Luke 2: 41-52

            Many people are surprised to realize that in the Bible there is only one story about Jesus when he was a child or youth. It happened when he was twelve years old. And, in some ways, I think it was his confirmation story. In the Jewish faith in which Jesus was raised, they dido't call it confirmation. But I believe it was kind of like what we are celebrating today. So I looked at this story to see what was similar to you and me.

            Those of you who are here to be confirmed this morning are probably here because you have people in your lives who have brought you to church, and wanted you to know what faith is. For many of you it was your parents, and the journey began when they presented you as a baby to be baptized. Maybe it was other relatives - aunts uncles, grandparents - or friends - someone wanted you to know how important it, was to learn about God, to pray, to worship. We need people like that. That's why there's such a thing as church to begin with. No matter how much we might want to stay close to God on our own, we can't. By ourselves, we slip and fall away from God. But with people around us - parents, family, friends - to encourage our faith, we can stay close to God. That's why I hope every confirmand will be at Junior High youth group next year, and in church and Sunday School. We need to have people around us to encourage our faith. Jesus had that, too, and I imagine it was just as important to him as it is for each one of us.

            The second thing I notice about this story is something I'm sure none of you confirmands will ever do - Jesus worried his parents. He worried them in the story because they couldn't find him. They started home, and Jesus had always been where he was supposed to be before, but suddenly they asked, "Hey, has anybody seen Jesus?" And, it reminds you of the movie Home Alone, except in the movie, McCauley Caulkins' parents didn't miss him. Jesus' parents missed him, and they looked all over for him for three days, probably with some panic in their hearts - and probably every parent here has had at least one experience similar to that.

            The fact is, Jesus at twelve was right at the age when he was beginning to make some of his own choices, and beginning to move into his own life.

            And I think that's exactly what Confirmation is all about. When you're a baby, ! and you're brought to be baptized, or when you're a child, and you're brought to church - that's your parents (or whoever is bringing you), doing their job. They are making decisions about what is best for you, and how you can have the best start in your life. But the day comes, more and more, when your parents can't make those decisions for you - you have to make them for yourself. That's what growing up is about - and Jesus was entering that time, and so are you confirmands. Each of you will be asked this morning if you accept Jesus as your Savior, trust him, and want to serve him. No one makes that decision for you; you decide that for yourself. And Jesus, when he was twelve, was beginning to make his own choices.

            His choice, it turns out, was to be back at the temple, learning from the teachers. After three frantic days of searching, that's where his parents found him. And that's the third thing I want to pick out of this story in the Bible - when Jesus was twelve years old it was a time of great questioning for him - I imagine he had a lot of questions. I don't know just what they would be - Jesus was the Son of God, and certainly had a life different from anybody else. But, on the other hand, there are certain questions that many people start to have when they're twelve years old. I had them; maybe many of you can remember them, or are having them now. Things like: Why am I here? What does my life mean? What should I be when I get older? What kind of person should I be? Who is God? How can I learn to know God more in my life?

            What Jesus did was to find people he could talk to about those things. The Bible story says that his parents "found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions." For the last several months, each of our confirmands has been meeting with an adult mentor - that mentoring program is at the very heart of confirmation preparation in our church -- and I suspect that a lot of listening and asking questions has been going on. I suspect that those teachers in the temple couldn't answer most of Jesus' questions. And, I suspect that all of our confirmation mentors couldn't answer all of the questions that came up. And that is fine, because these are questions about the mystery of life and faith that have been talked about for 2000 years and more - the important thing is that we keep asking them together, and sharing the experience of our faith with new generations. That was what was happening in the story about Jesus, and it is still happening today.

            The other thing I imagine is that the learning that took place between mentor and confirmand was a two-way street - the mentors were learning too. And in the story it says that the teachers were amazed at Jesus' understanding, and they were learning as well. The best teachers always are.

            The fourth and last lesson I want to raise from this story is that that incident of Jesus with the teachers in the temple was only the beginning. It's not like Jesus left there saying, "Good, now my life is all figured out." The Bible says that from that time he increased in 'wisdom and in stature, and in divine and human favor.' And that's something we hope to do for all of our lives.

            When I was a child, I couldn't wait till I was all grown up. I'm going to share a secret this morning: I'm still waiting! What I have discovered is that the journey never ends - you're always growing, always learning, always increasing. And those four lessons that I mention from Jesus' 'confirmation' -- how important it is to have family and friends around you to encourage your faith; how each person must finally make his or her own faith-decisions; how important it is to keep asking life's questions, and finding mentors and teachers to help explore them; and how the journey keeps going on and on - those lessons apply to every stage of life, whether you're twelve or 22 or 52 or 92 or over.

            Confirmation is such a wonderful and important day. But it's so much more than one day -- all of our lives we are constantly confirming our faith. Keeping the faith is not an easy thing. It wasn't for Jesus. People challenged him and made fun of him. He had some hard times. He eventually had to die on the cross. But then there was Easter, and Jesus was raised in victory as the Savior of the world. And he told his disciples, "when I am raised up, I will draw all (people) to me."

            And you and I have some hard times, and people make fun of us, and bad things can happen. But Jesus will always be there - always. Today we can all confirm that we want to be there for him, too.