Reflections on "It Does not Matter When" Matthew 16: 13-20

Not sure why I did not get any pre-sermon reflections on the blog last week.  Maybe, in part, because I did not have many pre-sermon reflections.  Well, that's not entirely true.  Knowing it was the Sunday we receive the confirmands, I had been reflecting on profession of faith and on the irony that the confirmands have lots of deadlines and demands to prepare to receive the "free" gift of Jesus Christ.

Preaching to the confirmands is always a powerful sermon experience for as I try to look them in the eye and make it a personal sermon for them.  I have learned through the years that as the sermon begins they are smiling and excited about the attention they are receiving, but often as the sermon goes on their faces get this kind of deer in the headlights look as if it is occurring to them that professing thier faith in Jesus Christ really is a big deal, or maybe they are thinking "I should worked a little bit harder in confirmation since this really does matter!"  I saw that same transformation happen this Sunday during the sermon.

“It Does Not Matter When” Confirmation, 2011; May 1, 2011; FPC, Troy Matthew 16: 13-20

Introduction: Alex, Alex, Carrie, Sarah and Abbie – this sermon is for you.

The Presbyterian Church can be hypocritical, and I suppose I am confessing to being a hypocrite as the one who has led you through confirmation this year.

We have demanded you read the Bible, answer weekly reflections questions, outline 16 sermons, take tests, learn lots of information and meet certain deadlines (or almost meet then) so that you can profess your faith in Jesus Christ and receive the free gift God gives us in Christ. Sounds sort of hypocritical.

We do it because we think it is important that you be informed and prepared as you make this important decision in your life.

I suspect in some ways one of your memories of confirmation will be about deadlines.

In our little world of confirmation, it matters when you get things done.

But that is now behind you, barely perhaps, but still behind you!

In the world of professing your faith and receiving God's grace, deadlines do not matter.

Move 1: It does not matter when you profess your faith because today is not your final destination.

a. Good news – you got it done on time.

b. Not so good news – you are never done.

1. Your faith journey continues beyond this morning.

2. You will surely have more days of clarity when you know

3. Days that challenge you.

Move 2: It does not matter when because Jesus keeps coming back.

a. I read an article recently by William Willimon, the Methodist bishop and wonderful preacher, in which he made the point that Jesus appeared after his resurrection. Journal for Preachers: Easter, 2011, Vol XXXIV, #3, 38-41.

1. It was not just sightings of the resurrected Christ.
2. He appeared to his followers.
3. In Willimon's words – Jesus kept coming back to the same old losers who had betrayed him.

4. The relentless desire of God to love us.

b. Parable of the vineyard.

1. No matter what time of day the person came to work, they were paid the same ways.

2. It did not matter when they punched the time clock, so to speak.
3. We read that parable and want to make it about what is fair.
4. It's not fair that the ones who worked the longest were not paid more than the ones who barely worked at all.
5. God's gracious ways are not about being fair, but about extending grace and love to us again and again.

6. If you don't get it early in the day, the n God comes again; and again; and again.

Move 3: It does not matter when, it just matters that you have claimed Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

a. A pivotal moment in the Gospel of Matthew.

1. Who do people say that I am?
2. It would appear that was an easy question – Elijah, or John the Baptist, or some other prophet.

b. Who do you say that I am?

1. Profession of faith – who do you say that I am.

2. not so quick with their reply.

3. The question is no longer generic, but intensely personal.

2. Peter steps up and claims Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

c. Today you join with Peter and make that claim.

1. not in some generic sense like the answer on a confirmation final question “Who is Jesus Christ?”

2. But in a very personal sense, as in you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

3. That does matter.

Conclusion: this summer I will have a chance to worship at Culpepper Presbyterian Church in Culpepper, VA, a place I went to worship when I visited my grandmother for 6-8 weeks over the summer. My Uncle Jake, a wonderful uncle and one of the great people I've known in life was Presbyterian. His wife, my aunt, was Baptist. So each week they rotated between the Baptist and the Presbyterian church. 

Uncle Jake liked it when we visited for several weeks in a row because it gave him an excuse to take us to the Presbyterian Church every week and skip the Baptist church. We were Presbyterians, after all.

Uncle Jake was an elder in that church, and he was close friend with the minister and his wife. Each summer included at least one dinner gathering with my family, my aunt and Uncle and the minster and his wife. I learned a lot about being a minister and about the church listening to them talk.

when I was telling my mother about our worshiping their this summer, she told me a story I had not remembered. She told me that I had my first communion in that church and was served by my Uncle Jake.

Pretty cool. I don't really remember it, but I like knowing that my terrific Presbyterian elder uncle served me communion.

Let me add that this took place when I was about 8.

A few weeks after having heard this story from my mother, it suddenly occurred to me – I was not baptized until I joined the church during the confirmation process, which was when I was about 13. and I know that we the Presbyterian church welcomes adults and kids alike to the Lord's Table, if they have been baptized. So what was my Presbyterian elder uncle doing serving me my first communion when I was 8.

I called my mom and asked her (my mother's a Presbyterian elder as well – she also reads my preaching blog, so I may be in trouble). “Hey mom, how could I have been served communion when I was 8 when I wasn't baptized until I was 13?”

After a rather lengthy pause, she replied, “Well, it was a wonderful moment no matter what!” End of conversation on that topic!

We create rules and deadlines. They have a purpose that is often useful and beneficial to us.

But, in the world of God's gracious loves, sometimes it does not matter when.

What matters is that today as part of your ongoing faith journey, you have claimed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.  Amen.