The Beginning of Belief
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino, Saint Peter, 1650, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento.
Sermon Series “Through the Bible,” № 84, 1 Peter 1:3-9
Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy.” –1 Peter 1:8
John Buchanan is a retired Presbyterian minister and former editor of the Christian Centurymagazine. Years ago, Buchanan used his weekly column to let readers listen in on a staff meeting at Fourth Presbyterian Church.[1] The youth minister presented a problem and needed the advice of his colleagues. He was teaching the confirmation class, and had received faith statements written by students. The problem, the youth minister said, was that one of students didn’t seem able to express much about personal belief, though he was happily involved in the confirmation process. The question the youth minister posed was whether it was appropriate to confirm a young person who was having trouble speaking about faith in God.
The question provoked a spirited conversation. Some said that you can’t possibly be confirmed as a church member if you can’t express belief at some basic level. Others said that it was ok to confirm the young person because Jesus never asked his disciples to write a complex statement of faith, but simply invited them to follow him. The disciples didn’t understand all the details, but knew that they wanted to be with Jesus.
In the end, the young person was confirmed. In the process, the church staff had a chance to reflect on the deeper meaning of confirmation. Their story reminds us of the basic decision to follow Jesus that marks confirmation Sunday.
At confirmation, we are fortunate to have the First Letter of Peter. New Testament scholars tell us that this letter possibly was written as a sermon for use on a day just like this one, the occasion of the baptism and confirmation of new believers. The letter was meant to replace the spoken words of encouragement Peter would have offered if he could have been present.[2]
The new Christians of Asia Minor needed Peter’s words of encouragement, for they lived in dangerous times. This was the age of the Emperor Nero, who made Christians in Rome the objects of persecution and torture. New Christians were tempted to give up on Jesus when their new faith was tested. Peter was encouraging them to keep going.
In some parts of the world today, new Christians still face this kind of danger. In our society, however, the danger is less likely to come from outright opposition to the Christian faith. Danger is more likely to come in the form of apathy.
I’ve long admired the simple but powerful storytelling of southern preacher Fred Craddock. He once asked his listeners to imagine what happens to one of our newest members the Sunday after confirmation. It’s a beautiful summer day, and someone says, “Hey, why don’t we pack a cooler, and go to the lake? We can swim and waterski and have a picnic. How about it?” That’s a lot of pressure for a new Christian. How does the newly confirmed member decline the invitation of a family member or friend? How does he or she say, “I should be in church.”[3]
So in the face of various dangers, today a preacher stands in for Peter, continuing a two-thousand-year-old tradition of encouragement. I encourage Ashlyn, Elena, and Jack (and all who listen) to remember, in Peter’s words, your new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We all will spend much of our lives around people who either oppose our faith or who don’t care much about Jesus. Don’t let opposition and apathy rob you of the gift of faith. Nurture the seeds that have been planted in you – come to worship, find a small group for Bible study and support, practice prayer. Believe you will receive an inheritance with God, kept in heaven for you.
At this stage of your journey, you may be like the confirmation student at Fourth Presbyterian Church who wasn’t clear about what he believed. There still may be things about the Christian faith that don’t make sense. Keep listening to other Christians like Peter, who is trying to express in his letter something so wonderful and true that it is worth giving your life to it.
Presbyterian minister and author Frederick Buechner once wrote, “Though I was brought up in a family where church played virtually no role at all, through a series of events I was moved, for the most part without any inkling of it, closer and closer to a feeling for that Mystery out of which the church arose in the first place until, finally, the Mystery itself came to have a face for me, and the face it came to have for me was the face of Christ.”[4]
Through the church and its people, the Mystery by whom all things were created – Jesus Christ – has touched you and begun to work within you. As Peter writes, “Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him.” Because Jesus is the one who does this work, today we celebrate!
NOTES
[1] John M. Buchanan, “Start-up Faith,” Christian Century, 4 October 2003, p. 3.
[2] Bo Reike, The Epistles of James, Peter, and Jude, Anchor Bible Commentary, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964, pp. 74-75.
[3] Modified from Fred Craddock, “Living on the Edge,” in The Cherry Log Sermons, Louisville, Westminster/John Knox Press, 2001, p. 109 ff.
[4] Frederick Buechner, Now and Then, chapter one.
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