A Youth Sunday Reflection

Here, we just call it Sunday!

There is an old Simpsons episode where they go to Brazil to find an orphan child that the family had sponsored who has gone missing. Homer gets kidnapped and in an effort to escape tells his kidnappers that he has to stop because “I have a bladder the size of a Brazil nut!”

His kidnapper replies, “eh, we just call them nuts here.”

I love this because it reminds us that sometimes it is our perspective that needs to change.

I am really glad we are doing youth Sunday on the second Sunday of every month this year. It is a joy to see kids more involved in worship and in the life of the Church. This started way back when we, in the middle of the service(!!), pulled the prayground out of the historical chapel and moved it and the children into the front of the church and a place of prominence in our common life.

But I would be gladder still if every Sunday felt like youth Sunday - that is if every Sunday gave the sense of youthful exuberance, expectation and excitement. It is often said that Children are not the future of the Church they ARE the Church, Today. But we often don’t allow that to be true - both because of impediments that the Church as an institution puts in place, and in our own (and I say this as a parent) difficulty in getting our kids to Church every Sunday.

Let’s face it. Our parents were much more religious about religion than we are (sorry about the pun)

Perhaps it is the three years of pandemic worship that got us out of the practice, perhaps it is the need for one day, or one part of the day, with no commitments, perhaps we don’t find anything particularly useful in the worship.

Whatever it is for you, I encourage you to see if, just for the fall, you can make a commitment to try and be in Church every Sunday. If we offer our children the same consistency of worship and access to the divine provided to us, perhaps they will develop the same ingrained patterns of worship, service and devotion that bring us to God’s table today.

I’m looking forward to worshipping with all of you Sunday (especially the kids) get ready for many more Simpsons references to come!