Jeff Curtis

The Church of the Good Shepherd

First Sunday after Pentecost: Trinity Sunday

Youth Sunday, May 22, 2005, Year A

 

            When I was asked to give the sermon for today my first reaction was that there is no way that I would ever allow myself not to do it, but the more I thought about it the more I realized how afraid I was and how I had no idea what I was going to say. The first part of my life I didn’t care that I didn’t know anything. Then as I got older I began to assume that I knew everything.  But recently I am just beginning to realize that there is so much in this world that I don’t understand and can’t explain.  The idea of giving a sermon to a group of people who probably have things figured out better than me, to help explain things and make them understand things, is absolutely frightening. But for some reason that I don’t understand, my first thought remained, I would never allow myself not to do this, and to prove it to you here I am ready to go.

            Part of the reason I believe that people my age are filled with so much confusion is that we loose sight of the purpose and how to fulfill it. As a junior in high school who in a very short amount of time will be a senior who is going to graduate, I am constantly bombarded with questions that basically ask, “What are you going to do with your life?” But unfortunately, I don’t know the answer to that question. All I know is that the purpose of my life is to love and serve God.  I’m just not sure how I’m going to fulfill it.

            People are always telling me that I need to get good grades to get into a good college so I can get a good job in order to have a healthy financially successful life.  Although I don’t think that there is anything wrong with this I can’t help wondering whether or not this really matters and when it is detached from the purpose of life, I am sure that it doesn’t. Having financial success and good grades does not interfere with being a Christian, but often in high school the emphasis of which is more important is distorted. So I am still left wondering how am I supposed fulfill God’s purpose for me.

            The gospel today, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20) reaffirms His purpose. The problem is how I am going to fulfill this commandment in my daily life. Evangelizing to people my age is a puzzle that is extremely difficult to solve. As I go through my day every now and then I’ll come across a discussion, but in the typical high school philosophical discussion, it is never truly an open discussion. It is filled with a group of individuals who wish to remain as individuals. Some people are Christians, some people aren’t, and some people don’t care, but inevitably no one listens to one another.

            In a typical discussion, each person will have his or her own system of belief and will be engaged in a power struggle to change everyone’s beliefs around them to his or her own. I’ve been in discussions like this. I go up to my atheist friend and I ask him why he doesn’t believe in Jesus. We begin this long argument and I lose track of what I am talking about. I then realize that although I’m talking about Jesus that I’ve forgotten about Jesus completely and am focusing my thoughts on myself and winning the argument. The purpose of the discussion is no longer about love of God and my neighbor, but about gaining respect and superiority over my friend. In the end I come to a point where I don’t know what I’m talking about anymore and the argument has lost its point.

             I have never done this more than a few times because I could never think of the right thing to say at the right times. I don’t do this at all now because I am still figuring out how to do this while eliminating my thoughts of a personal  victory. I can’t argue someone into believing because I’m not any good at arguing and the whole idea of dominating an opponent solely for the sake of winning is wrong when put in a Christian context. I now know that there is so much that I cannot explain and all I can do is say what I do know for sure, which is that in my life I have been places and seen things where I undeniably felt the presence of God and I can live my life as an example whereby people might be convinced to believe by my actions.

            The things in my life that have helped me most with keeping my faith are camping, parents, and the community of Christians that has surrounded me my whole life. When I go outside and am in the woods this is the place I feel most open to God. My parents have always been a great deal of help to me with my faith. They have raised me as a Christian. They have put me in a community where I have been surrounded by Christians and because of this I have been able to learn how to live an appropriate lifestyle as a servant of God.