Flowing into Service

“Flowing into Service”

The young people who are to be confirmed today are budding theologians. Over the course of the six months we met together they had to consider many topics in a short time frame. God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit. Who wrote the Bible? Was it God, or humans inspired by God, or humans alone? What are some of the metaphors for God? Can it be proven that God exists? What does it mean to be a member of this church, and why do you want to be confirmed?  

Those were some of the questions that we asked them, we being Pastor Jeff, Karlee Etter and myself. 

And here are some of the questions that they asked us:  Is there a hell?  Does God forgive everyone, even people who have done horrible things? Is atheism a religion?  What about heaven? Is it a real place?  Why did Jesus have to die? What is good about Good Friday ?  What is most important about our faith?  What if I am not sure right now about what I believe; is that ok? And many others.  

We didn’t have all the answers but we had interesting conversations. Let me add that the snacks were also very important. These young people have had a chance to deepen their faith and for that we have not only to thank their parents and family but also all the Sunday school teachers and leaders who created a program beginning in kindergarten and going through the 7^th grade, including the work of Alex Roman who has organized and led a junior youth group for the past two years, and Karlee who joined her this year and then stayed on for the extra hour of Confirmation class, doing double service. To all of you, our gratitude. What we did was built upon what you had already accomplished and we thank you. 

Will you please pray with me ?  May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our heart be acceptable in your sight O God our rock and our redeemer. 

Today’s readings focus on light. The light of Christ, which brings light and meaning and truth to our world, and Jesus’ call to us to be light to the world. As we come to know Christ and are illuminated by grace and love, we will want to spread this light. We will want to give to others and we will want to others to know about the light, especially if they are in darkness. And as we know, it can sometimes feel like a dark dark world out there.      

One question that we discussed in confirmation class touches on these aspects of light, but we came at it from a side angle. At one point, the confirmands were asked what was the gift that they had been given by God, and how did they want to use that gift?  One person spoke of athleticism, another of music. One spoke about dance, another about skiing, yet another about drawing, and another about the ability to understand others, especially those who are faced with challenges. In all their answers was the experience of being relaxed and aware without being anxious about outcomes or goals. One said, I feel good when I draw, I can just be with myself and enjoy. Another, when I play sports, I enjoy it so much it relaxes my mind. 

The more I listened to them, the more I realized that they were describing the state of flow that we all have when we are doing what we love to do, and what we do best. Then, we can flow into life and feel good about ourselves, and we come to appreciate how God had gifted us. And in turn, we want to share these gifts with the world. We flow into experiences in which we feel good and then the goodness of that experience flows out to other people. When we are happiest, and using the gifts that God has given us, we are right with the world and with ourselves and with God. We give from our strength and bring joy to others, acting out the joy that we feel. 

Now flow is not a new concept. It is embedded in the human experience from eternity, but it came to be understood more widely when Mee Hy Cheek Sent Me Hy Ee, the Hungarian psychologist,  popularized it in the early 1990’s. Flow can be described as “mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment of the  process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption. Some other names for flow are : to be in the moment, present, in the zone, on a roll, wired in, in the groove, on fire, in tune, centered, or singularly focused.” 

This sounds just like what the confirmands were describing when they reflected on the gifts that they had been given by God, and their desire to use them for others. And that is the key I think. It is not only that we are given these gifts for ourselves,  but to serve others. Just like we are given the light of Christ not only for our own edification or sanctification but also to serve others. Christ is the light of the world and as we continue on the road with Christ,  we will deepen our knowledge of  the truth of our life and will be free, free to worship and love and play and serve. And then our light will not be under a bushel but will help to illumine the world. God creates us with delight, to our own delight.  And we are called to bring delight to others by using our gifts. We need to find, in the wise words of the theologian Frederick Buechner, that place where our greatest joy meets the world’s greatest needs. That is the challenge that we all have, to find this intersection of our gifts and the world’s needs and to take those gifts and flow into service.

For each of our confirmands, we pray that light will flow through you from Christ, and that you will  enlighten our world with your gifts, and faith. And may we all  learn to enlighten the world with our gifts, our faith. So that we  won’t  hide under a bushel, but let this light shine, and lighten up the world. Let us flow into this challenge and may the light of Christ lead our way.  Amen