in this country, no one is going to execute you for worshipping Jesus any time soon. It’s worse than that; your spiritual danger is far more subtle. Because you live in a culture fixated on narcotic distractions--a disease that thrives in the darkness, never more alive than when we sleep. Every day, in ways both subtle and obvious, you are told that you are masters of your own destinies, that only you can say what is good. That there is no external Truth. That people are reduced to their race or their gender or their earning potential. That children, the elderly, the disabled don’t matter much. That your feelings are the most important thing ever.

You are told to buy the latest device, want more, consume the latest media, believe only what your eyes can see, seek pleasure and personal happiness above all--and whatever you do don’t stop for even the slightest moment to question what, objectively, matters most in life according to God, who probably doesn’t exist and if he does, he just wants you to be happy and not mean.

Lies! Deception! Every day more lies!  

God calls you to show the world a better way. God calls you to live lives that reflect the goodness, truth, and beauty poured out for the world in Jesus Christ. God calls you to fight against sin, starting with your own. To love people over things, to value what is right over what is easy; to be brave enough to be holy in a world that is profane and perverted and needs holiness desperately, even as it mocks it.

And you can do it. I know you can. Not just because you’re good kids—good young men, really. But because you have been bought with a price, by water and blood. Your ally is the Holy Spirit, and a powerful ally it is. You literally have the high ground because Christ is with you. The world offers you comfort, but you were not made for comfort: you were made for greatness. And that is why I plan to slap you.

What?

Well, there’s an old tradition in the Church that after receiving the laying on of hands at Confirmation, the bishop would say to the newly confirmed Christian, “Peace be with you”—and immediately slap him in the face. Why? It was an admonition to be brave. To be strong. To say that this is real. You will face real pain and real battles. This is the Way.

Don’t worry, I won’t slap you hard. But I want you to remember that throughout life there will be times of doubt, of loneliness, of confusion, of loss. Times when you feel abandoned or alone. Times when your sin overwhelms you. Times when you think you were made to suffer, and it’s your whole lot in life.

It is then that Christ draws closest to you, in the unbreakable promises he has made to you in Baptism. Promises which are confirmed today. At those times, it will take all your bravery to simply hold on to Christ, your anchor in the storm.

Do not be frightened when the world seems stronger than your trust in Jesus. Do not be led astray by those who bear the name Christian, but do not teach or live in accordance with Scripture. Do not blame God because some of his followers are hypocritical. Do not hate God because he does not give you what you want, or act how you think he should.

Instead, love the Lord and keep his Word. Do not be afraid to give your life to the glorious truth that you don’t have to carry a sword to be powerful, that the God-man on the cross died and rose for the forgiveness of sin. This is the truth that Christians are persecuted for around the world. The truth that your Christian brothers and sisters are willing to die for, rather than deny Christ. That's what today is about: Christ holding on to you, and you holding on to him, even to death.

There no fear, even in death. Luminous beings are we: joined to the angels and the living creatures and elders--myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands--around the throne of the Lamb, singing with full voice forever.

So hold fast to the confession you make today, Bradyn and Paxton—and all of you hearing me! Keep the Word of the Lord not because it's part of some hokey religion thing you did in 9th grade, but because you are sons and daughters of the King. You are warriors for the Light, fighters for what is true and beautiful and good in a world that glorifies what is ugly and fake, immoral and foul. You follow the King. You fight against the devil, against the forces of evil, against the devil’s lies and empty promises. You belong to God, and so you will conquer. Not through your own intelligence or charm, through your own strength or love—but through the cross of Christ, emblazoned on your foreheads, the banner that is over you. It's up to you, now--and remember, the Force will be with you, always. Amen.