Last Sunday we recognized our
graduating high school students. Today we are receiving this
year's confirmation class. Both of these events are important
milestones in the lives of young people. I remember these and
other similar events in my own life. There was a sense of accomplishment
as well as wonderment about what the next plateau of life would
bring.
In our Scriptures for today Jesus has reached certain milestones
or levels of accomplishment and is attempting to prepare His
followers for what would be coming next. John 17 is for me one
of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard.
Jesus is praying for His disciples. Jesus begins by asking
for God's powerful presence. He shares with His Father
that He has taught His disciples everything they need to know
the chief of which is that eternal life comes from knowing God.
Knowing here is defined as being in an intimate relationship,
in this case, with God.
Jesus asks the Father to protect us and to enable us to be
one. Jesus asks that you and I be transformed and made holy by
God's Truth. Finally, Jesus asks God to allow the love
that God has for Jesus to be in us as well.
It is a straight-forward request. Jesus wants us to be protected
from evil, to receive eternal life from knowing God, to be filled
with God's love and to be able to live in unity. Can you
think of a time when anyone has ever asked more for you?
Our second lesson for today is found in the very last chapter
of the Bible in Revelation 22. In it Jesus says He is coming
again and very soon. Jesus then issues this invitation: "Let
everyone who hears my voice come to me. Let everyone who is thirsty
come to me. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a
gift."
As I think about our graduates and our confirmands I have wondered
to myself whether or not we have taught them everything we know.
Have we taught them truth? Granted our time with the confirmands
is meant to continue for the next several years. I recall meeting
with the class of young people who are now graduating. It was
not long after I had come here to be your pastor.
Youth group leaders and Sunday school teachers were about at
the end of their patience. The kids seemingly were only interested
in goofing off. I asked the other adults to leave the room and
suggested to those remaining that there was a better way for
us to get along and that I was expecting it to happen.
To their credit the kids responded and went on to demonstrate
outstanding leadership and development as they worshiped and
went on mission trips. Some served as youth elders. They did
mystery dinners and shared during talent nights. They have also
shared their amazing musical talents on many occasions. In a
word, they developed into wonderful young adults whom I am sorry
to see leave us. However, I am confident of what they will be
like wherever they go.
They, like generations before them, will have to make difficult
choices because the world in which we live always has so many
alternatives. I can remember going to seminary as a somewhat
naive young person. I had pretty much accepted what my parents,
church, teachers and my community had taught me about truth.
I do not think any of these people were lying to me.
However, the reality of the world into which I was thrust did
not seem to align well with what I had previously learned. The
United States of America, my beloved nation, was not always right.
Its leaders were not always led by altruistic principles. People,
including Christians, did not always love one another is spite
of being commanded to do that. In truth, Christians were and
are capable of every injustice known to humanity.
Other cultures and religions and governments have much to offer
if we can get past our prejudice and learn to see things from
their perspective as well as our own. Human life is always sacred
regardless of the circumstances.
I wonder how the truth we have attempted to share with our
young people will stand up as they begin to face the reality
of life outside the environment of their parent's home
and the community of our church family.
I recall the events of the sixties. We were in Vietnam. For
the first time America was in a conflict that could not be won.
At home we were involved in a major battle for civil rights;
the very rights my teachers had taught me were available to all
Americans. Presidents and other public figures were being assassinated.
The drug culture was springing to life and with the advent of
the birth control pill all of the rules of human sexuality seemed
to be changing. Women were rightfully being allowed to use their
talent and intellect in the workplace outside the home. However,
this was leading to changes in typical understanding of the roles
of husbands and wives and of parents.
It was a very confusing time and it was easy to be cynical
and skeptical. It was easy to throw away the so-called moral
values of previous generations. It was easy to drop out of community
and become concerned only with oneself. And, that is exactly
what many did.
Today we are involved with terrorism. The rules for how our
enemies will attack us have changed. Our own values seemingly
have changed as well as we hear more and more of prisoner abuse.
Within the church as well as our society we are once again involved
in a battle as to who rightfully belongs. This time the issue
is not of color but of sexual preference. Marriage as an institution
is still in flux. More couples are simply living together and
the divorce rate remains high. Jobs are being sent to other countries.
The drug culture is still in high gear.
I suppose we could say these are confusing times. Will the
truth we have shared with our young people be sufficient to help
them live in a future that seems uncertain? Jesus' prayer
still holds today. Jesus wants us to live in unity and to have
the love of God within us so that we can share it with the world.
Regardless of what the world offers or does to us Jesus wants
us to know that He is with us.
And the word from Revelation still is true. Revelation was
written in a confusing time where Christians were being severely
persecuted and tested. Jesus promised in the midst of this to
come again and bring the gift of eternal life with Him for those
who desire it. Regardless of how crazy our world becomes God
promises to ultimately prevail and invites and encourages us
to never forget that. In the meantime, we are commanded to live
our lives in the love, unity, peace and truth of God. |
