Acts 10:34–48 1
John 5:1–8 John
15:9–17
We live in The Between Times
– the times between Jesus initial ministry and his coming again in glory. We
use the lessons that he taught to prepare to be ready for his return. In the
early Church, Christians believed that they would live to see that day, so the
early New Testament writings are filled with encouragement and warnings to hold
on just a little bit longer… Jesus was coming back soon! But Jesus didn’t come
back soon. Almost 2000 years have passed since his death and resurrection… 2000
years of individuals and organized groups of Christians trying to figure out
how to keep his teachings alive, relevant and faithfully lived.
And in those 2000 years, a
lot has changed. Christian Theology – the study of God, Jesus and the living of
faith – has evolved, and in that time, we have gone from being a universal
Church with a single focus caring for one another to multiple denominations,
too numerous to even count. In the military chapel community, we specialize in
downplaying our denominational affiliations, if we even have them. Especially overseas, we realize that our
unity comes not in emphasizing our differences, but it looking for and
celebrating our common ground.
But we do represent many
different traditions. And today we celebrate an important milestone in the
lives of these eight students as they prepare to make a public profession of
faith and affirm the faith into which they were baptized as infants or
children. This is a day for them to affirm the promises made in their baptisms…
to claim the name “Christian” themselves. It may not be the first time they have
professed their faith publically, but I hope that it will not be the last.
For many, church is just a
place, not a way of life. But a life of faith is more than just a Sunday’s
work. A life of faith is a life of discipleship, of daily making the choice to
follow Christ, and to serve him and serve the world in all we do.
We asked a lot of the
questions in our time together this spring, but in reality, we have only scratched
the surface – just begun the conversation. It is my hope that these students
have a greater appreciation for the journey that they are taking, understand
some of the tools at their disposal, and know living this life will bring them
more joy than they could ever imagine.
Sophia, Anna, Streeter,
Claire, Kurt, Tevis, Morgan and Megan –
Each of you has gone through
a lot of changes in your life. You have grown from little babies to teenagers
with ideas and opinions all your own.
Your appetites have grown and you have explored new foods and new experiences
as you gain confidence in your ability to make choices. And in your faith journeys,
you have started thinking about complicated matter of choosing Christ. Here are some of the lessons that I hope you take
away with you as you remember your important day.
YOU ARE CHOSEN
In school, it’s natural to
pick sides. We tend to hang out with people who are like us, who share our
interests, people we like spending time with. Maybe it’s in sharing interests,
or out of proximity, or because we have shared experiences, like living
overseas. But it’s easy for the groups that we hang out with to become
exclusive, and for us to cut off others in order to keep feeling like the
friendships we have are special, maybe even exclusive. Eventually, we can think
about friendship in terms of how it makes us feel, not how it influences the
way we behave.
Jesus taught us something
different about friendship. Jesus chose people to be with him from all
different walks of life. He didn’t expect them to biblical scholars or teachers.
He invited everyone who heard him teach to just follow him. He asked them to
watch the way he honored God and treated others and to do the same. In today’s
lesson from John 15, we hear Jesus telling his disciples and others gathered
the days before his death that friendship with him is one of the most important
gifts ever given. This friendship is defined by more than just feeling good
about being a part of the Jesus crowd. Friendship with Jesus means acting and
living a certain way.
‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as
I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for
one’s friends.” Jesus’ commandment is
a tall order, because it goes against our nature to sacrifice ourselves for
others. Many of us have had some pretty good role models in that area as a part
of the military community, but it’s also true that we don’t know what that will
look like for us until we are confronted with the possibility, which is usually
at times when we least expect it. Following Jesus is a fulltime, lifetime
commitment. And it’s hard work, but you are not in this alone.
Remember this: Jesus chose
you. He chooses you today. He will choose you tomorrow. And he asks that we respond
to his calling … that we say yes to living a life of faith and trading mere
happiness for joy… for completeness… for being a friend to him and friends to
one another.
YOU ARE CALLED TO LOVE
In the reading from 1 John,
the writer reminds us that this whole life of faith is about love. It’s about loving
God. It’s about loving one another. It’s about obedience in a way that is not a
burden, but life giving and life changing. It’s easy to think about what kind
of life Jesus has called us to live and to think that we are giving up
something in the process. But in
reality, whatever we give up makes more room for God, more room for loving him,
more room for serving him.
Last week, Chaplain Werho
talked about how we have to abide in God’s love. Now abide is not a word we use
a lot these days, so I went home and looked up the definition. The one I found
most helpful was “to remain, continue or stay.” It’s easy to walk away from the
faith. People turn their backs on church and Jesus because of disappointment
and anger and sadness. Some days it’s hard to stay. The world threatens to pull
us in many directions, but when we hold fast to Christ, we have the possibility
of living lives more amazing than we ever imagined.
Is this easy? No, it is not. In
fact, it’s not something we can do by our own power alone. I t is with the power
of the Holy Spirit that we can put into practice the most important lessons
that Jesus taught his disciples and us. And in those moments, the world is
transformed into the one that God created for us.
THIS IS NOT GRADUATION… IT”S
JUST A BEGINNING
The word Graduation implies
that something is finished or completed. Graduation symbolizes the closing of
one door and the opening of another. But I hope that the completion of our
confirmation preparation class is not an ending, but a beginning of something
very special. You are being called to a
life of discipleship.
Our time together has been
another step in training you to resemble more closely, in your lifestyle,
beliefs and values, the disciples of Jesus. This was not just a time to learn
more about Christ, but to know him personally and follow him well. I hope that in our time together you have
realized that being a Christian is much more than a "head trip"; it
is a way of life together. Confirmation continues and strengthens a faith that
started growing in you long before you remember.[i]
Living
a life of faith is more than just being good. It is more than staying on the
straight and narrow. Preparing for confirmation reminds us that our lives are
lived out in gratitude for all that God has already done for us. The writer of
1 John tells us that obeying the commandments is not a burden, not done to make
God love us. It is the grace of God that helps us refocus on loving the one who
created us, and is summarized in two commandments: Love God and Love Others.[ii]
Will Willimon once shared a story about a Duke sophomore who we’ll call Mark. He was a young man from a mainline Protestant background, who felt called to work in inner-city ministry after hearing Dr. Tony Campolo, a famous evangelical preacher, speak. Through a rigorous interview process, Mark was asked to join a summer mission team in Philadelphia, and later described his first day experience to Will.
Will Willimon once shared a story about a Duke sophomore who we’ll call Mark. He was a young man from a mainline Protestant background, who felt called to work in inner-city ministry after hearing Dr. Tony Campolo, a famous evangelical preacher, speak. Through a rigorous interview process, Mark was asked to join a summer mission team in Philadelphia, and later described his first day experience to Will.
In mid June, Mark met about a hundred other youth in a Baptist church in Philadelphia. They sang for about an hour before Dr. Campolo arrived, and when he did, the youth were all worked up and ready to go. Dr. Campolo preached to them for about an hour, and people were shouting and clapping and standing in the pews. Then Tony said, “OK gang, are you ready to go out and tell them about Jesus?” “Yeah,” the kids replied, “let’s go.”
So he loaded them up on buses, singing and clapping. But as they began to enter the poor neighborhoods of Philadelphia, the kids gradually stopped singing, and the bus got very quiet. Then they pulled up to one of the worst housing projects in the country. Tony stood up, opened the door, and said, “OK gang, get out there and tell them about Jesus… I’ll pick you up at five.”
The young people made their way reluctantly off the bus. And they stood in little groups and prayed as it made its way into the distance. Mark walked down the sidewalk, faced a run-down tenement building, said a prayer under his breath and walked inside. There was a terrible odor. Windows were out. There were no lights in the hall. Babies were crying behind thin, scrawled walls. He walked up one flight of stairs and knocked on the first door he came to.
“Who is it?” a voice called out. The door cracked open, and he could see a woman holding a naked baby. He told her he wanted to tell her about Jesus. With that she slammed the door, cursing him all the way down the stairs and out into the street.
“What made me think I could do this,” he thought. “What kind of Christian am I?” He sat down on the curb and cried for a few minutes. When he looked up, he noticed a store on the corner, and remembered the naked baby in the lady’s arms. So he went in and bought a package of diapers and a pack of cigarettes, and went back and knocked on the lady’s door again.
“Who is it?” the same voice called again. When she opened the door, Mark slid the diapers and cigarettes inside. She looked at them and invited him in. He put a diaper on the baby, his first, and smoked a cigarette, his first and last, and sat there listening to the lady and playing with the baby all afternoon. About four o’clock, the woman looked at him and said, “Let me ask you something. What’s a nice college boy like you doing in a place like this?” So he told her all he knew about Jesus. It took about five minutes. And she replied, “Pray for me and my baby that we can make it out of this place alive.” And he prayed.”
That evening, when they all got back on the bus, Tony asked, “Well, gang, did any of you get to tell them about Jesus?” And Mark said, “I not only got to tell them about Jesus, I met Jesus. I went out to save somebody, and ended up getting saved myself. Today, I became a disciple.”[iii]
The love to which God’s calls us is a love that is seen, lived out every day in the lives moms and dads
and kids and friends who don’t live their faith in secret, but for everyone to
see. Christian love is a love that is inclusive. It includes all
people; even people that we assume might be excluded because of previous
assumptions and ideas about who is in and who is outside the Kingdom of
God. The reading from Acts makes it
perfectly clear – the Holy Spirit will come to all who will receive it and we
are to love one another as sisters and brothers in faith. Godly love is a love that is active. It bears fruit in our lives – think love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.[iv]
Today,
you will stand before God and this congregation and make a public profession of
faith. This isn’t an act that should be taken lightly or seen just as a rite of
passage based on your age. This is a choice. This is a choice to say yes and to
commit to serving Christ through the Church.
As
a Christian congregation, we look forward to recognizing you as brothers and
sisters in Christ – and it is a privilege to be able to call you friends in
Christ. At the same time, we also reconfirm our faith and recommit ourselves to
serving Christ and the church, here and in the world. It is both a life-long
processes and a daily choice to put Christ first in every aspect of our lives
to be able to live out the commandments and to first and foremost love.
Love
as Christ has loved us. Be active in your faith. Take seriously the statements
of faith you have made today. And as friends and chosen ones of Christ – go in
love and go sharing love, so that others may know the joy of having Christ in
their lives.[v]
Amen.
[i]
Willimon, William, “Taking Confirmation Our of the Classroom,” Christian Century, March 16, 1988, p. 27. http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=940
[ii] Philip
Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, p191.
[iv] Steve
Scott, “A Lasting Legacy of Love,” Holy Cross Lutheran Church and School
website, http://holycrosslutheran.net/sermons/a-lasting-legacy-of-love-john-15-9-17/
Melissa Bane Sevier, “Friended,” Contemplative
Viewfinder, May 5, 2015, https://melissabanesevier.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/friended/
No comments:
Post a Comment