I Have Called You by Name, You Are Mine

Water's Edge will be bubbling at the brim with worshipers this Sunday as we will be joined by this year's class of candidates for confirmation and their fans! Please come early, grab a seat, and prepare to ponder plenty.

One of our confirmands is also going to baptized so this provides another opportunity for anyone within Water's Edge to renew their baptism. At about the mid-point in the service, our confirmands will dip some locally harvested, leafy branches into our baptismal bowls and sprinkle our collective heads. I can imagine this could feel kinda wild and look like a party, but in preparation for our sprinkling, we will be reflecting on our own journey with God.

Most of the folks in our Water's Edge planning group had clear recollections of confirmation: one former Catholic remembers choosing his new confirmation name and meeting the bishop; another remembered trying to memorize all the books of the Bible, and really knocking a home run with the books of the prophets; and I remembered that the new, very cute boy who had just come to our church/town from Texas, and who wore REAL cowboy boots ALL THE TIME, was in my class and held my hand during group prayers.

Clearly there are many potential ways to remember your confirmation, so, what is our message tohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif the incoming class? "Slow down and pay attention." It all goes by so quickly. Take just a minute or two to really think about what this day holds for you and try to remember it. Yeah, yeah. We all have had adults tell us that "time flies." And we all have rolled our eyes and g-fawed as soon as the adult left room. But here, years later, we find they were right. And I do wish I could remember more. It surprised me to realize that I just don't remember!

But, then, Randy (youth minister) reminded us that each of the confirmands receives a cross inscribed with Isaiah 43:1, "I have called you by name, you are mine." That passage provided the comfort I needed. We don't need to recall all of the details surrounding our confirmation. We simply need to remember that we were called and we said "Yes."

See you Sunday!

(The black and white photo above is from a confirmation class at Emmaus Lutheran, just over one hundred years ago... Class of 1911. I started to poke fun of their crazy hair bows and then I remember what my picture would have looked like, with the awful shoulder pads and big earrings we wore in the '80s! I am humbled.)