Sermon for June 6, 2021 - The Second Sunday After Pentecost, Youth Sunday, Year B, The Rev. Isaac P. Martinez

Well, my friends, with God’s grace and some grit we have made it to the end of another program year here at St. Paul’s. Our amazing outdoor choir packed up their mics and soundboard 2 weeks ago after leading us for most of a year in joyful song through frigid snow and a sweltering Pentecost. We closed out a fruitful season of adult formation last week. And today we celebrate and honor our youngest members, our children, teenagers, and young adults who have persevered so faithfully, patiently, and creatively through one of the hardest years of their young lives. Despite all the ravages of the pandemic, we are here. That alone is something to thank God for and to celebrate. 

Now usually at this service, we have a reflection from a graduating senior in lieu of a sermon. But as with so many things, COVID overturned that tradition. But the Spirit does move in mysterious ways sometimes; and this reflection gives me a chance to share with you, my beloved St. Paul’s family, as your director of children and youth ministries, what I have learned, observed, listened to, experienced, and dream about how we minister to and with our kids and teens. 

But first, as with all things we do as Christians, we must start by grounding ourselves in Scripture. In our Mark’s gospel this morning, we encounter Jesus near the beginning of his ministry, and he faces a stark choice: to obey his birth family and not cause such a stir as he teaches, heals, and casts out demons; or, to obey God and continue loving, liberating, and giving life to the masses that follow him, even if it means losing his birthmother and siblings. 

And faced with that impossible choice, Jesus chooses a third way—to redefine what it means to be his family. “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Whoever does the will of God. But what does Jesus mean by the will of God? Again, we don’t have to look very far from this passage in Mark. Jesus has been doing it for a few chapters already. Whoever follows the commandments, summed up as loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and loving our neighbors as ourselves, is doing God’s will. Whoever seeks the physical, emotional, and spiritual healing of others is doing God’s will. And whoever works to cast out demons of oppression and injustice and work for the liberation of all people is doing God’s will. And by doing God’s will, Jesus says we become more than his followers, we become his family, as beloved as his mother Mary, his brother James, and his other siblings.

But although we can name the basics: love God, love our neighbors, seek healing, work for liberation, how we apply them to our time, to our lives, well, that’s often not so basic. Every year may not have a global pandemic that upturns almost everything we thought was normal, but each season of our lives brings its own adversities and opportunities. And in the face of those challenges, changes, and chances, there isn’t always an easy or obvious choice. So as a Christian, as member of Jesus’s family, what are we to do?

Well, we can come back to our spiritual childhood home. We can return to the place that taught us what to believe, what really matters in life, and how to apply our morals and ethics to what faces us. In short, we come back to church. And when we do, we find a Christian community that can remind us of who we are and can help us discern where to go next.

And this is why this Youth Sunday celebration is so important. To our high school, college, and post-college graduates, please listen to this part: as we send you off with our love and blessing into the next phases of your lives, we hope that as a church we have given you not just rote information, but actual experiences of applying those basics of love, healing, and liberation to your lives. And we also hope that whenever you face big questions, really hard challenges, or need to choose among many good options, that you know you always have a spiritual home here at St. Paul’s. We love you, we honor and congratulate you, and we will miss you.

This Youth Sunday celebration is also important because it also gives us a chance to take stock of our children and youth ministries as a whole. I wish you all could observe our elementary and church school classes each Sunday on Zoom, as our amazing and creative teachers help our kids learn the basics of love, healing, and liberation and begin applying them to their young lives. I’ve had the pleasure of co-leading our youth group with Chris and Georgia Smith this year, and our teens’ generosity, maturity, and deep love for God and God’s people has shown through in our monthly gatherings making Christmas gift bags for our elderly members, sorting donations for Common Cathedral, and walking to end hunger in Massachusetts.

But as COVID taught us, we cannot take our blessings for granted. There are wonderful aspects of our children and youth ministries we can and should preserve. And, as COVID also has taught us, we at St. Paul’s can be flexible, sacrificially generous, and extremely innovative. There are so many possibilities for how our kids and teens can be brought more and more into the center of our parish life on their terms. Their youth notwithstanding, they are full and equal members of this family of Jesus Christ and they have as much to teach and offer us as we do to them. But to turn those possibilities into reality will require us discern God’s will and perhaps to make some tough choices in order to follow it. 

In the coming months, our Children and Youth Ministries Steering Committee will release the findings of our earlier survey, ongoing interviews, and upcoming family focus groups, as well as recommendations for how to strengthen this vital aspect of our communal life. I invite you to pray for us and to listen for what the Spirit might be saying to all of us, so that future generations of Christ’s family will learn what the will of God is and receive the strength to follow it in their lives.

Beloved, centering the youngest members of Christ’s family will be hard work, yet as the apostle Paul writes, “Do not lose heart. Everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.” Amen.