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All
too often something will happen in our daily lives which will cause us
to scream "It's not fair!" I heard a story about one of our
younger members who happened to get caught up in a conflict at school
this week. Of course it takes at least two people to have a
worthwhile conflict. Furthermore, a conflict is almost never
entirely the fault of just one of those persons, especially the person
who did not start the conflict. Yet, in the incident to which I
refer, only one person was punished! How could this be?
Favoritism? Prejudice? Personality conflict? There
are lots of reasons why sometimes things are simply not fair!
Furthermore, things are not always fair on a
societal level, either. All too often those who have or who find
power use it to their own advantage insofar as they are able.
Often this is simply not fair, or to use the biblical term, unjust!
This lack of fairness, this justice deficiency, is
just one of many reasons why our world is not the best that it could
be. A major voice of the bible, the prophetic voice, calls upon
all of God's people to correct such wrongs insofar as we are
able. In fact, one of the promises that each of our confirmands
made this morning was "to strive for justice and peace in all the
earth". This can be as simple as speaking up for someone at
school who is being treated unfairly, even when it would be much easier
not to do so.
The reason I bring up this line of thought is the
fact that once we have received our basic necessities, our daily bread,
that which we need in order to survive and begin to thrive, the most
important task each of us faces is finding a worthy challenge for our
life. This is a lifelong task, not just one for young
people. In fact, though a person may dream of a retirement life
of indulgent leisure, actual retirees find that quickly grows very
boring, and begin to seek a renewed challenge, worthy of their time and
energy.
For everyone here, from the youngest ones among us,
through our six confirmands, through those soon to graduate, through
those caught up in career considerations, relationship challenges,
parenting, to the oldest among us, let me suggest that the primary
quest we continually face is finding a worthy challenge for our
lives! Let me also suggest that a life "in Christ" is the one
sure way that each of us may do so!
To be sure, most of us here this morning already
have a life "in Christ" for most of us have been baptized. Sadly
enough, baptism itself does not always lead us to a life that is
functionally "in Christ". There are many other possibilities,
many distractions that can rob us of this most worthy of all challenges.
Today we celebrate the festival of Pentecost, a
remembrance of a very special and unique moment in the life of the
church, when, accompanied by the sound of a violent wind, "divided
tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each
of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began
to speak in other languages ..." This moment in our Christian
history is often called the birthday of the church, but I think the
church was actually born when Jesus began calling folks to be his
disciples. I prefer to think of Pentecost as the baptism of the
church. It is the moment when Old Testament prophecy concerning
the gift of the Holy Spirit, reiterated by John the Baptist, actually
came true. Remember that John had said "I baptize you with water
... but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; ... He will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
You will notice that there was no sound of a violent
wind this morning among us, no tongues of fire. That was a very
unique, one-time occurrence, just like our individual baptism.
Once accomplished, it need not be repeated. We transmit that gift
of Spirit through baptism, and may even renew it in confirmation, as we
did this morning, from generation to generation. Jesus had
promised " ... you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea
and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." We see how Jesus kept that
promise in our scripture this morning. We too receive fulfillment
of that promise as part of the church, Christ's body.
Thus we have the chance to embrace the most worthy
challenge that life can offer, a life "in Christ". As we do so,
we are given three assets: power, gifts and mission. The
notion of 'power' needs some clarification. We may think that
power is a divine reward for allegiance. If we serve God, God
will make us invincible. Two words of scripture clarify just what
this power involves. It is never raw power available to us to use
as we choose. We do not receive super-powers. Rather, we
are given "power to become children of God" ... to live in harmony with
God and God's will. Again, the mighty St. Paul was only mighty
"in Christ" ... not on his own. Indeed, God taught him "power is
made perfect in weakness". We receive such power as we need to
take up the challenge of a life "in Christ".
Second, we are each gifted, but no one person has
all the spiritual gifts. That is why it is so imperative that
everyone is welcome as we gather "in Christ". We need everyone's
gifts. You may think that just because you don't have a gift that
someone else clearly has received that you are not specially
gifted. But the second lesson states "To EACH is given the
manifestation of the Spirit ..." Why? Not for
self-enhancement, but "for the common good." Gifts are to be used
for the good of all.
Finally, we have mission ... a reason to be "in
Christ". We are to be the church in such a way that we offer the
Lord to others. Put simply, we are to love one another, so that
others may see and respond to God's love.
Today we rejoice that Bethany, Caleb, Eileen,
Hannah, KC and Sarah affirmed their baptism. They essentially
declared that the fact God chose them was no mistake. They
embraced the challenge of being "in Christ". Notice please that
we were all invited to re-embrace that same challenge, to reaffirm our
own baptism. This is not a one-time event, doomed to be set aside
as other opportunities come our way. Living "in Christ" is a
lifelong process.
We do resist this challenge! Some younger
people might view the process of participating in church, in the body
of Christ, as "boring". Truth to tell, we older folks might have
failed to make it as exciting as it could be. It's up to anyone
who would utter that condemnation to take responsibility for making our
gathering less boring!
We may choose other activities, other opportunities
in life over participation "in Christ". Sadly enough, we then
miss the most worthy challenge of all.
We may judge church as "uncool". Good!
That which the world affirms is transitory; it will let us down.
We might complain, "A life in Christ is hard".
Duh ... most anything worthwhile is hard!
Nothing else compares, however. I invite us
all, in the name of Christ, to embrace, or re-embrace the most worthy
challenge of all, a life "in Christ". Amen.
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