“...everyone who loves
the parent loves the child”
Scripture Lesson: 1 John 5: 1-5
Dr. Matthew S. Brown
There are certain things that
you just have to check off of the list in life; events, experiences, action
items that you perceive to be more about endurance than enjoyment, more about
obligation than opportunity. Life’s
“to-do list” includes items to which you don’t necessarily look forward; items
which bring to mind phrases such as “If I must” and “I guess I have to”. The list varies from person to person, but
whether your list is written down with actual check marks or is just this
nagging little beeping in the back of your brain, it’s probably there.
So, what’s on your list? The vaccine that periodically looms on the
horizon (check). Your first day of
kindergarten. Your first night away from
home. Braces. End of Grade tests. The first time you call a girl or guy on the
phone. Geometry. The driver’s license test. College Applications. Job interviews. Vegetables.
The miraculous but nonetheless body shocking experience that is
childbirth. Changing diapers. Tax returns.
Insurance forms.
What’s on your list? At one time, one of the things on my “If I
must/I guess I gotta” list was taking the kids to Disney World. To be honest I went into it viewing it as more
rite of passage than vacation. I was
thinking - baking on the asphalt in long lines under the blazing
As the boys were entering
school the whole Disney thing was looming larger and larger on the “If I must,
I guess I gotta” list. But we had the
best time.
No, it’s not the
Life has a way of surprising
you that way sometimes. You go into
something thinking, “Well, let’s just get it over with,” but in the midst of
the experience you find it to be not just meaningful but joyful and grace
gorged.
In fact, you may even find it
to have profound implications for your life.
Last August 17 students and their parents along with some faithful
church members gathered in the welcoming, restorative, and bucolic setting that
is the Hewitt Lodge to kick off this year’s Confirmation Class.
The setting was beautiful,
the company was good, the food was sumptuous, but there were more than a few
apprehensive faces around the cabin; more than a few “what am I doing
here?/let’s just get this thing over with” expressions sitting in that room. And that was just the people who had
volunteered to be mentors. No,
seriously, the students at that point weren’t sure what this whole Confirmation
thing was about and their demeanor was much different than if they were
entering the Coliseum to see U2.
It wasn’t so long ago. I still have the memory that the prospect of
the Confirmation process failed to make my heart flutter with joyous
anticipation, also. Certainly, Confirmation
was on my “if I must/I guess I gotta” list.
Confirmation is that part of the faith journey where we claim the faith
as our own, but those of us who grew up in the church remember that an
important ingredient in that faith profession was the pushing and prodding of
the parent/enforcer behind us.
Today (at the 11:00 service)
we will mark the end of that Confirmation process as those students profess
their faith and are welcomed into full and active membership in the
church. Some have already experienced
the serendipity of enjoying and finding great meaning in that which they thought
they would have to endure. And yes,
there may be those who are thinking, “I’ve endured it. I’ve survived it. Check!”
Certainly for me, it took a few years for those confirmation
proclamations to meaningly solidify in my own heart.”
But our mixed appropriations
of what we have been fed in Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, Confirmation,
Bible Study, Women’s Circles, Men’s Prayer Breakfasts, and countless preacher
ramblings do nothing to diminish what we are confirming on this day and what we
confirm each day we place our seats in sanctuary pews or on padded worship hall
chairs - God’s love for his children manifested in the children’s’ love for God
and one another.
John writes, “Everyone who
believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everybody who loves
the parent loves the child.”
In ways that we recognize and
acknowledge and in ways of which we have not yet become aware, God’s love is
claiming us and God’s love is being confirmed to us. So, when we rise to profess our faith, to
claim the faith as our own, that is not an achievement but an acknowledgment of
the many voices of the many people who have revealed the love of Christ to
us.
William Willimon recalls
being at a gathering where those in attendance were giving testimonies about
their religious experiences. He says,
“One man rose and said, ‘I was a Methodist for thirty-eight years before
anybody told me about Jesus.’”
Reflecting on the statement
Willimon wrote, “I cannot understand the attitude which I am afraid this man meant
to express. I am afraid that he was
speaking as if he had just begun to hear the real truth about God. I wanted every person who endured him in all
of his years growing up in church school, every preacher who had tried to
preach to him, every Christian who had tried to tell him about Jesus, to rise
up and ask, ‘What do you think we were trying to get into your head for all
those thirty-eight years?’ All that time
other Christians had tried to tell him and show him who he was. Perhaps they did it poorly, but they
tried. It may take some people longer to
get it into their heads than others. But
whenever one wakes up to his or her identity in Christ, it always comes as a gift
- given by God who is the story and by God’s people who have told us that story,
so that it could become our story. We
never cease being dependent upon the baptizers.” (Willimon, Remember Who You Are)
Thus, our entrance through
that door this day or any Sunday is an unspoken thankful tribute to the many
faithful saints who have shown us some glimpse of God’s love. Our entrance through that door is a testimony
to the truth of John’s words: “every one
who loves the parent (referring to God), loves the child.” We are here because someone, somewhere has
shown us God’s love or sparked in our hearts questions about God.
For six years now our own
Connie Gragnani has passionately, lovingly, and faithfully sought to create an
environment that gives a 13 or 14 year old the space in which to wrestle with
God. And what a gift that is. To be able to ask and wrestle with the
questions; to be given the time to think about the implications of the
statements we affirm about God and Christ; to be told again and again that you
are loved; to be told again and again that life and faith are not prizes to be
earned but gifts to be opened.
For years to come, former
confirmation students will have “aha!” moments spurred by what happened in the
confines of Connie’s classroom. We know
Connie loves the parent because we have seen how she has loved his
children.
Think about the people whose
love for the parent is seen in your presence here today.
I think of Nancy Collett, a
woman, a lady in the best sense of the word who grew up understanding that she
was loved by God, understanding that church was a place where she was
loved. She grew up a child of the
Bernhardt family, that great Presbyterian family of Lenoir and Morganton who
have certainly done their part in literally furnishing
Nurtured in the love of God
and by the love of the church she grew in grace and into being the one who
would let others know they were loved.
All the children called her “Uh Oh!” a name bequeathed on her by one of
her own, and I swear to you I’ve never seen anyone, teacher, preacher,
professor, or saint who could get kids more excited about the list of Israel’s
kings or the Shorter Catechism. I’ll
never forget the day my son put me to shame as he tested me on my knowledge of
the line of Davidic kingship. My own
children’s faith may well owe more to “Uh Oh!” than to the preacher they were
destined to endure as they grew.
I think of Doug Veazy. Now, there are many intriguing vocations out
there, but imagine what Doug does for a living.
He is a dentist in a Mental Hospital.
Can you imagine the compassion he possesses? You know the anxiety we experience as we go
to sit in that chair. But to have the
ability to calm the fears of those whose lives are plagued by debilitating
fears. That’s compassion. And Doug radiated compassion. He always has had a special love for the
children of the church. I remember one
evening at a church family dinner, a young girl, Martha Sheppard, bursting
through the door as her family arrived and making a bee line for Doug. He gleefully shouted her name as she ran into
his arms. He picked her up and twirled
her around in the air as she just giggled and giggled. And I remember thinking, that’s what it is
all about. The love of God drawing us
together to demonstrate our love for him in loving one another.
“Everyone who loves the parent
loves the child.”
Today 17 youth will profess a
belief that they will claim as their own.
They don’t fully understand what all that means yet, but they’ll grow
into it because the church that has loved them will continue to love them and
in loving them will reveal the love of God to them.
“Everyone who loves the
parent loves the child.”
I challenge you sometime
today to take the time to enjoy the memory of those who have revealed some
glimpse of God’s love to you. Allow that
memory to challenge you to offer that gift to another of God’s children.
A generation ago one of the
most respected voices in preaching was Dr. John Redhead who at one time was the
pastor of Second Presbyterian Church, a congregation that eventually joined
with another to become Covenant Presbyterian.
Ernest Hunter shared with me a sermon of John Redhead who at the age of
94 preached at the 50th anniversary celebration of Covenant Presbyterian
Church.
In the sermon, Dr. Redhead
mentioned the two words the congregation most wants to hear from their
preacher, “And finally.” Well, also
during the sermon he pulled out a letter he received a day or two after he had
made his profession of faith. He said he
and some other boys on the spur of the moment decided to join the church. They told their Sunday School teacher who
told the preacher who then called them into his office and talked with them
about four or five minutes and that was the extent of their confirmation
process. They joined that day and a
couple of days later he received this letter.
It was dated:
My dear boy,
I want to tell you how happy
I am that you’ve joined the church and become a soldier for Jesus Christ.
He then challenged the
congregation as I would challenge you.
Pick a name from the Confirmation Class and go home and write them a
letter. Tell them what the church has
meant to you. Tell them you’re glad
they’re a part of God’s family here. It
will make them feel glad to know that you and they are members of the family
that is the church.
And as Dr. Redhead said, they
may just pull out that letter some eighty years from now and call your name
blessed.
Everyone who loves the parent
loves the child. You are here because
someone shared that love with you. Who
will experience that love and know the love of the church through you? Amen.
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