Luke 24:13-35
Todd Buegler
October 28 & 29, 2006
Lord of Life
Service of Confirmation
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, and from Jesus, the Son of God, who is the light of the world! Amen.
Let me be the first today to say “congratulations” to all of you on this chance to affirm your baptismal vows. For most of you, baptism happened somewhere around 16 years ago, when your parents made promises for you. Today, it is your turn. And we are all very, very proud of you!
What we’ve been a part of here is about God’s work in your lives. We’d never want to reduce it all to cold, hard statistics. But, sometimes I get a little curious, so I’ve done some math and want to share with you all some statistics about this group of young people. There are a total of 146 of you being confirmed this weekend. You were a part of 19 different small groups that met on Wednesday nights and on retreats for a total of 74 hours of time together. Add up all that time your class gave to small groups in your faith journey and it comes out to 10,730 people hours. Together, you have all given (and this is a conservative estimate), 4,500 hours of service to people in need, and to the church. You have turned in a total of 4,350 worship notes. (actually, the number was 4,347, but as soon as the 3 of you still turning in the last ones on this sermon do so, it will be 4,350.) Finally, and perhaps most remarkably, over three years, your class personally ate 1,040 large Domino’s pizzas.
When all is said and done, however, confirmation ministry at Lord of Life is not about numbers and statistics. It is about transformation and change. It is about what God does within you.
In college, I was overjoyed to discover when I first registered, that I was only required to do one credit of physical education courses. Phy. Ed. courses were never my favorite thing. (My theory is, I only run when I’m being chased.) So this was good news! Then, I read the fine print of the course catalog. These college people were tricky…each of their phy. ed. courses were given out in eighth, or even sixteenth of a credit chunks. This ruined my theory of slipping through college with only one phy. ed. course. So I made it my mission to take as many of the strange and obscure phy. ed courses that I could.
While I couldn’t avoid some of the standard courses like running, or tennis, I did mange to take courses like “bowling”, “ballroom dance”, “badmitton” and “Archery.”
Archery stands out for me because of one particular event that took place there. The class met on the concrete floor of the hockey arena. So there were chairs surrounding the arena up high, and glass block windows behind the chairs. They had 7 or 8 targets, and a group of 4 or 5 of us would stand in front of each target in a line, and would take turns shooting arrows. When a row would finish, the coach would cue us to walk up and pull the arrows, or to go find them, and give them to the next person in line.
I stood at my place in line with my arrow. I aimed. I pulled back on the bow. . The arrow hit the target…just a few inches from the bulls eye. Only one problem. The arrow…it wasn’t mine. I hadn’t shot yet. Confused, I looked to my left, and then my right. Karen, a woman in the next line, had a horrified and embarrassed look on her face. She had shot, and had completely missed her target, hitting mine. “Thanks!” I said.
The next time we were both up, I was curious, so I watched her out of the corner of my eye. This time, she took her shot and instead of shooting straight toward the target, the arrow kind of lofted up in the air, tumbling end-over-end and landing with a clatter on the floor halfway to the target. This got the Coach’s attention, as well as the rest of the class. She was again, horribly embarrassed.
The third time our line came up to shoot, the whole class was pretty much watching Karen to see what would happen. Karen notched the arrow, aimed in the general direction of the target, pulled back on the bow and went like this. Just before she released, she squeezed her eyes shut. The third arrow launched and shot up over the target, over the hockey arena seats shattering one of the glass block windows and out of the building.
The coach had been standing behind Karen. He leaned forward and whispered in her ear “open your eyes.”
I tell you this story because I believe that this is the way many of us live our faith lives. We go through much of life blind to the things of the world going on around us…blind to God in our life. We run around looking for evidence of God, but blind to what God is doing. We are willing to ask questions: “Where is God? What is God doing?” But God is active. God is doing things; things that we may not see. And there are moments in our life when it’s as if God stands behind us and whispers in our ears, “open your eyes!”
I tell you this as a confession. I often don’t see things. Sometimes it’s just the routine and the mundane. My wife, Lori, swears that I have what she calls “Guy Disease.” I can stare directly into the refrigerator, where the bottle of mayonnaise is 10% obstructed by the milk, and I can ask her “Honey, where’s the mayo?” She’ll walk over, grab the jar from in front of my face and hand it to me. I don’t understand why I didn’t see it. I just don’t. Husbands, for how many of you is this true? Wives, for how many of you is this true of your husbands? (Sometimes we’re blind to the fact that we can’t see!)…and let’s not event talk about my car keys or my wallet.
Likewise, I can be blind to the ways of God. I believe fully that God is working in the world. I have seen the results of God’s work. But when things are most difficult for me…when I am most in need of seeing God’s work; then I can be most blind to it. When I am the most anxious about something in my life, when out of my anxiety, I grip tighter and tighter control, that is when I should be “eyes wide open”, looking for the work of God. Instead, it’s as if I’ve grabbed the bow, squeezed my eyes shut and am drawing back the arrow.
This was certainly the case for the disciples. The story: Two followers were walking along the road one day near the village of Emmaus, some seven miles outside of the capital city of Jerusalem. The two friends were depressed. They felt this way because Jesus had been crucified, the disciples had run away, a hysterical and hallucinating woman named Mary claimed she saw the Risen Christ, somebody had broken into the tomb and stolen the body, and the Jesus movement was over and dead. They were depressed, because their Lord and master, Jesus of Nazareth was killed, and it was all over.
As they walked, a stranger was soon walking with them. The two friends told the stranger about why they felt down and how Jesus had been killed. The stranger then started to teach them the Scriptures; when he did, something happened: the disciples described their hearts as burning with amazement. The two friends invited the stranger to go with them that night and have dinner. At the meal, the stranger took the bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to them. In that sacramental moment, the two friends eyes were opened wide, and they realized that this stranger was Jesus, the Risen Christ. Later they said “Did not our hearts burn within us when he opened up the Scriptures to us?” They also said, “As he took the bread, offered thanks, broke the bread and gave it to them, he made himself known to us…” Their eyes were opened wide, and they saw Jesus.
Our hope and prayer is that C3 has been full of “Eyes Wide Open” moments for you. Moments where you experienced God in a new way. Moments where your heart burned because God’s love for you came alive. We seek these moments. I believe that our greatest need, the thing we strive for more than anything else, is a relationship with the God who seeks a relationship with you. We spend our lives looking for how to have this relationship. We sometimes try to fill the void with other things…success, ambition, greed, chemicals, whatever it may be…but nothing can fill that “God sized” hole in our heart like the presence of Christ. And the grace of God is for each one of you, whether your eyes are opened or not. It is a constant. It is always there.
So where do we see Christ? Where do we find God? I believe the story of the two disciples gives us a clue. It was when Jesus read from the Scriptures that their hearts started to burn with amazement. And it was when Jesus broke the bread in the meal that they recognized Him. What does this tell us?
Open your eyes and read the scriptures. When we hear the story of the God who loves us unconditionally, our eyes are opened to recognize Him. Our hearts can burn as the disciples did.
Open your eyes to the bread and wine of communion. When we receive the meal, when we receive God’s grace, when we come into contact with the Holy, we are able to see Jesus.
Open your eyes to community. I read your faith statements and your C3 evaluations. I know how important your small groups have been to your faith. Remember that there are always people in the Christian community to connect with. You are always welcome.
Open your eyes to serving others. It is when we humble ourselves and care for others that we experience the kind of giving that Jesus speaks of.
Today, at your confirmation, God stands behind you, leans forward and whispers in your ear “open your eyes. See my work in your life. Be in relationship with me.” But remember that this is not a one-time event. Now it is your responsibility is to remember that every day, when your feet hit the floor in the morning, God says “open your eyes. See me today.” Confirmation is not the end of a process; it is the beginning of a lifestyle.
May you live that lifestyle, full of the grace of God, eyes wide open.
Amen.
