Members, guests, relatives and especially our Confirmands.  First, I need to tell my young friends some final things, off the record:  Brandon, those car rides are over, but you can always bring me some of that great salami.  Lindsay, you and I really need to talk a little German some day.  Crystal, go ahead and wear your cap, just remember to take it off to pray.  Danielle, I have a gift for you - new box of Kleenex - go ahead and blow!  Aubrey, I wish I could have had you in class more - I need a student to look up to.  Yes, Jill, I am going to miss you and the rest of the class, just not for the next few weeks.  And Richelle, Confirmation Day is finally here - can you believe it?  YES!  "This is the day the LORD has made;  let us rejoice and be glad in it!"

          A pastor friend told me last week he was surprised we confirmed our youth on Palm Sunday.  Like most area churches, his has abandoned the traditional day and settled the first Sunday in May for ease of planning.  Confirmation has been around a long time but it's treated differently in the various parts of the Church.  In Greek Orthodoxy, for example, children are confirmed at a very early age, often as young as infancy.  In Roman Catholicism, confirmands get their first communion in the second or third grade with instruction coming later.

          Confirmation instruction and tradition have changed over time.  At Epiphany we have two years of lessons followed by a joyful service of blessing.  A thousand years ago laying on of hands took a different form when confirmands were slapped on their cheeks as a sign they must be ready to suffer for Christ.  Can you imagine doing that in church today?  We're the first generation in history that thinks both discipline and Christianity should only be pleasant experiences.

          Martin Luther urged teaching the Christian faith through much memorization.  But he was not in favor of a Confirmation ceremony, as he wanted to avoid its becoming a sacrament like it was in the Roman Church.  But in 1545, just a year before he died, under his friend Philip Melanchthon, Luther saw the Rite of Confirmation take its place in German Lutheran congregations.  In the ancient church, Holy Saturday, the day before Easter, was the time to baptize adult converts.  But it wasn't until Lutheranism came to America that Palm Sunday was chosen as the day to confirm its youth.

          If you think of it, there's something grand about youth declaring their faith on Palm Sunday.  Like Christ riding into Jerusalem to the cheers of crowds, Lutheran youth all over America march down the aisles of churches to joyful songs sung by proud relatives.  Jesus rode a few miles into Jerusalem on dusty roads and arrived there smelling slightly of donkey sweat.  We ride to Castle Rock in fine cars wearing soft clothing, all freshly scrubbed and clean.

          We wave palms today because it's fun, but in Jesus' day, it could have been grounds for being arrested.  The palm branch was the Jewish symbol of revolt, and revolt against Rome was not treated lightly.  That's why the temple officials wanted the crowd to hush, to tone it down or they'd attract trouble.  The last thing they wanted was soldiers swinging their swords.  But the crowd ignored them and shouted all the more those words of revolution:  "Hosanna!  God save us!  Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!  Glory to God in the highest!" (Luke 19:39-40)  It was their day and their man was coming into town, and no one, but no one, was going to hush this crowd.  If the people didn't shout for joy, the rocks would cry out!

          The other day, while walking around Epiphany's barnyard, I caught myself wondering about the guy with the donkey, the one who gave his for Jesus to ride.  Before we bought our five acres, the owner used to raise small mules there and he also raised donkeys.  I wonder what he'd have done if someone coming into town had asked for one of his donkeys to ride.  In Jesus' day donkeys were valuable.  Today they're just a curiosity, but back then they were a necessity.

          One day some men in a small town called Bethany showed up at his door asking to borrow his donkey, and he agreed right away.  Amazing!  He let strangers he'd never met take away his prized animal.  I wonder if he had a premonition this would happen.  Perhaps he had a dream or maybe was just a trusting man.  Whatever the case, the man gave God his donkey.  This was his day and he didn't miss the chance to give God what He needed.

          The Bible says we're to give God offerings of thanks, and sometimes we don't know what to give Him.  But all of us have a donkey to give.  You and I each have something in our lives which could help God and His Gospel to be made known.  Maybe you can sing or teach or program a computer or help the poor or speak German or write a check.  Whichever it is, that's your donkey.

          And whatever your donkey is, it belongs to the Lord.  Jesus told a disciple, "If anyone asks you why you are taking the donkey, tell them, 'The Lord needs it'." (Matthew 21:3)  The terms Jesus used here were the language of royal taxation.  It was an ancient law that required a person to give the king any item he might request.  In using these terms, Jesus was claiming to be king, speaking as one who had authority, and that's what He was.  If God wants something from us, are we ready to give it?  Or will we hesitate?  Maybe we want to keep it for ourselves...

          The Bible is filled with a long list of donkey-givers.  Rahab gave God's men a hiding place and Mary washed the feet of God's Son with perfume.  David gave God's army the head of Goliath and Moses gave God's people their freedom.  We never know what God will do with the donkeys we give Him.  Each one is a chance for God to be made known, for the Son of God to make His journey into another person's heart.

          A Nineteenth century Sunday School teacher named Kimball once bought a pair of shoes and shared the Gospel with the salesman, whose name was Moody.  Moody became an evangelist who brought F. B. Meyer to the Lord.  F. B. Meyer began preaching on college campuses and helped convert a man named J. W. Chapman.  Chapman became involved in the YMCA and shared the gospel with a former baseball player named Billy Sunday.  Billy Sunday became an evangelist who brought many to the Lord, including Mordecai Hamm.  Mordecai Hamm became a revival preacher, and in one of his revivals, a young man yielded his life to Christ.  The man's name was Billy Graham.  And now we know the rest of the story!

          Did the Boston Sunday School teacher have any idea what would become of his conversation with that shoe salesman?  No, but he, like the owner of the donkey, had a chance to help Jesus journey into another heart, and so he did.

          A Sunday School teacher once shared the Gospel with a little boy and told him he should become a pastor.  But the boy wanted to become a music teacher and spent his first year in college studying music.  Eventually he felt the gentle tug of the Spirit, reluctantly went off to the seminary and was assigned a little church.  In his first Confirmation Class was a shy young boy named Allen.  A few years after High School Allen wrote him asking how he could become a pastor, and today Allen serves two churches in Nebraska.  Our young pastor moved to another church and there met a salesman named Darrell who asked to be instructed in the Bible.  Today Pastor Darrell ministers to retarded adults and children in Indiana.

          In California our reluctant pastor instructed a boy named Paul, and this spring Paul will be assigned his first church.  Then he went to Utah where he mentored two men, Ron and Dan, who today serve churches in Nebraska and Wisconsin.  In Colorado he mentored two men, Bob and Dave, who today are pastors in St. Louis and Washington, DC.  A dozen or more others he taught are Lutheran teachers or other full-time church workers, including Kelly, the first child he baptized, his own son and one of his God-children who counsels troubled families.  Our reluctant pastor often wonders what would have happened if he'd became a music teacher like he first wanted.  But he had a donkey to give the Lord, and today, thirty years later, he's helping start a new church on a little donkey ranch in Colorado.

          Each one of us has a donkey to give the Lord.  Will we keep it to ourselves, or will we share it?  Will we pen it up, or turn it loose and let God make it a blessing to others?  Will we spend our life building a fortune or building lives?  Each class that is confirmed, each congregation that is led, and each soul that is touched has potential to do great things for God in the world.

          As I move each Confirmation class through the basics of the Christian faith, I wonder who in this class will be the next pastor or teacher or DCE or dedicated Joe Christian who gives God a donkey in his work or at her home, so that faith in Jesus can be passed along.  Adults may not always think of eternal things with our young, but I always pray the ones I teach will remain close to God and serve Him.

          Each soul we touch becomes a blessing to others.  There's more at stake in a Confirmation program than teaching kids the Bible.  It's giving them hope and faith.  It's giving them roots and wings.  And kids with hope and faith and roots and wings don't shoot others, they bless them.  I know I haven't said much today about the Gospel, but it's behind everything here.  Epiphany congregation is not an club for super saints;  it's a hospital for struggling sinners.

          In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven;  we're given a new start.  Confirmands, this isn't the end, but a beginning.  Today you are received as adult members of the church.  Stay close to the Lord.  Do some good for others.  Trust Christ for everything.  Remember those who taught you, and be sure to give God your donkey.  And be happy, because, "This is the day the LORD has made;  let us rejoice and be glad in it!"  Amen!

Copyright © 2001 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.