Jesus' YES: Mid-Week Reflection

EMILY RUTLEDGE, YOUTH MINISTER

We are entering one of my most dreaded times: college acceptance season. Each time my phone goes off and I see a high school senior’s name my stomach clenches and I am afraid to read what the message says. The excitement and heartbreak that comes with the YES or NO from a university is life altering. Within seconds dreams and imagined futures begin to come to fruition or quickly change. The worst part is; it’s arbitrary. I’m not saying that in a universities-don’t-know-what-they-are-doing way but in the reality that qualified and worthy students are being turned away from schools. It is not because students’ grades are not sufficient or their SAT scores are too low. It’s not their lack of extracurriculars or a horrible recommendation. A friend of mine who works in college admissions has told me how wide and deep the applicant pool is to draw from and that sometimes it is just luck.

In our culture of smarter, brighter, and better we are achieving at such high rates that the cream at the top is thick. Superb students are rejected from schools and as I comfort them I can’t help but think ‘who in the world did they pick over this kid?’ I am completely sure that I would not be accepted at my alma mater if I applied today. Praise God for the timing of my birth.

With the competition steep students are overscheduled and overworked and parents often wonder if it is worth the fight to get their kids to church. Their child is working their tail off at school and sports and with every other extra to help them rise up in this pool of super-achievers: does it really matter if they come to worship once a week (because, let’s be honest, that's definitly not getting you into college)?

Shouldn’t you let them sleep in if they want to? You can’t MAKE a child believe in God, you took them to church when they were little, you'll let them find their path just like you did. They say they don’t get much out of it. They don’t really like the other kids. It’s always a fight. You just don’t have the energy for it.

I have heard it all and it’s all true; it’s hard… and teenagers are hard, and tired, and it appears like they are getting nothing out of church sometimes.

Then there is this moment: There is an arbitrary decision by a university. A cut made by a coach. A social blow-up that excommunicates them from a group. A breakup with their first love. There is a devastating rejection. There is a glaring NO.

And then there is Jesus. Whose only answer is always, without a doubt, YES.

“Do not be afraid. For I have bought you and made you free. I have called you by name. You are mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they will not flow over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.” Isaiah 43:1-2

And that gift of YES is why we push for church. Why the fight matters. When you think they aren’t paying attention… they are. You know how smart they are, look at all the do! The yes comes from worship, from the surrounding community, from the Eucharist, from the liturgy. From the knowledge that no matter what; Jesus is the same and you are already accepted into the community of Christ.

The need for Jesus’ YES is universal and timeless. It’s as important at 16 as it is at 60.

Jesus’ YES is so much louder and sweeter than any NO we will ever hear.

Light: Mid-Week Reflection

THE REV. DAVID M. STODDART

Epiphany is the season of light: the light of God shining in Christ; the light of Christ shining in us; the light of Christ shining through us.

Wait a second. That sounds very exalted and saintly. You may not be feeling very exalted and saintly as you read this. But please keep reading and don’t click your mouse on another entry yet.

God shining through us is not about feelings. I watch parishioners give of themselves in so many ways, from hands-on acts of service to attending meetings. I imagine that often they are just doing what they’ve got to do, trying to get through the next thing on their schedule. Certainly I feel that way at times. If reflecting the love of God consisted in feeling loving or holy, we’d all fail on a regular basis.

But being channels of God’s light and love does not demand particular feelings: it calls for a gentle and continuing surrender to the grace of God wherever we are and whatever we’re doing. Whether we feel energized or tired, happy or depressed, God is in each moment and each circumstance of our lives, always seeking to work in us and through us for good. Faith involves remembering that and trusting that. I may not “feel” it when I sit in a Finance Committee meeting or visit a sick parishioner at the end of a long day, but it is nonetheless true. And I have found over the years that surrendering myself to the demands of the moment, whatever they may be, knowing that God is always working, leads to peace.

And it also produces results. One of the joys of my vocation is seeing other people make a difference, often in ways they don’t realize. I watch God shine through parishioners as they care for each other and engage in very ordinary acts of ministry. I listen to them as they share with me how someone else made their day or touched their lives. The Spirit is indeed always moving. Imagine if all of us embraced that and lived each moment knowing that Christ is living in us and being revealed through us. Imagine it. God certainly does.

This is why the blessing we use during the season of Epiphany is my favorite blessing of the year: “May Christ, the Son of God, be manifest in you, that your lives may be a light to the world.”

Yes. So be it.