Part of our Confirmation class posed for a quick photo during a recent class.
Dear Westwood Family,
We recently had the final Sunday morning class session of this year’s Confirmation program; we will celebrate the ritual of Confirmation on May 24, which is both Pentecost and Youth Sunday. The 12 confirmands in the class, though, aren’t quite done with their work: there are still a few more things to do. Our confirmation program isn’t just a series of classes–it’s a school-year-long focus on belonging and faith. The confirmands are expected to not only learn things about our Christian faith and our Methodist traditions, but to experience what it means to participate in the life of the community. They’ve been showing up for church, volunteering to help, meeting with their mentors, and otherwise sharing in the life of the congregation.
Earlier today, I was talking with some folks who are fairly new to the church. We were speaking about the challenges of “belief”–how hard it can be to ever feel like you confidently know that, for example, God is real. Or, really, that God is like we say God is. It doesn’t help that there are so very many harmful ideas that people hold so tightly, even (especially?) people who say they love Jesus (but proclaim some pretty short-sighted, selfish, violent, racist, or sexist things).
I come back to an insight I’ve shared before: that belief is not about holding on to a rigid kind of certainty, but about giving our hearts away in trust of love. For me, it was Kathleen Norris who helped me see this more clearly in her Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Hope. She writes, “At its Greek root, ‘to believe’ simply means ‘to give one’s heart to.’ Thus, if we can determine what it is we give our heart to, then we will know what it is we believe.”
I’m grateful to have this church community, in which I am invited to give my heart to this intergenerational Christian community that’s committed to radical inclusivity, justice, compassion, and growing Jesus’ beloved community. I love that I get to do that with our young people, and with members who are rich in years. I treasure that our community is a proactive antidote to individualism, greed, division, hatred, and fear.
As we prepare to celebrate Pentecost in a few weeks, and as our confirmands decide whether these is the time they will choose to affirm the faith commitments we name in baptism, I hope this moment can become a time for all of us to consider what it is we’re ready to give our hearts to. For my part, I’m grateful to commit again to this community of faith where we practice love and compassion, an inclusive welcome, and we work for justice together.
grace and peace,
Pastor Molly
