Your Post-Confi By Rev. Mark Buetow
Confirmation. It’s a rite of passage for most Lutheran kids. Maybe it happened at the end of 8th grade in Lutheran school. Maybe you were a bit younger and had Saturday morning catechism classes with the pastor. Maybe it was just a year. Maybe you went for two or three. You probably memorized most of the Small Catechism. You might have gone through a grueling questioning process in front of the whole congregation. Or maybe you just had to talk with the pastor and your parents. Perhaps you had to wear a white robe. Maybe you wore a dress or a tie. However it happened, you got confirmed. So throw that Catechism in your closet! You’re done! You never have to learn all THAT stuff again!
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Wait. That’s not right... Sadly, for many this is their Confirmation experience. It’s like studying for a final exam: You cram as much as you can into your head and then happily forget it when it’s all over. But that’s not what Confirmation is about at all! It’s not a “graduation.” And it’s certainly not the end of your learning as a Christian. So what exactly is your life supposed to look like once you’ve been confirmed? Let’s take a look, beginning with a refresher on what Confirmation is in the first place. The Small Catechism was written to teach Christians what their baptism is all about, to learn to confess their sins, and to prepare them to receive Jesus’ Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper. It was also written to teach us how to pray and to guide us in our daily callings (vocations). When you were baptized (for most Lutherans, as a baby), your sins were forgiven, you were rescued from death and the devil, and given eternal salvation. But if you were a baby when that happened, you probably don’t remember it. So Confirmation is nothing more than the public recognition that (1) you are baptized and you know it, and (2) you know what the Sacrament of the Altar is and you are prepared to receive it. Confirmation is a nice rite, that is, a structured part of the liturgy with questions and answers and Bible verses. But that’s it. There is nothing given to you in Confirmation that you haven’t already received in Baptism. And the next gift Jesus has for you isn’t in the Confirmation itself but in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. Confirmation is just the opportunity for you to stand in front of the church and say, “Yes,
I’m baptized. And as a baptized sinner and child of God, I am prepared now to receive Jesus’ Body and Blood for the forgiveness of all my sins.” So Confirmation is not anything in itself. You don’t get forgiveness by being confirmed or get “topped off” with the Holy Spirit. At its very heart, your Post-Confirmation life looks like you, with your ears open to the preacher’s words and your hands and mouth open to Supper of Christ’s Body and Blood. It’s you, the sinner, receiving forgiveness in the many ways Jesus delivers it to you. Your Post-Confirmation life is you, under the care of your pastor, who cares for you by putting God’s Word in your ears and Christ’s Body and Blood into your mouth. We aren’t prepared to receive the Sacrament of the Altar just so that we can forget about it! Your Post-Confirmation life is also about growing into your many
