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Grace, mercy, and peace be upon you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning comes from Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Gospel reading this morning. You may be seated. What a joy to celebrate with Dylan’s family and Kyle’s family and Jacob’s family and James’ family and Hallie’s family and David’s family. Very, very thankful to celebrate with them.
Now, not having been confirmed as a youth, I don’t have the great stories that you all have regaled me with: the clothes that you wore back in the 70s. Polyester was in, baby. The high heels, yes, for the men, that is. Platforms. The cool hair, which is back in again for some reason. All of those great stories that I have been regaled with of you all and what happened. The largest class that I had was 27 kids. That was a bunch of kids. It took up half the church when you started setting them in the pews. And there was one young lady who passed out. Kind of embarrassing. Yeah.
But the world in which these young people are being sent out in, being launched by our loving Lord, is a far different world than the world that we who are adults were launched out into when we were confirmed as youth. The very things that are spoken about openly and almost flaunted now were never spoken about when we were younger. They still happen; they just weren’t flaunted. They were quiet. There are many things that have changed, but the beautiful thing that hasn’t changed is that the faith that you were given by your loving Lord, and your parents were a part of that, is the same faith that will sustain your children and your grandchildren. That doesn’t change.
And granted, your great-grandparents bemoaned the world that your grandparents were being thrust out into. And your grandparents bemoaned your parents’ world that they were being thrust out into, no different than you as parents worry about your children who are being thrust out into this world. That is a part of being parents, isn’t it? But the truth that sustained you and your grandparents and your great-grandparents is the same truth that will sustain these young people.
Now I want to share some noteworthy facts about this country of ours, not for the sake of bemoaning and crying, but for the sake of having our eyes wide open as we support these young people, the future of our church, as they move out into this world. First fact, 70% of Americans claim Christianity. But just eight years ago, that number was 78%. It’s dropped 1% per year over the last eight years. And it hasn’t dropped with people going to other religions; it’s dropped where people are going to no religious preference. No religious preference. 1% per year over the last eight years.
Now, 86% of Americans claim that they’ve been brought up in the church. 86%, that’s a pretty high number, and yet only 70% claim that Christianity is a part of their life. Well, out of that 86% that claim that they’ve been brought up in the church, 20% out of the 86% have no religious affiliation and walk away from the church. This puts it in another perspective. For every one adult convert that the church brings in, baptizes, and receives the faith, there are more than four people who walk away from the church to no religious preference. It’s a remarkable fact.
Finally, how many Catholics do you think make up the entire American population? It is the largest church worldwide, but in America, it’s not. In America, 21% of Americans are Roman Catholic. In America, there are more—no religious preference—at 23% than there are even of Roman Catholics. 23% of Americans say, “I claim no religious preference.” It’s a different world than you and I grew up in. It doesn’t mean that we’ve got to bemoan it for these kids because our parents said that about us and the world in which they launched us. But it is a reality of our world.
Now there’s an interesting theme in this morning’s text. I hope you heard it. In the first text in the book of Acts, they prayed before they chose Matthias as the replacement for Judas. In the second reading, John reminded his hearers, “Ask whatever according to the Lord’s will and he will give it to you,” meaning in prayer. And in the gospel reading, it’s the most obvious. There are only two places in all of the holy scriptures where we have a prayer that Jesus prayed recorded: the obvious one, the Lord’s Prayer. The second one is only in the 17th chapter of the Gospel of St. John, and it is his prayer that he prayed when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane.
And in the midst of his turmoil, knowing that within hours he would be denied, within hours he would die, within hours he would be damned in hell for us, he prayed for you, even though you were 2,000 years away from even being conceived in your mother’s womb. He prayed for you because he prayed for the church—the entire church, not just the church at that time 2,000 years ago. The entire church did he pray for. And he prayed a very important prayer: “Keep them in thy name so that they may be one.”
There’s all kinds of desire to see unity, but unity isn’t based on the color of skin, the ethnic background, the language that we speak, the socioeconomic status in which we grew up, or the education that we’ve gone through. None of those are of any use or benefit to defining unity when it comes to our Lord Jesus. The only thing that defines unity is common faith in the one true faith. Paul made it very clear that there is one Lord, not many lords. So there’s only one way to look at Jesus, period. There is one God and Father of us all, so there’s not many gods or many fathers. There is only one way to look at the Father. There is one baptism. That doesn’t mean that there are many baptisms; it means there’s only one way to look at baptism. There is one truth. That doesn’t mean that there are many truths; there is only one. That breeds unity.
Now, the other thing that it does, as you know, is it also divides. Jesus loved his creation and loved you enough to pray for you that you would be kept in that one truth that you may be one. And as Christians, we share many things in common, being a part of that one. When we read about many of our brothers and sisters in the faith having their heads removed from their bodies because of the Christian faith that they proclaim, we grieve for them. We thank God that we’re not there. We thank the Lord that these, our children, don’t have to step outside and be fearful of being snatched up. When we read about Christians in Nigeria where children are stolen away, we share the same grief and sorrow for these, our brothers and sisters.
But at the selfsame time, when we look around us and see a society that’s turning its back on the faith in more and more numbers today, we can look around the world and rejoice with our brothers and sisters where the church is being embraced by more and more: in Africa, in Asia, in South America, even in the Middle East. We were able to see a very unique time in our nation’s history—those of us who are part of the baby boomer era and the baby boomer generation—that will probably never be seen in a long time because it had never been seen prior to that time. Never had there ever been such a large percentage of Americans attending church as there were post-World War II. Never. Not even during the Revolutionary War when supposedly it was religion that brought everybody over here. Because there weren’t any pastors being sent over here. Who wants to go to that crazy place called America? No. I want to be able to take care of my family, and there’s money here in England and France and Germany where I’m getting paid. There’s none there.
So the church has gone through her own struggles in this world. But your children, just as you, the joy is that they are being sent out into it. Jesus prays that they’re not taken out of this world. Did you hear that? Jesus prayed, “Do not take them out of this world, Lord.” So that must mean God has called them—and you, together—and me to a very special purpose, and that is to live out and proclaim what the kingdom of God is all about.
The kingdom of God is not about poverty or economic equality. The kingdom of God is not about rights. Interesting to think about that. The only thing the kingdom of God is about is forgiveness of sins. Isn’t that all that matters? “Do not worry about the one who destroys the body,” Jesus said. “Fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” What matters is what these children have been given and what you and I have been given, and that is the joy of having the message of salvation because he’s given us his word, his holy word, that drives us as parents to pray for these, our babies, just as our parents still pray for us if they’re alive.
Just as your Lord Jesus intercedes to the Father for you, if your parents aren’t alive or if your parents don’t pray for you, the church prays for her own. Every time we gather and pray the Lord’s Prayer, the pronoun we use is “our Father. Forgive our sins.” We’re praying for one another. And in fact, if you think about it, there is not one moment in this day of any day in the world that someone in the world is not praying the Lord’s Prayer somewhere in the world. Think about that. The Lord’s Prayer is being prayed for the church, by the church, every moment of every day somewhere in this world. There is never silence before God’s throne of grace. That’s a gift that we can be joyful about.
So yes, though it is scary, moms and dads, when you think about the world into which you’re launching your beloved, we have a lot of joy to consider because the same Lord that has kept you in the faith will keep your beloved children in the faith. The same Lord that has shaped you, crushed you, and raised you is the same Lord that will shape your son or daughter, crush your son or daughter, and raise your son or daughter that you may spend eternity with him and never be parted. There will never be a final goodbye, ever. It will always be “till we see one another in glory,” always.
This is the faith that you and I confess, that you and I find comfort in, and the joy that we’ve been given by our loving Lord. In his holy name. Amen.