YOUTHFUL STEWARDSHIP
Readings:
First Reading: Deuteronomy 6, beginning at verse 1 The Great Commandment.
Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that the Lord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, 2 so that you and your children and your children’s children may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.[a] 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Hear the Word of the Lord…
Psalm 34: 11 to 20,
11 Come, children, listen closely; I’ll give you a lesson in God worship. 12 Who out there has a lust for life? Can’t wait each day to come upon beauty? 13 Guard your tongue from profanity, and no more lying through your teeth. 14 Turn your back on sin; do something good. Embrace peace—don’t let it get away! 15 God keeps an eye on his friends, his ears pick up every moan and groan. 16 God won’t put up with rebels; he’ll cull them from the pack.
17 Is anyone crying for help? God is listening, ready to rescue you. 18 If your heart is broken, you’ll find God right there; if you’re kicked in the gut, he’ll help you catch your breath. 19 Disciples so often get into trouble; still, God is there every time. 20 He’s your bodyguard, shielding every bone; not even a finger gets broken. Glory be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit…
Second Reading: 1 Timothy, chapter 4, beginning at verse 12
12 Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I arrive, give attention to the public reading of scripture,] to exhorting, to teaching.14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders. 15 Put these things into practice, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers.
5 Do not speak harshly to an older man, but speak to him as to a father, to younger men as brothers, 2 to older women as mothers, to younger women as sisters—with absolute purity. Hear the word of the Lord!
Gospel: Luke, chapter 2, beginning at verse 41
The Boy Jesus in the Temple 41 Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. 43 When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. 44 Assuming that he was in the group of travellers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents[a] saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’49 He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’[b] 50 But they did not understand what he said to them. 51 Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years,[c] and in divine and human favour. This is the Gospel of Christ! [praise to Christ our Lord]
Welcome to our 2nd week in our stewardship series – this week, we’re looking at “youthful stewardship”.
There are a few connotations to this expression, two of which are important today:
- No matter what chronological age we are, we can “steward our own youthfulness”, if we protect our ability to see the world with excitement, passion, and pure wonder…
Having a youthful excitement, innocence and (most importantly), enthusiasm for life is one of the greatest spiritual gifts, as described in our psalm....
Don will introduce the ecumenical Youth Alpha team in the notices, but I want to thank the team and the participants for helping make this Youth Alpha happen – if we do not open our hearts and minds, we will not encounter our Living God, and I have seen God gently building and encouraging us through this Youth Alpha Series, and I hope you all embrace and enjoy and , especially in this service we’re celebrating with them!
And our Epistle guides our youthfulness, reminding us that we should let no one despise anyone’s youth, and telling the youth to set the other young believers a good example, in word and in behaviour, in love, in faith, in purity. In the same way Paul encouraged Timothy in our Epistle, I encourage you all, especially our youth, to give attention to your faith, encouraging and teaching one another. We all have gifts, both the young, and the old, and we must not neglect the call to put them to a good and pure use.
However, the most important meaning of this expression for me is more personal, as it talks to my own vocation and ordination. The reason I started to study theology is I wanted to give my own and other children better answers to the important “God questions” than I got at their age…. And I would never have gotten to that point without my own first and other Alphas I shared with many of you St Paul’s and St Martin’s folk, including the parents of many of the youth on this Youth Alpha…
The reason our priest suggested I go to Alpha was because I asked difficult questions – I struggled with God and myself from my youth – I was angry at God because He let bad things happen in the world and to people I loved.
I asked the priest why, and said that I felt as if I was a bird in a cage, and that God had opened the door to the cage so I could fly out and be free, but all I could see outside the cage was a dessert, and I knew if I flew out, I would die…. I asked the priest what kind of loving God would do this?
Starting with Alpha, then through my later studies, I learned my answer – yes, there is pain and suffering in the world, and it doesn’t always make sense to me, but god has a good pleasing and perfect plan – the answer to my cage problem, I believe, is that yes, sometimes things look bleak, but if we trust God, and go where God asks us to go, we fly beyond the cage we are stuck in, out beyond the dessert that surrounds the cage, and on into the wide open, scary yet beautiful world God has made for us…
My answer was to fly out with God in faith, and to discover the desserts and gardens of life that God had put outside the cage of my doubts, if only I just flew on the wings He had given me…
So I encourage us all, with the same exuberant, trusting faith as a child, to leave our cages and fly out into the world of freedom, trusting God to lead us and sustain us through the delights and desserts of our lives. Amen!
Rev Gavin Smith
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