Pentecost
14,
Year A - August 21, 2005 Celebrating
Youth Sunday - Isaiah 51:1-6
The last time we gathered here for worship
beside Millers' pond was in
August of 1999, the day that Caleb and Ian Miller were baptized. I have
a picture somewhere of that day, with Caleb just coming up out of the
water. What a little squirt he was back then! Well, Caleb's about 6'
now. He finished high school this year and starts college tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Brother Ian's off somewhere in the South Pacific with the
Peace Corps.
Sean Cole showed up in church a few weeks ago, not a trace of baby fat,
maybe a little taller now than I am. Ben Herr is playing high school
football. We saw Malini Cole again last Sunday, just beginning her
senior year at Brown County High school, talking about college plans.
As she said goodbye, I turned to someone and said, "I remember when I
baptized her; she was just a tiny baby." Then the other person said,
'Say, is that Courtney Von Stein driving away in that car. Is she
really old enough to drive?" Indeed, it was - and yes, she is.
Ji Yoon joined us last week for the first time, having traveled
half-way around the world at the tender age of 16 for a grown up
adventure. And here we have Lauren and Erica, and Benjamin and Andrew,
zooming out of childhood into adolescence, becoming strong
personalities in the process. Those little ones; Kiera and Abigail and
Ian? Don't blink - if you do, you may not recognize them next week.
Today, we celebrate our young people. We celebrate the gift that they
are to all of us who love them. We celebrate their clear, bright eyes,
their energy, their personhood, their endearing attempts to try on
different ways of growing up, their idealism, their honesty. We
celebrate the child still present somehow in the youth, at the same
time we see the adult beginning to emerge.
We celebrate what the Church might someday be if (God willing) the
Church proves worthy of their continued commitment, even while we
celebrate what the Church is right now, just because they are here in
our midst today. We celebrate who we are because of them. We remember
the words of the prophet Isaiah, who spoke of a day when all creation
is transformed by Spirit, and promised that "A little child shall lead"
God's people into a brighter future.
How could it be otherwise? To serve these young ones who have been
entrusted to our care is to honor them, to see and recognize in them
something holy; the image and likeness of God. When we guide and
encourage and involve and celebrate our younger brothers and sisters,
we help them to claim that birthright for themselves. And as we do
these things, we are claiming that birthright for ourselves, as well.
In this way, our children, our youth, become our teachers, leading us
to the fulfillment of our purpose in this life.
I can remember when the diocesan youth began doing mission trips. A few
years later, mission trips became all the rage for adults. Malini was
the first one to go from St. David's, a few years back. Last year, one
of our adults followed her lead. The Waycross campers showed the way
with their Brown County Service project, inviting our adults to get
involved. Is it any accident that this year, our congregation has been
so heavily invested in the Habitat House? I think not.
To our young people today, I commend these words of the prophet Isaiah,
words that Courtney read for us this morning. "Listen to me, you that
pursue righteousness, you that seek the LORD. Look to the rock from
which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to
Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you;"
Let's be clear about what it means to pursue righteousness. We're not
talking about being self-righteous or "holier than thou". Righteousness
is being in right relationship with God, claiming our image and
likeness, yet humble before the Creator. God is saying this; if you
want to live a life full of purpose, full of joy and peace; if you want
to live the life you're meant to live; if you want to be able to sleep
at night because of the way you've lived during the day; if you want to
know that God is with you and around you and within you then make the
most of this precious time of your young years.
"Look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the quarry from which
you were dug." God has found a beautiful deposit of stone and is
skillfully lifting you up, out of the bedrock of your family home, out
of the quarry of your spiritual home so that you can become part of a
new world that God is building, stone by stone. What God can make of
you depends on where you came from.
The Bible says "Honor your father and mother" - to honor them is to
look beyond their human struggles and see that the love which they have
for you is from God. Understand that their guidance and discipline
helps to form you in righteousness. Believe that each of your parents
who abide in the faith have been quarried from the same rock, out of
which came Abraham and Sarah and all their descendents. The strength
and beauty and wisdom your family now passes along to you came down to
them from their parents, or from others who cared for them.
And because all of us trace our spiritual lineage back to Abraham and
Sarah, the Church is also part of that quarry, that rock from which God
is digging you and shaping you. Each moment you spend in the fellowship
of your church family is helping to form you into something solid and
durable and useful, holding within it that precious image and likeness
of God, just waiting for the master sculptor to release it and bring it
forth into the light. Indeed, we begin to see it now.
And so, on this day, we celebrate you, because you lead us, because you
give us hope, because you remind us of the potential within ourselves,
and because God has given you to us to love.
AMEN
The
Rev. Jonathan Hutchison – Vicar, St. David's, Bean Blossom, IN