Journey to Adulthood

What makes someone an adult? How would you define adulthood? It’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer, isn’t it? It’s complicated. Generally, when we speak of adulthood, we mean more than attaining a legal age of 18 or 21. We mean more than financial independence; receiving a large inheritance, for example, does not automatically confer adulthood. We mean more than the biological ability to procreate. For most of us, I imagine, adulthood is defined as achieving some unquantified, but noticeable, combination of wisdom, trustworthiness and a sense of responsibility. We maybe can’t define adulthood, but we know it when we see it.

The program that the teenagers at St. Patrick’s are involved in this year is called Journey to Adulthood, or J2A. Listen to this definition of adulthood taken from the J2A materials: "Adulthood is the status given to someone by the community when the community (that’s us) is certain that she or he has the basic skills and commitments necessary to take responsibility for himself or herself and those whom God sets in her or his path." That definition probably fits pretty well with your general ideas on adulthood. But I’d like to highlight a few pieces of it.

First of all, the status of adulthood is given by the community. You cannot be a self-proclaimed adult. Regardless of your age or your self-confidence. You cannot grant yourself adulthood. The status of an adult is granted by the community. Those of us who consider ourselves adults might want to stop and think about that for a bit. Only when an individual has proven that she can take responsibility for her own life and for the lives of any others whom God may place in her path. It takes training; it takes certain skills and commitments, as the definition says, to be able to exercise that sort of responsibility. The status of adulthood is only granted by the community when mastery of those skills is proven.

In other, we might say more primitive, cultures adulthood is proven when, for example, a boy kills his first game or predator, proving that he can feed himself and also provide for and protect his community. A girl might be required to complete a quilt by hand with thirteen quilting stitches to the inch to prove that she can provide for her own welfare and that of her household. Those are not the particular skills that are necessary to be a responsible adult in our community, but the point is still valid. To be considered an adult, a young man must prove to the community that he has the skills and commitments to provide for himself and for any others whom God puts in his path. I like that phrase. Any others whom God puts in his path. That’s a broad realm of responsibility. But that is the nature of Christian adulthood. Again, those of us who consider ourselves adults would do well to remember that Christian adulthood is not an individual endeavor. Individual church attendance and/or private piety are not enough. To earn adulthood within the Christian community, we must take an active responsibility for all those whom God places in our path.

We are going to have a special celebration today for some of the young people who are in the Journey to Adulthood program. These particular young people are in the Rite 13 class. Our liturgy is a celebration—a celebration, more or less, of their thirteenth birthdays. And, yes, that is something to celebrate. Within this service, the young people will be called "celebrities." Within this community of St. Patrick’s, they are celebrities. We give thanks for the blessings and joy they bring to us by their presence among us. They have been our children and have enriched our lives with the imagination, spontaneity, and loyalty of their childhood. They are no longer children, but they are not yet adults. This liturgy does not grant them adult status. Nor is this the sacrament of Confirmation. That will come later, if and when, as adults, they choose to renew their commitment to Christ in that way. Today they take leave of their childhood and begin their journeys towards adulthood. They must work to acquire the skills necessary to be an adult within this community. They must prove they are committed to the welfare of others within the St. Patrick’s community and beyond.

Adults are responsible for those whom God puts in their paths. Sarah, Michelle, Katy, Kyle, Erin, Sadie, and Mike are in our paths. They are our inescapable responsibility. We cannot ask these young people to earn our respect if we are not willing to teach them the skills they need to do so. We cannot ask these young people to prove to us that they are capable of being responsible adults if we do not value and take on the adult responsibility of supporting, guiding and teaching them in "the way they should go" (Proverbs).

If you’re not real sure what to teach them, or how to teach them, Micah provides some pretty good advice in the well-known words of today’s reading. Micah speaks to some among God’s people who had forgotten what it meant to be responsible people of God. Micah reminds them of their responsibility. "God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God."

Do justice. Love kindness. And walk humbly with your God. That is how to live as a responsible person of God.

As powerful as this passage is, the Hebrew meanings of these words are even richer than they seem in English. For Micah, justice did not mean retribution (which certainly seems to be its predominant meaning these days). Nor did justice really mean a system of laws meant to enforce a social moral code. Justice meant freedom from inequality. Freedom from inequality. Among the people of God there is no place for inequality of any kind. To "do justice", as Micah commands, is to wipe out any inequality that may exist—any inequality in power, in status, in wealth, in opportunity. If we are to be Christian adults, it is our responsibility to see that these teenagers do not suffer from any inequality, and it is our even greater responsibility to train them—by our words and by our actions—to become adults who do not to foster or tolerate inequality.

Do justice. And love kindness. Kindness. That particular Hebrew word is also sometimes translated as loyalty or steadfast love. It means that the commitments, the relationships that bind the people of God are very, very important. The community, and the bonds that unite us, are very important. It is our adult responsibility to value and nurture those bonds and to teach these young people to become adults who value the commitments and relationships of the Christian community.

And finally, Micah says, walk humbly with your God. Surely it is the mark of a faithful, responsible adult to acknowledge her total dependence upon God and to gratefully accept God’s companionship on life’s journey towards and into adulthood. Surely, we, as adults, accept Micah’s reminder of our ultimate responsibility throughout our lives to walk humbly with our God. If we do not train these young people to do so, who will?

Today is a celebration. Today we celebrate what God has given us in each of these wonderful individuals. And we celebrate what God has freely given them—their personalities, their creative potential. And we mark this rite of passage as they begin their journey to adulthood. But Kyle, Erin, Sadie, Mike, Sarah, Michelle and Katy, never forget that also on this day we, we who are already (!) adults, reaffirm our responsibility to support and teach you along your journey to adulthood.

What better way to begin than by reaffirming our baptismal covenant, found on page 292 in the Book of Common Prayer…

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