They used to call it Rally Sunday. We decided to call it Fall Festival. I never did like Rally Sunday because it gives the impression that not much happened for the past three months and now we all need to “rally” to get started back to church and Sunday school.

Speaking of school, that too started this week. It is easy for us grown-ups to forget how scary school is for the kid who is going for the first time.

And it is not much easier on the parent. I remember taking Gretchen my first-born to pre-school for the first time. She didn’t want go. I coaxed, bribed, and threatened. I finally plopped her down in the middle of the room and ran out the door as I heard that heart wrenching wail “daddy… daddy.” School is a tough place for all of us right, Denise?

I was one of those kids that ducked behind whoever was sitting in front of me and considered it a good school day if nobody noticed me and I didn’t get called on.

I had a lot of those days because I didn’t speak English and the teacher with 30 other kids in the class didn’t have much time for me.

In those days there was no such thing as English as a second language. It was sink or swim. I did a lot of sinking before I learned to dog paddle.

My first years of school, counting Kindergarten were spent in Germany.

When I was ten I started the 5^th grade in a small school in Tennessee. By the sixth grade I had learned enough English so I couldn’t hide any more and that is where the real torture began.

We were asked to stand when called on recite the multiplication tables. What is 6x8? What is the capital of NJ… remember I lived in Tennessee! And then there were the counties in Tennessee… all 96 of them.

I didn’t have much trouble with the memorization, it was having to stand up and say it in front of the whole class.

I still have trouble standing up in front of people. I know you have seen me with my Kleenex box and my runny nose on more than one occasion..

I even made the excuse that it must be mold spore… if the truth be told its nerves!  There, I have confessed! School was bad enough but there was church!

We are told that Jesus took his disciples to Caesarea Philippi re-named by Phillip who renamed it in honor of himself and his Lord Caesar. Its older name was Panion (like Peter Pan) the God of Nature. Panion was a most idyllic little town at the foot of Mt. Heron with its three snow capped peaks, 9000 ft. high. It was also the headwaters for the Sea of Galilee.  In Jesus' time is was known as the playground of the rich and famous. Don’t ask me why Jesus took his disciples there.

While they were there Jesus gave them a little quiz. They had traveled with him for some time. They had seen the crowds milling around, they had heard Jesus teach and preach.

So he asked them a few questions. What’s my rating? What are folk saying about me? They had no problem with that one: John the Baptist, Elijah, Moses, etc.

“Not bad. I’ve heard some of that too.” Now, here’s one for you. “Who do you say that I am?” Oh oh! …

Now we are at Confirmation Class, or better at the Affirmation of Faith portion of our service.

In our day Confirmation was a public examination.

The guys got their first suit and the gals wore white dresses and we sat in the front row.

One by one we were called to stand, and the Pastor would ask us a question out of the catechism...

I don’t remember the question, but I was scared out of my wits.

Standing up in public and making your confession is difficult, that is why we do it together each Sunday when we say “I believe…”

So when Jesus turned to them and said, “Now what did you hear about me on the street?” That is the easy part. But when he said, “Now what about YOU?” – it gets hard.

Things we say in public are important…

I remember standing before a Judge at the Federal Court House in Chattanooga, Tenn. and he asked me if I could say the pledge of allegiance.  I was 14 and wanted to become an American citizen… I told him I could say it and he said, “Then let me hear you.” Another time was when I was subpoenaed and the judge asked me to put my left hand on the Bible and raise my right. “Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?” Yes, sir…

There is something about making a statement in public that makes it real.

In confirmation, which now is called Affirmation of Faith, I was asked “Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?”

 I responded with the second article of the Creed.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord…

I did not know then what all those words meant and I still don’t know all that they mean; but I do know that they mean that in some way or another, neither I nor anyone else has been able to explain, in this man Jesus, God is present. If I want to know what God is like,

I look at the stories about Jesus. 

Jesus is what God is like.

It is not enough to say “I believe in God,” or to say “I believe there is a God.” 

People kill in the name of God. People are prejudiced in the name of God. People hate in the name of God.

What kind of God do you believe in? 

I believe in the God who is present in Jesus Christ, not just a feel-good Jesus that brings a tear to my eye when I walk with Him “while the dew is still on the roses.”

God is not a “good feeling” when I am enjoying a beautiful sunset, or watching children at play, or the leaves turning a bright yellow and orange across the field in front of our house, or the honking of the geese flying South in a few more weeks.

Those are some of the many things I love about NJ.

You know what, you could have all the hummingbirds in their azure green colors, a thousand flowering cherry trees in your yard and birds of every color and size and buttercups and daffodils and azaleas, and spend your life in that marvelous splendor and still not know what God is like..

God is like Jesus.  Do you remember the crowd that had followed him to the hillside and it was evening and they were hungry and he fed them?

That is what God is like. 

Do you remember the woman who came to him because her little girl was sick… the woman with no name, no identity but a heart that loved her daughter? He healed the girl.

That is what God looks like. To believe in God is not enough… even his enemies believe that much.

Do you remember the time the disciples were arguing which one of them was number one? By the way, that will be part of next week's lesson.

Jesus took a towel and a bowl of water and knelt down and washed their feet. 

That is what God is like.

Peter still hadn’t figured that out when he made his affirmation of faith… and when Jesus told him “you got it but you didn’t get it.”

He didn’t get the part that this God who had washed his feet would also be the God who would be crucified… “I believe” we say.

When people join this church we don’t ask a lot of questions.

We don’t ask who their parents were, or where they work or how much money they make or what their sexual orientation is or how many times they have been married. Or if they drink or smoke or beat their kids…

We ask none of that.

But we do ask one question: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord?

We have to ask that... and all of you, at one point, thank God, said yes.  It was hard but you said it.

Based in part on “Speak Up and Be Quiet” by Fred Craddock, Westminster John Knox Press. 2001.