In today’s society, our young people
have numerous opportunities before them.
They can play a variety of sports, they can participate in music, dance,
or drama programs, they can do scouting, some gravitate towards art while
others immerse themselves in reading. As
a parent, I want my children to try a variety of activities in order to see
what they enjoy the most. Is there one
area that perhaps my child will excel and become passionate about?
Our young people that we confirmed
today are involved in numerous activities: from hockey to Marital Arts, from
Drama Club to Marching Band, from Robotics to dance, and from scouting to
summer camp at Camp Johnsonburg. There
is a strong interest within them for cooking, and they are a group that is
interested in making a positive difference in this world in which we live. This
group of young people have a variety of gifts, a variety of interests, a
variety of ways in which to contribute to their schools, their teams, their
clubs, and to their church.
We have had a handful of baptisms
over the past month, and one of the things I share as I walk a child around the
church is about seeds of faith within him or her and how, the church family
promises to provide the nurture that will encourage those seeds of faith to
grow, to mature, and to bear fruit. This
group of confirmands have spent time in the church, they have spent time
listening to the word of God in a variety of ways, whether it is through Sunday
School, Vacation Bible School, Camp, worship, or through the actions of the
church and its members in our ministry. The
word of God speaks to us in a multitude of ways, and it does not matter if we
are young children, adolescents, young adults, or adulthood.
What I love about today’s story of
Samuel is that Samuel is young and God is speaking to him. Samuel is being raised by an elderly priest
Eli, and the word of God was rare in those days. Things really were not great. There seems to be an ongoing cycle through
the scriptures of God’s people participating in the life of faith and falling
away, of God’s people being inspired and participating in the life of faith and
falling away. Of God calling new leaders
to inspire the people of God and new energy being born and then the people once
again falling away. Over and over
again. And over and over again, God
reaches out and calls people to once again bring the people back into a life
that is sacred and holy.
When we have these stories, these
stories of God reaching out to people to be the ones that bring the flock, the
fold back to God, we say they are: “Call Stories.” Call Stories are scattered through the
scripture: Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah, Samuel, even Mary in our Christmas story
is called. Samuel, as young as he is, hears the voice of
God but Samuel does not know it is God.
He things that it is Eli that is calling him. Three times Samuel is called and three times
he gets up and goes to Eli saying: Here
I am, what is it? Finally, it is the wisdom
of Eli that realizes this must be God calling Samuel. There is this beautiful mentoring moment as
the elderly Eli is able to help interpret what is happening to young Samuel. In order for Samuel to truly hear God, to
truly know what is happening, he needs Eli, he needs the wisdom of his mentor
to guide him.
God is calling Samuel to transform
the future relationship of God and God’s people. The people of God are soon to become a
kingdom and as they do, God is calling spiritual leadership to participate alongside
of the king. These new spiritual leaders
will be called prophets. But if Eli had
not listened to Samuel, if Eli had said you are just a child go back to bed,
God’s plan would have been slowed down.
But Eli listened. He not only
listened to Samuel but he connected it back to the true source and listened to
God.
How do we listen to God in our world
today? How do we listen to each other? Are we good at listening to the thoughts and
ideas and passions and interests of each other?
Because God is calling, God is speaking, God is at work but we have to
listen, we have to listen to each other no matter how old or young we are, and
we have to discern if this just might be a seed of faith that is starting to
grow and mature into something that will bear fruit.
That is one of the things that I
love about confirmation class. I love to
listen to our youth. I love to listen to
their music, their concerns, their interests and brainstorm with them how we
can transform our worship in various ways to be more inclusive of them. Confirmation class is not just about learning
the basics and deciding if you want to officially join the church, but it is
also about becoming leaders, about feeling that their voice is heard and
respected. They are now full members of
the church, and two seeds that they would like to see grow not just within
their own lives but within the life of the church are: a functioning youth group and perhaps a
cooking group of some sort. This group
also expressed interest in continuing to meet next year with our mission
mornings. This was something new I introduced
since Confirmation class met on Sunday evenings. Those Sundays that we met at night, instead
of a formal Sunday School lesson, we did activities that connected to mission
such as making signs for Souper Bowl of Caring and baking quick bread for Faith
Kitchen. So as we begin to plan and
prepare for next fall, the CE committee will be looking for adults that would
like to be like Eli and mentor our youth, listening to their voices, listening
to the ways in which God is speaking to them, and guiding them in hands on
mission projects as we continue the mission mornings.
No comments:
Post a Comment