Sermon for October 15, 2006WHAT DO WE EXPECT OF A YOUNG PERSONS FAITH?By Rev. Dr. Harvey c. Martz |
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Confirmation Sunday Scripture: Jeremiah 1:4-8 4 Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, 5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." 6 Then I said, "Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." 7 But the Lord said to me, "Do not say, "I am only a boy'; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord." It is important on Confirmation Sunday to remember how important an influence young persons can have. The readings from the first verses of the prophet Jeremiah remind us that the faith of a young person, the relationship with God that a teenager has, can be very influential. Jeremiah says to God that God surely cannot utilize him because he is young. Jeremiah heard God calling him to be God’s servant when Jeremiah was a teenager. Jeremiah became one of the most important prophets and leaders in all of Israel right before the Babylonians came to Jerusalem and took the Israelites into captivity. Jeremiah was identified by God when Jeremiah was young. The faith of young Jeremiah helped him call all of God’s people back to a life of faith. Let me tell you about another teenager whose faith and courage are still an inspiration and example for us. I was in her house in Amsterdam just three weeks ago—stood in the room where she was a captive for two years and gave thanks for her example of courage and faith in God. Her family had fled from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933 when she was four years old to try and escape the persecution the Nazis were inflicting on anyone who was Jewish. Jews had to wear this yellow star on their clothing and were subjected to increasing constrictions and punishments that kept getting worse. Anne’s father Otto took his family to the Netherlands where he hoped they would be safe from Nazi threats. He was wrong and in 1942 they went into hiding in some upstairs rooms in a house next door to his factory. They stayed hidden in those rooms for two years, relying on the help of Dutch Christians who risked their lives by sheltering them and getting food and supplies and medicine for them on a regular basis. Anne, on her thirteen birthday, received several small presents, and among them was a blank diary in which she began to record the daily happenings and the feelings of this extraordinarily perceptive teenaged girl. Parts of it are boring, parts are scary as she writes about them almost being discovered, and parts are just profoundly inspiring as she expresses not only her fear but also her faith in God and her trust that God will see them through. She says in one passage written shortly before her family was discovered by the Nazi Secret Service, “Every day I feel myself maturing. I feel liberation drawing near. I feel the beauty of nature and the goodness of the people around me. Every day I think what a fascinating and amusing adventure this is. With all that, why should I despair!” Earlier she wrote this brief prayer,
After being confined to those five rooms for almost two years, she wrote, “My life here has gotten better, much better. God has not forsaken me and God never will.” In that same month, March 1944 she wrote, “I lie in bed at night after ending my prayers with these words: “I thank you God for all that is good and dear and beautiful.” She names some of those things in her life that are good and dear and beautiful to her and then she says, “I don’t think about all the misery but about all the beauty that still remains.” You know the rest of the story of Anne and her family. In August 1944 someone betrayed the location of their secret hiding place—the Nazis were paying large amounts of money to anyone who gave up the location of Jews who were in hiding—and she and her older sister Margo were taken first to Auschwitz, Germany and then to Bergen Belsen where fifteen year old Anne died of typhus in March 1945, one month before that camp was liberated by the British and two months before the end of the war with Germany. Anne’s words, her diary, survived her and are a source of history and inspiration as we read about the courage and the faith of this young woman from the ages of 13 and 14 as she wrote in her secret upstairs room. Do not discount the faith of a young person, the stories of Jeremiah and Anne Frank tell us. What a reminder on this Confirmation Sunday when we celebrate and honor the faith of 34 of our youth who are taking a stand that their relationship with God is the most important relationship in their lives and that they are promising to follow the person and the teachings of the Jesus who shows us God better than anyone else. They are moving today from being admirers of Christ and announcing to us and the world that they are followers of Christ. They are making promises that we have—to live by the ethics of Christ in a world where others live by the ethic of “me first” and “it’s all about me” and “do it to others before they can do it to you.” These persons, along with all Christians, are promising to treat others the way we want to be treated—the Golden Rule. They are promising to live lives of honesty and integrity and to let Christ form their moral compass. They are on the same track as entrepreneur Warren Buffet who in a speech last month to a business group said, the five most dangerous words, destructive words in business are these: “Everyone else is doing it.” Those are also some of the five most dangerous words in your adolescent years as well. What is important is not what everyone else seems to be doing but what God is leading you to do as your character is formed by the life and teachings of Christ. You can have, like Jeremiah and Anne Frank, more influence than you realize even though you are still young. Jeremy and Jacob were friends in middle school and high school and at the age of thirty they met again after not being in touch for many years. Jeremy told his friend how important that high school friendship had been before they both went off to college. Jacob was surprised and asked to hear more. Jeremy said you probably don’t remember this but my time in middle school was very painful and lonely. You were someone who I looked up to and one day we were both walking from school and you caught up with me and talked with me for a while and even offered to help me carry the load of books I was lugging along. Your act of kindness that day and our developing friendship literally saved my life because I was so depressed and all that stuff I had with me was because I had just cleaned out my locker that day and had decided to end my life. But the fact that you took time with me and offered your kindness and then your friendship gave me a reason to go on. We should never underestimate the power and the example of a young person’s faith. These confirmands are ending the formal study process of their seven month class and are taking the new step of identifying themselves with Christ and with the church. This is not the end. This is the beginning today of a lifelong journey. Last weekend in Kansas City one of our speakers said, “Becoming a Christian is like being at the starting line of a foot race and when the gun goes off, how silly it would be if someone just stepped across the starting line and then stood up and cheered and said, ‘I did it. I am finished.’” That’s just the start, and the journey of faithful discipleship is ahead of us. We welcome these youth to the journey with us and we promise to order our lives after the example of Christ that these youth surrounded by steadfast love, may be confirmed and strengthened in the way that leads to abundant life. Amen. |
