This Week

5-22-08 This Week At First Pres

They stood before us, full of life and purpose, singing “God, don’t give up on us...”

The witness of our students on Sunday demonstrates to me that God has not, in fact, given up on us. Nor on the world God loves. Nor on the future.

Youth Sunday was full of joy, of movement, of music, and of tears. No one in the congregation, regardless of their age, left untouched. It was clear that the Presence was in our midst, that we were witnessing a work of the Spirit.

We were called to care for Creation in all its variety and beauty and wildness.

We heard the scripture in many voices, ‘and it was good’.

We were invited to sing in the style of 50’s pop (“singing doo-wah-ditty-ditty-dum-ditty doo”)

And to move with uncharacteristic energy (“Do you want a Revolution?”)

We were led to pray for justice and for freedom, that all God’s children might live: here, and in Myanmar, and in China.

We were reminded that when you fall, it’s possible to get up, that the path of Christ is ‘awesome’.

We heard about how God is present in the great outdoors, and in cancer treatment and in grief.

We bore witness to how a loss can be a beginning, the start of ‘a new relationship’ between God and us.

I was struck by the way that the teenagers in this congregation trust the adults, and are willing and able to tell the truth- there is a great deficit of such trust in the world.

I was moved by the fact that they seem to think they are more likely to find God in the real stuff of life, even the hard and painful parts, than in a varnished fairy tale of other-worldly spirituality. This is a pretty valuable faith-lesson for our seniors to know as they prepare to launch. Where is Jesus when their whole world changes? Right beside them, no matter where they find themselves.

Days later, I am touched by the privilege of walking the road of discipleship with them.

This weekend we head for Family Camp. Polly, whose dad died suddenly a couple of weeks ago, said to me with great passion that she treasures the years she spent there, that they have become a deep part of who she is as an adult, she recalls them with ‘huge joy’. Her baby is due in a few weeks. Maybe, she says, next year, she will come again, and sing around the campfire with the rest of us. Until then, she wishes us well.

Let us, then, remember that each day is a gift from God. Let’s share the gift, and savor it. See you in the mountains-