From the Pastor

In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, …so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.

Inheritors of a Great Gift

Pastor Dave I have watched the scene many times. It has happened at funerals, at weddings, and on Sunday mornings. Returning relatives of the deceased or adult-children home for the weekend will pause in the hallway of our church to look through the pictures of past confirmation classes that cover one wall.

They peer over the rims of their reading glasses for their year and then with a pointed finger go through the rows of adolescent faces until they see themselves. “Here I am!” they almost shout. It’s as though they have found a long lost treasure. They gaze at their face in the photo, young, well scrubbed, and full of either promise or mischief, and look in silence for a moment. If they have their own children with them, they laugh as they begin to tell a story about those days or that pastor.

The kids, usually bored at the thought of such ancient history, nod and walk away. The former confirmand usually stays for a moment longer and looks at the other faces in the photo perhaps wondering if the lives of the others turned out like his or hers. And for a moment, there is no time or history, only memory of what was, and what if.

You and I stand on the shoulders of those students robed in white. Whether our picture is on that particular hallway wall or another far away, we stand with them, young, well-scrubbed, and full of either promise or mischief wondering what the promise of our baptism means to us now.

Some of us look at the past and sigh. Others look at our images from long ago and laugh. But what I want to offer you is a third response, another way to see ourselves. We are inheritors of a great gift.

You and I have been made the caretakers of hope for a whole new generation. We, who once stood for that confirmation picture so long ago, now stand for another. Today you and I are observed and scrutinized by a whole generation who peer at us, point their fingers at us, and almost shout at us, “There you are! You’re the one who says he is or she is a person of faith. Well, show us what faith looks like.” Most of us want to hide at that point. We don’t know what to say.

We don’t know how to respond or act. Too often we just go silent. But there are no magic answers, no cute phrases that truly satisfy the hunger in this generation. What they want from us is to see how the child in those pictures has matured into someone who really knows how to hope in difficult times. What they hunger for is wisdom that is more than words, wisdom that reveals itself in patience, grace, and a trust that God will not abandon us. They’re looking for a reason to believe.

The next time you pause by those pictures and see your face or the face of your children, I invite you to look next in a mirror. While the face may not be so young and the white robe was long ago turned in the gift you were given long ago is just now coming into its own. Today, amid the worries of your age, and your health, and your finances, and your future, your faith is coming to flower. The gift you got so long ago finally is bearing fruit. Don’t look back. There are people who need who you have become today. Don’t live with regret. There is so much more you have left to do. Don’t worry. God cares far more about you than you know.

In Christ,
Pastor Dave

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