Confirmation Sunday May 4-5, 2024
“Total Reliance” I Peter 5:7
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
Do you have a verse, a verse from the Bible that gets you through the day? Some people do. They have memorized it. They have it hanging on their wall. They think about it when life is at a crossroads.
Audrey Murray had such a verse. This dear lady, who just died a few years ago, had times in her younger life that were just too hard for one person to face. She lived in northeastern Colorado on a farm. Her husband took care of the crops and she took care of the kids and the house. But then he died. Young. And she had the whole job to herself now. Farm and kids and too much for one person to manage by self were all piled on her plate.
When I met Audrey for the first time she showed me the verse that she saw everyday. She had put it on her refrigerator. Psalm 118:24, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Even on those days when she didn’t know why she had to carry such a heavy load that verse was her verse.
Do you have a verse? Some people do. Some have this one: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) Some have this one: “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (I Corinthians 15:58) Mine is: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” (I Corinthians 6:19-20)
Colette Dallet, this fourteen-year-old young lady who is being confirmed today, has this verse from I Peter 5:7: “Cast all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you.” This is Colette’s Confirmation Sunday and I asked her to pick her verse. I gave her a sheet that had some 30 or so verses, and from all those others she chose that one. She wrote why she chose it, “I chose this verse because it flows from my beliefs and struggles. This is a good ‘life verse’ for me because as a person I have a lot of stress or anxieties in my daily life.”
Do you know what this verse is speaking about? Total reliance. In every moment. At every time. In every situation. Total reliance upon God. “Cast all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you.” That verse, verse 7, is encased with words that say the same thing. Before that verse, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” (Verse 6) After that verse, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.” (Verses 8-9)
Total reliance. All your anxiety and worries and fears and pains go to God. All your sins find their reception in His wounds. The psalmist speaks, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:5-6) Do you remember the long version of John 6 when Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (Verse 53) Many who heard those words calling them to faith in Him said that those words were too hard to hear. Too hard to believe. And many of those who heard His words left Him. Jesus asked His disciples if they were going to leave as well. Their response? “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:65)
Total reliance. Do you know what this thing of Confirmation is? If you read our sign at the corner of Windermere and Caley, driven by by thousands of people every day, this event of Colette Dallet’s confirmation is spoken like this, “Colette Dallet Confirmed May 5, 8:00.” You may have thought that Cinco de Mayo was just for drinking tequila and hitting the pinata. No, it is bigger than that. About 13-14 years ago Colette was baptized and her dad spoke for her on that day. He said that she would be totally reliant on God to resist the lies of the devil and that she would confess the strong name of God the Father, Jesus, His Son and the Holy Spirit forever. And today, publicly, she speaks that name. She confirms her baptismal faith. She probably has some anxiety about being in front of you, all by herself, with no other confirmands to join her, but she is reliant on no one else than God for forgiveness of sins, the fullness of life on earth and her eternal salvation.
The parallel verse of Colette’s is Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Total reliance comes because we have such great needs. Where could we ever go with our guilty heart or our burdened soul? Where could we ever go to have our sins washed away? Where could we ever go for a greater strength than ours to resist temptation and to do what we ought to do? Only to Him!!
Total reliance isn’t just found in our great need, but it is found in His open invitation. Jesus says to us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) In Confirmation class the students need to look at me when I ask them questions for which they seem to have no answer. Often time the answer is given to them when I stand up and take my arms and extend them as far as I can. And then they answer, “Oh, Ya, Jesus died for us.” But I let them know that that gesture is not just His atoning death for us, it is also His invitation to us to come to Him. Jesus only saved sinners. Sinners come to Him because He invites them. In Luke’s gospel Jesus spoke, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (5:31-32)
Total reliance is necessary because we all are in need of Jesus. Total reliance has an invitation in the open arms of the inviting, and crucified, Lord. In her paper on her verse and what it means to her, Colette wrote, “It means that you can have peace knowing that there is someone there to take your problems personally, showing that they really care about you. In this case, obviously, it is Jesus.”
Total reliance comes with total blessing from God. In that verse just before thee verse for today we read, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” Martin Luther, sort of a big name in our church body wrote, “The first step in Christianity is the preaching of repentance and the knowledge of oneself. The second step is this: If you want to be saved, your salvation does not come from works; but God has sent His only Son into the world that we might live through Him. He was crucified and died for you and bore your sins in His own body.”
How do you know He really cares for you? He calls you His own child when you were baptized. He has promised, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5) He invites you to pray to Him in every need. He will answer in His best way.
Colette, you are just about done with Middle School. Already you have done many amazing things in your life. God has sustained you in such good ways. Next year you enter High School and the things before you are quite exciting. Your talents in music are just beginning to be explored. Maybe you’re the next Taylor Swift. But along with such new challenges will come some new worries and anxieties. Take your verse with you into High School and throughout your life – “Cast all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you.”
Total Reliance. Total Certainty. “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” (I John 4:4) Amen!!
