The Flying Karamazov Brothers used to come to Madison every couple of years. They’re a group of frenetic jugglers, and they feature a daring finale to each show. Their challenge is to accept any three items the audience has brought from home, and to keep them in the air for at least five tosses. The audience was in on the schtick, so they would bring improbable things—chain saws, vacuum cleaner hoses, inner tubes, bird cages, frying pans. You wondered how people got the stuff into the theater. One of the Karamazov Brothers would take that improbable combination of things and toss them effortlessly to wild applause. I’m doing the preaching equivalent today. I told the confirmands they could choose scripture texts for today, since they were leading worship and it was their big chance to let you know what was in their hearts. They hesitated not even three heartbeats before they each knew what to choose. I won’t tell you who chose what—but I’ll guarantee you it would surprise you if you knew.

In a fascinating way, the three texts give us a glimpse into the future of the church. It’s a glimpse through the eyes of the newest members, and it is shocking, exciting, terrifying, humbling, and gratifying. While I address much of this to the confirmands—Jennifer, Rachael, Houston—you are invited to eavesdrop. I hope the confirmands will hear the Holy Spirit calling them to participate in the life of the church now and in the future. As you eavesdrop, I hope you will be praying blessings for these confirmands, as well as asking God to reveal to you where you are being called to serve in the mission of this church—both now and in the future. That’s the joke in today’s sermon title. The future church—as if we think our hopes for the future church rest on these kids, but not as if we thought they were part of the church-of-the-present.

Which is so wrong. They are the church-of-the-present, just as you are the church-of-the-present. Besides, these three confirmands are not the only folks on whose shoulders the out-there, far distant church-of-the-future rests. I expect that most of us will be part of the out-there church-of-the-future. But this is the day that three young people make sacred promises they will carry with them the rest of their lives. They will reaffirm the vows made on their behalf at their baptisms. But, as is the custom in any water sacrament, we all reaffirm our vows as we witness theirs. Which means that this crazy Flying Karamazov Brothers sermon will apply to you as well as to the confirmands.

One confirmand chose the text in Luke about the banquet and the host getting dissed. The message here is about the choices we make and how they reflect our commitment. Each of the invited guests chose to do something else, rather than attend the banquet. None of the something elses was bad, but their choice had implications. They might have chosen differently had they thought what their choice implied about what was important to them. Soccer and music lessons and after school activities are not bad. Overnights with friends are not bad. Hobbies and vacations are not bad. But know that your choices have consequences. The obvious consequence is that, when the dinner guests chose not to go to the banquet, they didn’t get to eat what the host had prepared for them.

Maybe it was their favorite food—pizza, roast beef with gravy, hot fudge sundae, nachos and cheese, broccoli and eggplant. But more significantly, by choosing to stay up late to watch the movie or to go into Portland instead of to the banquet—their choice took them away from the host. In case you missed the point of Jesus’ parable, God is the host. When we miss the party—not going to church or Sunday School or youth group, not doing Bible study, when we spread ourselves over as many activities as possible—we miss relationship time with our Savior and the faith community. In the Bible, banquet stories are about the kingdom of God. Jesus’ parable says that, maybe we’re choosing OK things to do, but when those OK things do not include God, we miss the kingdom of God. The choices we make matter because they show what is important to us, what we are committed to.

Another confirmand chose another banquet story, this time in Revelation. It’s a story about the kingdom of God, and the message is one of expectancy. This happens after the end of time, so it is the culmination of all the promises God has made up to this point in the Bible. This is what God’s promises look like when they are kept. Don’t read this literally. I mean, how weird would it be, a city coming down out of the sky in a bride’s dress and veil? Too weird. This is a symbolic word picture to tell us that God’s presence is how God keeps all the promises. From the very beginning of the book—way back in Genesis—the best promise in the world that God makes is, “I will be with you.” In this story, God is so with humans, that it’s a whole new world, so new and so fresh that God is in humans and humans are in God. God is the middle and whole of this wonderful new order, there is no death, no suffering, no pain. Unbelievably fabulous! The message is to live your life expecting this to happen. Live expectantly because God, who never goes back on a promise, will keep this promise to be with us.

Another confirmand chose the story of Jesus as the good shepherd, a story about trust. Which means it is not a simple story. What is happening to Jesus around this story is horrible, tough stuff. He has been getting into trouble with the authorities, who are jealous of his miracles, jealous of his reputation, jealous of how much people love him and follow him around and hang on his every word and go to him with all their problems. So they figure that the best thing to do is to kill him. This is not a sweet story. This is a story about someone who is so concerned about others that he dies for them. This is about someone protective of his friends, even facing personal danger. This is about someone who loves so unconditionally that even his own friends resent him, especially when he loves others that they don’t even like. This is someone doing what my mother called “itching for scabs.” Except, he’s not doing this to get in trouble. He is doing this because he believes in his mission so passionately, he’s willing to do anything to accomplish it. He’s doing this because he loves us, is worthy of our trust, and he’s willing to pay the ultimate price because of it. This story is a call to us right now to trust him, it’s a reminder that there will be a future. It is an invitation to us to open up to that future in the same spirit of obedience and passion in which he accomplished his mission for love of us.

Did you glimpse the future church? It’s a future that comes of the choices we make. Our choices need to reflect a commitment to God right now. It is a future calling us to live in expectation of the time and place when God is at the center of everything. It is a future inviting us to live passionately, because we can trust God to be gracious right now. The question today is, will you accept the invitation to the banquet, or do you have something better to do?