NOW IS OUR STORY
Scripture: Hebrews 12:1-2; 14-15; 13:1-3; 5-6
I Timothy 4:6-12
This sermon is really for Harry and Thomas, but I guess the rest of you can listen in if you really want to. Or, you could take this opportunity to doze off for awhile – go ahead; you have my permission to do that.
One of the things that churches of the United Church of Christ like to say about ourselves is that we offer an “extravagant welcome” to anyone and everyone. Well, today I hope that you are feeling such an “extravagant welcome” from all of us as the two of you make your commitment to become members of this community. When I asked what Confirmation meant to them in our last class together, Harry said that it meant that now he was considered an adult – that in many ways confirmation is very much like a Bar Mitzvah or a Bat Mitzvah in the Jewish tradition (with their resounding refrain, “Now I am a man”; “Now I am a woman”). And that’s certainly the case – you are now adult members of this congregation, with all the privileges and responsibilities that entails (as Jason discovered last year when he was confirmed and shortly thereafter was elected to be on the Board of Christian Education).
At the same time, you are still youth, with all those things attendant to “teenagerhood”, and you may discover that other members of the congregation might treat you somewhat differently than they would, oh say, your average 70-year-old – or, maybe not – I guess we’ll have to see how that works itself out.
What I’m trying to get at here is that we tend to look at youth in terms of the future. In our context, for example, you’ll often hear young people referred to as “the future of the church”. College is most often seen as a time of preparation for future goals. But young people – and I really hope this is true for the two of you as well – also want to affirm their present experience, their present participation, their present involvement, because what is happening now is just as important as what could happen in the future. Dr. Lloyd Averill, writing in The Christian Century, puts it this way: “The test question of our American culture is, What are you going to be when you grow up? Adults have systematically schooled the young to see every present as significant only as preparation for some future which seems never to arrive….. But inaction is also a vacuum which adolescence abhors: the young will find something to do now!”
The church, you know, as we discussed in Confirmation Class, looks into the past to the revelation of God in history and into the future to the hope of God’s reign to come. But neither a past look nor a future hope should sabotage the meaning of the present as God’s particular moment for you – indeed, for each of us – a moment so important that Paul Tillich could speak of it as, and entitle one of his books, “The Eternal Now”.
Now that you have been confirmed and are full members of this congregation, participating as adults, our hopes and our dreams for you are the same as they are for each one of us: that we will live to our full potential as members of Christ’s body right here in the present moment. As the writer of I Timothy says, “Let no one despise your youth,” and I believe that all the members and friends of this congregation will work hard to see that that doesn’t happen. But be aware of how that verse continues: “…but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” That’s a pretty big responsibility. I believe you guys are up to it. You are to be examples for each of us and for those in each of your worlds in the ways you exhibit your love and the ways you show forth your faith. And don’t be afraid of that word “purity”. Basically, it means making good decisions and then sticking by them. We all, each one of us, look to one another for help in the decisions we make in the light of Jesus’ love for us.
And the great part about it all is: you don’t have to go it alone. What a fantastic phrase at the beginning of the 12th chapter of Hebrews: “since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…..” That means not just the people here in this room now, or those members and friends of this congregation who will be a part of your lives, but all those past and future who have heard a call from the Christ and responded and thus become witnesses to his life-changing power in their lives. Whenever I hear that phrase, “so great a cloud of witnesses”, the image that comes to my mind – even though it may be a bit off-putting at first – is of a swarm of insects that form this huge cloud around you, except that these are friendly, honey-producing, supporting creatures who give you buoyancy and lift you up and seek always after your best interests.
The other image in this passage is that of running a race: “let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us…..” This is, of course, not a sprint but a marathon. Perhaps a better image here is that of a journey: being a Christian is a full life’s journey which is never really completed. Confirmation is a milestone on the journey, but it is only one of many. And, as in a marathon, there are always those to help you along the way, as people prepare to hand out water and offer encouragement along the route to those who run in a marathon.
What I’m talking about here, in a word, is community. We are called together in beloved community, and you heard me say more than once in Confirmation class how important it is for the church to think of itself as a community. As I mentioned last week, the Congregational part of our United Church of Christ heritage has been especially fond of talking about a “covenantal community”. We have entered into a covenant with one another, and by becoming confirmed you have also entered into that covenant. Those of us who were at the Annual Gathering a week ago in Chula Vista heard Dr. Randi Walker talk about how we are bound in covenant in order to bless – in order to give blessings. The blessings in the Sermon on the Mount are for anyone who does those things Jesus is talking about – working for peace or showing mercy or being persecuted for the sake of justice – but then, she went on to say, these blessings are not just for us but for us to give. That’s what our covenant binds us together to do: to give blessings to the world so that peace and mercy and justice may become a richer, fuller part of the lives of those we touch.
But then, Dr. Walker went on, Jesus comes to two blessings that are not general but are directed right at those who have chosen to become part of this covenantal community: “You are the salt of the earth;” “You are the light of the world.” That means you – and you and you and you – each one of us who has entered into this community – you are salt and light. Our “saltiness” has to do with our relationships; we season one another and we lick our wounds (salt poured into a wound is painful at first, but it has the power to stop disease from taking hold). Our light has to do with the truth of Christ’s gospel and the fact that we have a story to tell. We seek to understand and then to communicate. We are in relationship to each other (that’s the cloud of witnesses) and we proclaim our story to the world (that’s how we run the race).
It’s also important to recognize that we are guests of God in this community. God invites everyone in. We are called upon to offer an extravagant welcome and open wide our doors, making sure that no one feels they are left out for any reason whatsoever. As the verse from Hebrews 13 says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” (By the way, here’s one place where I think the NRSV translation really blows it; “without knowing it” just doesn’t have the wonderful lyricism of “some have entertained angels unawares”.)
Dr. Walker concluded her talk with an admonition: it’s hard work; you will often be tempted to walk away from it. That’s one reason why I’m so appreciative that Mark and Ofelia wanted to re-take a confirmation class, because being this thing we call a Christian does take work and renewing commitment over the arc of our whole life’s journey. When you are tempted to just walk away from it, remember your baptismal vows, as I told the children at the beginning of this service, and hold on, as the author of Hebrews tells us, “to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross…..”
Here and now in this present moment you who have been confirmed and these who are now your church – this cloud of witnesses – affirm and support our mutual ministry to one another and the joy that can not be killed by any cross. There is a song that I love to sing and that youth groups across the years have taken for their own, the last verse of which offers this same affirmation:
I can’t be contented with yesterday’s glory.
I can’t live on promises winter to spring.
Today is my moment, and now is my story;
I’ll laugh, and I’ll cry, and I’ll sing.
May we, as now your church, laugh with you, cry with you, and sing with you, through all the present moments that are now and are yet to come.
Amen.
Dave Pomeroy
First Congregational Church/United Church of Christ
Las Vegas, NV
June 10, 2007