Confirmation Retreat

"As often as possible Jesus withdrew to out-of-the-way places to pray."
--Luke 5:16 (The Message)

On the first weekend in May we went on our Confirmation Retreat, our "time apart," at Mensch Mill.
Though brief, our retreat was filled with beauty, fellowship, sharing, lots of food, and a different rhythm. It was a privilege to gather in this special place where so many of God's young people have gathered for generations. It was like having "a cloud of witnesses" there with us!
After checking in, we got together for our evening session. We found several places in the scriptures that describe how important Jesus found "prayer retreats" to be in his ministry. He would go to mountaintops or off to "deserted places" in order to center himself in God's will. He needed to get away from all the demands on his time and attention in order to listen for God's voice and be strengthened by God's loving and leading power. In Mark Chapter One, Jesus' retreat for prayer enables him to be clearer about God's will and direction for his ministry. In Luke 6, his night of prayer precedes the calling of the Twelve to particular minstry, and his preaching of the powerful "Sermon on the Plain." In John's Gospel, following the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus retreats when the crowds want to "make him king." He is clear that he has come for another purpose! We reflected on the ways that our retreat might help us to listen to God's voice amid all our competing activities, and help us to clarify the commitments we have a chance to make on Pentecost. We prayed for God's inspiration.
After our session, during free time, our Confirmands returned to the meeting room with some questions of faith that they wanted to discuss together. It was awesome!
The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, we explored the story of the prophet Jeremiah (chapter one), who was confirmation-age when God spoke to him about God's purposes for his life. We discussed the role of a prophet: "a preacher of God's word;" someone God sends to speak God's word in difficult times, particularly when God's people have been going the wrong way. It is not a popular role! In Jeremiah's context (6th century BC), God's people have forgotten the poor, been consumed in war and war preparation, behaved like the other nations, become self-centered, and even split themselves in half. This was going to be important and difficult work!
God comes directly to the teen to talk to him personally. We identified with Jeremiah's surprise, shock, confusion, and fear ("freaked out!"). We heard the nature of his objections, and they sounded a lot like ours: "I don't speak that well!"; "I'm too inexperienced!"; "I couldn't do that!"; "People won't listen to me!" "I'm not worthy. " We marveled at God's ways. God said that he would give Jeremiah the words and the authority as well as God's constant, delivering presence. Even as the old order of things came down, God would be creating a new order full of God's life! One person said that "God knows all and sees all before anything actually happens" --food for serious thought! The poetry of the story indicates that God knows us even before our lives take shape, and God crafts us with God's purpose in mind even before we are born! We considered the nature of God's purposes for our lives, and how those purposes might unfold--it is remarkable!
We put ourselves in his place: "Why me?" "How will this affect my sports?" "What about my plans?" "Hey, I already go to church!" This took us deeper.
We went on to discuss how each of us might hear God's voice speaking to us today. Folks said that (a) God speaks to us through other people (b) God speaks to us through actions in people's lives (3) through an event (4) we can experience a "dawning" (5) we can open to God in prayer (6) we can receive God's will through dreams and visions.
We agreed that doing God's will is an enterprise of love, and that love is not something we feel but something we do! Peace, kindness, and truth are embodied in this work. The work is challenging and can be "dirty work." We made a list of people we believe have been called by God--there were fourteen on our initial list, from historical figures to mentors/guides from the congregation to the confirmands themselves. And what are people called for?--among even more, to show God's love, to make sure everyone is well cared for, to stop war. A full session!
Later in the morning, we remembered the story of Jesus' baptism and reflected on our own identities as baptized people. We considered the deep connection between who Jesus is and who we are. We also considered again his baptismal identities of Son, Beloved, and God's Pleasure, relating them to our God-given identities as Children, Deeply Loved (unbreakable), and God Pleasure (in the communion of our lives).
During free time, participants wandered the beautiful grounds of the Retreat Center, with a number of people climbing Vesper Hill.
We spent time with the UCC Statement of Faith, which will be shared in our Confirmation service. Very importantly, we seriously considered the promises in the Confirmation Order and where each of us is in terms of making/affirming those promises to God. Fertile and challenging territory!! We'll have a future post dedicated specifically to those promises and their substance.
Amanda, our young mentor-in-residence and accompanier during the retreat, emphasized to the class members that these promises are "deep stuff." She knows from experience! Praise God!
After a bountiful lunch, the confirmands took Jesus' image of the church as "the vine and braches bearing much fruit" and taught the advisors a well-constructed lesson, with all giving substantial input. They described what they called "the circle of life."
Pulling the Retreat experience together, our participants crafted a closing worship service that included a Call to Worship, Prayer, Scripture Reading, Reflection, Singing, and the celebration of the Lord's Table.
Our young Jeremiahs and ever-growing disciples returned home with special blessing, and enormous promise.

Exploring "Eternal Life"

"The water that I give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." --John 4:14

The story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well is a wonderful reference when discussing "eternal life." Jesus was leading his disciples from Judea home to Galilee, but rather than avoiding Samaria, as most pious travelers did, Jesus and his followers went right through this region whose inhabitants were viewed with great prejudice. At the well Jesus meets a Samaritan woman who is isolated even from her fellow townspeople. Two people who aren't "supposed" to even talk to each other have a marvelous and revealing interaction. The woman gives Jesus a drink of water from the well. Jesus offers her a "living water" which will not leave her thirsty again, and promises a flow of life within that will be like having an artesian well in her (our) very own heart! Go back and read this overflowing story again from John 4.

I must confess I was not thinking of that story when I asked our excellent confirmands, "What is eternal life?" But what a gift! Their contributions led us to explore other resources. Among them is the scene from John 14, in the Upper Room, where Jesus talks to his disciples about "preparing a place" for them, and "coming again, that I may take you to myself." Also the story of the rich young man (in Matthew, Mark, and Luke) who wants to know how he might "inherit eternal life," is a powerful one as well. Jesus invites the man to divest himself of his many possessions, give the proceeds to the poor, and follow him. These scriptures helped inform our exploration. The responses to my initial question included:

--"Life only God can give"

--"Living forever."

--"Life after death"

--"Living with God in heaven."

We discussed "eternal life" as all life shared with God, the Eternal One, our source and our completion. Eternal Life is life filled with divine intimacy and full-fillment. The first response above really touches on this understanding. "Life forever" is a way of understanding that this is a relationship without limits; the boundless love of God gives definition and abundant life to our existence. In our relationship with God, words like "eternal" and "forever" are not measurements of time but rather expressions and depth and fullness.

"Life after death" is a common and important understanding of eternal life. Jesus' resurrection is a triumph over the boundary of death. This is true not only with physical death; God's power raises us up to new life after the kinds of painful endings we experience in failure, loss, and diminishment. The story of Jesus and the Rich Young man informs our learning in a particular way. The man's possessions had become a burden which prevented him from entering into the "fullness of life" available in following Jesus. That fullness can only be experienced "on the Way."While I'm sure that giving up his possessions may have felt very threatening intially, the end of this chapter of life (and the beginning of the new) would bring blessing to the poor and also to the newly unburdened man!

The concept of "Living with God in heaven" led us to explore our understandings of what heaven is (this will be the subject of a new post). We began by examining Jesus' statements and teachings about the kingdom.

The woman at Jacob's well walked away with a new understanding of her own life and new experiences of God's closeness and agape love. She took the good news to her community, which then impacted the lives of many, many people. "Eternal" indeed!

Peace Be With You

This is Caravaggio's amazing "Incredulity of St. Thomas," dated around 1602. It brings to life the scene of Thomas' encounter with the risen Jesus in John 20:26-29, where Thomas touches Jesus' wounds with his own hands.
John 20:19-31, the continuation of the Easter story, is the gospel for this week. We spent time immersed in it during Wednesday's Confirmation Class, our first time gathering since Lent began.
Reading the story, we realized that even though Jesus has risen and resurrection life is offered to the world, Jesus' disciples are still frightened and are acting like Easter hasn't happened. They are scared that what the authorities and crowds did to Jesus will still be done to them, and they are ashamed because Jesus has fully shared his life and blessing with them but they ran away, even after pledging to stay with him. They lock themselves in a room, which becomes a kind of tomb because they are afraid to live the life and love of Jesus fully. But he comes to them, he gets inside the closed off room, and offers them his peace. It is the peace of love without limits. He teaches them about the power of forgiveness; his very presence with them is the experience of God's forgiveness that overcomes their failure. He tells them that as they practice forgiveness with others, people will be released from great burdens, both those who have caused wounds and those who have suffered them. Jesus peace is the peace of knowing that you are loved by God in all circumstances and that God's love can make good things come out of situations that start out really bad. Jesus says that as the Father has sent him, so he is now sending them out into the world to be the good news of God's love. Amazing! And he breathes his very own Spirit, his life, into them!!
Later in the story we hear about Thomas, who isn't there the first time Jesus comes. We've always heard him called "Doubting Thomas" because when the other disciples tell him they've seen Jesus he has a hard time believing them and wants to see Jesus for himself. "Doubting Thomas" is a bad name and an unfair one. Thomas is the only one of them not locked in the room. Maybe he's the only one who actually believed Mary Magdalene when she said she had seen and talked to the risen Jesus. Maybe he was out looking for Jesus so he could follow him again!
Jesus invites Thomas to touch his wounds, and Thomas does. It must have been hard because Thomas, too, had run away when Jesus was arrested, and he knows his abandonment hurt Jesus. He's willing to confess it, and to receive the new life and new purpose that Jesus is now giving them. Amen!
Are there times when we know in our hearts the lessons Jesus has taught us but we're afraid to do them? When? What does it mean that even when we fail once (or even more), Jesus comes to us, loves us, forgives our sins, and chooses us to again be the ambassadors of God's unlimited love?

The Stone Has Been Rolled Away

"While it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb."

--John 20:1

On Easter Sunday, at the second service, I told a story about two families, and the friendship and new life that has been experienced in the wake of terrible tragedy. Tariq Khamisa was a vibrant, twenty year old art student studying in San Diego. In addition to his studies he had a part-time job delivering pizzas. One evening a group of young teenage boys who had been playing video games, drinking, and using drugs all day hatched a plan to rob the pizza delivery man. One of them, a fourteen year old named Tony Hicks, had a gun. When Tariq refused to give them the pizza, Tony shot him.

A number of lives ended that day, at least as they had been known. Tariq's life was lost. His family's life with him was ended. Tony's life was essentially over at age fourteen. Tony's grandfather, Ples Felix, who had taken over as Tonys guardian when his mother had left, was crushed, as Tony had taken a young man's life life "and betrayed every bit of love" he had received.

Even in his horrible pain, Tariq's dad, Azim, saw that "there were victims at both end of the gun." At Tony's prison sentencing, Tony confessed his guilt and said that he prayed to God that Tariq's father would forgive him. He also said that his grandfather, Ples, pledged to be Mr Khamisa's friend.

As he grieved, a spiritual mentor urged Azim to channel that grief into doing a good, compassionate deed. Azim began the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, dedicated to stopping kids from killing kids.

He reached out to Ples Felix, and asked Ples to help him. Ples says it was an answer to prayer.

Azim and Ples began speaking together to children in schools about forgiveness, reconciliation, and nonviolence. When their presentation begins, the person introducing them begins by standing behind Ples and then moves behind Azim saying, "This man's grandson murdered this man's son." Azim reflects: "This is the first time in their young lives that they actually see an alternative to violence; mostly what they see in our culture is an eye-for-an-eye."

Azim and Ples became best friends. Though they come from different faith traditions, the infuence of their beliefs and the living out of them has shined light in what was only darkness. Azim has gotten to know Tony, who rejoices in what is possible with God, even while doing twenty-five to life. Azim has petitioned for an early release for Tony, and offered him a job at the Tariq Khamisa foundation when he gets out.

Death has not had the last word! Crushing burdens have been lifted, huge stones separating people have been rolled away, new life has been breathed into a situation previously defined by death.

This is Easter power! This is what the love of God is capable of.

Resurrection Day!!!

"Good" Friday

Jesus lived the nonviolent, self-giving love of God to its fullest. He never compromised that love, even in the face of punishment and the cross. When he calls out, "It is accomplished," he is announcing the completion of that life. In a way, it is the completion of God's original creation, because Jesus has fulfilled the life that God has intended for all of us, and opened a path of fulfillment for us. This is what makes Holy Friday "good."

Jesus-Share

"To allow Jesus to cleanse our feet is to remove all
that prevents us from using our feet to follow him,
to scrub away our insecurities, to wash away our
weariness, to buff off our bitterness."
--Alyce McKenzie