So, I’m just back on this cold May day from a Confirmation retreat. A group of young people had journeyed with me and our Lay Leader Heather Bleeke for the past few months through an exploration of faith and church membership. We wrapped it all up with an overnight retreat at Epworth Forest, discussing such things as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, and the forces of wickedness and figuring out whether you were going to be the kidneys or the eyes of the church when you joined. In addition we blew q-tips through a straw at each other, drew self-portraits on paper plates that were balanced on top of your own head while you drew, and discovered that chocolate pudding makes a great topping for ice cream and three pounds of bacon doesn’t go as far as you might think. Everything a good confirmation experience needs to include, it seems to me.
It was a good experience, for me and I hope for them. I’m looking forward to the ritual with laying on of hands and letting the congregation greet them with joy as they become full members of the church. It is a time honored, well-attested process, a part of the tradition of the United Methodist Church. But if you were to ask me whether I thought this particular group of young people is ready for the honor and responsibility of Church membership, I would have to be honest and say no. Forgive me if that sounds harsh, but I have to be true to what I believe and what I’ve observed. These young people are no more ready to carry the burden and the responsibility of the church on their own, they are no more ready to be the hope of the future, the salvation of the church, than ... well, than these guys:
John 14:8-17 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. 15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
Jesus was finishing up his confirmation retreat too. It included a few uncomfortable activities - that washing of the feet thing was really out there for a few of them; it had some interesting meal options - bread becoming flesh, wine becoming blood in some odd little ritual they were still trying to figure out. And most of all it had some teaching that felt vaguely like cramming for finals. And they were not always paying attention, not always following the line of thought. We start with a head slapping moment with Philip. Don’t you get it Philip? Come on! It’s perfectly clear.
Isn’t it? I mean we figured out that trinity thing years ago, right? Jesus is God but also God’s Son and the Father is God, but so is the Word, which was in the beginning with God and all things were made through Him and the Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus, but also a reality in and of himself, (or herself?) and it is all one God but in three persons whatever that means when we get to talking about God, but it’s all clear as crystal, that we don’t wash all that often and it has cracks and smudges and some icky stuff we can’t and don’t really want to identify. OK, so it isn’t all that clear. No wonder Philip didn’t get it. Actually his was the second question. Thomas was first. Jesus says “you know the way”, Thomas raised his hand and said “no we don’t!” Jesus said, “I’m the way!” Brows furrowed all across the class. “I’m the way, and knowing me means knowing the Father and seeing me means you’ve seen the Father.” And this time it was Philip who kinda squinted and said “uh, we have? Show us.” Jesus sighed and rolled his eyes and said “lookie here!” And pointed at his smiling face.
See I know the look he got after that. I know it because I got it a number of times during this confirmation process. So often that I’m not sure I was confirming anything in them. Oh, maybe some random ideas stuck around in the dim recesses of their minds. Maybe something from our time together will surface at an appropriate moment and help them win a prize on Jeopardy or something like that. But in terms of filling up their minds with theological and historical and denominational information, yeah, well, not so much.
Thus my earlier statement that this group of confirmands are not ready to carry the load of being a member of the church - in a denomination that seeks to “make disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” and a local church that is all about “Feeding Hungry People: hungry bodies, hungry minds, hungry souls” - all by themselves. They just aren’t ready to do that. Just like the disciples weren’t ready to carry the load of spreading the gospel of Jesus and launching the church around the world on their own.
Because no one is asking them to. This is why we do this on Pentecost Sunday. The reminder that none of us do this on our own. None of us carry this load on our own. None of us are ready for this by ourselves. The good news is that we don’t have to. We have an advocate, we have a partner, a power source. The Holy Spirit comes alongside, resides within and it is out of that relationship that we serve the church, that we live the gospel, that we fulfill our confirmation vows. Not our own strength.
Here’s the other tidbit I let slip as we were finishing up. All the teaching, and the study and reading and writing isn’t really necessary. Helpful, and useful for longevity and for making the commitment, providing tools and direction, but in the end not necessary. What is necessary is a willingness to be a vessel of the Spirit. And as that, these young people are more than ready. They’ve already shown signs of the Spirit at work within them. And I know there is much more in store. Frankly, I can’t wait to see what they will become in the hands of the God who calls them, and the faith they confirm this weekend.
We usually celebrate Pentecost with more fanfare, wind and fire, parties with balloons and kites. I enjoy a good Pentecost celebration service. But this year, instead of launching balloons, instead of flying kites, I thought it would be good for us to launch a group of young people into a rarified air of a life of belonging to Christ’s church, letting them fly but tethering them to the secure foundation of a congregation that will love them into life. I thought it would be good to light fires of hope and possibility, and in so doing fan the flames of the rest of us, some of whom have been little more than dying embers instead of the blazing witness of faith that we are all called to be.
So come and celebrate with us. We’re ready for the Spirit to work within us and through us. We’re ready to be the church. Thanks be to God.
Shalom,
Derek
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