Justified by Grace
Posted on Oct 23, 2016 by David Whetter
Today is a special day because, today our four confirmands who will be affirming their baptismal vows next week will be sharing with us their Statements of Faith.
Thomas Delzeit Statement of Faith
“My journey with Christ started twenty months ago in February 2015. The Boy Scout Troop at Salem was having it’s annual ‘scout Sunday’ in which the scouts were invited to and honored within the service. At the time my family was looking for a church home. After the service we decided to come back on a regular service to see what it was like, starting my relationship with god. We became members of the church six months later.
Analyzing my first Sunday school experience, it felt like my surrounding peers had all been receiving biblical information for many years. Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to participate previously in Sunday school activities making everything new and confusing to me. As I began attending events I got to know the people and developed a sense of community. I now look forward to getting to know additional people. This is where I find God.
I do not know all the answers. I am still confused as to where my faith is going to take me. And because of this, I’ve had a hard time portraying my feelings to others. My friends, family, and instructors all had a key role in helping me find this path when I stood clueless as to what I was supposed to do. Even as I am standing here today, I am still discovering and growing in my faith. But I am ready to begin my lifelong endeavor to learning about faith in God.”
Julia EdealStatement of Faith
“Good morning, I’m Julia and I attend Shawnee Mission West as a freshman. As a
child, Salem was my home away from home. I would always (and still do) get so excited for Sunday School, Oasis, VBS, Salem BBQs. The list goes on and on. I started to develop a school family as well. My life pretty much consists of me at either home, church or school. I was thinking to myself the other day, why is this? My answer: because these places are in my comfort zone. Now, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be where you feel comfortable, but you should also push yourself to go outside of your comfort zone. But there’s a difference between being uncomfortable and fearing being uncomfortable. Being afraid, making excuses, blaming someone or something all because you’re scared.
It’s kind of ironic that this is the time I’m writing my faith statement because I just
saw Sadie Robertson on her Live Original tour. Her and her “squad” tour around
America and talk about their struggles and their relationships with God. In Sadie’s speech, she also talked about fear. About anxiety and fear. About how it’s okay to not try new things, because it’s just my anxiety. Oh, I don’t have to get up on that stage and do something I don’t want because it might be scary because it’s just anxiety. Right?
When Sadie said this, it really struck me because it’s true. That is exactly what I tell myself when a new opportunity comes along. That it’s okay to not do it because I feel scared because it’s just a problem I have. And it wasn’t until then that I realized that I was blaming my “problem”. That I couldn’t do what the other kids were doing because I have a “problem”. I want to know why that when every new opportunity comes along, I only see the negatives, never the positives. Why I can never see the whole picture. Why my life stands still in a bubble of fear and anxiety.
Sadie Robertson really cleared that up for me. She asked “Why are you trusting
in fear, and not God?” When you have a new opportunity, why are you trusting that fear is going to make it something way worse than it actually is. Why aren’t you trusting the God, your Lord and Savior is going to watch you, guide you, and help you every single step of the way. I tell myself: Julia, just do it. Don’t be afraid anymore. Don’t walk into a situation with fear on your left shoulder and anxiety on your right. Walk in to every situation standing on God’s shoulders. Because you know what God tells you? He says Julia, whatever you do, wherever you go, you will be the brightest star in the sky and you will blow everyone away. You will blow them away with your talents, your kindness, your generosity and your faith. Trust in me. Thank you.”
Rose Lappin Statement of Faith
“Over the past few of years I have been attending confirmation classes at this church. During confirmation I learned about my faith as a Lutheran, how to be respectful towards God, how to respect other people in other religions, and learn to love people of all race, ethnicities, and gender types.
I believe in the holy trinity, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. I believe that God exists and loves us all the same. I believe that love inspires us most in life. Love fuels our lives and how we strive to be ourselves.
Even though I do not know everything about God, going to church on Sunday, being involved in stewardship, and continuing to learn more about the bible will help me to become stronger in my faith.
I will continue to pray for those in need of help. I believe that prayer is a method of talking and becoming closer to God. I have read on the internet that prayer actually works. He hears us and connects with us in special ways. Sometimes I pray to God for answers. Well he doesn’t really give me the direct answers. He wants me to think about things first, but I do eventually find his answer in the people around me. From them I receive love, hope and strength and a lot of times the answer will eventually come to me as if he was just guiding in the right direction.
I wrote a prayer to help guide me in the right direction.
Dear God,
Today I am being confirmed at my lifelong church, Salem Lutheran. I thank you for allowing me to come here as a child to learn, grow, and participate in the Lutheran religion with all our great members, and with, Pastor Pape and Pastor Dave. Please help me to continue with my faith and to love God and others in a respectable way. Please help me to increase my knowledge of God and the bible by reading the bible and going to bible classes. Help me to help others by becoming more involved in my church and the community.
In the name of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Amen”
Thomas Lappin Statement of Faith
“In my two years of confirmation class, I have learned about love, forgiveness, and acceptance through the teachings of our Lord and Saviour. It is very sensible to me to live by these teachings day to day, since it is not only very beneficial to me, but is very beneficial to others.
I feel that I would be able to display his teachings by being a good example. This I can do in day to day life, as also I am an Eagle Scout and the scout motto is to do a good turn daily. Being a scout is also a lifetime commitment, so the two really go hand in hand. The Scout law is: A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. And the Scout Oath is, On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight. I have committed myself to this code of ethics and I also plan to apply this when being confirmed.
I feel that the lives God has given to us are short, but they are lives nonetheless. He created us and allows us to experience existence, and for that, I would like to live my life serving him every chance I get. I feel that a way I can show appreciation for the life He has given me is too often experience satisfaction and to show that I am enjoying my existence very much.
My main inspiration in life is metalworking, and to experience it is a great pleasure, and for that great pleasure I thank God. I learned how to do metalworking in scouts. I took a metalworking merit badge class at scout camp a few years ago, then I fell in love with it. After that I only wanted to spend my time designing tools, and other items to build. Eventually, I made my own forge, and then began learning from other self-taught blacksmiths from watching YouTube videos. Then I began making my own stuff. I thank God for the opportunity to learn this skill. I don’t know if this is what I will do as a future career but it does bring me happiness and it does allow me to keep busy without getting myself into possible trouble doing things some other teenagers may be engaged in. I can use this skill to help others. If the church was to need any special metalworking I can try to provide that for them. I also spend a lot of time helping other beginner blacksmiths. I don’t mind sharing my knowledge and try to teach them the correct way so that they understand. I hope that sharing my kindness and helping those willing to learn, might help others treat people in the same way.”
I want to thank all four of you for your courage today. It takes a lot of courage to stand up, even in front of a few people, and talk about your faith. In fact, most people wont do it, no matter what age we are. So thank you for your courage and for your witness.
You know in many ways what you did here is a lot like what the two men in our story did today. They each spoke of their faith in their prayers and you did that too.
Now most of us immediately think of the Pharisee as bad and self-righteous. But let’s keep in mind, everything the Pharisee says is true. He is, by the standards both Luke and Jesus seem to employ, righteous (see Luke 15:7). HE follows the law, as should we.
Now, I do believe most of us want to want to be like this Pharisee and always follow God’s ways. We want to do what is right in God’s sight. So, before we jump to conclusions too quickly about the Pharisee, maybe we need to see that he is not all that different from us. I mean, we might not say exactly his words about others around us, but how often have we said that words, "There but for the grace of God go I"?
The Pharisee is speaking truth. He has kept the law, which does make him righteous, but the problem is, he is missing the point of the law. The law is designed to help[ us be in relationship with God and to come to trust God, always. Based on what the Pharisee has said, his trust is in himself and his actions, not in God and God’s action toward us.
The tax collector, on the other hand, knows that he possesses no ability to claim righteousness. He has not followed the laws of God and he has most likely taken advantage of the poor. So, he does only what he can do, he places his trust in God and prays for God’s mercy and through his trust, he receives God’s justification. This is our challenge, too.
Praise be to God! Amen.