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This Sunday, 15 students will confirm their faith in Jesus Christ. They have completed eight weeks of classes taught by Kris Keller where they explored what it means to follow Jesus. Over the past two weeks, I have enjoyed the opportunity to converse with each of the students individually and learn how they experienced this class and whether or not they feel ready to make a decision that is so very important. These students have been raised in church, and now the question before them can be seen either as a natural expectation of their parents that they want to meet or as an honest choice they are making for themselves. In our time together, I have learned that they are all thoughtfully weighing and considering this choice to publicly affirm their intent to follow Jesus.
One student said it well: “Am I just a trail horse or not?” By that, I understood her to mean the difference between a person who follows along because that is the path they know, and one who intentionally chooses the path before them.
In our liturgy for the baptism of infants and children, we ask the parents, “Will you nurture this child in Christ’s holy church, that by your teaching and example they may be guided to accept God’s grace for themselves to profess their faith openly and to lead a Christian life?” And whether their children were baptized years ago, or will be baptized this Sunday, their parents have taken this responsibility seriously and brought them to this point. My prayer for them is that they know God’s good pleasure in their faithfulness. The Downtown Church has the honor of witnessing this confirmation and welcoming these students as official members, no longer "trail horses." It is my prayer that you will embrace and encourage them as they continue to learn to love God and love neighbor. Something we will all spend our lifetime doing together.
See you Sunday,
Lori
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