Today is a very exciting
Sunday because… it is World Ocean Day.
The 2025 theme is Catalyzing
Action for Our Ocean and Climate. Thousands of organizations and millions
of people around the globe are actively participating in the movement. Ocean health
is a daunting task, consider just one ailment, pollution by trillions of pieces
of plastic. The United Nations, World Ocean Network has a theme for the entire year,
Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us.
Today is a very exciting
Sunday because… it is confirmation Sunday. We are celebrating Heidi Bells’ 50th
anniversary of confirmation and the affirmation of faith of 6 young people. It
is a Sunday of wonder at God’s continued grace and a coming together around baptismal
waters, reminding the whole community of the water of life that sustains us.
This mornings’ texts reveal
that Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit changes everything for the
followers of Jesus. With the coming of the Spirit, the people are given great
power and great responsibility. Jesus tells the disciples:
If you love me you will keep
my commandments;
The one who believes in me
will do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these;
Jesus teaches them that the Spirit
abides with you and will be in you.
2000 years later we have
been adopted into God’s family through baptism and have heard Jesus’ words
spoken to us. We have been given great power and great responsibility.
At confirmations we
articulate Jesus’ words into promises. Confirmands promise, along with a few
more,
To live among God’s faithful
people; To proclaim the good news of God in Christ Jesus through word and deed;
And to strive for justice
and peace in all the earth.
Ocean and Spirit have much
in common. Both share great power. What we learn from Ocean can inform our
understanding of the Holy Spirit and how it is that we can live as God’s
faithful people, proclaiming good news, and striving for justice and peace.
Lesson 1 – OCEAN influences
and regulates earth’s climate, acting like the planet’s heart. Ocean is
responsible for circulating heat and moisture around the globe. It does this
with the El Nino-Southeran Oscillation in the Pacific and Gulf Stream current
in the Atlantic. With the Spirit we can act with heart influencing and
regulating the climate around us. With the Spirit’s power we can be responsible:
to bring calm into situations of stress, to be messengers of hope, to act as
peacemakers, and to follow our heart and participate with actions whether that
is doing climate advocacy, poverty reduction, or reconciliation work.
Lesson 2 – OCEAN is Earth’s
greatest source of oxygen providing 70% of atmospheric oxygen. Ocean does this
by providing a habitat for kelp, algae and tiny ocean phytoplankton that make
oxygen. In addition, Ocean absorbs 1/3rd of the carbon dioxide
produced on Earth. Through the Season of Easter, the communion prayer included
the words, You breathe and give us life. Our stories of faith tell us
that God’s breath creates life: in the beginning breathing life into creation,
the raising of the dead by Elijah and Jesus, and the spirit and peace of God
breathed on the disciples in an upper room. With the Spirit we have the power
and the responsibility to breathe life into the world. Jesus gave many examples
of letting go rules and practices that did not bring life – he brought life by
speaking to the marginalized, healing the forgotten, and accepting and
welcoming people as they were. Jesus brought oxygen to those having a hard time
breathing – those struggling to survive – by following the command to love your
neighbour.
Lesson 3 – OCEAN is vast and
deep. In the deepest waters, more than 500 metres (1640 ft) below the surface,
90% of creatures are bioluminescent, meaning they are light-emitting; they glow
in the dark. When we baptize, we light a candle and say to the newly baptized: let
your light so shine before others that they see your good works and glorify
your Father in heaven. Through the Spirit we are given power and responsibility
to shine in the dark; to illumine pathways to brighter places and kindle new
ways of being. We walk by faith and in faith, emitting a glow of hope and
promise.
Lesson 4 – OCEAN is moving! Not only the constant circulation of water,
but the actual floor of Ocean is in movement because of tectonic plates. The
plates are separating creating underwater mountain ranges and islands above. In
other places one plate slips under another creating deep crevices. In the
transition zones there are continual new discoveries: deep sea mineral
deposits, chemosynthetic life forms and whole ecosystems. The Spirit is moving!
It came with the sound of the rush of a violent wind, filling the house. On
Pentecost Sunday, on confirmation Sunday, we find ourselves in a transition
zone. For the 7 weeks of Easter, we have heard stories of resurrection and
life, and today are reminded that we are bearers of Jesus’ miraculous story. We
are to get moving, carrying the good news into all the world. Confirmation is an
important moment where prayers are specifically said and blessing given to each
confirmand, that the Spirit will flow through you and move you to be an ongoing
expression of God’s grace in the world.
Lesson 5 – OCEAN is one. We
are one. Although Ocean is talked about with five names: the Pacific, Atlantic,
Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic – all are connected waters. Although Church is
talked about as denominations: Lutheran, Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal,
and so on – all are connected by the Holy Spirit. We are one as Jesus is one
with the Father and the Spirit abides with you and in you. We are one – one community
– one big ocean. Christian community working together has power to change that
which is not love and that which is not whole. It is our commission – our baptismal
promise – our responsibility - to strive for justice and peace in all the
earth.
And finally, Lesson 6 – OCEAN
is mystery and unknown. Humans know little about Ocean having only mapped 10% of
the world’s oceans. We know less about Ocean’s floor than we know about the
surface of Mars. The number of species living in Ocean remains unknown – vast
biodiversity and ecosystems is estimated to have 2.2 million species of living creatures.
It is believed that 91% of ocean creatures are yet to be classified. Confirmands
you have finished confirmation classes and are ready to affirm your faith. If
you look around you, you see your faith family. Believe it or not most of us
have few answers to questions about God. We spend our lifetime experiencing and
learning more of God. There is so much of God and life that remains a mystery
and unknown. What we do know is that regularly gathering in community
strengthens our faith and fuels our hearts so that we can illumine pathways of
grace, and peace, and love in a world that lives in the shadows, dust, and
hurt.
On this your confirmation
day, and every day -
By the power of the Holy
Spirit, Live the lessons of Ocean:
With heart influence the
climate around you, breath life into the world, illumine pathways to brighter
places, keep moving as an expression of God’s grace, work together as one, and
continue to discover and experience the Mystery of God ---
Do all this to fulfil the
promises you make today before God
For the healing of Ocean and
the healing of Mother Earth and all her people. To the glory of God. Amen.
