These Are Days

Joshua J Sander
5/23/10
Pentecost
“These Are Days”

Acts 2:1-21

Confirmation is one of those events that gets all wrapped up in defining a single moment in time. Like a birthday or an anniversary, like the first day of school or a first kiss, like getting baptized or getting married—it’s a big thing narrowed down to just one moment. And so, when my thoughts turn to Confirmation, they turn to the idea of time.

We talk about time in our everyday lives—well, all the time. We say things like, “When I grow up” or “When I was your age.” We say things like “Time’s a-wastin’” or “Time is money.” We say things like “The good old days” or “Young people are the future of the Church.” And we say things like “There’s something wrong with the world today.”

Oh how we love to say, “There’s something wrong with the world today!” There’s something wrong with the world today, the youth are sexting and cyber-bullying and what’s the deal with those Emo kids? There’s something wrong with the world today, the youth are playing violent video games and what’s the deal with those Grunge kids? There’s something wrong with the world today, Heavy Metal music, Punk hairdos, protesting in the streets, Disco, platform shoes, Laugh-In, draft dodgers, bell-bottoms, Hippies, Elvis gyrating on stage, Doo Wop, women in the workforce, Jazz musicians, Vaudeville, women smoking, Flappers—what was I talking about? Oh yes. Time.

We have a profound tendency to shift our focus when it comes to time. When asked to imagine the future of a congregation, or its church school, or its youth program, there are often people who say, “Well I remember the way it used to be…” Rev. DaVita Foy Crabtree calls this misfiling the past into the future—because if we want to grow and evolve as a church our goal shouldn’t be going back in time! Right?
You know who’s really good at imagining the future? Prophets. Like Isaiah, who said: The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.
Like John who wrote: See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."

Like Jesus, who told us over and over again that the kingdom of God is at hand.

Like Joel, who said: I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.

Wouldn’t that be a wonderful future? To be a people literally soaked in the Holy Spirit? To be a people whose sons and daughters receive and share the Word of God? To be a people whose old men dream dreams and whose young men have visions? Not passing fancies. Not hallucinations. But to dare to Dream—to have Vision.
Peter raised his voice and addressed them, “…this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams…’”

We have a profound tendency to shift our focus when it comes to time. When Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is close by, we think “someday.” When we read the story of Pentecost, we think “done and gone.” But the wonderful thing is that we’re still living in the days spoken through the prophet Joel. We are that Spirit-soaked people. Your sons and daughters are receiving and sharing the Word of God. Your young men have Vision. Your old men dare to Dream. And Jesus is still telling us that the Kingdom of God is at hand because when we Prophesy, when we have Vision, when we Dream it is for the purpose of bringing the Kingdom of God closer to fruition.

Our ancestors knew it—when Rev. John Robinson sent the Mayflower on its way to the New World he told the Pilgrims that God had “more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy word.” Or as Gracie Allen would sum it up later, “Never place a period where God has placed a comma.” Or as the United Church of Christ simply puts it, “God is still speaking.”

It’s like the scene in the film “Oh God!” where John Denver’s character asks God why God doesn’t do something about all the suffering and evil in the world and God responds, “Why don’t I do something about it? Why don’t you do something about it?”

It’s exactly like when Martin Luther King Jr. told us that he had a dream that his “…children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Are we there yet? No. Are we closer today than we were then? I believe that we are. Our old men Dream and then we work hard—sometimes we break our backs—to bring the Kingdom of God into the here and now.

And believe me. Please believe me. Your sons and daughters do prophesy. They may not start their sentences with “Thus sayeth the Lord,” they may not even begin their thoughts with “I have a dream,” but they have their convictions and in many ways they are ahead of the curve on many moral and spiritual issues!
We have a profound tendency to shift our focus when it comes to time. The youth are not our future. They are right here, right now. Confirmation is not the end of church school. Confirmation is a promise made by some very special young ladies to be full participants in the Church.

Olivia, Kate, Hannah, Fiona, I taught you that Statements of Faith shift and grow over time. It shouldn’t surprise you, then, to hear that your own Faiths will shift and grow over time as well. All of us here are on our own spiritual journey. But one of the things that makes the Church so special is that we’ve chosen to walk on that journey together. So I have just one more favor to ask of you as a Confirmation Class—just show up. That’s all. Come to church. Morning, evening, youth group, whatever—I don’t care—just so long as you come. Not because you ought to or even because I begged you—but because God has more to say to you here. And because God has more for you to say to us.

Let us pray: Disturbing God of Wind and Fire, we do not know what the future holds. But we pray that you continue to provoke us to new and wonderful things through the movement of your Holy Spirit. Let us be your Spirit-soaked people. Help us to Prophesy, to Dream—give us a Vision of what it means to be the Church—the body of your Son, Jesus Christ. In the name of the Creator, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.