Past Sermon
Sermon Title: "What Do Our Youth Believe? "
Date: June 11, 2006
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.
Lesson: Matthew 28:16-20
How would you respond to the assignment I give to each Confirmation class? I tell them in September that before they are confirmed in June, they must give me a statement of faith. It can be as short as a 3x5 card, or as long as a page written or typed. It can be about God, about Jesus, about their faith, their beliefs, prayer, what church means to them. When was the last time you thought about those matters, and specifically what you would write if that were your requirement before joining the church?
At confirmation last Sunday, I remarked that in reading over the statements of our 24 confirmands—portions of two I excerpted for the Meditative Moment in last Sunday’s and today’s worship bulletins—I would use them to preach today on what our youth believe.
And that is what I thought I would do until last Monday when I stood at the sign-board out in front of the chapel to post my sermon title. I decided “What Our Youth Believe” sounded a little too declarative, even presumptive of me to think I knew everything that all youth believe. So I modified the title into a question: “What Do Our Youth Believe?” And in attempting to answer that this morning, I am speaking now only of the 24 statements I most recently read. In fact, I am speaking of them from memory, for I do not have them, nor did I make copies. As the only one who saw them as I wrote a prayer for each confirmand, I returned to each of them their original statement in their confirmation certificate last Sunday.
As I recollect, a number of them mentioned something about God, and something about Jesus Christ. Only a few mentioned the Holy Spirit, the bestowal of which we celebrate each year on Pentecost Sunday, a splendidly appropriate Sunday to offer the rite of confirmation.
It is no small wonder that someone might not mention all three parts of the Trinity, which is traditionally celebrated on this first Sunday after Pentecost. We say Christianity is a monotheistic religion—believing in one God, yet at the same time we understand that God to be manifested in three persons. One…three…which is it? The word “trinity” is never mentioned in the Bible, yet today’s last words of Jesus to his disciples, according to Matthew, and the benediction of the Apostle Paul I will use at the close of this service, specifically speak of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all linked as closely as those words are written.
St. Patrick reputedly used the shamrock to illustrate the doctrine of the Trinity to the Irish. The explanation attributed to him as he held up a clover leaf is as follows: “Is this one leaf or three? If one leaf, why are there three lobes of equal size? If three leaves, why is there just one stem?” Clearly, there is unity in the shamrock, and each lobe of it can be seen distinctly, yet all are part of one leaf and are organically related and united, just like Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you want to try this at home, there are abundant three-leaf clovers in the planter to the right of the steps as you leave this morning!
Several of our 9th and 10th graders mentioned prayer and some of their own feelings about prayer. Does God listen? Why pray if we believe God is truly omniscient—all-knowing? Does prayer get answered as we wish or God wishes? Again, one confirmand in particular whose statement I read before the pastoral prayer last Sunday, and reprinted in the bulletin today, had a very theologically sound interpretation: “God cannot always answer prayers the way we wish him to, but his decisions are always made for the best outcome.”
I wish more adults could believe that. I continue to have people ask why God lets people die young? Why does God allow evil in the world?
Speaking of good and bad, right and wrong, that was a prevalent theme throughout many of the confirmands’ statements. It indicates to me that they ponder the consequences of their actions. With so many temptations nowadays in every way—drugs, alcohol, sex, their own cars, Internet, pornography, posting or just reading statements on MySpace which may or may not be true—our young people do struggle with the path they take. And that is a good thing. If they are struggling, if they realize their friends—or they themselves—might go this way or that way, it means they have a full realization that there is a right and a wrong choice for almost every action. I pray that all the impressions our youth get when they examine how we live our lives—parents, church family, adult friends, teachers—are ones that help, and do not hurt, their decisions to go on the right paths.
Getting to heaven: do you have to work at it or does it just happen? A couple of confirmands wrote with assurance that they knew it awaited them at life’s end. Some felt it would only be ahead if they lived their lives in a right manner now. Someone looked forward to having the face of God being the first he would see when he died.
Our youth face death, even at the age of 14-16 years. There are gang-shootings that affect high-school students here in Long Beach. There are unfortunate deaths of teens due to accidents or disease. At least two parents of Wilson High teens died in May. And there are the more expected natural deaths of aged relatives like grandparents. We often say youth act as if they are immortal—they act carelessly or try this or that, not realizing such an act could cause their own death. But I believe that even in the very midst of their vibrant young lives, they are conscious of the specter of death.
Creationism and scientific theory was tackled by one confirmand. I so like his answer. It came to him from the character in a book that he was reading, but it was the same notion I have long used to make peace with creation and evolution. If we believe God created us, then scientific theories come from the good minds God gave us. That is a simplified version, and not nearly as eloquent as what he wrote. When I finished reading his statement, I said to myself, “Wow!” and set out to read it again.
You know, I believe the mystery of the Trinity and understanding what our youth believe can both be likened to an island. Take Santa Catalina Island: “26 miles across the sea.” On many a day we can see it clearly from just down Granada Avenue. You can get there in 15 minutes on a helicopter, one hour on Catalina Express, or a little longer on your own boat. We all know that. As we expand what we know, the island expands. If you were able to walk all the way around the shoreline of Catalina Island, it would take you far, far longer than getting to the island. And you would discover quite a bit in that difficult walk.
And what of the island itself? There it sits in the Pacific Ocean, part of Los Angeles County, the 310 area code, the Long Beach Unified School District, with two Vons markets and a KFC. But does Catalina just float there? No, like an iceberg, there is much more below the surface we do not see. Unlike an iceberg, it does not float around, but is connected to the floor of the ocean.
How often have you come here, fairly confident that you are on the right path in your discipleship, rather firm in your faith, pretty sure of knowing everything you need to know about it, only to be surprised by something you heard in the scripture, some word that challenged you in the sermon, some question that was raised for you in the comments of some fellow Christian, like our confirmands?
That’s our God at God’s best. We arrive fairly confident that we have a good grasp of what God does, who Jesus is, how the Holy Spirit is at work in the world. And sometimes we leave with more questions than answers.
I always tell the Confirmation class that last Sunday’s rite is not the end to the development of their faith. They didn’t need to have all the answers. I don’t! Questions are okay. God understands. Look at how many questions were asked of Jesus. Go through the four Gospels sometime and count the question marks.
So maybe the point of the encounter any of us have here on Sunday morning in worship, no matter whether you’re a newly confirmed member of one week, or a member for a dozen or fifty years, is not so much to know as to be known; not so much always to understand everything—as if there were an answer for it all!—but to stand under this truth, this way, this life we mysteriously name as Trinity.