Now You Know Where to Find More Light :: 2 Peter 1:2 Micah 7:8 John 8:12 Revelation 2:10

By

The word for our meditation today comes to us from the confirmation verses of Kent Lower, Lily Hardin, Loralie Loman, and Nolan Rathert.

Kent, 2 Peter 1:2: May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. ... Lily, the ending of Micah 7:8: Yahweh will be a light to me. ... Loralie, John 8:12: Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’ ... And Nolan, Revelation 2:10: Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

4.

What a great day it is to be reminded of this Word! What a great day this is for Trinity! What a great day this is for your families. Today we see the light. God truly has redeemed each of you! 

That is worth a loud Amen, is it not? ... Even among stoic Lutherans.

I don’t know about the rest of my brothers and sisters in Christ in the room, but I definitely remember my confirmation like this ... back in 1978. How can any of us forget our day like this? This is a day the Lord has made. This is the day he opened our lips so that our mouths would declare his praise.

Lily, Loralie, Nolan, and Kent ... Because today is your Confirmation Day ... the day you confirm you have the same faith in Christ we all share ... instead of a sermon that you only hear, I have prepared this sermon for you to keep and read later. Of course, we’ll let everybody else in the room listen to most of it because it’s good for all of us, but there is something here for each of you that I won’t read aloud. Later, you’ll know what I mean.

I do hope you’ll keep this and read it over and over, because that’s very much to the point. We always need to hear the Gospel continually ... We always need to be enlightened by the Good News of how God saves you ... of how God loves you ... of how God has opened your eyes and ears to hear his Gospel ... the Good News of not only what God has done for you in Christ ... but what God continues to do for you through the Holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Today we are all being reminded that we all see the LIGHT.

3.

A couple hundred years ago, one of the world’s greatest thinkers ... an artist and a writer ... is reported to have cried out upon his deathbed: MORE LIGHT! 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had lived in a so-called Christian country, had been reared in a Christian family, and had made the customary professions of the Christian faith as a young man ... sound familiar? But in his battle of life ... a battle with all of his passions and emotions ... a battle with his thoughts and feelings ... Goethe abandoned most of his Christian character. He walked away from the light to follow his dreams, his vision. Ultimately, he slipped into the darkness until that final day when he cried out ... MORE LIGHT. 

I note this story because not only did we hear the Passion of Christ according to Saint Matthew ... talk about having the Gospel illuminated! ... today we will bear witness to your confirmation when you confess that you see MORE LIGHT and will follow MORE LIGHT all the days of your life ... knowing that, as Micah says, even when you fall, you will rise, and when you find yourself sitting in darkness, the LORD will be a light to you (Micah 7:8). We know this to be true because God has promised this to you ... and he cannot change his promise (Heb 6:18). His grace and peace will be multiplied among you in the knowledge (1 Pt 2:2) or you could say, the LIGHT of God. As Saint Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:6: For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Whoever therefore follows that LIGHT, which is Jesus, will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (Jn 8:12) ... until that final day when, [Jesus himself gives] you the crown of life (Rv 2:10). 

That’s his promise ... MORE LIGHT.

2.

Sin is often described in the Holy Scriptures with the absence of light. This is why Saint John wrote, and why we confess, that if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ... And again ... If we say we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar and his word is not in us (1 Jn 1:8, 10). 

Instead, repent, crying out for MORE LIGHT. God who is faithful and just WILL forgive your sins and cleanse you of all unrighteousness (1 Jn 1:9). He will on account of the light of Christ. 

[Jesus] is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but for the sins of the whole world (1 Jn 2:2). More than that, you were all baptized. As Saint Paul tells us in Romans 6: Do you not know that you who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, you too will walk in the newness of life. 

That means you have MORE LIGHT now. 

1.

That is why it was so fitting to hear the Passion of Christ today. There is nothing that illuminates Confirmation Day better than hearing the Passion of Christ. For the Word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God (1 Cor 1:17). ... It is MORE LIGHT. 

It shows us that the darkness of our sin died with Jesus. It shows us God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense (G.R.A.C.E). It shows us that Jesus who was born without sin and lived without sin, actually died for your sin. It shows us that God is faithful and just. It leads us to the remembrance that Jesus was actually raised from the dead. Death has no dominion over those who have faith. And it leads us to the light of the truth that Jesus ascended to the right hand of God for you so that he will ALWAYS be with you until that day you receive the crown of life. 

Kent, Nolan, Loralie, and Lily, it is clear that each of you firmly has seen the Light of this truth through God’s Word. Take hold of that treasure. Hold it close. Never let it go. Learn to study God’s Word daily. It will enlighten you. 

Attend God’s Service faithfully. Return to the baptism he poured out upon you daily. Confess your sins regularly and receive the absolution from your pastor as from God himself, not doubting but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven by God himself. Listen to the Gospel being preached faithfully, and receive the Sacrament being administered rightly. These words given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins show us that in the sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given. 

AND NOW YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND MORE LIGHT

May God’s grace and peace always be multiplied in your lives ... until that day when you receive the crown of life ... in Jesus’ name.

Popular posts from this blog

Advent of New Life :: Matthew 21:1-9

By
Then the crowd, those going before him and those following, continued to cry out to the Son of David, saying, Save us, please! Blessed is the One Coming in the Name of the Lord! Save us, please, in the Highest Heavens! Yes, Come Lord Jesus! Save us now!  Today we begin a new year of looking forward to this Advent of our Lord, the day he will forever and finally come to save us!  BEHOLD, JESUS IS ALWAYS COMING TO FULFILL THE ADVENT OF HIS BLESSINGS 1. We generally are always eager to see the advents of our lives fully realized. There are many advents in our lives. The word advent literally means “coming” or “arrival.” Advent is generally a positive term. That’s because advents normally are filled with hope, peace, love, and joy. So, like expectant mothers, we look forward to their arrival.  To the world, perhaps no advent is bigger than the secular new year ... the day we put away the old and hope for something better in the new. Every year, the media makes a big spectac...
Read more

The Eyes Have It :: Luke 10:23-24

By
What do you see? What do you hear? These are the questions of the day on this Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity. What do you see? And what do you hear?  Before we get ahead of ourselves by jumping to conclusions and declaring you can see and hear just fine ... you need to know ... not everybody sees what you see or hears what you hear. Every week your pastor gives three sermons: the one I write, the one I preach, and the one you hear. And each of you might be hearing a different sermon than the person next to you. More than that, some of you may be seeing one thing and others may be seeing something completely different. And some of us will just fall asleep not seeing or hearing anything at all.  As Jesus tells the disciples ... For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to witness what y’all see and they didn’t witness it, and to hear what y’all hear and they didn’t hear it (v. 23-24). That is to say they longed to see Jesus, living, dying, rising, ascending. They long...
Read more

The Mind of Christ :: Philippians 2:5-11

By
The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem, took the branches of palms and went out to meet him and began crying out: Hosanna! Blessed is the one coming in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel (Jn 12:12-13). No story has ever had a bigger buildup to a greater letdown than this one. The Jews were all of the same mind: They had been looking forward to this day for more than a millennia. And here he came! Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee (Mi 5:2)! The prophet like Moses (Dt 18:15)! The son of David (2 Sm 7:12)! Our Messiah (Is 61:1) ... Here he came, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey (Zec 9:9), fulfilling the scriptures. Zechariah, Micah, Isaiah, Deuteronomy, Samuel, the Psalms. This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it (Ps 118:24). ... These things are written so that you will believe Jesus is the Christ, the son of the Living God and that by believing you will have life in his name (Jn 20:31...
Read more