Loving God, you have come to us in love through Jesus and have shown us how much we are worth to you.  Make us aware this day of the depth of your love for us, and set us free to respond; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Already today we have heard a little bit about covenants.  The covenant that was mentioned in our reading today was between David and the people of Israel.  It probably went something like this: The people said, “We want you to be king over us, David.  We will follow you and serve you.  We want you to lead us and to rule over us and to be our king.”  And David said, “Yes.  I will be your king and I will lead you.”  It was a two-way agreement where they made promises to one another - a covenant.

    When you were baptized, there was also a covenant that was made.  It was a covenant between you and God where God made almost all of the promises.  God said to you, “I delight to make you a member of my family, the church.  I am adopting you through water and the Spirit.  You will now share in the life, death and resurrection of my Son Jesus.  Because of him, you are forgiven and restored – a new creation!  Now become who you are.  Grow up into Christ.”  Your parents and your sponsors promised to help you to do this.

    Now here you are today - old enough to speak for yourselves.  God’s promises to you have not changed.  You have been given forgiveness and new life through Jesus.  You have been adopted as God’s precious children. Today, though, you are being asked a very important question.  You are being asked if you want to continue in this covenant that God has made with you.  And so, I’ve asked you to do some thinking about what it means to live as God’s children and to put your faith in Jesus Christ.  Life is different when you believe in Jesus, and I’m going to invite you to come and share how.

    [speeches follow]

    You have each mentioned things that are part of our faith and part of the relationship that God initiated with us in baptism.  One of the things about this relationship with God that we particularly remember on Reformation Sunday is that it is entirely based on God’s grace.  God saves us and forgives us and sets us free, not because we deserve it, but because God loves us.  We cannot earn God’s salvation.  We cannot buy God’s salvation.  There is nothing that we can do that will make God love us more.

    What we can do is to respond to the gift that God has given us in Jesus.  This means allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and to guide our lives (which is why we will be praying for the power of the Holy Spirit today).  This means continuing to grow up into Christ - through prayer and worship and service and study.  This means loving one another as Jesus first loved us.

    On our own, we cannot live in God’s way or be the people that God created us to be.  Sin will always get in the way.  However, when we allow God to be in charge and open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, all sorts of things are possible.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Reformation Sunday (NL 2)                    2 Samuel 5:1-5; 6:1-5
October 25, 2015
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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