THROUGH THE GATES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Harundale Presbyterian Church

Glen Burnie, Maryland

April 8, 2001

Text: "This is the day that the lord has made." (Psalm 118:24)

First Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

Second Reading: Luke 19:28-40

It is days like this when I wish we were more Jewish and less Protestant! The Jews know how to celebrate a child’s right of passage into adulthood. That’s essentially what we’ve just done with our communicants. We have signaled their entrance into adulthood. They are now no longer children in the eyes of the Lord. They can now become officers of the church. You could choose to ordain them Elders or Deacons. They have full voting rights. It’s like the language that we find on our degrees from college, they have "all the rights and the privileges thereto pertaining."

Yet, we don’t celebrate with them the way that the Jewish community does. We don’t have "bar and bad mitzvahs." If we did we would have had each of them read from the Scripture and then hired a hall for each of them to have all their friends, get all the presents, and receive all the congratulations they’re due. When I lived in the midst of a Jewish community in New Jersey, the word around town was, that if a child did not receive at least the first year of college paid for at the bad or bar mitzvah something was wrong.

As it was, we put each of our communicants through quite a rigorous time of training. They met with Carleton for nineteen weeks. Each was assigned an adult sponsor. They discussed what it means being a Christian, prayer and meditation, the Bible, worship, the sacraments, how to be a better servant of Christ, a member of this congregation, how to engage in mission, answer questions of faith, and know something about the life of Jesus. They then culminated their study by writing their own statements of faith.

As though that weren’t enough each of them had to appear before the Session and answer questions about what they’d learned. Needless to say they were nervous. But it was wonderful to see them. Their sponsors and some of their parents were there for the proud moment they were declared members of Harundale Presbyterian Church!

Historically, catechumens spent the forty days of Lent preparing themselves for baptism and their first communion. On the Saturday before Easter, after the sun had set, they were baptized and went immediately to the Lord’s Table. It was already Easter for them and they were welcomed into the Easter community. Our confirmation class has followed that classic example set by the Early Church, the only difference being that we have had them join the church on Palm Sunday rather than Easter. But you could say that every Sunday we come to worship is Easter Day. We are, after all, people of the resurrection. Today, just like any other Sunday, is Easter for us. Next week we’ll observe Easter, but that will be more for the public than just our own congregation. "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!"

The psalmist sets well the tone for us. "Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord." One year, when the communicant class joined, we had the clerk of Session at the door of the sanctuary. We actually read those words to her. "Open to me the gates of righteousness, that we may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord." She then opened the door and all of us entered the church while the congregation sang a hymn of welcome.

One of the questions the Session asked the communicants was "Why is it important for Christians to worship together on a regular basis? What would you miss if you did not worship regularly?" One of the reasons I think it’s important to worship regularly is this is safe space. Anyone can come here regardless of the week they’ve had and, hopefully, be accepted for who they are. Here in this space people can get it right with themselves, with their neighbors and with their God. "This is the gate of the Lord and the righteous shall enter through it."

The psalmist continues, "I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation." Another of the Session’s questions was "Why was your adult sponsor important to you." Why adult sponsors are so important to this whole process is they allow the communicants to ask the questions. They don’t have to be the right questions or even the important questions. Salvation comes when someone just answers our questions. The other day I did a funeral service for siblings who had just lost their mother, their last surviving parent. I told them that they would soon realize that she was no longer there to answer their questions. They would now become the generation who would have to have the answers and we don’t like that feeling. All of us want someone to be there to answer our questions. That’s our salvation. That’s why mentoring kids today is so important. Pity the person who has all these questions and there’s no one who’s listening! Every communicant in this class had an adult whose only job was to be there to listen and answer their questions. That’s salvation!

A third question the Session asked them was "What do you believe is important about prayer?" A theme that runs throughout our psalm this morning is, "O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever." Time and again we heard from the communicants how prayer affords them the opportunity to thank God, to thank God for their parents and family, their friends, and the good things in their lives. On Tuesday evenings at Kids for Christ, I’ve had the kids write the prayer before the dinner. Again, the themes are almost the same. Prayer teaches us how to be thankful, to recognize the many blessings God gives us and how to order our lives giving priority to God’s will for us.

Now comes a challenge for all of us, and that is how to keep these communicants active in the life of the church. They’ve looked forward to this day for quite a while. Their parents have been very supportive of them. Each one of the communicants has given at least eight hours of their time to the church, either in ushering, door greeting, the men’s shelter, or as a Sunday school aide. If statistics continue to hold true, we may never see them again. They will get more and more active in other kinds of activities and the church won’t have the skill, the interest or the commitment to keep them involved.

The psalmist’s prayer could be our prayer, "Save us, we beseech you, O Lord! O Lord, we beseech you, give us success." That’s what we want for our communicants, that’s what we want for their sponsors, that’s what we want for this congregation. We want success. We want these nineteen weeks they’ve spent studying what it means to be a Christian to last them a lifetime. We also want them to be around for a while. Our challenge is to do whatever we can to make it happen. They’ve come through the gates of righteousness, let us rejoice and be glad with them!

Thanks be to God,

Amen