By Rev. Debra Jene Collum
Chatfield United Methodist
Teaching and leading a group of young people towards the day when they confirm their commit-ment to Christianity is a challenge and a privilege for clergy. I take this role very seriously. In this world of ours, naming oneself Christian is no longer a given. And it never should be. Naming oneself Christian comes with a great deal of discernment and commitment to a life style that is outside the norm.
Naming oneself Christian means that a person believes that the first will be last. That there is blessing in being poor. That feeding the hungry is a prime directive of the moral fiber of a community’s being. That welcoming the stranger is the backbone of societal progress. In other words, naming oneself as Christian means that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus means something profoundly radical to the ordinary ways of living.
Naming oneself Christian is no small thing.
As I lay my hands of blessing on the head of a young person and speak these words: “we rejoice with you in your public confession of your faith. Now may the presence of God go with you, that having been born through water and the Spirit you may live as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.” Is is my great hope that the faith this young adult is professing will somehow transform the world.
Because that is what being Christian means. It means that those who follow the Christ embodied in Jesus will, like the man Jesus, transform the world so that Jesus the Christ’s prayer that he taught us will become reality: ‘thy kin(g)dom come, on earth as it is in heaven’. A little bit at a time, granted. But each little bit helps.
Each time anyone welcomes the stranger, the kin(g)dom of God is revealed. Each time anyone gives to a food shelf, the kin(g)dom of God is revealed. Each time a person choses to eschew wealth in order to serve God, self or neighbor, the kin(g)dom of God is revealed.
John Wesley’s life creed has been summed up in a few succinct sayings. The one that the confirmation students of Chatfield UMC speak together most every time we meet gives us guidance on how to be a Christian in the radical Way of Jesus.
It sounds simple, until you apply it to your every waking moment.
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the time you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”
I recommend writing this out and putting it somewhere that can be read every single day. Until it becomes so much a part of your life that you say: Oh, I get it! I see it! I want to be it! I want to be a follower of Jesus the Christ, who showed us how to live as God in the world.
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