2023-04-24
Brooke Strong
Sermon Text...
4-23-23 Homily
Confirmation Sunday
Rev. Betsy Wooster
Let Us Pray: O Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, may our hearts and minds be embedded in you, and may the words of my mouth, and the intentions of all our hearts, reflect our desire to follow you. Amen.
Two disciples are leaving Jerusalem with heavy hearts. They have not yet heard the news of resurrection. They only know that Jesus was crucified, and why wouldn’t they expect that to be the end of it? After Jesus was raised from death, the gospels tell how he appeared to his disciples in Jerusalem and in Galilee. And the risen Christ also appeared to these two disciples who were traveling on the road to Emmaus.
One of the disciples is named Cleopas. He is not one of the primary 12 disciples but seems to belong to the wider group of disciples who followed Jesus and supported his ministry. His companion is not named. Perhaps it is his wife? In any case, this encounter between the risen Christ and these two disciples sheds light on our celebration of Confirmation today. This encounter also sheds light on the journey of faith for all of us, of any age. Specifically, the disciples do three things with Jesus that are really important. First, they walked along the road with Jesus. They followed their instincts and stayed on the journey with him. Faith is a journey with God. That’s the first thing. Second, they learn from Jesus. Jesus teaches them. Now, during this part of the encounter, while they are traveling on the road, the disciples have not recognized Jesus. They take him to be a stranger to them, someone walking in the same direction. As they walk, Jesus opens up the scriptures for them. He illuminates their meaning and significance, and he helps them to understand his own ministry as well. They spend time thinking about the way of Jesus, and their understanding grows.
The third part of this encounter happens when they experience the community and communion of God. First they walked with God, then they spent time thinking about God, and then, they have a direct experience of God. They share a meal. At a meal there is hospitality and generosity. At a meal there is bonding in community. At a meal there is broken bread. It reminds them of how Jesus broke the bread at the last supper just a few nights before. Sharing a meal is a sacramental experience of the presence of God. It is in that moment that they finally recognize this stranger as the risen Christ. And, of course, the risen Christ has been present with them along their whole journey. So, this passage is a way of describing our lives: the presence of the risen Christ is with us all along. And in our journey of faith there is all of the above: Walking with God. Thinking about God. And the experience of God. All are important in the ongoing journey of faith, whether your road leads toward Emmaus or to any other place.
It is valuable to think about God. It is valuable to keep learning. To ask questions. To look at the scriptures, and teachings of faith, and the church’s history and ethical practices, so that our understanding grows and matures. And, in addition to thinking about God, it is important to experience the practices of faith. To show and receive hospitality, by breaking bread together. To practice generosity, and service, and the ritual of worship, and the practices of prayer.
We get our heads involved in learning and understanding, and we also get our whole selves involved in experiencing the life of faith. That’s what led the two disciples to recognize that Christ was alive and with them. Since last fall, the people who are confirming their faith today have taken a journey of both thinking about God and experiencing the practices of faith.
We have regularly met together on certain Sundays after the worship service. Our time together always began with a shared meal. The parents of these students took turns to provide a variety of delicious meals – what a generous gift of hospitality! And these meals gave us the chance to bond as a community over shared food. Following the meal, we learned about the Christian faith. We talked about what it means to have faith in God, as known to us in Jesus. We thought through what it means to believe in something, and how we know when a belief is important to us. An honest expression of faith begins with an honest assessment of where we’re starting from.
We discussed how it’s not about right or wrong answers, but rather what’s important about our faith, our lives and the world.
We delved into the Lord’s prayer and the different versions of it that exist, its meaning and why Jesus taught this prayer to his disciples, and to us.
We talked about the things in life that scare us and what it means to have hope in the midst of fear. And how the support of the Church community helps to sustain hope when we can’t do it alone. We opened up the scriptures and explored both the humanity and divinity of Jesus. We read the language that people have used over the centuries to describe their experiences of God.
We learned about worship through the liturgical year: how the season of Advent prepares us for the celebration of Christmas, and about Epiphany, the season of Lent, Holy Week and Pentecost – the birthday of the church. We discussed what it means to experience the sacraments of baptism and communion, with the accoutrements of an orange and a blindfold, and how the world itself is sacramental, which is to say that there are many things that we can do to recognize the presence of God.
We discussed the centrality of service to others, and generosity, and care for the vulnerable: The ethic of life that Jesus taught.
We looked at the traditions and practices of Federated Church that lead us to be a community of service and care in Jesus’ name.
We engaged in hands on service. We reflected on the church’s commitment to justice, resisting racism, taking care of creation, and the value of listening and collaboration in order to get things done, or help, when others are hurting.
In the midst of all this we had fun together: yes, there was the orange and the blindfold, but there was also music and strong efforts to get to get everyone dancing; we bonded at the bowling alley as we both cheered for, and competed with each other; and then there was this certain character named “Joe,” who showed up in class one day in a wild outfit, and who looked for all the world like Gary Dole. “Joe” shared what it means to give of ourselves out of love and not because there are some old things in the closet that we’d like to get rid of. In all these things we were both thinking about God and experiencing God.
Throughout the year, we saw how faith begins with God’s love for us. Faith begins with God, and we can respond to God’s love with our own faithfulness. Confirmation is an affirmation of faith. And this is their own decision. The title of the curriculum we used all year is “Confirm, not Conform.” Confirmation is not something to do just to meet the expectations that others have. It is not about conforming to the group, or conforming to their families, or their parents, or their friends. Christian faith is communal, but it does not demand conformity. They are here today because they have made a decision. So, this is not about conforming. But confirmation is also not about knowing everything about God or about ourselves. Faith is a life-long journey, always with room to grow.
So let me say to them, today, what I would also say to all of you:
On this journey of faith, be seekers of holiness.
Be seekers of what is really real at the center of things.
Have reverence for, and find God, in the most ordinary things in life.
You will find that it is always more holy and wonderful than you could imagine. Amen.