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A Sermon Preached at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church, Oak Park, IL
at the Rite-13 Ceremony on June 1, 2008, The Third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 4, Year A, RCL)
By the Rev. J. Paris Coffey

Readings: Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28 and Matthew 7: 21-29

You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. - Deuteronomy 11:18-21

Often I get the feeling that modern Christians - teenagers AND their parents - assume that the Bible is not for them. Oh, it may be for church leaders or religious scholars holed up in some remote corner with dusty old documents written for another age. It may even be for children (if you're an adult) or for adults (if you're a child), but it has little to do with ME. I'm a modern thinker, a reasoned person who sees clearly that the world's a mess and that GOD certainly isn't going to clean it up. We're on our own, here, so why bother with the Bible?

Such thinking, of course, doesn't apply to US! We're the ones sitting in church this morning listening politely as the rector prattles on. It does apply, though, to the listeners of Moses' day who lived with acute temptation as they faced a perilous future. The Temple had fallen, Jerusalem had been seized by the Babylonians and Israel was under foreign rule. Many kinsmen had been exiled and the Church as they had known it was no more. Life was fraught with uncertainty, and it didn't look like God was going to tidy the mess. In fact, for all practical purposes it looked as though God had left the building.

Truth to tell, though, things looked a little different to the author of Deuteronomy who believed that it was the Israelites who had abandoned God. They'd allowed soccer to replace Sunday morning worship, sleepovers to take precedence over Church School, prosperity to entice people to all kinds of luxuries more appealing than devotion to God, and a global culture that made spiritual discipline seem quaint. Oh wait, that's us . . . although it was ALSO ancient Israel, for we are not as different as we might think. Consequently, the Deuteronomist offers sound advice, not only for Israelites but for us some 2,500+ years later. It's sound for teenagers celebrating their entrance into manhood and womanhood today, and sound, too, for all celebrating the work of the teachers we honor this morning.

These teachers are honored for the commitment they've made to the spiritual formation of children and adults. And yet their commitment alone is not enough, as the Deuteronomist reminds us today in a reading that concludes a long defense (10½ chapters in fact) of The Ten Commandments. As the Deuteronomist writes, "You shall put these words . . . in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to your ancestors to give them . . ."

WOW, what a big commitment! Nothing less, though, will do, for the Israelites lived in a time when worldly values threatened the extinction of their way of life. It threatened life's spiritual dimension and values - including the value of self-sacrifice that commands us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Such values aren't part of the world's standards, but are part of God's in every true religion.

Contrary to popular belief, our religion is not the only way to God, but it is OUR way, and so if we hope to walk in love as Christ loved us, we must immerse ourselves in the spiritual values and disciplines revealed in Jesus Christ. Indeed, this is what it means to build our house upon a rock. As our sequence hymn says, "When darkness veils (Christ's) lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace; in every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand."

God will not abandon us in the stormy gale, but to KNOW that - to know the God who stands with us through thick and thin - demands more than a passing acquaintance. It demands relationship, and this includes not only church on Sunday - EVERY Sunday morning that we're not ill or out of town - it demands saturation at home as well. Grace at meals, prayer at bedtime, discussions at the dinner table, reflection on TV shows, agreement about priorities, and so much more. It requires LIVING the faith - not just talking about it - for people (especially children) know us less by what we say than what we do.

For this reason I want to thank all of you who are here today celebrating the Rite-13 Liturgy and honoring our teachers, for your commitment to spiritual formation. I want to thank you for making formation a priority and if you haven't - if you fear you do not fit that bill - please don't leave feeling guilty. I haven't forgotten what it's like to get teenagers out of bed or home from sleepovers on Sunday morning, or to get younger children dressed for church. It's tough, although oddly easier when it's every Sunday. I simply want to impress upon us - all of us - how very necessary such discipline is if we are to live as people of faith in a world with other values. The good news, though, is that it is worth it, turning life into celebration as today's Rite-13 liturgy reminds us.

This liturgy, which follows the sermon and Renewal of Baptismal Vows, is described as a celebration of life. Called a "Celebration of Manhood and Womanhood," it marks the transformation of the 13 and14 year olds gathered here today, from children into men and women. We celebrate this event as close to age 13 as possible because this is the time when bodies are being gifted by God with new powers of creation. Such powers are freely given. You do not have to earn them, or try to prove in macho or coy ways that you are men and women. You do, though, need to respect these God-given powers, for they are bestowed upon you not just to create new life, but to shape the world in which you live according to God's purpose. And to do that you must be firmly rooted in Christ.

Such rootedness is countercultural, especially for teenagers who - even though strengthened by God - may be embarrassed to admit it. You may even feel it's nerdish to participate on Sunday mornings or afternoons when friends are doing other things, and yet your participation it crucial. It's crucial, relevant and even urgent, for sad to say you are inheriting a world where the men and women who have gone before you have made a bit of a mess of things. Oh, we don't like to admit it, preferring to think there's no problem we can't solve, no situation we can't improve. Deep down, though, I suspect that at least some of us have a sneaking suspicion that the world is out of kilter.

Without doubt, we have accomplished much, having harnessed lightening, maneuvered airwaves, conquered space and developed technology that boggles the mind. On the other hand, we may have relied too much on human ingenuity alone, since looking around we see fellow human beings destroying one another; religions driving people apart instead of bringing them together; self-interests causing a growing wedge between rich and poor; and human carelessness wreaking havoc on the earth in ways we will not be able to reverse without intentional sacrifice. It's enough to drive the staunchest of humanists to their knees.

Knees, though, are not a bad place to be if they awaken our call to partnership with God and one another - to be co-creators if you will, as the Rite-13 Ceremony reminds us. "God calls us to use our gifts to build and not destroy" this liturgy asserts, asking, "Are you aware of God's gift to you and the responsibility to use it wisely?" It is a question that will be asked shortly of the 13 and14 year olds gathered here today. It is also, though, a question we ALL need to answer, remembering that using our gifts wisely requires immersion in God. It requires God's word in our heart, as a sign on our hand and an emblem on our forehead. It requires teaching our children at home and when we're away, when we lie down and when we rise. It requires reminders on the doorposts of our house and on our gates, but it also promises much - turning life into a celebration that enriches us and brings hope to a messy world in need of God.

Amen.