Travel with God to God
Acts 2:1-14, 40-43
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Harry G. Winsheimer
May 17, 2009
Confirmation Sunday

Do you remember your baptism?  Do you remember your confirmation?  Today we confirm and commission teens. 

My parents and church took the vows and baptized me as an infant, but I remember my confirmation.  We met with the pastor for a number of Sunday afternoons.  Rev. Johnson was his name.  He seemed to be old – had to be at least 55.  I remember being interviewed by the elders.  I remember well the confirmation!  I was so sick!  My body shook and was freezing.  I put on a sweater and stood up front with the chills.  I don’t remember the questions, but I remember standing and quivering in front of all those people.  We used the expression, still often used, “joining the church.”

Do you know when the first big group joined the church?  Pentecost. 

And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  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, as the Spirit gave them ability.

And people understood them!

All were amazed and perplexed [how is that for an understatement?], saying to one another, "What does this mean?" 

Then Peter stood, raised his voice, and gave his testimony.  Passionately, he explained that God had demonstrated life-changing love in Jesus of Nazareth.  He concluded with the proclamation:
This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.  Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear. 

Therefore let [all of you] know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah....

People were moved and asked, "What shall we do?" 

Peter said, "Turn your life around, and be baptized ... in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

"and that day [Luke reports] about three thousand persons were added."

The Holy Spirit filled them!  It was their confirmation-commissioning day!  It was the dawn of new life for those believers.  It was the birth of the church!    

What got into Peter and those three thousand?  Where did they get the energy to become church?

A man at an airport was worried about missing his plane.  He had no wristwatch, and his battery was low on his cell phone, so he hurried up to a stranger and said, "Excuse me, could you tell me the time, please?"  The stranger smiled and said, "Sure."  He set down the two large suitcases he was carrying and looked at his wristwatch.  "It is 6:08, the temperature is 75.  The barometric pressure is 30.19 and falling.  Rain is predicted.  In Madrid, the sky is clear and the temperature is 40 degrees Celsius.  In Istanbul, the weather is sultry and the moon full.  Oh, I just got a message on Twitter from my friend in L.A."  "Your watch tells you all that?" the man interrupted.  "Oh, yes...and much more," said the stranger.  "You see, I invented this, and there is no other like it in the world!"  "I want to buy that watch!" said the man.  "I'll pay you $2,000 for it right now!"  "No, it is not for sale," said the stranger.  "You see, it has great sentimental value for me."  "O.K., listen," said the man.  "I'll give you $10,000.  I've got the money right here."  The stranger paused. "$10,000?  Well, Okay.  It's yours for $10,000."  The man was absolutely elated.  He paid the stranger, took the watch, and snapped it onto his wrist as he turned to leave.  "Wait," said the stranger.  With a big smile, he handed the two heavy suitcases to the man and added, "Don't forget the batteries."

Silly story, but this is the temptation that haunts us -- that we will forget the battery -- that we will forget the source of our power, that we will forget to keep connected with God – no connection, no enjoyment of God, no energy to serve.  Then, we become all potential and no passion, all possibility and no production, all show and no courage. If we do not keep connected to the church’s power, then belonging to the church is just like belonging to any club or service organization.  What is the power for church members?  The Holy Spirit.  Jesus Christ as Spirit.  God as Spirit, unseen but its effects are felt and its impact seen.

(Have you been in a graduation ceremony this year?  Are you going to any this spring?)

Confirmands: Here is my concern.  I have witnessed it often.  I worry that you will think of confirmation/commissioning as a graduation from church and God.  Now, you have done your ritualistic duty--you have pleased your parents--and you will be tempted to forget God and church.  Members of the church: I have seen so many people join the church and disappear.  Joining is not a graduation ceremony!  This is the season for graduations – high school, college, university, even pre-school.  Graduation means what?  You have met the requirements and the school awards you with the degree or promotion.  Graduation has to do with the past.  What is the other word that we use for the same ceremony?  Commencement.  Commencement and graduation are the same event, but with very different emphasis.  What is the verb in commencement?  Commence.  The graduate completes the education and commences the next chapter in life.

Do you know what is confirmed?  Everyone knows the word “confirmation”, but I am surprised at how many do not know what it means.  What is the verb?  Confirm.  Confirm what?  The baptismal vows.  Who took the vows?  The parents and the church.  Parents are asked: “Is Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior?  Do you intend your child to be his disciple, to obey his word and show his love?”  In confirmation, we confirm the vows of faith in Jesus Christ that our parents took in our behalf.

Parallel graduation with confirmation and commencement with commissioning.  Look at joining the church as commencement.  Here in church we call it commissioning.  We commission people to do a work for God or to be a representative for God.  So, this morning you confirmands are commencing the next chapter in your journey with God.  Or, as we call it, you are being commissioned to join the people of Christ doing the work of Christ.

Let me suggest a model for thinking about living as confirmed and commissioned members of the church: think of life as a trip, a journey.  Think of life as an on-going trip that does not end until resurrection day.

On a retreat I had a debate with Carolyn.  I said that I thought of my life as a pilgrimage.  That word is out of style in western culture, so let me clarify.  I think of my life as having a goal, an end, a destiny.  I am heading toward God!  Someday I will die.  Then, I trust that God will raise me to be with Jesus.  I will get to see Jesus face to face.  I will enjoy God, and have the greatest time praising God.  It will be heaven.  Carolyn disagreed with me.  She thought of life as an odyssey.  What do you do on an odyssey?  You wonder about.  Your goals are short-term, and they change.   She convinced me to modify my image.  Now I think of my life as both, odyssey and pilgrimage – a trip with God that has many route changes that still ends up with God.  Along the way, many changes happen, which is an odyssey.  We have a grandson, Adam, who is 17.  He was a good soccer player.  He played all his life.  He played all year.  He was on the travel team.  This spring, I asked Adam when his season would start.  He replied that he was not going to play any more.  That surprised me.  “Why?”  “The other guys have gotten too big and too good.  I can’t compete like I used to.”  Adam’s growth has slowed, while some of the other guys have had growth spurts.  Now, he will get into something else.  Route change.  Knowing Adam, it will be girls.  I had no plan to serve as your temporary pastor for fourteen and a half months.  That is odyssey.  Life takes us on unexpected routes to diverse stops.  I hope that Adam, I hope that you, will think of your life also as a trip – a trip that will meander, but eventually ends with God in heaven. 

Peter is an example of odyssey and pilgrimage.  Let’s take a quick look at his odyssey and pilgrimage.

What was Peter’s occupation?  Fisherman.  He fished in the Sea of Galilee.  What did Peter expect to do for the rest of his life?  I am 99% certain that he expected to fish until he got too old to row the boat.  That is what he had been taught by his father.  That is what he knew. 

Then, one day, who came by?  Jesus!  Jesus beckons and says, “Come, follow me.  I’ll make you fish for people.”  Wow, did that change his life! 

Following Jesus, he had a fantastic experience!  He was in the upstairs room when Jesus started the Lord’s Supper.  He was in the Garden when the solders came to arrest Jesus.  He drew his sword and sliced off the ear of a soldier, and heard Jesus tell him to put the sword away.  He was there when Jesus said that all of them would betray him.   He puffed up his macho chest and stated, “Not me.”  But during Jesus’ trial, when asked if he followed Jesus, he cussed and denied that he knew Jesus. 

He hid with the other disciples behind a locked door to avoid being arrested as Jesus had been.  With the other disciples, Peter stayed low profile, and prayed.  Then the flames of the Holy Spirit struck on Pentecost!  Peter was energized.  He got guts.  He went public in a big way!  He stood on the Temple steps to announce that God had demonstrated love and a better life through Jesus.  Three thousand said, “Yes!”  The church came alive!  Then, Peter healed a lame man, and continued to tell about what God had done in Jesus.  That got him arrested.  He ended up, legend says, being crucified--but he did not want to be hung up like Jesus, and asked to be hung upside down (that is why some churches have the second, lower, tilted cross bar on the cross).  That was his trip, his odyssey and pilgrimage, from fishing in the Sea of Galilee, through Holy Week, Pentecost, church building, to martyrdom and heaven.  What a trip! 

The power for that dynamic trip came from being connected with God; as our text puts it, “filled with the Holy Spirit.”  It is by the gift of God’s Spirit that we empowered to fulfill our commission.

I hope that when your trip on this planet nears its end that you will look back and say, “What a trip!  God and I traveled it all the way, and soon I shall see God face to face.”

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