Confirmation in 20 years

Genesis 6:9-10;
8:14-19
Matthew 7:21-29
What do we believe happened on the Ark? Noah was a righteous man and the world was corrupt. Noah and his wife their sons and sons' wives and all the pairs of animals went aboard the Ark. For 40 Days and 40 Nights it flooded, then for another month they waited as the waters recessed, and they could disemb-ark on dry land. The world was washed clean of all evidence of what they had known. God was changed, declaring destruction by rain would never be again. Had those in the Sanctuary of the Ark been unchanged, simply enduring the experience? RIGHTEOUSNESS is about Integrity, allowing the experiences of your life, what you believe and represent to permeate who you are.

20 years ago we assumed that because it was Sunday people came to Church.
20 years before, our expectation was that women wore white gloves and hats, men brush cuts. The question of any experience, is what effect it has upon our lives, not only in the immediate, but also over a lifetime.

Did September 11th 2001 teach us to FEAR, to DISTRUST persons who are Arab to be afraid of airplanes, a desire for WAR; OR when we experienced being ATTACKED and Made VULNERABLE, did what we experienced allow us to come to believe in HEROES who rush into collapsing buildings rather than Paris and Madonna, Martha and The Donald; the POWER OF A FEW individuals to stand up against evil, giving their lives to help others; our own DESIRE to be close to family, and the ability to reprioritize determining what really was important?

The current recession and gas prices, have they made us angry at the stations selling gas, angry at the airlines, angry at the banks for lending practices, OR have the price of gas and the cost of everything going up, challenged us to see what matters, how disposable our lives have been, and the ability to make changes?

Somehow in American culture, we have come to believe that education is a science, like magic. We take a substance, isolate it from everything else, speak the right incantations, recite the lessons, and the product will always graduate the same. The only modification seems to be whether we begin with a child at age 4, or 5 or 6; whether they learn life's lessons from hockey or lacrosse, running, OM or ballet. Faith is not knowledge to be learned. There are basic stories, persons, ideas and principles, but the real act of faith is believing each person is RIGHTEOUS, giving them the experience and relationships of faith, and allowing them to take their faith into their life. The last several years we have tried to make a change from Christian education to NURTURE.

The foundation is different, so the structure and the outcomes are different. Not that there was anything wrong with what we were taught 20 years ago, or 40, or 60, for that time. But our expectations of life have changed, our assumptions about people's time and priorities. IS Sunday School Child Care while their parents are in the sermon; Is the sermon Adult Care, while the Children are taught? One of the finest experiences we offer is the Young Children in Worship, in which the children are nurtured to each tell the stories, living with integrity the age old Song “I LOVE TO TELL THE STORY”. The lessons and classes establish a FOUNDATION, rather than focusing upon the house being one story or ten, being red or white or blue, we focus on building the FOUNDATIONS.

This morning, we asked those who were baptized with their parents' faith 15 years ago, to try to imagine where they will be in 20 years, what the world will be in 2028, and what difference the experience of Confirmation will have made to who they are and how they live.