Isaiah 6:1-8      "Send Me"      Confirmation and Graduation    May 22, 2005

     Some of you have probably seen old movies about Broadway where the star of a big Broadway Show just before opening night falls down the stairs, or develops laryngitis, or is shot by a jealous boyfriend.  The playhouse is full, it's time for the show, and the star is out.  And the director screams "Where are we going to find someone to play the lead role?"  Just then, a young woman from the chorus steps forward and says, "I can do it.  I have memorized all the lines."  The director laughs at this upstart child who thinks she can be a star but he is desperate, so he says, "Okay kid, get out there and give it your best shot."  Well, she does.  Everyone back stage is cheering her on.  The audience goes wild with applause.  She becomes an instant success.

    Well, something like that happened to a young man named Isaiah in the OT.  He was in the temple praying just after the king had died.  There was much concern about the future of the nation.  And God, like the director, asks, "Whom shall I send?  Who will go to speak to my people?"  And young Isaiah responds, "Lord, here I am.  Send me."

   Today we have two special groups of young people--those who are about to confirm their faith in Christ and those who are about to graduate from school.  Shakespeare in the play "As You Like It" wrote, "All the world's a stage and we merely the actors on it."  Well, you are coming to the end of a play.  You are coming to the last act, the final scene of a drama.  The curtain is about to close on one part of your life and a new curtain will soon rise.  It will be time for you to play other, larger roles in your life.  As this next stage of your life begins, God is sending you, even as God sent Isaiah, out onto the stage of this early 21st century.  God has a role for you to play, probably many roles to play in your life.  I pray you've learned to act your role well.

    What role will you act during the next five years of your life?  For those of you to be confirmed, these next five years will mostly mean High School, a place and time and drama where you will act out your roles.  For those of you graduating, the next five years may be more education, a job, marriage, children.  Your life will take on many new acting roles.  For some of you, maybe you will become rich and famous, that favorite of American dreams.  But more important, will you play your role well?  Will you act the part you are given to the best of your ability?  Richard Burton, one of the great actors of all time, said "Better to play a good role in front of a small audience than to play a bad role in front of thousands."  Before you decide the role you will play, check out the script carefully.  Life is too short to spend your time on stage in a lousy show. 

    The greatest show on earth is God's show.  The redemption, the revolution, God is bringing to change this world and the question God still asks today, "Whom will I send to be my person?"  You see, God has a role for you.  God has His plan for you.  Are you ready to respond, "Lord, send me?"  Like the chorus girl in the Broadway musical, have you learned the lines, memorized the steps, and made yourself ready to say, "I can play that part.  Send me out on the stage."  Are you ready to act the role of a Christian?

    Now maybe some of you think, "What do you mean act the role of a Christian?  Shouldn't we be Christians and not just act?"  But the first step to any goal is to act.  Success gurus teach that you should act and dress for the success you want.  I know a professor who had a student come to his office to say that he could not follow through on an Army scholarship commitment.  The student said it was just not who he was.  The professor responded, "College is mostly about overcoming who you are and becoming more than you are.  Why not try acting like you love the army?"  "Act like I love the Army?"  "Sure.  You have the wardrobe already.  Much of life is good acting.  Act the part and you will become the part." 

   In the early days of American history, there was a debate about whether judges in the new United States would wear robes.  Such robes were associated with Europe and British aristocracy.  But in time, American judges also began to wear robes as a symbol of who they are.  One historian writes, "They found that if you are going to make judgments on other people's lives, you must wear the right costume.  You cannot judge unless you dress like a judge."

   God calls you this day to act out a role, to take on a part, in his great world story.  And if you find that you struggle, then at least act like a Christian.  Sometimes you must make believe, in order to believe.  

   A few years ago, movie producer Rob Reiner made a comedy spoof about a rock band called "Spinal Tap."  However, after the movie, the band which had been put together and created just for the movie, well, they kept playing.  Soon they were on a national tour.  Some critics said, "But you are not a real rock band.  Spinal Tap was just made up by a movie producer."  The leader of the band responded, "The real test is whether we make music that people want to hear.  Sure, at first we were just acting like a band in a movie, but we kept playing our music and then we became a band."

   Most of our Confirmands this morning were baptized long ago as babies.  When we baptize a baby in our congregation, we call that tiny person a Christian.  Now that is a big role for such a small person.  But you see the promise is there, a promise made by God, if that child will just try to act like a Christian, each day try to grow a little more like a Christian, then what was promised will someday come true.  That child will be a Christian.