WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:06.440 Well, again, good morning to all of you, especially those who are joining for the first time. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:12.519 We have been preaching through the lectionary up until this point this year. 00:00:12.599 --> 00:00:17.920 We're going to take a break from the lectionary this year to talk about something called confirmation. 00:00:18.900 --> 00:00:23.120 And the reason we're doing that is because in May of this year on the weekend of Pentecost, 00:00:23.160 --> 00:00:25.240 we're going to have a confirmation service. 00:00:25.239 --> 00:00:29.859 And I want to strongly encourage those of you who have not yet been confirmed. 00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:34.219 If you're here, you're a Christian, you've been baptized, but you've never been confirmed. 00:00:34.820 --> 00:00:38.420 I want to strongly encourage you to consider doing so. 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:42.899 And the reason that we're talking about it now in January, if it's not until May, 00:00:42.959 --> 00:00:48.519 is because one of the things that you need to do in order to be confirmed is to go through our confirmation class, 00:00:48.539 --> 00:00:49.719 which is called Foundations. 00:00:49.859 --> 00:00:51.899 That happens to start this coming week. 00:00:51.899 --> 00:00:58.219 And so if anybody is moved after this service to want to do confirmation, 00:00:58.460 --> 00:01:02.079 then you still have time to join the class, and it would be really cool to see you in it. 00:01:02.140 --> 00:01:02.820 It's a lot of fun. 00:01:03.579 --> 00:01:07.819 Now, I know that some of you have already been confirmed, and so you're thinking, 00:01:07.959 --> 00:01:09.319 well, this is not going to be relevant to me. 00:01:09.379 --> 00:01:10.159 I've already done this. 00:01:10.180 --> 00:01:12.620 And some of you don't really know what I'm talking about. 00:01:12.700 --> 00:01:13.799 You're pretty sure you're not interested. 00:01:13.959 --> 00:01:19.299 Some are not Christians, and you're thinking, wow, this could not be more irrelevant to my life. 00:01:19.299 --> 00:01:26.359 I hope to persuade you that this is, in fact, highly relevant no matter where you're coming from, 00:01:26.479 --> 00:01:32.979 because as we talk about confirmation, it's going to give us a chance to clear up some of the most popular misconceptions 00:01:32.979 --> 00:01:38.700 about not only confirmation but also Christianity in general. 00:01:38.700 --> 00:01:46.920 A lot of churches treat confirmation like a kind of graduation ceremony or a coming-of-age ceremony 00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:50.460 where kids at a certain age all go through confirmation. 00:01:51.400 --> 00:01:56.719 And for a lot of kids, that marks really the end of their formal involvement at church. 00:01:56.840 --> 00:01:59.040 Their parents say, I just want you to be confirmed. 00:01:59.719 --> 00:02:05.320 And then they go up, and they get confirmed, and then they're sort of finally released into the wild post-confirmation. 00:02:05.319 --> 00:02:12.979 And so that really isn't a faithful representation of the role that confirmation is meant to play in the Christian life. 00:02:13.319 --> 00:02:16.539 And so what we're going to see is that confirmation is about a lot more than that. 00:02:16.599 --> 00:02:22.819 It's also, as we think about the way popularly, the popular misconceptions around Christianity, 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:25.539 we're going to see that Christianity is not just fire insurance. 00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:28.340 It's not just a way of getting right with God. 00:02:28.340 --> 00:02:35.080 It's not just a way to give us ourselves or our kids a list of do's and don'ts that will help out in life. 00:02:35.379 --> 00:02:39.500 It's actually an invitation to become a fully formed human being. 00:02:40.159 --> 00:02:43.500 And one of the things that we believe as Christians is that the gospel is the means, 00:02:43.599 --> 00:02:48.840 the only means through which we are able to become fully formed human beings. 00:02:48.939 --> 00:02:53.240 And so understanding confirmation helps us understand and unpack what that means. 00:02:53.240 --> 00:02:55.400 So we're going to see this morning three things. 00:02:55.520 --> 00:02:58.939 We're going to look at 1 Peter 2, verses 1 through 10. 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:04.240 And we're going to see that confirmation is really about three core things that are all very important. 00:03:04.760 --> 00:03:05.980 It's about our maturity. 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:09.900 It's about membership in something bigger than ourselves. 00:03:10.600 --> 00:03:17.260 And it's about mission and the way God's mission applies to each one of us in our vocations. 00:03:17.900 --> 00:03:19.620 So maturity, membership, and mission. 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:20.180 Let's pray. 00:03:20.180 --> 00:03:25.340 Lord, we thank you for your word and we thank you for your ongoing work. 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:34.819 Lord, I think about our Sunday school class this morning and this idea that the gospel is continually bearing fruit in our lives and in the world. 00:03:35.780 --> 00:03:43.060 Lord, and so that's what we're here to focus on this morning is the way the gospel can bear fruit in our lives. 00:03:43.140 --> 00:03:46.140 I pray as we look at this passage that we would hear your voice. 00:03:46.139 --> 00:03:58.199 I pray that you would bring us growth and grace, love, encouragement, Lord, or even if we need it, challenge and conviction. 00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:01.299 Lord, I pray that you would do your work in us as you promised to do. 00:04:01.679 --> 00:04:03.560 In your son's name we ask these things. 00:04:03.799 --> 00:04:04.019 Amen. 00:04:04.020 --> 00:04:15.280 So first of all, as we look at 1 Peter 2, 1 through 10, we see that confirmation is really focused on our maturation as Christians. 00:04:16.180 --> 00:04:20.360 Before we dive in too far, though, we need to do a little bit of a history lesson, so bear with me. 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:25.920 In the early days of the church, baptism and confirmation would happen together at the same time. 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:32.500 Christian converts would be baptized by deacons or priests, and then they would be confirmed by the bishop. 00:04:32.640 --> 00:04:41.080 The bishop would make the sign of the cross on their forehead or lay hands on them and confirm the genuineness of their faith 00:04:41.080 --> 00:04:46.020 and then pray for an increase of the Holy Spirit in their lives. 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:47.960 Now, that was in the earliest days. 00:04:47.959 --> 00:04:54.579 Now, as Christianity grew and spread, we had more and more families being converted and baptized, 00:04:55.079 --> 00:05:02.019 and moms and dads would be baptized, and then the kids would be baptized, and more and more churches were started. 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:10.219 And so bishops had to oversee more and more churches as the church grew, and it grew very explosively in the first few centuries. 00:05:10.579 --> 00:05:14.859 It's actually a great mystery to sociologists and historians. 00:05:14.860 --> 00:05:22.259 People like Rodney Stark have spent a great amount of effort and time trying to understand how the church could have grown so rapidly. 00:05:23.939 --> 00:05:27.180 But as the church grew, bishops had to oversee a lot of churches. 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:32.379 So in the Western church, baptism and confirmation became two separate rites. 00:05:33.280 --> 00:05:38.639 Adult converts would be instructed in the faith, and then they would be baptized, 00:05:39.080 --> 00:05:42.540 and then infants born to Christian parents would also be baptized. 00:05:42.540 --> 00:05:47.939 That was normative and universally practiced really up until through the Reformation, 00:05:48.580 --> 00:05:54.160 until some of the Reformers that we call Anabaptists began to question that practice. 00:05:54.240 --> 00:05:56.340 But up until then, it was pretty much universally practiced. 00:05:56.920 --> 00:06:01.060 And so once those kids grew older and they began to show evidence of mature faith, 00:06:01.300 --> 00:06:03.800 they would also be instructed in the faith. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:10.200 And then the bishop would visit, and then the bishop would confirm everyone who needed it. 00:06:10.199 --> 00:06:19.139 So both adult converts who had been baptized and infants who had been baptized and then grown up and evidenced mature faith. 00:06:19.180 --> 00:06:23.899 All of those people would be confirmed by the bishop when the bishop visited. 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:28.919 And so what we see kind of as this practice begins to spread, 00:06:29.419 --> 00:06:31.939 if baptism marks the birth of a Christian, 00:06:31.939 --> 00:06:39.860 then confirmation is focused on the maturity of a Christian as that person grows in their faith, 00:06:40.199 --> 00:06:43.379 which really is the question that we want to focus on. 00:06:44.139 --> 00:06:50.300 We grew up, most of us, in a culture where in the kind of evangelical world, 00:06:50.420 --> 00:06:55.459 there was such an emphasis placed on getting saved, getting Jesus into our hearts, 00:06:55.560 --> 00:06:58.600 that a lot of Christians on the other end of that look around and they wonder, 00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:00.420 well, what am I supposed to do now? 00:07:01.240 --> 00:07:05.040 And I've gotten saved, I'm right with God, so now what? 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:07.340 Why is maturity so important? 00:07:07.800 --> 00:07:11.340 And that's exactly what Peter's talking about in this passage. 00:07:11.460 --> 00:07:13.040 He's writing this letter to Christians, 00:07:13.780 --> 00:07:16.700 and they're spread throughout the known world. 00:07:17.420 --> 00:07:21.200 And in chapter 1, he lays out the gospel, 00:07:21.340 --> 00:07:25.720 the fact that they've been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus, 00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:27.880 by believing in the gospel. 00:07:28.400 --> 00:07:31.020 And as a result of that, they have the Holy Spirit, right? 00:07:31.080 --> 00:07:33.880 That's what, when you come to faith, you receive the Holy Spirit. 00:07:34.520 --> 00:07:36.200 So then in chapter 2, he says, 00:07:36.620 --> 00:07:42.880 therefore, you know, in light of all of that, since you've been born again, 00:07:44.020 --> 00:07:48.720 put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:54.100 Like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk, 00:07:54.220 --> 00:07:56.720 that by it you may grow up into salvation, 00:07:56.960 --> 00:08:00.240 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 00:08:01.740 --> 00:08:05.580 So he's saying, if you have truly been born again, 00:08:05.660 --> 00:08:06.840 if your faith is genuine, 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:10.600 then you should desire to grow in maturity, 00:08:10.780 --> 00:08:15.260 like an infant longs for milk so that that infant can grow and develop. 00:08:15.259 --> 00:08:18.579 You should long for the pure spiritual milk, 00:08:19.240 --> 00:08:21.159 knowledge of God and His Word. 00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:24.000 You should long for a rich life of prayer. 00:08:24.180 --> 00:08:26.599 You should long for the fellowship of the saints. 00:08:26.740 --> 00:08:30.680 You should long to grow in your ability to love and serve others. 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:33.039 In all of those ways, you should seek to grow. 00:08:33.980 --> 00:08:37.259 So the implication here is that the Christian life isn't just about getting saved. 00:08:38.120 --> 00:08:40.620 It's about transformation and renewal. 00:08:40.620 --> 00:08:44.259 The phrase here is growing into our salvation. 00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:49.919 Then Peter shifts to an architectural metaphor. 00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:56.519 He says, becoming a Christian means Jesus becomes the new cornerstone of your life. 00:08:57.279 --> 00:08:58.320 He becomes the new cornerstone. 00:08:58.399 --> 00:09:04.000 Now, most of us have probably not built a house with our bare hands out of rough-hewn stones. 00:09:04.360 --> 00:09:06.600 Maybe actually, knowing some of you, maybe you have. 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:11.120 But I certainly have not, and so I had to look this up. 00:09:11.340 --> 00:09:16.500 But when you're building a house out of stones, or maybe a temple in this case, 00:09:16.779 --> 00:09:19.720 the cornerstone is the first stone that you lay down. 00:09:19.800 --> 00:09:24.639 It's incredibly important because the cornerstone is what determines the entire shape, 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:28.860 the entire orientation of the rest of the house. 00:09:28.860 --> 00:09:35.620 However you lay that stone down is going to determine everything about that structure 00:09:35.620 --> 00:09:40.940 because all of the other stones are set in reference to the cornerstone. 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:44.600 They all have to align properly, right? 00:09:44.659 --> 00:09:49.360 And so all of the floors, all of the walls, all of the ceilings, 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:51.180 no matter how large that structure is, 00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:55.820 it all has to align with and be built out from that cornerstone. 00:09:55.820 --> 00:10:00.760 So if you were to put a new cornerstone in, 00:10:00.980 --> 00:10:05.160 that really means that you have to build an entirely new house. 00:10:05.940 --> 00:10:09.680 In the same way, when Jesus becomes our cornerstone, 00:10:10.440 --> 00:10:16.480 our entire life needs to be rebuilt to align with that new cornerstone. 00:10:17.800 --> 00:10:19.340 So you say, well, what do you mean by that? 00:10:19.420 --> 00:10:20.540 Well, I mean everything. 00:10:20.539 --> 00:10:28.500 I mean our character, our relationships, how we handle conflict, right? 00:10:28.500 --> 00:10:36.799 How we think about our enemies, our priorities, our politics, our finances, our vocation. 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:42.379 Everything has to be rebuilt to align with that new cornerstone. 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:47.419 Our entire life, our very identity needs to be rebuilt to align with Jesus. 00:10:47.419 --> 00:10:54.219 What happens if you try to put a new cornerstone under an old house? 00:10:55.139 --> 00:10:58.279 If you say, well, I don't have the time or money to rebuild the whole thing, 00:10:58.339 --> 00:10:59.659 but we really need a new cornerstone. 00:10:59.799 --> 00:11:04.259 The foundation's all busted up, so I'm just going to wedge a new cornerstone in here 00:11:04.259 --> 00:11:07.120 and connect it all up, and it should be good. 00:11:07.219 --> 00:11:12.860 Well, if you try to do that, you're going to have major structural issues, right? 00:11:12.860 --> 00:11:17.500 The floors and the walls and the ceilings are not going to line up with the new cornerstone. 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:21.060 So you may not notice anything right away, but eventually what's going to happen? 00:11:22.680 --> 00:11:24.139 You're going to start to see cracks. 00:11:24.940 --> 00:11:28.060 You're going to start to see joints coming apart. 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:32.840 The whole structure is going to be fundamentally unstable, 00:11:32.840 --> 00:11:39.800 and eventually it's all going to collapse because it's not held together and aligned with the cornerstone. 00:11:39.799 --> 00:11:44.319 And that's really what happens when Christians don't seek to grow into maturity. 00:11:44.599 --> 00:11:51.439 It's like trying to wedge the new cornerstone of Jesus under the old house of your pre-conversion self. 00:11:53.779 --> 00:11:58.120 There's an author named Lillian Smith who wrote a book called Killers of the Dream. 00:11:58.559 --> 00:12:04.539 This is back in 1949, which is this level of self-awareness is pretty striking to me. 00:12:04.539 --> 00:12:07.219 She writes about growing up in the deep south. 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:09.360 She says, 00:12:09.439 --> 00:12:13.579 I learned it is possible to be a Christian and a white southerner simultaneously. 00:12:15.299 --> 00:12:19.740 Now, I'm from the south, so this hits different when I read it. 00:12:20.519 --> 00:12:25.099 To be a gentle woman and an arrogant, callous creature in the same moment. 00:12:25.799 --> 00:12:30.419 To pray at night and ride a Jim Crow car the next morning. 00:12:30.719 --> 00:12:32.439 And to feel comfortable doing both. 00:12:32.440 --> 00:12:37.020 I learned to believe in freedom, to glow when the word democracy was used, 00:12:37.100 --> 00:12:39.480 and to practice slavery from morning till night. 00:12:40.020 --> 00:12:43.240 I learned it the way all of my southern people learn it, 00:12:43.300 --> 00:12:47.820 by closing door after door until one's mind and heart and conscience 00:12:47.820 --> 00:12:51.780 are blocked off from each other and from reality. 00:12:53.560 --> 00:13:02.340 This is a person who had not allowed the gospel to renovate her view of race and society. 00:13:02.440 --> 00:13:11.940 She had lived with this new cornerstone of Jesus wedged under the old house of her deep southern heritage. 00:13:13.160 --> 00:13:18.820 And she had learned to ignore the cracks through compartmentalization. 00:13:20.820 --> 00:13:20.980 Right? 00:13:21.060 --> 00:13:26.340 Instead of the house getting renovated, you just take things and you put them in separate rooms, 00:13:26.340 --> 00:13:28.019 and then you lock the doors. 00:13:29.019 --> 00:13:30.720 You know, your faith goes in this room. 00:13:31.160 --> 00:13:31.519 Right? 00:13:31.620 --> 00:13:33.600 Your politics, they go in this room. 00:13:33.680 --> 00:13:36.440 Your relationships with your family, that goes in this room. 00:13:37.220 --> 00:13:39.240 What you do with your free time goes in this room. 00:13:39.300 --> 00:13:40.580 Your finances goes in this room. 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:41.940 And you lock all the doors. 00:13:42.160 --> 00:13:47.180 And you keep faith nice and safe and secure in the room where it belongs. 00:13:47.179 --> 00:13:51.339 So you can get it out when you want it, and then you can put it back when you don't want it. 00:13:52.059 --> 00:13:53.199 And that's what she had done. 00:13:53.339 --> 00:13:57.579 She had ignored the cracks that were forming in her conscience. 00:13:58.099 --> 00:13:59.439 Surprisingly easy to do. 00:14:00.859 --> 00:14:04.879 And, you know, we see the same thing playing out all kinds of ways today, 00:14:04.979 --> 00:14:08.859 not just when it comes to race, but when it comes to any aspect of our lives, 00:14:08.860 --> 00:14:15.120 as we try to wedge the new cornerstone of Jesus under the old house, say, of our consumerism, 00:14:15.820 --> 00:14:20.720 or our individualism, our hyper-individualism, or our nationalism, 00:14:21.460 --> 00:14:24.560 or our postmodern sexual ethics. 00:14:25.139 --> 00:14:30.100 However we might apply it, we try to wedge the new cornerstone 00:14:30.100 --> 00:14:35.019 under a house that was never meant to be built off of that cornerstone. 00:14:35.019 --> 00:14:42.379 And the only way to make this work is to either ignore the cracks, like Smith did, 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:51.579 or to so revise your view of Jesus, to so alter the shape of that cornerstone, 00:14:52.500 --> 00:14:57.439 that it might fit into the old house, mostly. 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:02.319 But it no longer resembles the Jesus of Scriptures. 00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:06.420 And so when Jesus becomes the cornerstone of your life, 00:15:06.780 --> 00:15:11.420 it becomes necessary for everything else to be rebuilt from the ground up. 00:15:11.620 --> 00:15:14.280 And Christian maturity means doing that very thing. 00:15:15.700 --> 00:15:20.400 Through worship, prayer, biblical teaching and preaching, 00:15:20.780 --> 00:15:24.240 the sacraments, the spiritual disciplines, serving and loving others, 00:15:24.600 --> 00:15:28.120 all of those are ways that we allow Jesus to renovate us, 00:15:28.920 --> 00:15:30.860 to rebuild us from the ground up. 00:15:30.860 --> 00:15:37.060 So this is the first reason why I think confirmation is not just important in a general sense, 00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:38.080 but important for us. 00:15:38.139 --> 00:15:42.480 I think that if we're honest, as we live our lives and as we endeavor to be faithful, 00:15:42.940 --> 00:15:45.519 those of us here who are Christians, there are cracks. 00:15:46.379 --> 00:15:48.399 There are places where the joints have come apart. 00:15:48.580 --> 00:15:50.320 There are inconsistencies. 00:15:51.300 --> 00:15:57.920 There are compartmentalized parts of ourselves locked away safely in their rooms. 00:15:57.919 --> 00:16:00.819 And the whole thing needs to be rebuilt. 00:16:01.740 --> 00:16:03.519 That's the first reason why it's important. 00:16:04.079 --> 00:16:07.779 This leads to our second point because this is not something that you can do alone. 00:16:07.899 --> 00:16:11.659 You can't go home and read a stack of books and work all this out yourself. 00:16:12.419 --> 00:16:14.439 You need other people to help you in the journey. 00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:19.120 You know, in the postmodern West, we have a highly individualistic approach to faith. 00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:22.860 It's about me adopting a belief system that is right for me. 00:16:23.060 --> 00:16:27.659 And it's all about my one-on-one relationship with God that may or may not involve a church. 00:16:28.500 --> 00:16:32.940 That would have been totally absurd to someone like Peter or the early Christians. 00:16:34.019 --> 00:16:37.519 When Peter uses this powerful image of living stones, 00:16:38.519 --> 00:16:43.159 he's not only describing our relationship with Jesus, 00:16:43.340 --> 00:16:45.860 he's describing our relationship to one another. 00:16:45.860 --> 00:16:51.440 And by the way, I love to think of Peter, who was renamed by Jesus, 00:16:52.039 --> 00:16:54.800 given a name that means a stone, right? 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:57.320 Using this image as a living stone. 00:16:57.419 --> 00:17:00.320 How often had Jesus thought of himself, 00:17:00.560 --> 00:17:03.759 I mean, had Peter thought of himself in those terms? 00:17:04.140 --> 00:17:07.440 And now he applies this sort of personal metaphor 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:10.660 built off of his own name to describe all Christians. 00:17:10.660 --> 00:17:13.900 And it's beautiful because it describes our relationship, 00:17:14.180 --> 00:17:15.759 not just with Jesus, but with one another. 00:17:16.220 --> 00:17:19.660 What do stones and a wall do for one another? 00:17:20.920 --> 00:17:22.900 Well, they support one another. 00:17:23.480 --> 00:17:26.759 The wall stands up and has integrity, structural integrity, 00:17:26.759 --> 00:17:30.779 because the stones bear the weight of one another, right? 00:17:30.800 --> 00:17:32.660 They all support each other. 00:17:32.940 --> 00:17:36.460 That's how they're able to stand together with such strength. 00:17:36.460 --> 00:17:40.279 And in the same way, we need Christians in our lives 00:17:40.279 --> 00:17:43.960 who can support and encourage us in our faith. 00:17:44.299 --> 00:17:47.480 The church is by design meant to be interdependent. 00:17:47.600 --> 00:17:50.559 We were with our ministry leaders Saturday morning 00:17:50.559 --> 00:17:52.960 for a few hours doing a training for the year, 00:17:53.100 --> 00:17:55.360 and this was the whole idea that we focused on, 00:17:55.480 --> 00:17:58.920 is the interdependent nature of the church. 00:17:59.059 --> 00:18:01.519 We all have ways that we contribute, 00:18:01.740 --> 00:18:04.400 and we all have things that we need, right? 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:08.040 And so you need other Christians in order to grow. 00:18:08.380 --> 00:18:10.759 Other Christians need you in order to grow. 00:18:11.180 --> 00:18:13.300 Every Christian has been given spiritual gifts 00:18:13.300 --> 00:18:16.019 that are meant to be used to build up the church. 00:18:17.180 --> 00:18:20.360 And in this day and age, just, you know, in my opinion, 00:18:20.519 --> 00:18:22.120 we need the support of other Christians 00:18:22.120 --> 00:18:24.480 more than perhaps any previous generation, 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:27.720 save for maybe Peter's generation 00:18:27.720 --> 00:18:32.259 and maybe a couple of generations after that, right? 00:18:32.259 --> 00:18:33.799 But by the fourth century and on, 00:18:34.879 --> 00:18:40.420 it's probably been a while up until now 00:18:40.420 --> 00:18:42.579 where we are hopefully beginning 00:18:42.579 --> 00:18:46.960 to sort of recapture our sense of need for other Christians. 00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:47.339 Why? 00:18:47.640 --> 00:18:50.160 Because we live in a culture that increasingly sees 00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:53.420 the claims of Christianity as being entirely implausible. 00:18:55.420 --> 00:18:58.259 You know, every culture has ways of determining 00:18:58.259 --> 00:19:01.119 what sounds reasonable and what sounds crazy. 00:19:02.180 --> 00:19:05.640 The sociologist Peter Berger calls these plausibility structures, 00:19:05.859 --> 00:19:10.920 the consensus opinion of what sounds reasonable versus unreasonable. 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:15.000 It's this idea that, well, all reasonable people think this. 00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:18.759 Only crazy people would think that, right? 00:19:18.799 --> 00:19:20.240 That's a plausibility structure. 00:19:20.339 --> 00:19:22.400 How am I making that determination? 00:19:22.740 --> 00:19:26.240 Well, it's just my sense of what reasonable people around me think. 00:19:26.240 --> 00:19:26.740 Right? 00:19:28.039 --> 00:19:30.880 So it's very hard to be in this category. 00:19:31.079 --> 00:19:34.660 It's very hard to hold on to beliefs that people look at you 00:19:34.660 --> 00:19:36.839 and they say, well, no reasonable person thinks that. 00:19:36.920 --> 00:19:38.220 You must be a crazy person. 00:19:38.579 --> 00:19:40.779 You must be a total wingnut to think that that's true. 00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:42.759 It's very hard to hold on to beliefs 00:19:42.759 --> 00:19:46.359 that aren't supported by the plausibility structures of the culture. 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:49.099 So we need another kind of structural support. 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:52.799 We need another kind of structural support. 00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:57.720 Throughout history, the plausibility structures in our society 00:19:57.720 --> 00:19:59.579 have sometimes been wrong. 00:20:01.079 --> 00:20:04.759 For much of history, all reasonable people thought the earth was flat. 00:20:06.019 --> 00:20:07.940 In the 1800s, some still do. 00:20:08.599 --> 00:20:09.200 It's amazing. 00:20:09.899 --> 00:20:14.720 In the 1800s, all reasonable people thought that sickness was caused by bad air. 00:20:15.579 --> 00:20:18.700 If it smells bad, it probably makes you sick. 00:20:18.700 --> 00:20:21.720 In the early 20th century, all reasonable people, 00:20:21.819 --> 00:20:24.220 including many prominent scientists and politicians, 00:20:24.420 --> 00:20:25.860 supported the idea of eugenics 00:20:25.860 --> 00:20:29.500 as a way of improving the human race. 00:20:31.100 --> 00:20:32.900 All reasonable people thought these things. 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:35.039 And at some point along the way, in every case, 00:20:35.120 --> 00:20:37.340 it took people willing to look at the evidence 00:20:37.340 --> 00:20:40.500 and to challenge the plausibility structures of the day, 00:20:40.660 --> 00:20:44.720 to hold on to beliefs that most people thought were crazy at the time 00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:47.000 until there was a shift in public thought. 00:20:48.539 --> 00:20:49.940 And I would say, 00:20:50.120 --> 00:20:54.380 being a Christian in a place like Washington, D.C. in 2023 00:20:54.380 --> 00:20:56.059 is a lot like that. 00:20:57.059 --> 00:20:58.420 We've looked at the evidence. 00:20:58.579 --> 00:21:01.380 We believe that Jesus did rise from the tomb. 00:21:01.720 --> 00:21:03.900 We believe that He is the Son of God 00:21:03.900 --> 00:21:05.500 and He does forgive sin 00:21:05.500 --> 00:21:08.100 and He does reconcile us to God 00:21:08.100 --> 00:21:10.779 and that God is at work renewing and restoring the world. 00:21:10.779 --> 00:21:12.299 We hold on to these beliefs, 00:21:12.579 --> 00:21:14.380 but that goes against the consensus. 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:19.240 That goes against what most reasonable people think, 00:21:19.519 --> 00:21:21.779 the people that we live around and work around, 00:21:22.279 --> 00:21:25.259 the people that we count as some of maybe our dearest friends, 00:21:25.519 --> 00:21:26.480 our family members. 00:21:27.420 --> 00:21:29.880 We're surrounded by people who don't share those beliefs. 00:21:30.259 --> 00:21:32.660 So one day that's no longer going to be the case. 00:21:32.779 --> 00:21:36.819 One day there's going to be a once and for all final shift 00:21:36.819 --> 00:21:38.839 in public opinion, right? 00:21:39.579 --> 00:21:43.000 But until that day, this is the world that we live in. 00:21:43.220 --> 00:21:43.940 The point is this. 00:21:43.940 --> 00:21:45.640 Your faith cannot survive alone. 00:21:48.740 --> 00:21:51.500 There are some people who are sort of going through a crisis of faith 00:21:51.500 --> 00:21:54.620 and there's lots of different reasons for that, 00:21:54.680 --> 00:21:59.120 but one of the reasons that I see people starting to have that kind of experience 00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:01.839 is not so much about disillusionment with the church 00:22:01.839 --> 00:22:04.759 or not so much about questions that they're asking that are theological. 00:22:04.759 --> 00:22:08.500 It's more about the fact that they've been in isolation for so long 00:22:08.500 --> 00:22:14.839 that they've not had the kind of support that is necessary. 00:22:14.839 --> 00:22:21.720 And so their faith simply atrophies in that environment. 00:22:23.199 --> 00:22:25.299 So this is the reason, I think the second reason, 00:22:25.399 --> 00:22:27.000 why confirmation is so important. 00:22:27.139 --> 00:22:29.379 It's a public commitment to the church. 00:22:29.380 --> 00:22:33.300 It's not just a commitment to your local church. 00:22:33.300 --> 00:22:35.660 It's a commitment to the church as an institution. 00:22:35.660 --> 00:22:40.080 You know, and that means it's a commitment to the historic faith 00:22:40.080 --> 00:22:42.300 that's been passed down from one generation to the next 00:22:42.300 --> 00:22:45.580 that has been safeguarded in the church, 00:22:46.759 --> 00:22:48.680 articulated in various statements of faith. 00:22:48.680 --> 00:22:54.200 It's a commitment to living under the authority of the church given by Jesus. 00:22:54.320 --> 00:22:55.860 And we all, everybody in the church, 00:22:57.180 --> 00:22:59.720 no matter what costume you wear, we all live under authority. 00:23:01.660 --> 00:23:04.880 It's a commitment to serving and using your gifts to build up the church. 00:23:06.900 --> 00:23:09.779 It's a way of publicly saying, I'm not a lone wolf Christian. 00:23:10.560 --> 00:23:13.220 I recognize I'm a living stone and I'm part of a wall 00:23:13.220 --> 00:23:14.759 and they need me and I need them. 00:23:14.759 --> 00:23:19.460 That's the second point. 00:23:21.160 --> 00:23:22.920 So this is about maturity. 00:23:23.140 --> 00:23:24.420 It's about membership. 00:23:25.240 --> 00:23:29.299 But the church, last point, the church is not an end in itself. 00:23:29.940 --> 00:23:33.180 Rather, the church is a means to a much greater end, 00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:37.339 namely God's desire to love and to bless the world. 00:23:38.039 --> 00:23:42.299 And here's Peter's glorious statement about God's purpose for the church in verse 9. 00:23:42.299 --> 00:23:45.539 It's one of my all-time favorite verses in the New Testament. 00:23:45.980 --> 00:23:46.259 He says, 00:23:46.419 --> 00:23:51.480 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, 00:23:51.839 --> 00:23:53.639 a people for his own possession, 00:23:54.059 --> 00:23:57.119 that you may proclaim the excellencies of him 00:23:57.119 --> 00:24:00.359 who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 00:24:00.879 --> 00:24:02.519 It is beautiful. 00:24:02.919 --> 00:24:07.659 This is language that was originally used for Israel in the Old Testament. 00:24:07.660 --> 00:24:12.420 But now Peter applies these phrases to the church. 00:24:13.060 --> 00:24:16.700 In Genesis 12, God promised Abraham that through him, 00:24:17.140 --> 00:24:18.759 he would build a nation of people. 00:24:19.120 --> 00:24:22.759 And through that nation, God was going to bless all of the nations of the earth. 00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:24.300 That was always God's intention. 00:24:25.240 --> 00:24:27.000 And so Peter is saying to the church, 00:24:27.700 --> 00:24:29.279 You are that nation. 00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:32.380 God has fulfilled his promise. 00:24:32.519 --> 00:24:34.000 He's fulfilling it now. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:39.980 As Christians in the church, we're called to live lives that proclaim God's excellence. 00:24:40.619 --> 00:24:45.859 And you know, we hear the word proclaim and think of it primarily as something that we would declare with our mouths, 00:24:45.980 --> 00:24:47.759 and absolutely that is part of it. 00:24:48.299 --> 00:24:53.059 But I think that Peter means it equally, if not more so, 00:24:53.359 --> 00:24:55.799 as something we display through our lives. 00:24:57.079 --> 00:24:59.680 Something that we display through how we live. 00:24:59.680 --> 00:25:05.100 This is why, as a church, we are called to holiness. 00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:11.620 To living countercultural lives for the common good. 00:25:12.779 --> 00:25:17.120 Living in ways that other people look at, and maybe they're confounded by it. 00:25:17.299 --> 00:25:24.360 But they also recognize the salt and light that is in the society because of these communities. 00:25:24.359 --> 00:25:29.859 This is why it's so important for us to continue in the work of evangelism. 00:25:30.279 --> 00:25:34.719 It's why it's so important for us to continue in the work of justice and mercy. 00:25:35.459 --> 00:25:40.819 We are proclaiming God's excellence to the world when we do these things. 00:25:42.319 --> 00:25:46.419 But in some ways, this is going to look different for each one of us, 00:25:46.420 --> 00:25:54.660 because we each have our own vocation, your own God-given way of proclaiming God's excellence in the world. 00:25:54.759 --> 00:26:00.580 There are ways that you do that particularly well, depending on how God has gifted and wired you. 00:26:01.759 --> 00:26:10.140 So your work, your career, your gifts, your passions, your hobbies, your primary relationships and networks, 00:26:10.140 --> 00:26:13.560 all of those come together in your vocation. 00:26:13.980 --> 00:26:17.360 You may work in banking or finance. 00:26:17.780 --> 00:26:24.100 You may work in communications or you may run a house and raise kids or do international development work 00:26:24.100 --> 00:26:27.500 or work in law or a coffee shop. 00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:35.600 But the Bible says that all of those vocations are really priestly vocations. 00:26:35.599 --> 00:26:41.799 That whatever you do, whatever makes up your vocation, 00:26:42.319 --> 00:26:46.359 you are in some ways functioning as a priest as you do that. 00:26:47.559 --> 00:26:55.919 And the job of a priest is to stand at the intersection of the world and the heavens. 00:26:56.799 --> 00:26:58.899 It's to stand in between. 00:26:59.799 --> 00:27:03.139 That the job of a priest is to point people to God 00:27:03.140 --> 00:27:10.240 and to embody the character of God and His kingdom for the world to see. 00:27:10.560 --> 00:27:16.200 That's why there's such an emphasis on holiness all throughout this part of Peter's letter. 00:27:17.120 --> 00:27:18.980 You know, Abraham Kuyper famously said, 00:27:18.980 --> 00:27:22.860 Wherever man may stand, whatever he may do, 00:27:23.280 --> 00:27:28.640 to whatever he may apply his hand in agriculture, in commerce, in an industry, 00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:32.080 or his mind in the world of art and science, 00:27:32.400 --> 00:27:38.700 he is, in whatsoever it may be, constantly standing before the face of his God. 00:27:38.940 --> 00:27:42.960 And he is employed in the service of his God. 00:27:43.520 --> 00:27:46.180 He has strictly to obey his God, 00:27:46.259 --> 00:27:51.040 and above all, he has to aim at the glory of God. 00:27:51.039 --> 00:27:57.059 This is an altar that we use to celebrate and receive the Eucharist. 00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:00.279 But with all due respect to this altar, 00:28:00.420 --> 00:28:03.639 in some ways your laptop is a kind of altar. 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:05.539 Right? 00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:08.319 The counter where you cook is a kind of altar. 00:28:08.680 --> 00:28:11.039 Your kitchen table is a kind of altar. 00:28:11.220 --> 00:28:13.399 Your desk is a kind of altar. 00:28:13.400 --> 00:28:17.940 These are places where you, if you so desire, 00:28:18.080 --> 00:28:24.720 have an opportunity through your vocation to offer sacrifices of praise that glorify the Lord. 00:28:27.140 --> 00:28:30.820 So this is the third reason why confirmation matters so much. 00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:34.280 At confirmation, the bishop lays hands on you 00:28:34.280 --> 00:28:37.900 and prays that you would be filled with the Holy Spirit. 00:28:38.180 --> 00:28:40.240 If you're a Christian, you already have the Holy Spirit. 00:28:40.360 --> 00:28:41.660 You've received the Holy Spirit. 00:28:41.780 --> 00:28:42.320 You're baptized. 00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:42.539 You're baptized. 00:28:43.039 --> 00:28:47.079 The bishop prays that you would be filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. 00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:50.799 Filled with God's presence. 00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:54.059 And then the bishop commissions you for your vocation. 00:28:54.879 --> 00:28:58.439 In the same way that you would see a deacon or a priest come up 00:28:58.439 --> 00:29:00.379 and we would lay hands on them 00:29:00.379 --> 00:29:04.299 and ordain them and commission them for their work in the church.