Sermon of the Week

And the Israelites no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the Land of Canaan that year.

    May and June are months of change.  This is the time of year that young men and women graduate from high school and college. Many graduates begin their first jobs. Young couples stand in the front of churches and promise to care for each other for the rest of their lives.  Many families wait until the end of the school year to move to new homes.  There are many retirement parties at this time of the year, as people want free time to enjoy the summer.  Recruits head for basic training.  Today we will break ground for our building project that will bring great change.     

    All of these events indicate the end of old patterns and relationships and the beginning of new ways of living.  Most of the time we human beings do not like change, yet change is at the very heart of reality.

    In the city of Ephesus, almost six hundred years before Paul would visit, Heraclitus taught that the primary truth about existence is change.  He said that nothing remains the same.  Everything is in a process of constant and eternal change.  Heraclitus is the person who made the well known statement that you cannot step into the same river twice, for by the second step the river has moved, so that neither the river or you are the same.

    In the last one hundred years change has become even more of an issue as the rate of change in society has increased.  My Grandfather was born in a small village in Sweden in 1884.  The environment that he grew up in was not unlike that of his great-grandparents in the 1700's.  He lived in a wood heated home without indoor plumbing.  The mode of transportation was horse and buggy.  There was little communication with the outside world.  Some world news would take weeks to reach his village.

    By the time of his death in 1977, my Grandfather lived to see people riding in cars, flying in jets and walking on the moon.  Telephones, radio, television and satellites enhanced communication.  The changes in medicine are more that we can even begin to fathom.

    I have often felt that no generation will experience the kind of changes that my Grandfather lived through during his lifetime.  Yet we are told by theTofflers in their book Future Shock that the rate of change will continue to increase.  This means that each generation will see even greater changes during their lifetimes.

    As human beings we are ambivalent about change.  Sometimes is seems to be progress and at other times it feels that everything is going downhill. I know that I am resistant to change. I believe that this is true of most of us.  Change can feel like a real threat to us.  For at the same time that we are forced to deal with all the political, social, moral and economic changes around us, we also have to deal with the changes that happen to us as individuals.  We face major changes just by being alive.

    We begin life with a great change.  We are thrust out of the warm secure safety of our mother's womb into the light and noise of this world.  We have to face the change of going to school and adjusting to the teachers.  We have to go through that time called puberty when we have no ideas who or what we are.  We leave home for college or work and must learn to be independent.  We lose jobs and obtain new ones.  We may get married and learn to live with another person.  Many people have to adjust to the reality of being a parent.  We grow older and we may lose a spouse through divorce or death and we learn to live with a new reality.  We then grow older and have to face the last great change which is our own death.

    With the world around us in a state of constant flux and our own life also changing how are we to cope?  Change can seem so overwhelming that it threatens to destroy us.  How can God help us in the midst of change?

    In our Old Testament lesson for this morning we find the people of Israel facing a time of a great change.  After being in the wilderness for forty years they have just crossed over the Jordan into the Promised Land.  The crossing of the Jordan meant a multitude of changes for the Hebrews.  They had for forty years lived as nomads wandering from oasis to oasis, now they would begin to live a more settled existence.  They moved in search for grazing land and water for their sheep.  The care of sheep was what they knew.  But now they would have to change.  They were entering a fertile land which would have to be farmed.  Their economic life would change as they moved towards a settled life in the land of Canaan.

    While they were in the wilderness they were kept isolated from other cultures and religions, but on this side of Jordan they would live cheek to jowl with the people of the land.  They would be exposed to foreign practices and a variety of Gods would compete for their loyalty. 

    The crossing of the Jordan meant dramatic changes for the people of Israel.  I believe that their experience can teach us how to meet the changes that we encounter in our lives.

    The first thing, which Joshua had the people do after crossing the Jordan was, remember the past.

    As soon as they entered the Promised Land Joshua did two things.  First he circumcised all the males.  If you will recall the first covenant was made with Abraham.  In that covenant God had promised to make a great nation and lead them to a promised land. The sign of the covenant was circumcision.  During the time in the wilderness most of the males had not been marked by the covenant made with Abraham.  Joshua circumcised everyone to make them a part of that covenant with God.

    The second thing the people did was to celebrate Passover.  Passover was the celebration of their deliverance from Egypt.  It was a meal which recalled how God called Moses is to lead them to freedom.  The plagues that were visited upon Egypt were remembered.  They brought to memory how the angel of death had passed over their homes as the first born of Egypt were being killed.  They ate unleavened bread to remember their hasty departure from Egypt. 

    Thus before starting their life in the new land, Joshua called upon the people to remember their past.  In circumcision they were reminded of their identity as the people of God and in Passover they were reminded of all God had done for them in the past.  In order to begin living in the future, the people of Israel rooted themselves in the past.

    If we are to face change we too need to be rooted in our common past.  We have two sacraments, which are similar to those, which Joshua performed.  The sign or our identity is Baptism.  In baptism we are marked as children of God.  We are reborn into God's family.  The primary definition of a Christian is one who has been baptized.  Every service of Baptism is our reaffirmation of our identity as the people of God.  It reminds us who we are.  That God loves us and has chosen us as his own.

    It is no coincidence that Jesus initiated the Lord's Supper at a Passover Meal.  For the Jews the greatest thing God had done for them was to deliver them from slavery in Egypt.  When we celebrate communion we are reminded of the greatest thing that Jesus has done for us.  We remember that his body was broken and his blood shed for us on the cross.  It is through his sacrifice on the cross that we receive forgiveness and the hope of eternal life.  The Lord's Supper is often called the Eucharist.  Eucharist comes from the Greek word for thanksgiving.  When we participate in the Lord's Supper we give thanks for all that God has done for us in the past.

    When we remember the past we are reminded of our identity as Christians and God gives us the strength to face the uncertain future.  When we receive strength from the past we can greet the change with confidence.  We are to face the future by being rooted in the past.

    After the celebration of Passover the people of Israel learned a second great truth.  They learned that God would provide for them in new ways in new circumstances.  The way in which God relates to us changes over time.

    When the Hebrews escaped from Egypt, they found themselves in the wilderness.  They were afraid they would starve to death.  They complained to Moses.  God provided for their need.  They found manna on the ground each day.  All during their time in the wilderness they were fed by the manna, which they gathered each morning.

    But after entering the Promised Land we are told that the manna ceased and the now the people were to eat from the crops, which they planted and tilled.

    I believe that this passage about manna teaches us that we should not expect God to relate to us in the same way all our lives.  God is with us each step of our lives.  He seeks to guide and comfort us each step of the way.  Yet God will not teach us in the same way.  At times God will reveal himself to us through nature.  We feel his love and presence mediated through the created order.  At other times God will be most real to us through the study of Scripture.  There can be periods of our lives that each verse of the Bible seems to be addressed directly to our hearts.  There are other times prayer seems to be most alive to us.  While some time prayer can seem dry and our prayers seem to drift no higher than the ceiling, there are other times when God seems most intimate in prayer.   There are other times that God mediates his presence through other people.  We can experience the divine love through men and women.

    The point we must recognize is that as the circumstances of our lives change, God feeds us in new ways.  When one avenue to God seems to close, he is opening another.  This can take work. It was simple for the people of Israel to gather the manna and eat; it took more effort to tend the crops in the Promised Land.  Yet the fruit of the land was more filling and tasty than the food in the wilderness.

    David Reed was a young minister in the Church of Scotland who served as the chaplain to the Royal Family when they were in Scotland.   His life was turned upside down in 1939.  In September of that year he was invited to preach at Balmoral, a week later Britain was at war and less than a year later he was in a German prisoner of war camp where he was to spend five long years.

    In a book written several years ago he told of how he faced this dramatic change in his life and the lives of his fellow prisoners.  One of the first things he did as chaplain in the camps was to begin as normal a church life as possible.  He and others held worship services and group studies and celebrated the Lord's Supper.  They needed to be reminded that even as prisoners they were still God's children.  In maintaining as normal a church life as possible they reclaimed the past.

    But Reed found that it was not just business as usual.  In the camps he found God at work in his life in new ways.  He came into contact with men who never came to the churches he served.  Through dialogue and living together, he leaned about his own nature.  He had always had a strong faith, but it has been largely an intellectual faith.  In the camp Reed learned God could care for him directly and powerfully.  He told the following story.


    God had provided for David Reed in a new way in his new and difficult circumstances.

    Friends, you and I are going to face great changes in our lives.  Change is a fact of human life.  Some of the changes will be wonderful and we will greet them with open arms, while other changes will be devastating to us.

    As we face the future, remember we are children of God.  May we take part in worship and the Sacraments in order to be rooted in the past.  May these roots in Christ give us strength to carry on.

    May we also trust our Lord to provide for us in new ways to meet the new realities of life.  The same loving Father, who has cared for us in the past, will be with us no matter what lies ahead.  May our hearts and minds be open for his new gifts to us.

And the Israelites no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the Land of Canaan that year.

The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me. So he divided his property between them.”

    My wife claims that if I went to the hospital and had a bone scan, the doctors would find just a minute trace of sentiment in my body.  Thus the celebration of Mother's and Father’s Day are not days it is always easy for me to preach.  I doubt there are more saccharine, syrupy holidays in America.   Just listen to the songs or read the cards associated with this day.
 
    The redeeming feature of these days is that they are quintessential observances of Family love.  On these days we remember the bond of love between the generations.  We remember the importance of parental love.

    The love found in families is the most natural of human loves.  The affection between parents and children is the most common of loves.  The Bible often uses images of parental love to describe God's love for us.   I believe that it is no accident that the most common themes in western art include the infant Jesus being held by Mary or pictures of the Holy Family. 

    The affection between parents and children is the most prevalent love in the world. The survival of our species is connected with the care of mother and fathers for their offspring.  The powerless young need protection and nurture.

    But like all of nature, family love is not unaffected by sin.  Family love is also subject to corruption and perversion.   Parental love can be a cause of pain as well as joy.  It can be destructive as well as life giving.

    There was an episode of  Law and Order on A@E, which demonstrated the destructive aspects of parental love.

    A young woman had taken an overdose of drugs.  It was discovered in the investigation that her Mother was a frustrated actress.  She had become pregnant at 17 and had to give up her hopes for a show business career.  She pushed her daughter to succeed.  From the time she was three years old she was required to take dancing classes three times a week.  Later she took acting classes.

    As she approached twenty her Mother pushed her into making porno movies in an attempt to get her noticed by Hollywood. The daughter did not want to do the movies, yet she could not deal with rejecting her mother's wishes.  She dealt with this conflict by taking drugs which lead to her death.

    Her mother was tried for contributing to her death.  The most telling portion of the trial occurred when the mother was under cross-examination.  She proclaimed her innocence by telling all she had done for her daughter.  She concluded by saying, "She was my life!"  Ben Stone, the District Attorney, replied, "No, she was your daughter."

    That is the key secret of parental love.  Our children are not our life, they are our children.  Our children are not us; they are gifts to us from God.

    The love, which binds parents and children together, needs to be controlled and shaped by the love of God.   The kind of love we need in our families is found in the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

    The Doctrine of the Trinity points to a great mystery.  God is three distinct persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and yet one.  There are three persons bound together in love.  One in three and three in one.   We all realize the unity found in the Godhead but we do not always recognize the separate realities of the three persons of God.

    The divine love teaches us above all to recognize separateness.  In the Trinity there are three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  They are real persons.  Love means recognizing the reality of others and yet preserving the bond of unity.

    All too often we believe that family unity and love means being the same.   We so often fail to realize that other members of our families are not extensions of ourselves.

    One can see this clearly at little league games.  There is always at least one father who is yelling at or cheering his son like it was the seventh game of the World Series.  It is clear that these fathers are in reality cheering for themselves.  They are vicariously at bat trying to get a hit.  They are reliving their lives through their son.

    A love rooted in the Trinity realizes that unity comes from caring for the other and building up another who is different from you.  A Child and a parent are unique persons.  The unity of love matures in respect for the uniqueness of others.

    This is precisely the message of our Gospel Lesson for today.  This is the story  that we call the prodigal son.  One of the most remarkable parts of this story occurs at the beginning when the Father lets his son leave.  The Father loves his son so much he allows him to seek his own destiny even though at first this includes a great rejection of the Father’s love.
   
    Children are not putty in our hands, they are unique individuals created in the image of God.  A healthy family love begins with the knowledge that our children, our parents, our spouses have been given to us by our Heavenly Father.  They are gracious gifts that he has given into our care.  They are not our property.  They are not to be mirror images of us.  We are not to live our lives through them.  They are our family given to us to nurture and through whom we receive love.
    I believe that the only way for family love to remain strong and life giving is when the divine love dwells in us.  It is God's love which molds our human affections into his instrument.

    Ernest Boyer tells the story of his Grandfather.  His Grandfather was a lay preacher who loved God with all his heart.  But he also loved others with a love which respected who they were.  He shares how his Grandfather dealt with his rejecting God in these words:


    This old man knew the secret of family love.  It is a love rooted in the heart of God.  A love that recognizes that our children, grandchildren, brother and sisters, mother and fathers are gifts to us from God.  Individuals who are to be respected and loved.

    A love shaped by the Trinity respects the uniqueness of each person while maintaining the bond of love.  This is a Father’s love.

After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.  All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.


    We know very little about Jesus’ early life.   At Christmas we focus on the stories given to us by Matthew and Luke that tell of a manger, shepherds and magi.  This short narrative found only in these two Gospels is all we know about Jesus until his appearance at the Jordan to be baptized by John at the age of about thirty.  That is with the exception of a short story from Luke’s Gospel.

    We learn that at the age of twelve Jesus went with his parents to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of Passover.  Mary and Joseph assumed he was with some of his friends as part of a large group of pilgrims setting off for home.  They later discovered Jesus was nowhere to be found.  They rushed back to Jerusalem to find him.  They discovered Jesus in the temple with the elder and teachers.   When we read this story we often focus on Jesus’ words “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house.”  We often marvel over Jesus’ growing sense of his mission.  This morning I would like to focus on a different verse.

    After a frantic search Mary and Joseph found Jesus.  He was in the temple sitting with the teachers listening and asking questions.   The teachers were amazed by his insights as well.  It is clear from this passage that Jesus learned from his elders and shared his gifts and insights with them

I believe that this passage may well serve as a paradigm for how a church should program with and not for its youth.   The Faculty Journal of Austin Seminary this spring devoted an entire issue to ministry with youth. The first article by David White begins with these words:


    In talking to several of our youth, they have often felt that the congregation would prefer them to be off on the margins of church.  Some of our youth have sensed that our congregation wanted to hire a Youth Director to entertain the children out of sight and then when they become thirty years old with two children they would be welcomed back into the center of Church life.

    I do not believe this is the message that we want to give to our youth.  Most of us believe that our youth have gifts to share with our congregation.  Thus we are seeking to create a new model to bring our youth to the center of our common life.

    Therefore we are not looking to employ a single person to act as a “cruise director” for a single age group.   In the coming year our team of Judith, Lynette, Jim, volunteers and myself will seek to create a holistic program for all generations.

    This program seeks to incarnate two truths from Jesus’ time in the temple.   One is that Jesus learned from the elders and teachers.   Jesus spent time with adults other than his parents and he learned from them.

    In our culture today there are very few opportunities for youth and children to interact with adults.  We have shaped our society in so many ways to segregate ages from each other.  Almost every athletic and cultural organization is organized around specific age groups.    Much of this is understandable given physical and intellectual limitations.   For example I am glad no one under forty-five is allowed to play in my old-man hockey league.  But the result is adults interact with adults and youth almost exclusively with youth.

    The church can be one of the few places where this interaction can take place.  A place where many generations can learn, work and have fun together.  In these kinds of interactions youth learn and are affirmed and blessed by the concern shown by others.

    The second truth is that youth can inspire and teach us.  In our gospel lesson we are told that the elders were amazed by Jesus’ understanding and answers.   The interaction between adults and youth is not a one-way transaction.   Children and youth bring energy, commitment and often-new insight into our relationship with God.   If adults tend to only interact with people in their own generation they tend to become ossified in their thinking, hostile to change and pessimistic about the future.

    Genuine interaction with youth can give new insights, enthusiasm and hope.  I recall one of our adults who went on the mission trip to New Orleans last year saying that her time spent with our youth renewed her faith in the next generation.   Youth also see the world with fresh eyes and often can share new insights of the truth of God’s love for us.

    Now many of you may be thinking this all is true in abstract terms, but how does this translate in practical terms.  What would programs seeking to maximize interaction between generations look like?  Our Clergy types-meaning Judith, Lynette and myself- have started a planning process that will grow to include the rest of the staff and our committees centered around three themes for the coming year.  These themes are Growing, Serving and Celebrating.   These themes address three questions-How do we grow in our love for God?  How do we deepen our love for God’s creation through service? And how do we grow in our love for each other?    

    This new model will seek to create many different experiences that are open to the whole congregation.  This does not mean there will be no events designed specifically for youth.  But we are seeking to create various opportunities for all generations. 

    For example in the area of growing-Judith will again lead Wellspring a program for women on Tuesdays, Judith will also be a lead planner in a retreat for Senior Highs on September 13 and for an all generation guided walk to discover God in nature in October.

    In the area of serving we will continue to plan a mission trip for July 2009, but we will increase opportunities for service.  Lynette will be the lead planner for the youth organizing a party for Vive during the winter and a Habitat for Humanity workday for the whole Church next spring.  I sometimes wonder why we act as if only youth need to be actively involved in mission.

    In the area of celebrating we will continue the traditions such as the Corn Roast/football and Gym Night open to all as well as some for adults such as the Cottage Groups and others tailored for our youth.

    There is another important aspect of congregational life where we must bring children and youth to the center.  That is in worship.  In our new schedule we have made a bold step in increasing the participation of our children and youth in worship.  Our Children up through grade six are now in worship for the first third of the service. The youth in grades 7-12 stay through the sermon before leaving for Sunday school.  This is a great improvement over the former schedule where only between 3-10 of our children came into our sanctuary on any given Sunday.

    This is a start.  But if our children and youth are going to be in worship then worship must speak to their needs and concerns.  The prayers that are prayed, the hymns sung, the words of a sermon cannot only address the needs, taste and concerns of life of fifty-three year old males like me.   Our worship must grow in its diversity to speak to people from three years of age to 103.

    This requires new openness from old fuddity duddities like me.    I have not always been a big fan of some liturgical arts, but they do speak to many people often the young in ways that help them grow in faith.  Lynette has great interest in helping us in this growing edge.

    One way we will begin growth is through the recent purchase of Sing the Faith which is a supplement to our Presbyterian Hymnal.  This collection includes some old favorites, but also so new songs that appeal to our young people and I find can also speak to me.   Bringing youth to the center of worship can bring new energy, new ideas and new and deeper insights in the faith.

    I am excited about these plans.  I truly believe that young and old have much to share with each other.   God speaks through the wisdom of experience and the excitement of new discoveries.  Jesus learned from his elders and gave back new understandings.

    May each one of us be open to new experiences, new insights and deepening of our love for Christ in this coming year.

Prayer:  God and Savior, send your Spirit to speak to us now, in this time and in this place.  May these human words be faithful to your living Word, and may our responses be true to your call .  Amen.

    Dr. Richard Hardel of the Youth and Family Institute in Minneapolis tells of the following scene that was dramatized at a Child in Our Hands Conference several years ago.  I have adapted it to our Presbyterian context: 
A mother, holding her child, said to her husband, “It’s up to us to raise this child in the faith.  I’m so glad you are here.  You know more about teaching the faith than I do.”  The husband responded, “I don’t know how to teach the faith.”  The wife asked, “What shall we do?”  Her husband replied, “Let’s talk with the Sunday School superintendent at church.  She should know.  It’s her job.”  They passed the child to the Sunday School superintendent, who held the child and said, “What a beautiful child, but I don’t know how to teach faith to a child.  Let’s ask the pastor.”  So they passed the child to the pastor, who exclaimed, “Times have changed rapidly, and it’s been 25 years since I’ve been to seminary.  I don’t know how to communicate the faith with children.  I’m better at adult education.  Let’s check with the Presbytery office.  They have a staff person who is supposed to help all congregations.”

The child was passed from the pastor to the stated clerk of the Presbytery.  The stated clerk quickly exclaimed how this was not her responsibility, but that the new Director of Discipleship was in.  The child was passed from the stated clerk to the Director of Discipleship, who immediately passed the child back to the parents.  While doing so, she said, “Oh, no, the child will need you to teach the faith.”

Now, the little scene I just described is an exaggeration.  But my own anecdotal evidence suggests that often, this little drama comes uncomfortably closer to the truth than we’d like to admit.  The thing is, we often pass on our children with the best of intentions, because we lack confidence.  We feel inexperienced.  We feel we don’t have enough knowledge of the Bible or of theology, or even if we do, we think we don’t know how to impart that knowledge to youth.  So, we pass on the kid – to the Sunday School teacher, to the youth director, to the pastor, to the religious experts to give them the head knowledge.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I am not aiming to abolish church school education and confirmation classes and the like.  Let me be perfectly clear – I am not advocating that at all.  I believe these classes play a critical role in the faith development of our children, and we need them.  But we can quickly elevate form over substance.  In our zeal for church programming, we lose sight of the fact that religious education classes by themselves cannot effectively pass on our faith tradition.  We cannot underestimate the role of family and significant relationships with caring adults in nurturing the faith of our children.

In our text today, the letter to Timothy, we see the author’s concern with preserving and passing on the faith tradition – the tradition that God saved humanity through Christ Jesus, who overcame death and brought life to all of creation.  This gospel of God’s saving work throughout history was passed on through the generations.

And in our text, we also see this multi-generational faith in Timothy’s family.  This faith lived first in his grandmother Lois, and then his mother Eunice, and now in Timothy himself.  This faith --this gift of God – is rekindled in every generation.  Now I don’t know what kind of conversations Lois and Eunice had with Timothy.  We don’t have a transcript of those daily interactions.  Perhaps they worshipped together.  Perhaps they discussed that faith as they went about their daily work.  But the text does tell us something key – that this faith handed down from generation to generation was a living faith.  It lived first in Timothy’s grandmother Lois, then his mother Eunice, and then in him.

Possessing a living faith is far different than being a religious expert.  A living faith is found in deep relationship with God.  This divine companionship is embodied in the give and take of asking the [deep] questions of one another.  It is embodied in the caring conversations between the generations – old faith stories retold, and new stories created that become the inheritance of faith.  An inheritance that Walter Brueggemann says gives identity and roots, purpose and vocation.

It is in caring conversations that faith is passed on.  The Youth and Family Institute emphasizes that faith is formed by the power of the Holy Spirit through personal, trusted relationships – often in our own homes.  According to them, faith talk at home more than doubles the likelihood of kids being connected to church as adults.  And yet, the average parent spends only 8-1/2 minutes a week letting kids know what’s really important.  Noted faith development expert John Westerhoff has rightly said, “Faith is more caught than taught.”

So how do we do this?  How do we have these caring conversations at home?  If your child (or grandchild, or niece, little buddy) is young or elementary age, read them a Bible story every day from a good children’s Bible.  I think this is one of the simplest, least scary, and yet most effective ways of sharing faith with them.  Ask them to tell some of their own faith stories.  Children have a remarkable capability to see and experience God. 

You can take a walk together, and talk about God’s presence in creation.  Or, have each person, young or old, choose a picture or a symbol in your home that reminds you of God, and tell why it makes them think about God.  You can ask wonder questions about God – “I wonder … how God put stripes on zebras.  I wonder … “ 

Pray together – mealtimes and bedtimes are a great place to start.  Worship together.  Write a family mission statement and put it on your refrigerator.  The Sparks Family wrote one together --  “We will strive to love and respect all, serve God, and have fun in life.”  Do mission and service projects together – working alongside one another while serving others is a great time for caring conversations.  These conversations don’t have to be long, and don’t have to be formal.  You don’t have to sit down to have “the faith talk.”  One of the most effective ways is to weave faith into our routine conversations on an everyday basis.

We know that family is so important.  But that begs the next question – if family is so important, what is the role of the church?  Some of us don’t have children or grandchildren of our own.  Some of our children are fully grown.  Does that let us off the hook?  It’s appropriate that today, Confirmation Sunday, we consider that question.  For every time a child is baptized, we, the church, make a promise to nurture them in faith.  And for me, this promise is expressed most beautifully in a letter that my husband Brad and I have had in our possession for the past 12 years, written to our son Evan.  It was given to us on the day of his baptism at Rosedale Gardens Presbyterian Church in Livonia, Michigan, to be held in safekeeping, and given to him on the day of his confirmation.  It reads like this:
 
Friends, the role of the church – not just its programs, but all of us individually and collectively who form this body of faith – is to partner with families of all ages, families of all sizes – families of one and families of many, so-called traditional families and nontraditional families, of every shape, size, makeup, and color, to pass on our faith.  Every Christian adult is a Christian parent, whether or not they have children of their own.  Every Christian adult needs to have caring conversations with our children and youth, if we want them to have faith.  As Richard Hardel has said, we need to pass on the faith, not the child.  Church and home are to be in a living partnership – loving, growing, serving, and celebrating together. 

Today – Confirmation Sunday – we celebrate that living partnership.  We celebrate these young people – Pamela, Michael, Megann, and Kristian, whom God knew before they were formed in the womb, who were joined to Christ in baptism, and whose faith was nurtured by their families and by this church.  May we continue to be faithful to them, and to all of our children.  Amen.

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; reach out your hand a put it in my side; do not doubt but believe.

    Last August another link with my childhood was broken.  During that month Phil Rizzuto the retired broadcaster of the New York Yankees died at the age of 89.

    Before I was born Rizzuto had been a shortstop for the Yankees.  Following his playing career he became part of the broadcast team. During my childhood I listened to Phil's voice more than any other human being.  He talked to me on television and radio for about three hours during 162 games a year.  I would hear him on television and sometimes late at night on the radio in bed. During these countless hours, Phil shared his understanding of life.

    There are some critics who wonder what in the world has Phil, for whom elementary rules of English grammar and syntax are alien, been saying.

    It turns out he was saying poetry.  That is at least what two geniuses, Hart Seely and Tom Peyer, discovered when they took some tapes of Rizzuto's broadcasts and transcribed them as free verse.  Several years ago a book was published called.  O Holy Cow! The Selected Verses of Phil Rizzuto.  The book is filled with hokey, humorous and sometimes simple profound words.

    Almost thirty years ago, Thurman Munson, the heart of the great Yankee teams of the 70's was killed in a plane crash.  Rizzuto tried to comfort the fans during the pregame show with these ad-libbed remarks:


    I believe that Phil Rizzuto reminds us of a great truth found in our Gospel lesson for this morning.  He tells us that our faith helps us to cope with our wounds, but "You carry them the rest of your life."

    I would like to focus on what our reading from John teaches us about the wounds we carry.

    We are first reminded that our wounds are real.  Jesus came to Thomas and showed him his hands and sides.   Jesus experienced real pain when nails were hammered through his wrists and ankles and when a spear was thrust through his side.

    In like manner we suffer real wounds in our lives.  The physical and emotional injuries we suffer are not something we are just to ignore.  We endure many losses in our lives.  During our span on this earth we experience a variety of wounds.

    For many it is losses due to death.  The loss of a spouse, children, parents and friends are not to be grimly borne with a stiff upper lip as if they did not happen.  They are wounds which cause real deep pain.

    A trauma in childhood can scar us for life.

    The break up of relationships through divorce, disagreements or betrayal inflict real pain on all involved.

    The loss of a job through attrition or firing causes a true puncture to our self-worth.

    A failure in school, or the loss of a promotion harms our self image.

    Life in its own way dishes out wound after wound to us.  These wounds are real.

    A second truth is that our faith does not make our wounds disappear.  

    In our reading from John, Jesus reveals his wounds to Thomas.  Remember that this occurred after the resurrection of Jesus.  The power of God had been at work to raise Jesus from the dead.  Yet Jesus is not restored with a pristine body.   The wounds inflicted by the Roman Soldiers are still present. 

    So it remains in our lives as well.  Our faith in Christ does not remove all the hurt that we experience.  Time does lessen the intensity of the pain we experience.  The passing of the days helps us get past the first shock.   We do begin to get over the numbness that often settles in when we have been hurt.  But the wound never completely heals.

    I first learned this in my first year in ministry when visiting with a woman who was in her eighties.  In talking about her childhood, she told of her Mother's death during the flu epidemic that hit Buffalo around World War I.  She was only twelve years old at the time.   More than seventy years later the wound of that loss still affected her life.  Her life had been shaped in part by that loss.

    The wounds that we experience help to shape who we are.  They remain with us, in some degree, the rest of our lives.   Each one of us can remember some event, or some harsh words spoken to us that still have an effect on us today.  

    Faith in Jesus does not remove all our wounds.

    The presence of Jesus does transform our wounds.  The great thinker Simone Weil wrote that

    She means, at least in part, that while God does not remove our wounds he transforms them.   The wounds are used for a greater good.

    We are told that when an oyster has a small grain of sand get into its opening it causes irritation.  The oyster responds to this by coating it with some fluids and a pearl is developed. 

    The wounds in our lives can be used by God to produce pearls.  Listen to these words of Harriet Beecher Stowe:


    So God can use the wounds of our lives to mold, shape and work through us.

    This should not surprise us.  For are not the wounds and suffering of Jesus at the heart of our faith.  The innocent Jesus was condemned by the authorities of his day.  He was abandoned by those he called his friends.  He was cruelly beaten by the Roman soldiers and had a crown of thorns placed on his head.  Jesus was forced to march outside the city and there nails were driven through his body to attach him to a wooden cross.  There for several hours he suffered and then after dealing with the pain from lack of blood, exposure and difficulty breathing he died.

    These wounds would seem to be pointless and yet God used Jesus' suffering to bring forgiveness and the hope of eternal life to all humankind.  It was by his suffering that you and I have been saved. 

    On this Memorial Day Weekend as we remember all those who have gone on before us, you and I can trust in God to use our wounds for his glory.  As Christ's suffering brought hope to the world, so God can use our hurts for a redemptive purpose.

    Jesus not only helps us to cope with our wounds,
        but transforms them into instruments of his love.