Mark 9: 33-37
James 4:
1-12
Confirmation
Sunday
Welcome!
9/24/06
I spent my childhood and youth on ice skates.
My mom had
been in the Ice Follies and was a fabulous skater. She took her talent and shared it through
teaching ice skating in
I was good
at skating. It was thrilling to be a
really good Pom Pom Pollaway player. I
could zig and zag and move on those skates, so I was usually one of the last
ones caught. I was also faced with that
classic Minnesota Scandinavian culture dilemma.
I could do spins and jumps and wanted to do them but what if someone
thought I was showing off?
So I was
aware of my talent and a little ashamed of it but oh, I loved to skate. Sometimes, when
And then, I
went to college. My skates somehow got
dusty and then lost. I cultivated a
career, I had babies, I got busy. And I
forgot what it felt like to be out and moving freely over the surface of frozen
water. Free and flying.
Two months
ago, for my 49th Birthday, my husband, who had heard me talk with
longing about my days on the ice, bought me a most wonderful gift.
He bought
me in line skates, or rollerblades. We
live close to the lakes and I had been watching in line skaters and he watched
me watch them and so voila, skates. For
me.
I got the requisite safety gear, and I put those skates on.
And I love it! After
the first time around the lake, I relaxed into what my body knows how to do.
And I
remember how it feels to fly. To be
free. To work with my body and the toys
on my feet and to feel the air and to be moving fast and to be free.
How could I have forgotten how much I need that
feeling? Why had I denied myself this
pleasure?
So, you may
be wondering, what has my forgotten and remembered joy in flying to do with you
on this day when you confirm your faith?
It’s this.
On this day
you affirm before us that you know the love of God to be real. You say “yes” to being a follower of
Jesus. You agree that the teachings he
shared have the power to create grace and justice and healing in your life and
the life of this world we share.
Today, I hope
you will allow yourself to fully feel the love in this place. I hope you can feel the way that the people
in this sanctuary are holding you close to their hearts. You are such miracles and we are so grateful
to share life with you. I hope you can
feel the joy we feel in knowing that you are willing to do the hard work it is
to live the teachings of Jesus. That you
care. That you are here. That you are willing to join us.
On this day
I hope you can feel the love that your Sunday school teachers and your youth
leaders and your mentors and your pastor and your parents and your family and
each person here feels for you. I hope
you can let that in through the pores of your soul.
Don’t forget that love.
Please, don’t
let that love get dusty or left behind like an old pair of skates as you go
about creating your lives.
Let that
love be the center point of your life.
The love of God for you. Your
openness to that love. And the love you
will find when you walk into a church or any community of faith when you go to
college or to live in another place.
When you are away from home and making choices for yourself about what
to do with a Sunday morning.
As you go
through life, I pray that you never
forget what it is to fly. To feel the
breath of God holding you up and blessing you as you go through life. What you feel this morning is gift for you
all days.
Joseph
Campbell says that the way to fullness of life is to find the things that bring
you bliss and steep yourself in them.
Your life will bear fruit. The
world will rejoice.
And holding you always as you journey is the things we
testify to on this day. Never forget
them.
You are
loved.
By God.
Into
partnership with Jesus. A partnership
where all are welcome.
By this
church.
Into
partnership with us as we too seek grace and the reminder that we are called to
be a people who never forget what it is to fly.
Amen