Advent Sunday 2013
Some quotes:
Why? The thing that brought me to the point of wanting to be confirmed is the sermons and the stories. They help me understand why we have loved ones, life, friends and many more things.
Why? Its the right time in my life to learn more and make a commitment to follow Christ.
I have had a faith but until now I have been unable to complete the circle and commit myself to Jesus. I now feel I can make the commitment to follow Jesus and allow him to enter my life more fully.
I would like to be confirmed because it will make me feel closer to God, and it shows how passionate I feel about him.
These are just a few of the written reasons that some of our candidates gave last week as reasons for being confirmed. They had given a great deal of thought to this, and it is interesting how powerful the language of their written testimonies is.
I would add one more quote. 'Brothers and sisters, you know what time it is, how it is the moment for you to wake from sleep.'
This one is from St. Paul, but the words of our confirmation candidates resonate with what Paul wrote to the church in Rome in the mid 1st century. There is an immediacy running through all the quotes – the time is ripe, and the time is now for committing to Jesus.
Advent Sunday is the first Sunday of the church's year. Today is new year's day for the church. It is appropriate for all of us to make a new year's resolution on this day. Our confirmation candidates each had to think seriously about why confirmation is so important to their faith journey. Each had to give time and thought to Jesus an dhow important he is in their lives. It was a time of decision – a God time, which is not time in the normal sense, but what we call in Greek a chairos, God's time.
In the light of last week's confirmation service I am left wondering when each of us last asked searching questions about our commitment to Jesus. Do we just slip into a rather complacent weekly attendance at church? Does it all just become a bit habitual? Or does it really make a difference to us? Does it actually change anything in us?
Advent is a season of urgency. For this reason the words of the prophets sit so well in this season. Advent is a season of immediacy. For this reason St. Paul's words to the Romans are so apposite. St. John the Divine's words run right through this season, but also right to the very heart of our faith, ' Surely I am coming soon', Amen, come Lord Jesus.
Every week when we gather for eucharist, for thanksgiving, we proclaim, 'Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again'. We say it, but do we believe it? Is is a conviction? If it is a conviction then we all have to expect that Christ will indeed come again, and we should all be ready and waiting, alert and attentive.
Many years ago one of my curates had a poster on his wall, that read 'Jesus is coming, quick , look busy'. I know what it means, but if we are too busy and distracted we may well miss the moment, God's moment, in our lives; that moment when suddenly the penny drops and we truly know Jesus as our Lord and our Saviour.
We are richly blessed in our church here. We have seen a phenomenal rise in attendances at worship over the last year, especially among families and younger adults. At our All Age services the increase is over 100%. Very few churches will be able to make that statement. But this increase is not only a reason to rejoice – it is a reason to feel challenged. God places before us the challenge of being a church that has to respond to the changes of being a younger congregation. My New Year's resolution on this Advent Sunday is to commit 2014 as a year when we begin to respond better to the challenge new searching Christians bring to the life of our church. I seek your help and support in this as we build for the future.
For many of these younger families a moment will come, if it has not already done so, when they too will be answering the questions about commitment, about why they wish to be confirmed. It will be because journeying together as Advent people we have brought them to point in their lives when they too know what St. Paul means when he says,
Brothers and sisters, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment to wake from sleep.
I began with some quotes from our confirmation candidates. What would your words be if we were quoting you?