"Stay the Course"  San Williams

Scriptures: John 10:22-30

In a few minutes, Grace Corley, Ariel Drew, Ayla Hermon, Holly Bucknall and Ronan Melomo will stand before us and make their affirmation of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  They will affirm their baptismal identity as followers of Jesus, and they will pledge themselves to be Christ’s faithful disciples, to obey his word and show his love.  Such an affirmation from our young people is a joyful occasion, a demonstration of how the faith is handed down to a new generation of believers.  

But to borrow a cliché, there is an elephant in the sanctuary, and it is this:  Studies show that something over half of those who are confirmed in the Presbyterian Church as youth will, somewhere down the line, either reject or simply become indifferent to the faith in which they were confirmed and no longer be active in the church. It’s widely acknowledged that the primary reason for the decline in membership in mainline denominations is our inability to hold on to our own young people.  So Grace, Ariel, Ayla, Holly and Ronan, today our celebration of your confirmation comes with a challenge.  We challenge you to hold fast to the commitment you are about to make. In short, we implore you to stay the course. 

At the outset, you should know that you are making an affirmation of faith, not an affirmation of certainty.  That is, when you affirm Jesus as Messiah, as Lord and Savior, you are putting your faith in something that you will never be able to prove…or, for that matter, disprove.  Did you notice the question asked by some of the Jewish leaders in our reading today?  ”How long will you keep us in suspense?” they asked Jesus.  “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”   Can’t we all identify with their desire to have a clear, unambiguous word of assurance? If we only had some indisputable proof that Jesus is the Messiah, then following him would be a no-brainer.  Yet in truth, plain, unequivocal, inarguable, undeniable evidence that Jesus is Lord will never be provided us.  So as you, our confirmation class, declare your faith, don’t be too concerned if you don’t have all the answers, if your faith contains a measure of doubt, if you haven’t seen the message “Jesus is Lord” written in the clouds or heard it whispered in your ear.  Our faith, if it’s an honest faith, lives with an element of suspense, and dares to believe even though our knowledge is incomplete. 

But look at how Jesus turns our attention away from speculative questioning, and points us to the works that he does.  He says to the Jewish inquisitors, “The works that I do in my father’s name testify to me.”  Recall that Jesus gave a similar response when John the Baptist began to doubt that Jesus was the Messiah.  John sent his disciples to Jesus, asking, “Are you the Messiah, or should we wait for another?”  Jesus answered, “Tell John what you see and hear.  The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”  Jesus invites his would-be followers to consider his actions.  And so, on this confirmation Sunday, we ask those of you who are declaring your faith and joining the church to pay special attention to the work that Jesus did:  he fed the hungry, he healed the sick, he forgave sinners, he reached out to the outsiders, he welcomed the despised, loved his enemies, and he gave his life for his friends.  The tenth chapter of John from which we read this morning sums up the works of Jesus under the heading of the Good Shepherd.  That is, the works of Jesus identify him as the Good Shepherd who seeks out the lost, cares for the flock, lays down his life for the sheep.  When Jesus says that he and the Father are one, he’s not claiming to be God or equal to God.  Rather, he’s saying that his works are the very works that God wills. By his works, Jesus shows us who God is and what God wants done in the world. As someone said, the good news is not just that Jesus is like God, but that God is like Jesus—compassionate, forgiving, just and kind.  

Young disciples, there is a huge difference between just saying that you believe in Jesus and becoming a follower of Jesus.  Following Jesus commits us to do the work of God, to join with Jesus in a ministry of love, peace and justice.  It commits us to do the work of God for the sake of healing the world. I noticed recently that someone posted a sign in our church kitchen with a quote from St. Ignatius of Antioch:  “It’s better to be a Christian without saying it, than to say it without being it.”  That’s the challenge we give you today: to be a Christian. Such a commitment cannot be achieved in a day or in a few years; it must be done over a lifetime.  So hear our plea: Please don’t leave the faith before you’ve finished your work.  See it though and stay the course. 

But the most compelling reason for you to endure in the faith is because God has called you to this life. In our supplemental hymnal we occasionally sing the spiritual “I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back.”  While I love the commitment expressed in that spiritual “no turning back, no turning back,” the good news about our faith is better expressed in the confirmation hymn we’ll sing this morning: “Lord, when I came into this life You called me by my name; today I come, commit myself, responding to your claim.”  This hymn makes clear that we are not so much making a decision as answering a call.  Or, expressed in the language of today’s scripture, sheep do not chose their shepherd; the shepherd chooses the sheep.   

As many of you know, our former associate pastor, Ben Johnston-Krase, and his wife, Karla, have been in Ethiopia.  They went to Ethiopia to meet and bring home Meheret and Ezgihaye, their adopted daughters aged sixteen months and three-and-a-half years.  After a two-and-a-half year wait, at last the adoption has been approved. Meheret and Ezgihaye now belong to Ben and Karla.   These little girls did not choose Ben and Karla as parents.  They did not choose Sylvia as their sister.  They did not choose to leave their country of birth and come to the United States.  No, they were chosen. Ben and Karla adopted them and then went to Ethiopia to claim them as their children. That relationship will never change.  Who knows how Meheret and Ezgihye will respond to this relationship?  They may at a later time rebel, run away, turn their backs on Ben and Karla, but Ben and Karla will still be their parents, come what may.  These girls belong to them, and they always will.   

Now Jesus was saying something similar about our relationship with God. Those of you who are coming into this life of faith need to hear this good news.  You belong to God.  God has claimed you, has called you by name—Grace, Ayla, Ronan, Ariel, Holly—and God will never be anything to you other than the loving heavenly father that Jesus reveals God to be.  Like the prodigal son, you can go into a far country, you can choose to worship other gods, you can try to make sense of life apart from God—all these things you can choose to do.  But whatever you do, you cannot change the love that God has for you. God doesn’t let go of us, even if we let go of God.   

Well, young friends, we rejoice that you are coming before us to answer Christ’s call and to commit yourself to our shared ministry of love, peace and justice.  By embracing the life of faith you are accepting the gift of abundant life, the life that brings peace and hope to the world, the life that is eternal.   

May God give you the perseverance to live out the faith that you are about to declare publically today.