Reflections on "Who Do You Say That I Am?" Mark 8: 27-30; Exodus 4 10-17

  I always enjoy preaching on Confirmation Sunday.  I try to make it a special sermon for the confirmands.  I find it fascinating how they react to being told that the sermon is being preached to them specifically. That comment makes some of the confirmands straighten up in the pew and make eye contact with me; others shrink into the pew and avoid any eye contact; some continue to yawn their way through the sermon.  I suppose it's representative of how the larger congregation responds to the sermon on a weekly basis.

          “who do you say that I am?” Mark 8: 27-30; Exodus Confirmation Sunday; May 5, 2012

      Introduction: Every year on the Sunday the confirmands are received in worship, I preach the  
        sermon to them; everyone else is invited to listen in, but it is preached for the confirmands.

      Wade, this means that in the chapel service this morning you are getting a sermon preached  
     just to you. That probably won't happen very often in your lifetime!

 Sanctuary: Jack, Lauren, Carter, Johan, Matt, and Johnny.

Sermon title is a question: Confirmands are going, “oh no, not another question.” Lots of questions this year in confirmation, particularly in the last few weeks.

When someone asked Augustine what God was doing before creation, he replied that God was making hell for people who ask silly questions. Simply Jesus, N. T. wright (3).

Perhaps some of the questions you have been asked this year could be labeled silly, but not the question you are being asked this morning: Do you trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Before answering, I want to reflect for a few moments on how you might answer.

       Move 1: historical answer based on what they had learned and what others had said.

a. That's how the disciples first framed their answer.

1. Others have said that you are John the Baptist or Elijah or a prophet.

2. Those are people who are part of their history.

3. john the Baptist is from their recent history – he has just been telling everyone to get ready for the Messiah.

4. Elijah and other prophets, of course, take them back to the stories told about how God spoke to God's people through prophets. You, of course, remember prophecy as begin found in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

5. They first answer Jesus' question by reciting for him what others say about him, all of which grows our of their history.

b. You could give answers like that as well.

1. You might remember that we learned in confirmation that John Calvin, one of the Reformers, described Jesus as a prophet, priest, and king.

2. Or you might remember meeting with your mentor and having him or her describe their commitment to Christ and people they have known who have seemed most Christ-like to them.

3. Or you might remember some of the Bible stories that you read this year, particularly some of the gospel stories that tell us about Jesus.

4. you could answer Jesus' question from an historical perspective and by what others say about him.

But that is not enough.

      Move 2: Jesus does not settle for what others say, or what you might know from the history you
           have learned.

    

     a. Jesus wants you to make your own claim.

       1. Not to profess Jesus as the one about whom we have learned.

       2. not profess Jesus as the one about whom others have told us.

       3. But profess Jesus as the one you trust as your Lord and Savior.

      b. Your parents may have made you come to confirmation, but today is your profession of faith, n      not theirs.

    Move 3: Your profession of faith does not end your faith journey.

     a. The one in whom you profess your faith will continually call you to new places.

               1.  Sara Miles became a Christian as an adult. She speaks to the ongoing aspect of our                             faith  journey.  Our faith is “conversion isn't, after all, a moment: It's a process, and it keeps happening, with cycles of acceptance and resistance, epiphany and doubt” Take This Bread: A     Radical Conversion, Sara Miles (97)

2. When we baptize infants in this congregation, I often note that the parents have all sorts of hopes and dreams for the baby, but we do not know what the future will hold. But we know that one desire of the parents and the community of faith is for the baby to grow up to profess Jesus Christ as his or her Lord and Savior.

3. Today you have grown up to that point.

4. Your parents may have a little bit better idea of how you are as a person, but your future is uncertain.

5. There is still no telling what you might do or who you might become.

b. When you proclaim your faith in Jesus Christ, you link yourself to the one who may have all sorts of adventures waiting for you.

1. Moses never imagined he would lead God's people; he certainly did not believe he had the ability to do that.

2. but God brought him into leadership at a critical time in the life of God's people.

3. Looking toward the uncertain future, you declare this morning the certainty that Christ is your Lord and Savior.

Conclusion: Jesus asks, “who do you say that I am?” In a few moments, you will give your answer.