8th Sunday after Pentecost [Pr. 9] July 6, 2008 “Series A”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, you came among us in the person of your Son, Jesus the Christ, to reveal your will for our lives, and through your grace, to redeem us from sin and death. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, open our hearts to embrace your Son in faith, and grant us humility and strength, that we might learn to live as faithful disciples of Jesus, sons and daughters of your heavenly kingdom. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
As I have mentioned before, the pastors from the congregations involved in our confir-camp program meet at least four or five days a year, in order to plan for our up-coming camp. The truth is, although Lutherlyn staff provide a great deal of activities and oversight for our youth, we pastors contract for those services to be provided to support our program on behalf of our congregations. Our week at camp is not a Lutherlyn program, but our own.
Of course, the basic structure for the services that Lutherlyn staff provide has long been established, which means that, although there are various groups conducting confirmation programs at the camp, the fee for these services are the same. We all expect food service, shelter, and staff to be cabin counselors, and to enable our youth to experience the various fun activities Lutherlyn has to offer. And we have found, for the most part, that when we arrive at camp, the Lutherlyn staff have been very willing to work with us to see that our program has a successful week.
What we have found in our morning meetings while at camp, between pastors and Lutherlyn staff, is that our counselors are just as concerned about what our kids are learning in class, as they are about seeing that they have a lot of fun. Our ministry is truly a team effort, as we seek to live in community with one another as disciples of Christ.
But sometimes, in spite of all of our plans, training, and meetings, some things just arise that seem to disrupt the way we hoped things would go. This year, several issues came up that presented quite a challenge to our program. We had issues of disrespect for the authority of the pastors and counselors. We had issues in which some students actually defied the authority of Scripture, telling us that God had to be wrong.
And for the first time in any of our pastor’s recollection, we had two students in our confir-camp who were parents – not to the same child. One 3rd year student was the mother of an infant, who was adopted. The other was an enrichment student who was the father of a child whom he is attempting to raise with the mother, although they are not married.
Quite frankly, during this year’s camp, many of the discussions among us pastors and lay leaders centered on the following themes: 1) Is this just an unusual year, with the parents and such, or is this a true signal that times are changing? 2) Have our youth really lost respect for the church, even the Scriptures and God, or is it just an issue between certain pastors and their kids? 3) And finally, as in every conversation that we have, how and what can we do to address these problems?
I do not have the answers to these questions, at least at this moment. But I have, and will continue to invest a lot of time and thought to re-thinking how I might better reach “my kids” with the truth of the Christian faith, the truth of the Scriptures – that we are, by our nature, sinful, and in need of God forgiving grace, which we receive through our faith in Christ’s death and resurrection.
And I’m sure that as we pastors meet for our evaluation meeting in late August, we will spend considerable time discussing our curriculum, and how we present this material, as it relates to faith development. For there is a difference between having an intellectual understanding about God and the Scriptures, and having a living relationship with God as a disciple of Christ.
Is a person ready for confirmation simply because they have attended all of the classes at confir-camp, and met the attendance requirements for my Sunday school class? Are they ready for confirmation if they are able to pass all of the quizzes that I give them, and intellectually understand all of the material that they have studied? I don’t think so!
Confirmation is a rite in which a person affirms the faith of their baptism, affirms that they have been redeemed by God through Christ’s death and resurrection, and wish to assume responsibility for their own discipleship. Faith is not a matter of intellectual fact. Faith is not a matter of being able to know the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer – to say them by rote and even know what they mean. This knowledge can be helpful to our faith development, but only if it informs and awakens our faith, our trust in God’s redemption.
When I was in seminary, I was afforded the opportunity to work as a weekend program supervisor at a residence for mentally retarded adults. One evening, our youngest resident came to me and asked if I could help her become confirmed. She had recently attended her parent’s church, where several young persons had confirmed their faith, and she said that she really wanted to know more about God and Jesus, to become a good Christian.
I arranged for Wendy to meet with her pastor, who, with my help, worked with her for several months and decided that she could be confirmed. His decision certainly was not based on Wendy’s intellectual knowledge of the catechism or Scripture, but was based on her trust in God, and his gift of redemption in Jesus the Christ.
On the day of her confirmation, Wendy was ecstatic. We had a party for her at the residence, and she proudly stood up and told everybody that
was a Christian, that she knew God loved her and would take care of her for the rest of her life. And she added that she would try hard to live her life in a way that would please God. It was a day to celebrate the grace of God.
Six months later, Dr. Delton Gleebe, the dean of our seminary, presided over Wendy’s funeral. This, too, was a day to celebrate the grace of God, who had revealed his kingdom to Wendy, inspiring her to live the rest of her life trusting that in Christ, God loved her, forgave her, and was still taking care of her, even after her death.
But the thing that I remember the most from that experience is the fact that the rest of the residents, Wendy’s mentally impaired colleagues, all believed and trusted Dr. Gleebe’s message, that Wendy was still in God’s loving care, without a lot of questions. Yet Dr. Gleebe had to meet several more times with the staff of Wendy’s residence, to help us more intelligent people process our grief in light of God’s gracious love, for having lost our youngest resident to a rare form of cancer.
With this in mind, listen to our Lord’s prayer from our Gospel lesson this morning. “All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
This is not a summons to the wise and intelligent to learn great facts and information about the being we call God. It is not a summons to learn about the precepts of God’s law and his will for our lives. It is rather an invitation to enter into living and trusting relationship with God, through our faith and trust in Jesus the Christ, who embraces us as children of God’s kingdom.
The problem with being wise and intelligent is that we often rely more on our intellectual prowess to direct and understand our lives, than we do walking humbly in relationship with God, and trusting him to lead us as servants of his kingdom. Yet by his grace, God has called us all to join with him in fellowship this morning, to hear his word and receive his forgiveness for our arrogance, as we come to be nourished at his table of grace.
May God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, use this time in fellowship with him, to redirect our thoughts and strengthen our faith, that we, like Wendy, might humble ourselves to entrust our lives to God’s loving care.
Amen.
