Week 2 Confirmation

God's Love

The most famous of all the verses of the Bible are John 3:16-17

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

How Broad Is God's Love?

This verse teaches us that God's love was so great and strong that it was the root of all of Jesus' life and death and all the work of spreading the good news since then. God's love is the basis for all of our faith. God's highest wish for all of us is that we may not perish but have eternal life. All the stories in the Bible, all the actions of God in the world, make sense only when understood in terms of that love. All the teachings of the church must be understood in terms of that love. Jesus came to earth because of God's love for you. Jesus died for you because of God's love for you. Jesus rose from the dead as the promise of God's love for you.

We believe that all the teachings in the attributes of God, for instance holiness, power, justice, and righteousness, only make sense as they are understood as outgrowths of God's love. It is a tradition that all sermons and writings by people of faith must be judged by how well they proclaim the good news of God's love and Jesus' work for us.

Our understanding of God as "Father" is a way of using the biological family model to demonstrate God's love. Unfortunately, the use of the image of the male parent has led many people of faith to think of God only in terms of one gender. This tends to limit God and limit the kind of love we experience from God. It also ignores the variety of other (male, female, and non-gender) images Scripture uses for God. (Examples of female images of God in the Bible include God as a housewife in Luke 15:8-9, as a mother eagle Deuteronomy 32:11, and as a mother of a young child Isaiah 66:13). God's love is very broad and very powerful; unfortunately, our language limits our understanding and often limits our image of God. We must never allow our lack of imagination to limit our faith. God is always bigger than the words and images we use to explain the divine.

Experiencing God's Love

"Salvation" is a word that Christian's use a lot and seem to never agree about. For some it has become a way of dividing people into groups according to how they define the word. Are you saved because you recited a specific prayer, because you have been baptized, because of how you were baptized or who baptized you, because of the political views you hold, because of your good actions and thoughts? No! Salvation is the result of God's love, and God's work. We do not believe we receive salvation because of anything we do. Our hardest work as Christians is learning to accept, depend, and rest on that love. We accept salvation when we give up trying to earn God's love and begin to enjoy it. We believe that salvation is a gift from God. We trust that gift in all the circumstances of life and know that not even death can separate us from the love of God.

Study Catechism

Question 5. What does a Christian believe?

All that is promised in the gospel. A summary is found in the Apostles' Creed, which affirms the main content of the Christian faith.

Question 6. What is the first article of the Apostles' Creed?

"I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth."

Question 7. What do you believe when you confess your faith in "God the Father Almighty"?
That God is a God of love, and that God's love is powerful beyond measure.

Question 8. How do you understand the love and power of God?
Through Jesus Christ. In his life of compassion, his death on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead, I see how vast is God's love for the world -- a love that is ready to suffer for our sakes, yet so strong that nothing will prevail against it.

Question 9. What comfort do you receive from this truth?

This powerful and loving God is the one whose promises I may trust in all the circumstances of my life, and to whom I belong in life and in death.

Question 10. Do you make this confession by yourself?

No. With all those before me who have loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and with all who serve him on earth here and now, I confess my faith in this loving and powerful God.

Question 11. When the creed speaks of "God the Father," does it mean that God is male?
No. Only creatures having bodies can be either male or female. But God has no body, since by nature God is Spirit. Holy Scripture reveals God as a living God beyond all sexual distinctions. Scripture uses diverse images for God, female as well as male.

Question 12. Why then does the creed speak of God the Father?

Because God is identified in the New Testament as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Question 13. When you confess God as our Father, do you mean that men should dominate women?

No. All human beings, male or female, ought to conform their lives to the love, humility and kindness of God. In fact God calls women and men to all ministries of the church. Any abuse or domination in human relationships is a direct violation of God's Fatherhood.

Question 14. If God's love is so powerful, why is there evil in the world?
No one can say why, for evil is a terrible mystery. Still, we know that God's triumph over evil is certain. Our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is himself God's promise that suffering will come to an end, that death shall be no more, and that all things will be made new.
Confirmation Version approved by the 210th (1998) General Assembly of the PC(USA)


Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

Accepted by most scholars to be the most important figure in the ancient Western church, St. Augustine was born in Tagaste, Numidia in North Africa. His mother was a Christian, but his father remained a pagan until late in life. After a rather unremarkable childhood, marred only by a case of stealing pears, Augustine drifted through several philosophical systems before converting to Christianity at the age of thirty-one. At the age of nineteen, Augustine read Cicero's Hortensius, an experience that led him into the fascination with philosophical questions and methods that would remain with him throughout his life. After a few years as a Manichean, he became attracted to the more skeptical positions of the Academic philosophers. Although tempted in the direction of Christianity upon his arrival at Milan in 383, he turned first to neoplatonism. During this time, Augustine fathered a child by a mistress. This period of exploration, including its youthful excesses (perhaps somewhat exaggerated) are recorded in Augustine's most widely read work, the Confessions.

During his youth, Augustine had studied rhetoric at Carthage, a discipline that he used to gain employment teaching in Carthage and then in Rome and Milan, where he met Ambrose who is credited with effecting Augustine's conversion and who baptized Augustine in 387. Returning to his homeland soon after his conversion, he was ordained a presbyter in 391, taking the position as bishop of Hippo in 396, a position which he held until his death.

Besides the Confessions, Augustine's most celebrated work is his De Civitate Dei (On the City of God), a study of the relationship between Christianity and secular society, which was inspired by the fall of Rome to the Visigoths in 410. Among his other works, many are polemical attacks on various heresies: Against Faustus, the Manichean; On Baptism; Against the Donatists; and many attacks on Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism. Other works include treatises On the Trinity; On Faith, Hope, and Love; On Christian Doctrine; and some early dialogues.

St. Augustine stands as a powerful advocate for orthodoxy and of the episcopacy as the sole means for the dispensing of saving grace. In the light of later scholarship, Augustine can be seen to serve as a bridge between the ancient and medieval worlds. A review of his life and work, however, shows him as an active mind engaging the practical concerns of the churches he served.

Text © 1997, Mark Browning. Used with permission.From the Christian Classics Ethereal Library

What Is Confirmation?

The first obvious question to ask as we begin this study is "What is confirmation?" The second is "Why do I have to go through it?" To understand what is happening here we have to back up a bit.

Early Church Practice

Early in the history of the church just as adult converts were being baptized to demonstrate their new faith, infants were baptized to show that they were being raised within the church. This is loosely implied in the story of Lydia becoming a Christian and then she and her entire household being baptized which would have included all of her family and all the families of servants living in her extensive household (Acts 16:14-15).

The practice of baptizing infants has come to signify for us that God's love and care for us precedes our understanding. (Directory for Worship, Book of Order, W-2.3008)

In some of the earliest instances of adults becoming Christians, after the converts were baptized, one or more of the Apostles were sent to question them and lay hands on them and pass on the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17). This act of laying on hands did not seem to make the same sense when applied to an infant. In time the act of laying on hands for persons who had been baptized as infants became a separate ritual practiced when the person was old enough to understand and answer questions about his or her faith. This ritual was conducted by a bishop who had authority passed on to him by one of the Apostles. This separate ritual came to be known as confirmation as it "confirmed" what had been promised at the infant's baptism years earlier.

The Influence of the Anabaptists

By the 1500s, groups of Christians known collectively as "Anabaptists" were questioning the practice of infant baptism. They believed that conversion into Christianity required a level of understanding that an infant could not give, and that baptism as a promise that the child would be raised as a Christian did not follow the pattern of baptism found in Scripture. Anabaptists today (for instance Baptists, Disciples of Christ, Mennonites, and Brethren) Only practice "believer's baptism" that is the baptism of people old enough to respond for themselves about their faith. This removes the need for confirmation as a separate ritual. The Anabaptists were influential in making education, understanding, and belief an important part of preparation for confirmation rather than the presence of a bishop and the laying on of hands.

The Influence of the Reformation

One of the results of the break in the Church into Protestants and Roman Catholics is the lessening of the influence of ordained clergy. In the Roman Catholic Church, bishops still trace their office back to the Twelve Apostles and so their actions tend to take on the authority of the Apostles. Therefore their role in the ritual of confirmation is very important. Even in Protestant churches that have retained the rule of bishops like the Episcopal Church or Lutheran Churches the role of the bishop in confirmation is central.

In the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and other churches from our branch of the reformation, we understand the passing of the Holy Spirit to be the work of God not dependent on the action of a specific clergy person. Therefore the ritual of confirmation is less important to us than the learning, understanding, and ultimately believing that precedes the worship service where you will be confirmed.

In The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

The act of confirmation in our church is more about being well informed enough in our faith to make your own decision about what you believe and how you will minister within the church.

According to our Directory of Worship:
The church nurtures those baptized as children and calls them to make public their personal profession of faith and their acceptance of responsibility in the life of the church. When these persons are ready, they shall be examined by the session. (G-10.0102b) After the session has received them as active members they shall be presented to the congregation during a service of public worship. In that service the church shall confirm them in their baptismal identity. They shall reaffirm the vows taken at Baptism by
a. professing their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,
b. renouncing evil and affirming their reliance on God’s grace,
c. declaring their intention to participate actively and responsibly in the worship and mission of the church. . . .

They are commissioned for full participation in the mission and governance of the church, and are welcomed by the congregation.
Directory for Worship, Book of Order, W-4.2003

Why Do I Have to Go Through Confirmation?

For young people who have been brought up in the church, much of what it means to be a Christian and to take on the ministry of being a church member is already well known. You've listened in worship and in religious education classes and have an idea of why we have community meetings and what happens at baptisms and at the Service of the Lord's Table. Confirmation is to organize all the stuff you've been learning over the years and fill in a few blanks you may have. More importantly it is to prepare you to make your own public profession of faith. I want you to go through the confirmation classes so that you understand what God did for you through Jesus' life and death and that God's love for the world includes you. I want to make sure you understand how you fit in the history and ministry of the church, and how you can be part of its ministry locally and around the world.

Confirmation is about your becoming a member of the church and taking on the responsibilities of making the church do what God would have it do. When you were little, someone answered for you, now it is time for you to answer for yourself about what you believe, how you will treat others, and how you think the church should be speaking to the world.

Welcome

Coming Soon Postings for discussion surrounding the 2006 HPC Confirmation Class.