Homily #1, by Rachel Cushman:
Over the season of Lent, my mom and dad have been talking about God’s unfolding drama, God’s story found in the Bible. Last week as we celebrated Easter, the drama achieved its climax.  We learned that God always wins. That nothing can stop God’s love from achieving its desired hopes and goals for us all. Even in the face of apparent defeat, even at the cross and crucifixion, God still wins and new life is given.

Today, the drama continues, but it takes a littler twist. Today, we begin to see how we become a very important part of the story. In fact we become the means for how the story continues to live and expand. Today, we talk about the church, the new beginning of the chosen ones of God, who are now asked to be a source of God’s love and care and compassion in the world. The chosen ones of God who are now asked to fulfill the Torah by loving God with our whole heart and mind and strength, and by loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. We celebrate the beginning of the church.

We thought that this part of the story was perfect for us, as the youth, to talk about. For we are the emerging church today. We are the next generation of leaders and disciples of Jesus Christ. As someone stated, “The church is always one generation away from dying.” If each generation does not step up to its calling and its responsibilities in the church, it will lose its impact upon the world. The love of God and love of neighbor will continue to diminish in this, God’s world.

This is why the passage in Deuteronomy is so important. Even as the first chosen people of God began their journey to live their calling, they understood how each generation must take the time to teach the following generation their faith. It was up to the parents and leaders of the community to tell the stories and model the lives and share the teachings of their heritage to the next generation of God’s people. If they did not, all that had made them and shaped them as a people would no longer be remembered. Their story, the drama of God’s mighty acts in the world and in their lives would be forgotten.

As the emerging church, as the next generation of God’s people, we rely upon all of you to teach us the drama, to share with us your faith, and to model the love of God in our lives, so we, too, may know how to live in this love and share this love with others. As one theologian said, “Christians are made, they are not born.” We have the capacity to be the children of God, we have the abilities to live as the church, but we need you to guide us and encourage us in our lives.

My mom and dad tell my sister and I about how they use to worry about us as we became ready to attend school. I mean what else is are parents to think. They were worried because my sister and I would go up to just about every one and talk to them like they were our best friends. As they talked about this, they realized why we felt so comfortable around people was because we had been raised in the church. Everyone had always treated us with kindness, and we always felt cared about. Then they realized that I was going to be fine because they realized the church had given me confidence and a good belief about myself. The people of the church gave me support in every thing I did. I had always known kindness and love from the church. It gave me the confidence I now have to be myself and not care what all the kids at school think because I had a place to come to that I knew I was accepted as me.

All my life I have known the church as a place to go when I am sad, or down and out, or when some thing exciting has happened. That is what makes me really stay in church. That’s where I find the support that I need.

 When I went to Honduras I was the only youth there, but the reason I had so much fun is that the adults there supported me. They encouraged me. They helped me through the struggles I had and talked with me like a person. I saw that I was blessed to be here in U.S. and that from these blessings I needed to help others that were ot so fortunate as me. People who had so much less just because of where they were born. I know God loves all people and what I learned is the sprit of the church is every where, not just the U.S.

Unfortunately a lot of kids see the church as a bunch of old people who don’t understand us and look down upon us, but what they don’t see is all the kind, caring people here who would help us and encourage us in our lives and give us our foundation to start our lives. This is what we need. This is what we as youth are looking for. This is what you, as the adult church, need to show us as the emerging church. That there is a place of caring and compassion that we can go to and be a part of. As the Apostle Paul says in I Thessalonians 5:11 “Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.”

Now back to the scripture. Deuteronomy talks about the adults of the town talking about the scripture to all the kids of the town. Well you as the adult church must teach us the scripture so we under stand it. You must quote “Write down copies and tie them to your wrists and foreheads to help you obey them. Write these laws on the door frames of your homes and on your town gates.” Well I guess you don’t need to go that far, but the point of all those examples is trying to tells us we need to use it all the time and in all places, not just the church.

I remember there was this women name Ms. Ethel. She did everything and she is 91. She showed me more about the women’s rights and social justice, and she did it in the name of her God. She talked with the youth at her church and showed us how God is in our every day lives and how He helps us with our every day problems. She helped us youth to bring God into our every day lives.

So people of the church I ask you, show us the way because we are the future. Scary, isn’t it?

Homily #2, by Robyn Poynter:
How did my faith journey start? And what sparked it? Mine started when I was three years old and I said my first prayer, “Thank you God for Cous Cous.” After that, my granddad was convinced I was destined to be a pastor.  That was basically the first step of my journey of faith; my first acknowledgement of God.

While that was the first time I had publicly thanked God, it was not the first time God had been involved in my life. On January 6, the day of Epiphany, I was officially brought into God’s family. I was only 6 months old, so I don’t remember anything, but pictures show that I was all dolled up in a frilly pink outfit with a little pink clip in my hair and am told that I slept through the entire process. I guess I made it made it pretty easy for the pastor and my parents. God can touch us all in so many ways and at all ages throughout our life. He has an effect on everything, and can change our lives forever.

Later on, as I got older I attended Vacation Bible School. I believe that it had a deep impact on my faith. Most of the songs, rhymes and fun skits have stuck with me. They have influenced me a great deal by circulating positive thoughts in my head.  They have added to the building of my faith.

August 1,1998 was a big day in my life. It was a day of growth, learning and hardship. This day was a turning point in my faith. My parents left Sean and me with a babysitter while they went to see a movie.  Before they left, they told us what we could and could not do, like any caring parents would. “Be careful when you use the microwave, don’t play outside after dark.” My parents left and we went and played. Then we decided to ride bikes, so Sean and the babysitter headed outside. I was on my way out when I was startled by something. I heard this weird voice telling me in an urgent tone to “to put on my helmet.” I was a little freaked out about the voice, so I went to the bike rack, grabbed my helmet and latched it tightly.  Little did I now this was about to be my saving grace.  The three of us decided to have a race. We started out at one end of our horseshoe-shaped driveway. My babysitter counted us down and we were off.  Our babysitter was fast and he sped way ahead of Sean and me. Sean was in the back and I was in the middle and starting to gain speed.  I got going so fast that I couldn’t stop, my bike was fish tailing and I finally took my feet off of the pedals and held on to the handle bars. I didn’t know what to do and all I remember is letting go, then my body thudded against our concrete driveway and I momentarily blacked out. When I awakened I was all beat up and bleeding. The babysitter carried me inside to my bed.

The next day I had to go so school looking like a freak, with half of my face disfigured, swollen and puffy, and the other half fine, I looked like one of those morphing action figures.  School was difficult. I had to be very brave. I wore sunglasses and I got lots of sympathy cards. An older boy came up and told me my face was so gross that he couldn’t eat. So it was kinda weird. When I went to the doctor she said that if I hadn’t worn my helmet, it would’ve been a lot worse. The hard impact might have led to extreme brain damage. I had a cat scan to see if I’d fractured my skull and amazingly I hadn’t. I had walked away from the crash with nothing more than some swelling, a purple face and a couple scratches.  I was amazed and I thought that there had to be some sort of logical explanation. Then I remembered the voice I had heard and I knew, it was an angel that had saved me. Before I had doubted angels, maybe thinking that people who said stuff like that were crazy or had issues, but I knew from then on that they were right, and that there are angels.  I guess sometimes it just takes a  personal experience, before you believe. I do very much believe and have confirmation of angels.

Confirmation Class was the next big step for me in my faith journey.  I attended, participated and answered questions. We discussed radical topics and debated the origins of our faith. We were allowed to question everything about it, ask where it came from, why, and what evidence we have to support it and why should we believe what theologians and pastors say. Questioning really helped me to find my way.  I guess I thought I would be punished to even think of questioning God or my faith, but instead this class was not only tolerating it, but encouraging it. I found it a wonderful experience and it was great to finally believe and have evidence to back up my faith.

  When I was confirmed in church, it was also my first time receiving communion. In order to make communion special, my parents and I agreed that I wouldn’t receive it until I was confirmed. So after church my parents and I went into the little chapel in the old building and I had my first communion. It felt great. I told my parents that wine really wasn’t that bad, but they just laughed and told me it was grape juice. I was kinda disappointed. I mean I had gone through this whole thing to drink holy grape juice? Oh well… I got over it and it felt great to finally eat the bread, drink the juice and be able to understand what it all means.

Recently the hardest ordeal for me has been the death of my grandfather. Though it’s been a year and a half it’s still really hard. We were really close. You see, my grandfather was like a big teddy bear. He was a big flirt; everyone loved him. He would go out and buy a whole pie and ice cream for us grandkids. Usually, we ate it for breakfast. Sometimes we would only stay for one night, but he would always have the candy jars full and stashed in just about every place in the house you can imagine. He would tell us the best stories and make us laugh until our sides hurt and we were crying.  He was a great man and I was so mad at God when he died. I knew intellectually that we all die, but I didn’t want to accept that God would let such a great and amazing man die. It was so hard for us all to watch him suffer. I watched him wither away and deteoriate on our frequent visits preceding his death. We had this great, huge family reunion in NM where he grew up. That was the last time the entire family was together; three months later in October he was gone. Sometimes I still don’t understand God’s ways, but I just try to think that everything happens for a reason and that the hard times make us stronger and build up our character. It just comes down to the whole cycle of life; we’re born, we live, we die; every living thing goes through it.  It took time, but I came to a realization that he’s in a better place now, where we’re all going to be eventually. It’ll just be time before I see him again. I’ll just have to wait a little longer and maybe travel a little farther until our next reunion.

Another part of my journey of faith has been house building trips to Mexico. Sponsored by AMOR ministry, the youth have been building houses in impoverished neighborhoods of Tijuana for many years. I’ve done it several times and it’s a lot of fun. You camp out in Mexico. You get up everyday and work on the house and watch it progress, step by step, from leveling the ground, laying the foundation, building the walls and the roof, nailing them together, adding the tar paper, stretching and tightening the chicken wire around the entire house, and smearing on two layers of stucco. It was really hard! It’s a blast, really fun, but also really difficult and laborious and there’s a catch….As there always is, you can’t use ANY power tools! It just makes it that much harder. You work from about 8-5, come back, shower, eat dinner, and have a daily devotion. It’s an extraordinary trip and it’s life changing.

 Last summer the house was built for a young couple. She was young, pretty and pregnant. They were in awe of their newly built house. Their expressions of joy made the whole effort worthwhile.

These are some of the events that have shaped my journey of faith. Whether it’s a big blowout on your bike, your grandpa dying, or a mission trip to Mexico, these are the things that shape you and mold you and strengthen your faith if you let them.

I’d like to end with a quote by Mary Bethune, that I believe sums up faith,

“Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.”

Homilies delived on Youth Sunday, April 23, 2006.