Reflections on "The Touch Confirms" Isaiah 6: 1-9; Jeremiah 1: 4-10

I probably should have written two sermons on Sunday, one for the Chapel service and one for the Sanctuary service.  The sermon was geared toward the two confirmands joining the church, and they were present in the Sanctuary service.  Consequently, I was trying to translate the sermon for the Chapel service to that context in which we did not have confirmands present and were not going to have the anointing and baptism as responses to the sermon.  As it turned out, I added a bit about drinking Drano as a kid in the Chapel sermon when I was noting the live coal that touched Isaiah's lips.  I also did not include the Tony Campolo story at the Sanctuary service because I had less time for that sermon.  Plus, when I arrived at that point in the sermon, it did not feel like it fit the flow of things in the Sanctuary sermon.

I would love to do more work on Anathoth if I were to preach this sermon again.  And, I would like to preach about live coal on the lips if I were to use the Isaiah passage again.  I can hear the title:  "To Hot to Touch?"  already!

“The Touch Confirms” Isaiah 6: 5-8; Jeremiah 1; FPC, Troy; May 3, 2015; confirmation Sunday

Introduction: Molly and Megan, this sermon is for you two.

Someone jokingly (I think) mentioned that this was the week they did not have to listen to the sermon because I was only preaching to the confirmands!

You can listen if you want, but if you have something better to do over the next 10-15 minutes, feel free!

You did not have to do confirmation this year.

Today, I suspect you are glad that you did it because you are done – no more sermon outlines; no more daily bible readings; no more reflection questions; no more mentor worksheets

Last August I suggested that we skip a year of confirmation since only two of you were going to be in the class. Wait for year and go through confirmation with a larger group.

But, you two wanted to do confirmation. You were ready.

Before the baptism and anointing, I want to reflect for a few moments on the call stories of Isaiah and Jeremiah.

Two of them, like two of you; young people like the two of you; two guys, not so much like you two, but two people who heard God's call, like you two have.

Move 1: God has a plan for you.

a. Not just any God, but the God who knew you in the womb.

1. not just any plan, but the plan that God has in store for you.
2. You have spent time learning, but today we are reminded that the God about whom you learned has claimed you in a very personal way.
3. You are not only professing belief and committing to follow Jesus Christ, the person about whom you have learned, but you are laying claim to a personal relationship with Christ.

b. Consider Jeremiah

1. he was raised in Anathoth, a small village in the central highlands of Israel in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin.

2. Anathoth was also the town to which the priest Abiathar, was banished when he sided with Adonijah, instead of Solomon in the battle to succeed King David.

3. Jeremiah was raised around priests, their conversation, and their actions.

4. Because of this unique context, Jeremiah's life was fairly early fixed on the things of YHWH and YHWH's service.
5. So, as he reflects on what made him a prophet, his conviction is an incredibly strong one. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I consecrated you (or "ordained" you). I appointed you a prophet to the nations" (Jer 1:5). Jeremiah's calling from God is certain, and was known to God before his birth, even before his conception.

Read more: http%3A%2F%2Fwww.patheos.com%2FProgressive-Christian%2FGods-Odd-Choices-John-Holbert-01-30-2013.html#ixzz3YiyCnw5f

5. Into the particularity of Jeremiah's life, God calls him for a task for which he is particularly well suited.

100. today you acknowledge God claim on your life.
     1. This is not the beginning of you journey as a disciples of Christ.
     2. This is not the end.
     3. But today is an important moment that we mark.
     4. a day when you claim for yourself what God is doing in your life.

God has a plan for you and today you tell the world that you commit yourself to following God's plan.

Move 2: God touches you.

a. Both Isaiah and Jeremiah experienced physical touches in their call stories.

1. Jeremiah – the Lord touching his lips
2. Isaiah – get the burning coal touching his lips
3. Not sure which I would prefer! [Chapel – drinking poison]

b. You have been touched in a variety of ways.

1. Not all physical.
2. Story from Kathy Wehrman: While attending training at Edison to learn how to handle preschoolers in a teaching situation, I learned that you can affect their agitated/antsy behavior by not touching them.  If you simply move your hand close to their upper back area, they can sense that energy!
3. Look around today at some of your Mentors; parents; grandparents; church school teachers; PYC leaders
4. Remember the prayer shawl you were given earlier in the confirmation process – the reminded that people were praying for you.
5. The God who claims you has sent people into your lives to touch you and shape you as disciples of Christ.

c. Tony Campolo says that whenever anybody asks him, “How were you called into ministry?” he replies that when he was a little boy, his mother used to say to him, “You were brought into this world to love other people in the name of Jesus Christ, to serve other people, especially the poor and the oppressed. Do you understand that, Tony?” People ask Tony, “How did you get called to the ministry?” and his response is that he never once was called, his mother decided!

(By the way, sometimes people tell Tony that parents can’t decide things like that for they children. His response is, “Why not? Everybody else is telling their children what to do with their lives: the media, their peer group, the counselor at school. What is wrong with a parent standing up and saying, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ My calling to serve Jesus Christ came from my mother and that’s a good place for it to come from. I advise all mothers and fathers to do that for their children.”) (1) Tony Campolo, “Becoming What God Intended You to Be,” sermon and interview broadcast, Chicago Sunday Evening Club 30 Good Minutes, January 25, 2004. www.csec.org.

God has touched you.

Move 3: In a few moments, you literally will be touched as you are anointed.

a. by your words you profess your faith. You join Isaiah who hears God's call and says: “Send me.”

b. By the touch of the sign of the cross on your forehead you confirm your commitment.

1. the touch becomes the reminder that you have now committed to God by following Christ.
2. It is not a magical touch that will make you immune to challenges or issues.
3. It is not the touch of the fairy godmother that makes you life perfect from this day forward.

4. If we read further into both Isaiah and Jeremiah, we discover that is was not easy for them to be God's prophets. They have plenty of challenges and setbacks.
5. But the touch of the cross will be your reminder that you have committed to following Christ in both the good times and the difficult times.
6. The touch is also a reminder that the God who has claimed you, the God who has a plan for you, that God is always with you.

The touch that confirms your commitment this day and confirms the God who is with you all your days.

Amen.