“Finding Your Own Voice”    

Date:  November 22, 2009

Confirmation Sunday

Script:  2 Timothy 1:3-11

Revd William F. Meier    ~   First United Methodist Church, Saint Cloud, Minnesota

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Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. ¹³Until I arrive, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhorting, to teaching. ¹⁴Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders. ¹⁵Put these things into practice, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. ¹⁶Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers…I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. ⁴Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. ⁵I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. ⁶For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; ⁷for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

—1 Timothy 4:3-7 & 2 Timothy 1:3-7

She found herself sitting in a large room.  It was like a big auditorium with a stage down front.  She was aware of others in the room with her, but she didn’t look around to count them all.  She seemed to be there for some reason, but she wasn’t quite sure what it was.

A door at the front of the room opened.  A man walked in and stood there.  They all looked at him.  He appeared disoriented.  He glanced up at them and then looked back at the door from which he had entered.  He took a step forward and then immediately retreated.  He looked around furtively as though someone should be there to tell him what to do.

Apparently he wasn’t sure why he was there either.  Then he changed: He straightened himself up, looked directly at them, and walked to the front of the stage.

Even though she had seen him for the first time only a moment before, it was as if everything about him was differentClike he had grown up all of a sudden.  Now he appeared to know exactly where he was, and strength and confidence replaced the confusion and uncertainty of the moment before.  With a comforting self-assurance that commanded their attention he declared with joy,

We are going to sing.

We are going to sing with One Voice.

We are going to sing all together

The same notes with One Voice.

We are going to sing beautifully with One Voice,

all together.

He paused a moment, smiled, and then added, “And when you find the One Voice that is your Own Voice, it will be time for you to leave.”

With that he began to sing.  At first it was just one note.  He held the pitch there for the group to find, waited until everyone got it just right, and then added another.  The second note was a perfect complement to the first.  Soon there were many notes.  Each note was just the right one to follow the note before and lead into the one to come.  Together they sang simple, joyful songs.  They were One Voice, all together, and it was beautiful.

Soon however, slowly and only one or two at a time, people began to add more.  Someone added a note of harmony, another a descant to the melody. And even though each new note seemed just as right as all the others and only made the singing that much more beautiful, when it happened the song leader always stopped them.  It was easy to spot the ones who had found their Own Voice.  They were different, but she couldn’t quite describe how.

She always felt a little sorry for them as they got up out of their seat and walked out through the one door in the front of the room.  Oddly though, they didn’t seem to feel sorry for themselves.

Then one day as they were singing one of her favorite songs with One Voice all together, she began to hear a new and different sound.  At first it was inside her head, a few notes that seemed the perfect accompaniment to the notes everyone else was singing.  Then they were a whisper under her breath, and before she could catch herself she was singing.  Loudly!  Happily!  A new and yet oddly familiar melody! The One Voice that was her Own Voice!

She felt everyone’s eyes on her, especially his, the gaze of the song leader.  She expected to see displeasure in his face.  Instead it looked as if he were smiling, and she wondered why she hadn’t noticed this before.  She knew there would be no arguing and no other choice to be made; but truly, she didn’t want to argue and, surprisingly, there was no other choice she wanted to make.  She got up out of her seat walked to the one door at the front of the room, and slipped through it.

For the next few moments she was somewhat disoriented.  She found herself in front of a room full of people.  They were looking at her as if she were supposed to tell them why they were there.  As she wondered what to do, she looked down and shuffled her feet, frantically hoping that someone would step up and tell her what was supposed to happen next.  Then she changed.  It was like she grew up all of a sudden.  She sensed that everything about her was different than it had been just a moment before.  Now she knew exactly why she was there, and strength and confidence replaced her confusion and uncertainty.  With a comforting self-assurance that commanded their attention, she declared with joy,

We are going to sing.

We are going to sing with One Voice.

We are going to sing all together

The same notes with One Voice.

We are going to sing beautifully with One Voice,

all together.

She paused a moment, smiled, and then added, “And when you find the One Voice that is your Own Voice, it will be time for you to leave.”

Then she began to sing.[1]

This story by David Griebner I believe is a great opening into what confirmation is all about; the discovery of your own voice—  your own faith-relationship with God and owning it, living into it, living out of it.  As we were doing rehearsal Wednesday night for this ritual, we were explaining the vows part, comparing it to the “I do’s” of a wedding ceremony.  One of our confirmands, upon hearing this said, “Oh, it’s like getting married to myself.”  Yes.  Finding your own voice;  hearing the music of the Christian faith within yourself and finding that it is you, yourself that hears it, meets it, and sings it, is it.  “Do not neglect the gift that is within you” is the advice we hear from 2 Timothy.  This gift (or voice) within us, can be thought of in a number of ways.  Baptism is one option, with the pronouncement that we are God’s beloved.  The Holy Spirit is the other option as to what this “gift” is.  I believe it is God’s Spirit that brings us to the inner realization of our sacred belovedness, and propels us into the world with sacred work to do. 

Fortunately, in our congregation the process for finding your own voice, doesn’t involve a leaving… a walking out alone through a side door.  A few years ago the Search Institute did a large study of spiritual development in youth.  They studied various denominations and youth programs and made a rather shocking discovery (at least to those of us in the upper Midwest); those congregations that emphasize a formal defined confirmation program (however long or well done) did the poorest job of promoting spiritual growth.  Those congregations that didn’t emphasize it or didn’t have one, did the best job of nurturing spiritual growth.  We all know the reason for this is that confirmation has been treated like a graduation —a leaving. 

AnnElise has developed an Invitation to The Table in such a way to see that finding your own voice means (not to leave) but to step into leadership and service in the community—to help others find their own voice.  We all have a role to play, a part to sing, in the music of the Kingdom that God is seeking to bring into creation.  I am thankful for these four youth, who don’t magically find their own voice today because of a ritual, but are in process!  A process that we are all in, continually. 

“Rekindle the gift of God that is within you” 1 Timothy says.  As these four come forward to remember their baptismal identity as God’s beloved daughters and sons— let us all rekindle, renew, re-light this loving gift from God… and say Yes to it once again in the depths of our souls.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.