Strengthen, Empower, and Sustain

Diocese of Rhode Island Eastertide  Confirmation Service, June 7, 2014

It is a pleasure to welcome you to All Saints’ Memorial Church.  We are a multi-cultural, vibrant and growing congregation, and we are honored and delighted to host the Diocese on this significant occasion.  We have all come together to celebrate with those of you who are renewing your commitment to Christ and being received into the fellowship of our Episcopal Church.

When we gather for a service of Confirmation I often recall the time of my own confirmation.  So, today I invite you who were confirmed or received in past years to take a moment to recall that time.  What do you remember?...  In my case the date was Palm Sunday, April 6^th, 1952.  The place was St. Stephen’s Church, a small stone church building in a suburb of Cincinnati.  During weeks of preparation we had to become familiar with the Offices of Instruction in the 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer.  A question and response in the Second Office has always stayed with me.  Question: “What is your bounden duty as a member of the Church?  Answer: My bounden duty is to follow Christ, to worship God every Sunday in his Church; and to work and pray and give for the spread of his kingdom.”

I found this to be an awesome responsibility, and when I knelt at the Communion rail for the Laying on of Hands, my bishop, Henry Wise Hobson, a rather large man with very big hands, placed those hands on my head.  They were massive and the weight of them was real as shivers went up my spine.  In his deep voice Bishop Hobson said those unforgettable historic words, “Defend, O Lord, this thy child with thy heavenly grace; that he may continue thine for ever; and daily increase in thy Holy Spirit more and more, until he come unto thy everlasting kingdom.  Amen.”

Today, 62 years later, you and I are together as our Bishop Nicholas Knisely will place his hands on those of you being confirmed and then offer his hand welcoming those of you being received into this branch of God’s Holy Church.

The passages we heard from the Prophet Jeremiah and the Gospel of Luke are about God speaking through the history of the people of ancient Israel, and the Spirit of the Lord anointing Jesus to bring good news to people in need.  The point of these well-known statements is that God also speaks through our own individual and collective history.  The Spirit of the Lord anoints us to bring good news to all in need, a ministry of Christ’s promise of freedom and compassion.

The selection from the 31^st chapter of the Prophet Jeremiah is possibly the most hopeful passage in the entire Hebrew Bible.  It describes the new covenant that God would one day give to the people.  Their sins would be forgiven, God’s law would be written within their hearts, and all of them will know God.  It is the high point of Jeremiah’s theology, and it is one of the most significant and moving statements in the Bible.  The climax of Jeremiah’s prophecy is the complete transformation of Israel.  In time to come God will give Israel “one heart and one way” and make with her an “everlasting covenant” that will never be violated.  “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Many years later, as a member of his synagogue community Jesus recalled the history of God’s relationship with Israel when he read from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah.  Jesus said his own prophetic message was “to bring good news to the poor,… to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  He said, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." 

Luke’s gospel has woven together passages from the 58^th and the 61^st chapters of Isaiah.  Those are the chapters in which the prophet talked about "loosing the bonds of injustice," "freeing the oppressed," and being anointed by the Spirit to bring good news to the poor.  Jesus was filled with the Spirit and his mission was to fulfill God’s promises.

Luke's purpose was to give an interpretation of what God was doing in Christ.  There was and continues to be universal appeal and an interest in social relationships.  There is concern for people who are outcast, who exist on the margins of society; for women; and for those who are oppressed.  There is also an emphasis on joy and the Holy Spirit, on the graciousness and sovereignty of Christ, and an interest in Christ’s second coming.

As he wrote his account of Jesus' life and ministry Luke interpreted what he understood God to be doing in Christ.  What would you and I write if we were to share our story of Christ?  Would we write about the poor in our communities, prisoners, or those who are blind?  Would we discuss how the good news of the Gospel is shared?   Would we include illustrations of people being released from bondage, having sight restored, being given freedom from oppression, and being welcomed into our church communities?  How are we proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor?

We might include a section in our story about what God is doing in our world.  Does God speak through the diversity of religions throughout the world?  Bishop Knisely recently returned from a visit to Israel where he saw the place of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion.  Can we say something about our understanding of the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection?  What is God saying to the people of Israel and Palestine?  What is God saying to all who live with the threat of violence and death?

Our story about what God is doing needs to be shared. We need to discuss how Jesus Christ is alive both in our historical memory and in our world.  The Spirit of the Lord anointed Jesus to bring good news to the poor, the captive, the blind and the oppressed.  This means that as Christians we are to invite those in our communities who hunger for the compassion of God to join in relationship with us in the life of the Spirit.  That is the ministry exemplified for us in the anointed Jesus.

We have been anointed by our baptism to announce that God’s day is today, that now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation.  In our life within the Christian community each person is commissioned and anointed by the Spirit of God to bring Christ’s promise of freedom and compassion to those in need.

When we come together to renew our baptismal covenant, when we have our bishop lay hands upon us and pray that the Lord will strengthen us with the Holy Spirit, empower us for service, and sustain us all the days of our lives; and when we gather at the Altar, God’s holy Table, to offer ourselves, our praise and thanksgiving, and to present bread and wine "that they may be the Sacrament of the Body of Christ and his Blood of the new Covenant," we are nourished and renewed to carry on the ministry of invitation and hospitality to all people.  Let us proclaim the year of the Lord's favor for all creation.  Today the scripture can be fulfilled in our hearing for the Spirit of God is upon you and upon all of us.  Amen.