Sunday is Confirmation Sunday, and you will not want to miss it. Confirmation Sunday is the day during worship to recognize those who have spent some significant time this year sharing and exploring their faith, to reaffirm or confirm vows that we made or were made at our baptism and together to celebrate this community of faith we call Eden Prairie UMC.
This year’s group has been great, and I am excited to share my side of the story of our experience. Last week Abby Sweeney did a pretty good job of sharing the group’s side of this experience, so I thought it only fair I have a chance to respond. (If you missed last week, you really do want to look up the audio of her sermon coming soon on our website … Abby was great.)
Our group was made up of 8th graders, because back in September when we started, we didn’t have a 9th grader, and this group was ready for this experience. It’s the first confirmation group of 8th graders I’ve led, and they have been great.
In my sermon I’ll use a scripture that is familiar to many of us… I Corinthians 12. This is the chapter where Paul uses the metaphor of a human body to describe what it is like to be a community of faith. It’s here where we get the phrase, “We are the body of Christ.” A piece of this scripture often overlooked in the rush to discover where we fit in is I Corinthians 12: 26
If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt,
and in the healing.
It is this verse that describes what makes this confirmation group so very special.
This group of 8th graders can teach all of us, no matter our age, about caring for each other together. Maybe this is because most of them have been together in Sunday School for a long time. Or maybe it’s because it’s one of those times when the right people are in the right place at the right time. Or maybe it’s because I made sure every week there were enough Dum…Dums (that’s the candy)…. Whatever it was, I need to say that after over three decades of leading confirmation groups, this year I caught myself wondering…What is that?????
At EPUMC the question “What was / What is that?” means it’s something we can’t really explain, but we believe with all our heart it is real and important and powerful and “of God.” I encourage you to be in worship Sunday to hear about this God thing going on in our church….Come to support and learn from and greet these wonderful young fellow Christians. And most importantly, come and open yourself to the presence of the Holy Spirit. For I trust with all my heart that the Holy Spirit will be present when I, on your behalf, and the parents and family of these young men and women place our hands on their heads and say….
The Holy Spirit work within you,
That having been born through water and the Spirit
You may live as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.
Pray with me in the coming days as we recognize these newest members of EPUMC, the body of Christ.
Mackenzie Bosch Andrew Doty Christin Miller
Tristan Edmonds William Foster Collin Perschnick
Brady Rorke Paige Schwertfeger Lauren Snapp
Abigail Sweeney Jim Sweeney
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
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