Claimed, Cleansed and Called: A Sermon for Holy Trinity/Confirmation Sunday

(I gave this sermon on Sunday, June 3, on the Festival of the Holy Trinity. Shortly after this sermon, two young people from Central affirmed their baptism and read their faith stories. They were terrific. I also showed some images during the sermon. A few of them are included here.)

Five years ago, two girlfriends and I backpacked over the Kesugi Ridge trail in Denali State Park. It’s a 27-mile point-to-point trek that climbs to a ridge line with amazing views of Denali and follows a rolling trail back down to Byers Lake. We saw very few other hikers and no facilities. There are no signs along to way point you in the right direction save for a few rock cairns (little piles of rock) scattered along the trail. It’s hard to know how far you’ve come and how far you have yet to go, especially if you are carrying a cheap topography map instead of the expensive (and accurate) one you should have bought at REI.

To make a long story short, we had told our families and friends we’d be out by noon on the third day, at the latest. When we woke up that morning and begin to hike out, expecting to hike a 3-4 miles, we instead came upon a sign mid-morning that said, 13 miles to Byers Lake. It was the one and only sign we ever saw. Then it started to rain (hard) and the wind began to blow.

About 14 hours later after having only eaten oatmeal, peanut butter, two tortillas a handful of carrots (that was all the food we had left for three of us), we arrived at 1 am at the trailhead to cell phone messages from worried friends and anxious family. It was not my finest hour.

Lesson learned: it’s really important to know where you are and how to get to where you are going.

It is one thing to find your way on a trail, but the journey of faith and life of Christian discipleship can be infinitely harder. Where is God calling you? What does God want from us? Was there something you were supposed to be doing with your life? What can we know for certain of God? What can we know for certain about our life of faith? Is it a well-marked path or a tangle of Devil’s club and willow branches?

The thing is, sometimes we think we know. Many of us have been following Jesus for a long time and think we have some things about God figured out. Perhaps we go to God with a litany of things we know and things we’d like. Perhaps Nicodemus in John’s gospel for today went to Jesus in this same way.

Nicodemus is a Pharisee, a leader of the Jews. He’s captivated by or curious about Jesus and presents himself to Jesus not with a question but with certainty. “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” What did Nicodemus want from Jesus? A response? An explanation? A thank you for being so smart? Whatever it was, what he got was a lot more questions. Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born again, born from above. He must be born of water and of Spirit.

Nicodemus replies eloquently: “Huh?” He asks several questions and Jesus responds by teasing him (to put it nicely) that he ought to know since he (Nicodemus) is a teacher of Israel.

Yet, the story of Nicodemus doesn’t end there. He continues on his faith journey, though we only have hints of where it leads him. In John 7:50, Nicodemus sticks up for Jesus when some Pharisees want to arrest him. Later in John 19:39, he brings myrrh and aloe to anoint Jesus body. He helps wrap the body in linen and lay it in the tomb.

Nicodemus may come to Jesus with certainty but he leaves with questions, a relationship and the willingness to speak up and to serve. It’s not a bad faith story.

What about us? What about you? How do you come to Jesus? What are you looking for? What do you know? Where do you still question? It’s been said that the opposite of faith isn’t doubt, it’s certainty. It’s also been said that anytime you are absolutely certain that God is on your side, it’s time to get a second opinion.

Perhaps Jesus is un-doing Nicodemus’ certainty so that he can better see. Perhaps when we become too sure of what we know about God or believe we have grasped him at last, we can expect to be undone as Nicodemus was. And to be undone is good news if it allows us to experience anew the miracle of our birth into eternal life: our baptism. We had about as much to do with the miracle of our baptism as we had to do with the miracle of our birth from our mother’s womb. It is simply a gift.

It is simply, a calling.

When Isaiah was called in today’s reading from Isaiah 6, he saw the glory and terror of the Lord with a robe that filled the temple. One scholar I read to prepare for this sermon said perhaps the seraphs (who covered their faces so as not to look on the glory of God) were not singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” with pleasant adoration but with terror and in fear.

Isaiah himself trembles at the mystery and majesty of God. A seraph approaches him and touches a burning coal to his lips. One imagines he’s now marked for life. God speaks: “Your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Isaiah responds: “Here I am, send me.”

Confirmation students: no burning coal shall mark you for life. You are already marked. You were marked on the day of your baptism; the cross of Christ rests upon your brow forever. God has washed away your sin. You are forever claimed, cleansed and called by God, regardless of your input or your opinion.

Now God calls you out, out to serve in a world of people just as lost as I was on the Kesugi Ridge trail. God calls you into a world where people are lost in places of loneliness, self-doubt, guilt and pain. God calls you into a world where people are desperately seeking signs of kindness, mercy, acceptance, hope and peace. You are, since the day of your baptism and even more now, claimed, cleansed and called by God, regardless of your input or opinion.

A pastor writing in the Christian Century recently wrote about baptizing a two-year-old little boy. As he made the sign of the cross on the boy’s forehead, he offered this blessing, “You are a child of God, sealed by the Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.” The little boy exclaimed, “Uh-oh.”

Uh-oh, indeed. For when we accept our calling as baptized children of God, things can change, and things can happen that we don’t expect. But we as your congregation at Central Lutheran Church promise this day to walk with you. The world is big and scary, we know because we live there, too. But we are here to walk with you, support you, pray for you and get to know you.

You, the members of this congregation have already done so much and today we recognize all those who volunteer at Central. But you, too, are claimed, cleansed and called by God, regardless of your input or opinion.

This summer at Central, we’ve chosen to focus on community and on building relationships and connections among our church family. This is a nice thing to do but it’s also a sacred and holy calling. When theologians talk about community, they often talk about the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. How does that work? Who knows? It is a holy mystery, meant for us to revere instead of comprehend.

But we do know this: it works as a holy community, a sacred unity of relationship between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We know that holy communities matter to God, because God is a holy community. And so are we. Amen.