September 26, 2004

Confirmation Sunday

Rev. Elizabeth Macaulay

Psalm 1

Many of you have wondered – all of you? – what this business of being Confirmed is all about. You know you somehow have to do it, but really, what does it all mean?

I hope it will take you your whole life to answer the “what does it all mean” question.

What we, your church hope, is that the process of going through Confirmation has given you a network of roots to ground yourself and hold you as you seek to live into meaning in your lives.

What sorts of vital life learning do those roots offer? I’ll share just a few.

You have experienced the grounding of the sometimes difficult task of learning to unfold and grow in community.

You have learned that being church means interacting with people wildly different than yourself. You have gotten into buses and slept in tents and prayed with and gnashed your teeth with people you might not seek out as friends or family. But through the mixed gift of being thrown together in church, you have learned some of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Following Jesus means seeking to see God in all people. God shows up in the most interesting and unlikely places and through some of the most unlikely people – even including you.

Being Jesus followers in a group means learning to let people be who they are: messed up, flawed, glorious and human. Because you are those things too.

I have watched you learn and practice patience, compassion, and grace with each other. I pray you remember that grounding, always.

You have learned that questions do not make lightning bolts fly or the earth stand still in shock. You have been honest about your faith questions. You have trusted each other and this community enough to give voice to your thoughts about faith and life.

You have known, of course, that we all want you to know this way of Jesus as a way of stupendous love, life, and beauty. You have also known that saying “yes” on this day needed to be your decision. You have honored the process by entering into it fully. When you weren’t sure about answers, you thought and spoke and sought out the input of others.

The grounding of wisdom seeking will hold you well in the years to come. I pray that you continue to question and sort and seek wisdom. And, I pray that you turn to your church, wherever that church is, and expect that the community is there to hold you when you are feeling doubt and the sometimes fear that questions can bring.

The last root image I want to leave you with is the deepest of all. You are grounded, like a tree planted by a stream of water, in the ongoing strength of God’s love for each of you. That love is strong enough to be leaf-popping life. That love is the call in your being to be all that you can be with the precious gift of who you are. That love is the sense you have that life is not quite right and you want to join in creating grace in your world.

I want to share with you a visual image of what I am talking about. My daughter Leah just got back from being gone for four months. She brought back for me this gift. She found it in Germany and she could not have known that the image is the one I carry of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

The image of the tree of life is what I want you to remember, both when you are seeking ground and leaf popping life. The roots of the tree are sunk deep into the water and muck of life. That is our being in God.

From that ground, amazing growth, possibility and life are possible.

I pray that you remember that you are grounded in God and meant to be dancing with the possibility and growth power of life.

Please remember that we are here for you, always. By “we”, I mean the community of Richfield United Methodist Church, but I also mean “”we” the Body of Christ found in churches and people of faith who are your family wherever you may find yourself.

What you are saying “yes” to goes beyond this place and beyond you. It is choosing to become one with the life beat of promise. It is being willing to be a part of the glory of God – to become fully alive. Thanks be to God for the gift of God’s love and your grounding in it. Amen