Let us pray: God our Parent, you see your children growing up in an unsteady and confusing world: Show them that your ways give more life than the ways of the world, and that following you is better than chasing after what the world holds up. Help them to take failure, not as a measure of their worth, but as a chance for a new start. Give them strength to hold their faith in you, to keep alive their joy in your creation, and to know of their true value as your beloved children always, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Modified form of “Prayer for Young Persons”, BCP, p. 829)
I began today’s sermon with this prayer for teens because today is the Fall Rite-13 ceremony that takes place at our 9:30 a.m. service. The Rite-13 ceremony is part of our curriculum called Journey to Adulthood. Twice a year, in the fall and the spring, we have a special Sunday service for our young people who are entering their teenage years. At these services we celebrate, recognize, and offer up the beginning of these teenage years to our community, and to our loving God. Together we celebrate these young people that are such a wonderful part of our St. Mary’s community. This is an important milestone in young peoples’ lives. These years are a time of SO much change and growth, of learning, struggling, and testing. We celebrate all the possibilities that mark this journey to adulthood and this step of becoming a teenager. We acknowledge that it can be tough, very tough. Tough for teens, and tough for those who parent them. Tough when young people want to push back and try to make their own way to figure out who they are. And tough for those who parent, who want to set limits and keep them safe AND give them space and help them discover who they are. This can be a time of loss AND new life, AND a battle of wills! And so, we acknowledge all of the mess and beauty and potential, and we remind ourselves that others have been here before and made it through, that we don’t do it alone, that God is with us every step of the way.
We also remember that Jesus knows what it’s like to be a teenager trying to figure out who they are. We remember that Jesus’ parents knew what it was to raise a teenage Jesus. Jesus the teen who chose NOT to go home with his family but stayed behind at the temple and didn’t tell his parents what he was doing! Mary and Joseph felt the terror of realizing their boy was NOT with them and that they didn’t know where he was! In the end Jesus apologized and returned home with them, a teenage growth moment!
In today’s gospel, some religious leaders ask Jesus if they should pay taxes to the Roman government. And Jesus asks them to bring him a coin. The he asks whose image is on the coin. It is the imprint of the Roman ruler, the emperor, so Jesus says, give the emperor the things that belong to the emperor and give God the things that belong God’s. Jesus’ answer gets us thinking about WHO we are and WHOSE we are. Just like our young people, we are working to figure out our true identity. Whose are we? We belong to God! Who are we? We were all made in the image of God. God’s imprint is on us, it defines us. What is God like? God is good. What are we like? We are good, made in God’s image. What is God? God is love. What are we? We are God’s beloved children, loved and lovable, created in that image and likeness. Made BY love, FOR love, to be IN love with ourselves, one another, and our loving God.
It is my hope and prayer that our young people experience this love here at St. Mary’s. That they know that they are good, know that they are loved, created in God’s image EXACTLY who and how they are now, and who and how they’ll grow to be in the future. And it is my hope for all of us as well. Perhaps you never had the chance to learn and experience this love as a child. I pray that you may learn about and experience it in our St. Mary’s community at whatever stage of your life you find yourself!
Finally, I am compelled to remind our regular members of Saint Mary’s that we are in the third of our four-week pledge campaign. This is the time of year when we ask you to prayerfully consider how much you will be able to give to support our ministries in the coming year. As the Assistant Rector, my main area of responsibility is children, youth, and family ministries. Thanks to your generous financial support, I am able to help our young people grow in their faith and understanding of who they are, how they relate to others, and how they relate to God. With your support, I am able to offer opportunities for our young people to discover who they are and who God is, in a safe, supportive, and fun community. I ask for your generosity and for your partnership in sharing the Good News of God’s love and grace with our young people through your pledge. Of course, this is not the only ministry that your pledge supports, but it is most certainly one of the crucial ways that we are working together to learn and share about God’s grace in our lives and to sow God’s peace in our broken world. Amen.
