Confirmation
Trinity Sunday
Yesterday’s newspaper: Dateline Myanmar, With the death toll following the cyclone two weeks ago standing at 78,000 and estimates suggesting it might rise as high as 128,000 the military government of the country is allowing only a modest amount of aid offered by other countries to enter.
Dateline Somalia The United Nations has declared a wide swath of central Somalia a humanitarian emergency which is the final stage before declaring it a full blown famine. The famine has been exacerbated by escalating violence in the region.
Dateline China An earthquake 6 days ago has claimed the lives of at least 22,000. Aid efforts have been hampered by landslides brought about by the aftershocks.
Tohu Wabohu. That’s what the priestly writer of Genesis called it. Tohu Wabahu, is the Hebrew word for “chaos.” The writer of the Genesis story of creation that we read as our first lesson today says “In the beginning, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.” Before God created there was nothing, in Hebrew tohu wabahu, chaos, confusion, nothingness. Over this nothingness God breathed. And when God spoke there was light. And when God spoke again from this vast chaos there was land in the midst of the water and that land brought forth plants and growing seasons, and living creatures and it was good. And then God made humanity and God gave this humanity, us, partnership with him and this creation. Finally God gave us a day to rest, Sabbath, so that we might step back to tell this story of how from the seething dark churning tohu wabahu God brought forth earth, life and creation.
For this writer and for the people of his time they imagined a three story universe. God had created the firmament, a shell covering the earth to keep the chaos at bay above the firmament. And God set pillars to hold the sea above the chaos. Should you go to the ends of the sea you might drop off into the chaos that loomed just over the edge? Or should the firmament be rent chaos would poor in from above.
Sometimes the world feels like that to us. As we read the paper it seems with cyclones and earthquakes and famine just around the corner that the tohu wabahu is encroaching Genesis is talking about how this world sometimes feels to us. You are going along on a some pleasant, May day. Your world is in order, things are going along fine. Then the telephone rings. A voice on the other end says, “I’m sorry I’ve got some bad news for you,”
How does that feel? The doctor calls with the word that that routine physical hasn’t turned out to be routine. The company that you assumed was so secure is not and suddenly the livelihood that you thought was so secure is not. No clue. There was no clue that the relationship that started out so beautifully would turn so poisonous. Tohu wabahu, chaos waiting right around the corner. This creation story is about that. About how life so ordered and idyllic today can be so different five minutes from now—tohu wabahu.
Here’s how we got this first chapter of Genesis. We believe that this story was told about how God began creating the heavens and the earth about the sixth century B.C. Israel, which had once been secure in its promised land, had been overrun, its cities laid waste, survivors carried off as slaves into exile. It was Somalia, Iraq, social, economic and political tohu wabohu. Sixth century B.C. style. To those for whom the world was literally falling apart, coming apart at the seams, this story was told. So that, when Genesis told about tohu wabohu, they knew. Just as we know.
In such moments when the earth shakes, mountains crumble, and chaos bubbles forth, we turn like the vulnerable frightened children that we are to an old story, learned in childhood. “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep…then god said, “let there be light’; and there was light . And God saw that the light was good.”
Do you know that this “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth” can also be rendered, “When God began creating the heavens and the earth”? Creation is not something fixed, finished a billion years back. Creation is going on right now, right here. God never stops being creative, never stops wrestling with the chaos, keeps bringing something out of nothing. Jews in exile having lost everything, the homeless in China, the hungry in Somalia, the hopeless in Myanmar and frightened people right in our back yard, need to be reminded that God is still Creator, still bringing something out of nothing, still battling chaos in all its forms.
And… and this is the important part… still inviting, calling, commanding, cajoling us to be part of that creative process, part of that effort to battle the forces of chaos.
Our gospel lesson may be short today but it couldn’t be more to the point. Jesus gathers those eleven disciples on a mountain in Galilee and then he appears to them. You would think that Jesus appearance here after his death would be enough to convince them but our text honestly admits; “some worshipped and some doubted.” Even to these tentative believers, even to these newbie’s in the faith Jesus says “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me and so therefore I’m giving you this task, this commission
Today we will be confirming 10 young people. They are so young, just on the brink. Jesus addresses them. Confirmands, if you’ve been resting your eyes now’s the time to wake up because Jesus is addressing you. “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” Because these directions are so short it’s easy to gloss over them but Listen again to the verbs Jesus uses in this short commission. Jesus says “go”, that means we’re not to be a couch potato Christians, we’re to be active, up and moving. Jesus says “make disciples”, that is invite others to be part of the same life giving--life sharing experience that is yours, Baptize; open others to the new identity they have as claimed children of God, Teach You can’t teach without being first a learner, avail yourself regularly of hearing, studying and understanding the word of God “Obey” walk the way you talk…
“Go, make disciples, baptize, teach, obey.” Sometimes we think religion, our faith, is about believing certain doctrines, following particular dictates having a right mind. But in our lesson today Jesus has another idea. You confirmands may think this past two years of study, retreats, Sunday School and service have been about fulfilling requirements and accomplishing tasks and that now you have achieved something. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. This past two years has been training.Training for something on which you are just now about to embark.
There’s one more verb in this commission. Jesus says “remember” “remember that I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”We are never alone from the beginning of time, the creation, to the end of time, Jesus promises I will be with you always.
Jesus commissions you and all of us to do the same things he did. We are now charged to act and love and serve in Jesus name. We are charged to bring the message of hope present in God’s continuing new creation to all the world. When disorder, chaos, confusion and emptiness lurk all around us we are called to be messengers of hope and promise. It’s really not about us but about the work and mission Jesus began and shares with us
Confirmands, you have about 20 minutes left—because I want you to listen carefully to the words of our closing hymn. “Lord you give the great commission.” That’s addressed to you and to us all who affirm their faith. I want you to take it to heart and consider it your official sending.
Amen