“Live your life with
love, following the example of Christ, who loves us and gave himself for us.”
—Ephesians 5:2
This weekend I have the immense privilege of spending time
with young people and adult volunteers from across our conference as part of
Youth Annual Gathering (YAG). Traditionally taking place the weekend leading up
to Annual Conference, YAG’s theme mirrors the theme of Memphis Annual
Conference. So this weekend, we are celebrating our connection as United Methodists and remembering who we are in Jesus Christ through Word, Water, and
Witness.
Last night, we opened YAG with worship at three different stations where
we engaged Word, Water, and Witness.
At the Water station where I served as facilitator, participants were invited
to sit around a white shower curtain flat on the ground. After silence and deep
breathing, worshippers considered the promises made and vows taken at our
baptisms. For some of us, our parents made those promises before we affirmed
and took responsibility for our own journey of faith at confirmation. For others
of us, as older children or youth or adults, we answered these solemn vows as a
recognition of the faith we were claiming as God claimed us in baptism. Still
others who are still anticipating their baptisms engaged these vows they will
make one day by God’s grace.
Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness,
reject the evil powers of this world,
and repent or your sin?*
Using markers, we wrote or drew on the shower curtain places
and spaces where we encounter wickedness, evil powers, and sin in our world and
in our lives.
Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you
to resist evil, injustice, and
oppression
in whatever forms they present themselves?*
We wrote or drew the evil, injustice, and oppression we have
witnessed or experienced in our world and in our communities.
Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior,
put your whole trust in his grace,
and promise to serve him as your Lord in union with the Church
which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races?*
Together, we turned the shower curtain 90° counterclockwise to
represent the change that happens in our hearts and lives when God names us and
claims us as beloved through the waters of baptism. We noticed and reflected upon
what others had written or drawn in response to the earlier questions.
And then we remembered that we (or our parents) are not the
only ones who take a vow at our baptism. When we are baptized, the congregation
that surrounds us promises to care for us and nurture us in the Christian faith
and life so that we may come to know God more fully and follow Jesus more
faithfully. As the body of Christ gathered around the white shower curtain, we
looked one another in the eye as we heard the words our communities of faith
had promised to God, to us, to one another at the moment of our baptism:
With God’s help we will proclaim the good news
and live according to
the example of Christ.
We will surround this person with a community of love and forgiveness,
that they may grow in their
trust of God,
and be found faithful in their service to others.
We will pray for them, that they may be true disciples who walk in the
way that leads to life.
Then a bowl was placed in the center of the shower curtain.
Water was poured, and as we heard it gushing and splashing we remembered….These are waters of grace. These are waters
of power. These are waters of change and calling. Offering these words with
our hands extended out and palms turned upward to heaven, we asked for God’s blessing
over the water.
Today we come to the waters
to renew our commitments in each other’s presence
to the Christ who has raised us from death,
to the Spirit who has given us new birth,
and to the Creator who is making all things new.
Let these waters be to us drops of your mercy.
Let these waters remind us of your righteousness and justice.
Let these waters renew in us the resurrection power of Jesus.
Let these waters make us long and desire to join you in building your
kingdom
here on earth as it is in heaven.**
But baptism isn’t only meant to change us. God seeks to change
the world through baptized people. God claims us and names us through baptism
and, then, through the gift of the Holy Spirit empowers us to join in the work of
transforming the world. And so, we took sponges and dipped them into the sacred
and holy waters of baptism to wash away the sin—communal and personal—that we
had named and drawn on the shower curtain. We found that some of what was written
and drawn wiped away easily, leaving no trace. Yet, other parts left a stain
behind—sometimes faint, sometimes still bold—reminding us that until Christ
comes again in final victory and God’s reign is realized fully, this world will
always be in need of transformation. And we will always be called to this work
by the Holy Spirit through baptism.
Finally standing again ready to leave the station worship space
of remembering who we are as disciples of Jesus through water, we heard these
words of prayer and calling proclaimed over our lives…
The Holy Spirit work within you,
that being born through water and the Spirit,
you may be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
This morning at Youth Annual Gathering we lived our baptismal vows and answered the call of baptized
Christians by serving through mission.
We repented of the sin of complacency and inaction towards
homelessness in our nation (and in downtown Memphis today), choosing to not
look away but to go and search for our siblings who slept on the street last
night and offer them a breakfast burrito and conversation through the Urban Bicycle
Food Ministry.
We accepted the freedom and power God gives us to resist evil,
injustice, and oppression by partnering with a Dorothy Day House in Frayser
that gifts housing to families experiencing homelessness, offering our hands to
gardening and landscaping work for the current resident family (which allowed
the mother of infant twins a Saturday to sleep in and rest).
We served Jesus’s church that is open to people of all ages,
nations, and races by assisting in the nursery renovation of a local United Methodist
congregation.
Church, our youth are not just your future. Our youth
are THE CHURCH NOW! They are boldly living into God’s call as faithful
disciples of Jesus Christ RIGHT NOW! May we all be inspired to greater
fruitfulness and faithfulness by the ways our young people live their lives
with the love of Christ.
Grace and Peace,
Amanda HW
Amanda HW
