June 1, 2008
Confirmation Sunday
Rev. Patricia L. Liberty
From This Day
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God and these witnesses…
No, I haven’t confused today’s sermon with the wedding I had yesterday…these are gathering words…words that celebrate covenant… and confirmation, as a rite of the church, is a covenant between all of you and the church of Jesus Christ, represented by those who gather here and bear witness.
Like the marital covenant this one involves vows. Now vows are different from promises. A promise is our word; a declaration that we will do something. And while we make an effort to keep our promises, we don’t always. Did you ever promise to clean your room and then not do it? Or finish your homework, or take out the trash…well, you get the picture. A promise is an important thing because it is our word and being as good as our word is important.
A vow is different in that it is a sacred promise…made in the presence of God and this gathered community, a sacred promise that you will live tomorrow what you say today.
As you join the church today and prepare to take up the joys and responsibilities of membership, the words from Matthew’s Gospel offer some guidance on the life of discipleship, and though these words are primarily for you we’ll let the rest of the congregation listen in because it’s a good reminder for the rest of us too.
Mostly what Jesus is talking about it is being authentic. He’ cautions…not everyone who says, Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. It’s not enough to say the right things, words need to be connected to actions. It’s not enough to talk the talk we also have to walk the walk. What we say and how we live have to be connected. Faith isn’t just about what we believe it’s about how we live what we believe.
Now that’s not say that we have to have it all figured out. If we all get really honest…none of us have it figured out. An ingredient in being authentic is being honest about what we believe and what we aren’t sure of. Living our faith means living our questions.
And believe it or not part of what it means to be church is that living our questions together. The church is place and a community where you can continue to grow, ask your questions and join others who want to connect their faith and action in a life of discipleship. So, here’s one thought for you today….avoid people who have all the answers…instead seek wise ones who can share your questions. It’s one way to be authentic. We often live the faith in search of the faith and by God’s grace that is enough.
Second, even though some of what happens here may seem old fashioned or irrelevant, give the church a chance. It’s true the church has some work to do to get out of its own way…and truth be told, you can help us with that. We need your ideas and energy, your creativity and questions. In short, we need you to show up. It’s part of the vow you take today, to be and to become an active part of this congregation. This isn’t like graduation where you don’t have to come back. It’s like marriage, where we now share in a new and sacred relationship, a covenant relationship where we come to depend on each other, comfort and challenge each other and hold each other accountable. So, that’s my second thought for you today…we need you to show up. It’s part of the package of confirmation. And it’s not just because we want to take attendance and give you a hard time.
It’s because underneath what may seem silly or irrelevant, this is the place where what is most important in life comes into clearer focus. There are a lot of competing voices out there encouraging all of us to get more, do more, and accomplish more. Our culture is all about more…accumulating and winning, getting everything we want. What we see on TV everyday tries to convince us that if we have the latest clothes, the newest electronic gadgets, the right stuff that we will be happy. And it’s a lie.
This is the place where who you can sort through the competing voices and hear the voice that speaks to your deepest desires, your nagging fears and greatest uncertainties. This is the place where the true joys of the human journey are pointed to and celebrated. This is the place where we all can find God’s way among the many ways that are open to us. We all need the encouragement of one another to do that.
When worship opens on Sunday morning, we say Who ever you are and wherever you are and where ever you are on life’s journey you are welcome here. I never get tired of hearing or saying those words because they are close to the heart of what God calls us to be, a radically welcoming community where everyone has a place.
What we are called to be is a community where all the categories that define your worth and everyone else’s cease to matter. What makes you, what makes us all, matter here is that we are God’s beloved children, made in God’s image and formed for Gold’s purpose. What we know, how much we have, how popular we are in the world does not matter here. Our persistent call as the body of Christ is receive God’s radical welcoming love for ourselves and then turn around and extend it to others.
The world, our life and time are complicated. The church doesn’t fix that, rather being part of a community gives it a context… this is a place where those deep, unsettling, make you lose sleep, yearning, hoping kinds of thoughts find are welcome. This is a place where emptiness is filled with what is beyond what we can touch, but not beyond what we can know in the deepest parts of our being. As I said earlier there are no simple answers just a community of people who are at various places in the journey, living the questions with integrity.
It’s all about living an authentic life, where what we say and how we act in the world are connected. You take sacred vows this day to be God’s people in the world…you are now ambassadors for Christ…in the vows you take you promise not to be perfect, not to have answers, but to live the faith authentically.
You have spent a year learning what it means to follow Jesus…today you are invited to a life long relationship of taking what you have learned and putting it into practice. And I say practice, because that’s what we are all doing….practicing our faith…
The life if discipleship means constantly pitching our tent and folding it up again, of befriending strangers and bidding them good-bye, of loving the world but never being truly satisfied with it, of pouring our heart and soul into a project others have begun and still others will finish. If we would not be torn in two by the tension of this truth, we must learn to live provisionally -- to measure the road well. We need to make the most of occasions when we can gather by the roadside to break bread and compare directions. Joy must be discovered in the going as we never really arrive, not even in a lifetime."
(Kristine Malins, Medical Missionary Magazine, Vol. 42, #6, 1968, p. 192).
As you take the next steps in your faith journey, we welcome you to a practicing community of faith, a place where we learn together, day by day what it means to be Jesus’ followers and disciples in the world. We are glad to share the journey with you.