YOUTH SUNDAY SERMONS

Psalm 139; I Corinthians 12:12-26, 42-50; John 4:21-25, 39-42

SOCCER SERMON
by Nick Yepes

I have a story to tell you about a time in my life when I realized the value of what can happen when a group of people work as a team.

Last summer, my soccer team was competing in the semifinals of a tournament, in Hopewell New Jersey. Our opponent was a team of faster, stronger, and more experienced players than us. Not only did they have this physical advantage, but also they spoke a language that my team couldn't understand. My team, on the other hand, consisted of mostly English speakers and was limited in numbers due to sickness and injuries.

All in all we had nearly every disadvantage possible and started the game with eleven players. These were all the players we had that day and we were hopeful for good health. At this point your thinking so did you're team win or what happened? The answer is that for the first half hour we kept them scoreless and the game was tied 0-0 for quite some time.

This was an impressive feat because we had no substitutes and the team we were playing was the defending state champions.

However, about midway through the game our sweeper took a hard hit and was out for the rest of the game.

For those of you who are not soccer fans, the sweeper a position in soccer that is located in the center back of the formation just behind the fullbacks, although he is allowed to roam. His job is to cover the space between the fullbacks and the goalkeeper and to stop "'breakaways"' and "'sweep up"' the ball or kick long "'through balls"' out of bounds so the defense has time to recover. Using a sweeper increases your "'depth"' and field coverage and therefore allows your fullbacks to push up to support your attack. This position does not really get a lot of glory compared to other positions like strikers, because the strikers are the ones who score goals.

Anyway, following this misfortune, our opponent began scoring rapidly and then our game fell apart. The player that my friend was guarding broke past our defending line, with out the sweeper there to stop him and then scored a magnificent goal. He shot from more than 30 yards out, the ball rose up in the air and swerved into the top right corner of the goal.

This experience showed me what working as a team can do and that every member of the team counts no matter how big or small their role is.

Also, I learned that every position in soccer really had its own importance and how the rest of my team had depended on our sweeper. In addition, I also recognized the value of each and every player on the team. Even though we lost this game many lessons were gained from it.

This story's principals are not limited to my life experiences. In the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter12, talks about how the body is made of many parts and needs each and everyone to function. It says if every part were the eyes then how would it hear? The body functions in many parts all united in Christ. This is just like my soccer team united in a common goal, to win the game.

As much as this passage is about unity, it also tells us about the members of the body who are weak, less honorED, and treated with disrespect. These members are actually indispensable and should be treated with both great respect and honor. Our sweeper certainly got much respect after he recovered from his injury.

This theme of teamwork, unity, and respect that is displayed through my soccer story and this passage in the Bible can also be connected to today. For example, how could we have this youth service without Rich's leadership? Would you be welcomed if Carrie didn't welcome you? How would you know what hymns to sing if Jeanne, Lori, and Ruth didn't make the church bulletin.

The point is: if you are in a group, all members must work together, show each other respect, and understand that each person's contribution is valuable.

March 22, 2009
Nick Yepes

YOUTH SUNDAY SERMON
by Alex Palmer

I take a SAT prep class every Saturday from 9-12 and one of the first sections we covered was how to write the dreaded essay. One of the first things our instructor told us was not how to write the essay and do well, but actually what not to write about. She told us all the normal cliches were just out of the question, but one boy asked her to define the normal ones and the first thing she said was, "well avoid the dead grandma spiel." And personally, I was kind of offended and confused. Why wouldn't colleges want to hear how someone inspired you to become more than you thought you could be? Isn't change and conversion of a set of principles supposed to be what happens in college? I'd think that the dead grandma essay would be one everyone would want to hear. As it turns out, when I said this to my instructor she just told me to just not do it and write about something more important like global warming and its impact or some obscure sonnet by Shakespeare. But since I probably won't get into college with an essay like the one I want, I've decided to write it for here.

Now I know it's cliche but please bear with me. My grandmother's name was Jane Edmunds and she was actually a member of this church. She always sat on the left hand side of the middle section right underneath the overhang. She said she could hear the choir the best from this spot. She was also a woman of many sayings such as, "You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar." Or "It's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice." Finally, and my personal favorite, was "Your supercilious explanation is indubitably incomprehensible." Yeah, that one took me a while of looking in the dictionary to understand. But my grandmother was more than a few catchy sayings, she was also a good person and through that inspired me to be a better one.

Just as in the story of the Woman of Samaria my grandmother took a person who was lost and turned them into the found. In the story Jesus meets a woman, who doesn't exactly realize that he's the Son of God but after some persuasion, such as telling her that the water he asked from her was nothing compared to the water of eternal life that he would give in return, she quickly became a convert. Now, I'm not going to say that my grandmother was my own personal Jesus because I'm fairly certain that that falls under the category of blasphemy. But she was pretty close. She never preached and was never judgmental about my decisions, she merely led through example and that turned out to be the greatest leadership of all. And I believe that is how Jesus inspired many people.

When I first starting going to the church for the Confirmation program I was skeptical because I had never really been exposed to the world of our church before. Yet, I continued to go week after week to become a member. The night before my official confirmation ceremony took place I had a talk to with my grandmother about faith and what it means to really be a Christian. She told me it was more common sense than anything else. Mostly do unto others as you would have them do unto you and to have faith in God even in the hardest times. She promised that if I followed those simple rules I would be all set. Pretty much, I didn't believe her. I thought there has to be something more I have to do. I should fast or pray every hour on the hour, but she assured me that faith in God would put me on the right path and lead me to happiness.

Now that I am a junior in high school and have been an active member of our youth group since my conformation I can look back on her words and realize they were right. And after doing some research for this sermon and stumbling upon the Woman of Samaria story I made a great analogy. I realized that I was like woman of Samaria and that my Grandmother was like Jesus. She, like Jesus, led me to the church, made me a believer in the simplicity of my own personal faith, and showed me that all I needed to do was to simply believe in the fruits of God. I feel certain that after the Woman of Samaria's conversation with Jesus she was changed forever and spread his word to others. And now, although my SAT teacher would be appalled, I feel changed by my grandmother's love and wisdom and am thankful that I finally got to spread it.

Alex Palmer
March 22, 2009

 

THE ISLANDERS
by Anthony Long

How is everyone today? Are we all enjoying each other's company? I'd like to think we are since we all came out today to celebrate together. If we didn't want to gather together, we probably wouldn't be here today, shaking hands, smiling. The thing is that we are charged as Christians to seek fellowship with other Christians, hence why we gather here in this nice building every Sunday. Most of the time, we gather even more often. I mean, yeah the coffee and sweets after worship are nice, but there's gotta be more to all this; like the individual relationship we continue to develop. However, the world is a great deal bigger than one person trying to be an island of prayer. If anything, we are more like an archipelago, a big community of islands, just like a congregation of people. And like these closely knit islands, there may be bridges connecting them, bit by bit, until it looks like a big web, a network of interrelation.

It's this web of contact that makes us who we are. The only reason I bring this up is because sometimes during Lent, some people make a habit of going into their own desert, and suffering alone with it, like Christ did while he wandered and thought. That is one aspect of Christ's life that we don't have to replicate though. Yes, we try to use this opportunity to take the time and do something difficult, whether it is trying to rid ourselves of a particular vice, or develop a particular virtue. However, we are all God's people, and we all need a little help in our development towards success, whatever that success may be. Without parsing words, maybe we should take this time to look within ourselves and see whatever it is we might want to change, or improve for that matter, (pause) but it is also a time to look around and see who might need a little help.

It always seems like some youth gets up on the pulpit and tells a story about how they have been affected by some greater force and shown the light as to how they can develop into better people. My point is this; this institution isn't about just one person. Okay well,...yeah, it is in the sense that we accept Christ as our savior and live because of his sacrifice, but there is no reason we need not all gain strength together. The point is: it's about we not me. I'm who I am for a number of reasons and you can ask me about them later, but that isn't the point of this sermon. I'm saying all this because the world is a better place if we work it together. Like the passage from First Corinthians had stated, "We are all of one Body." We are all of the body of Christ. We all have our own strengths and our own contributions to make, none more valuable than any other. And it is through making the most of life, carpe diem if you will, that we truly know the spirit of this faith.

Take a look at Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. What did he do, besides annoy anyone who tried to decipher the text? All he ever seemed to do was ponder and wait for fate to turn his way. He didn't right the wrongs he was supernaturally sent to fix. What happened to him? He's as dead as Yorick, while another man takes over his kingdom. Don't be like Hamlet, selfishly reflective and immobile as a stone, helping nobody. Psalm 139, which was recited earlier, tells a story that some people would sit around and wait for their time to die, so that they could move-on to heaven. These people are what we call "impatient." Everyone is going to die, but if we just wait our lives away, what's the point of having lives? We should never be like the people in that message, waiting idly for the omega to come and show us the error of our ways. And, it doesn't take divine intervention for someone to make a change, just a little care. It's little things, listening to someone with a story to tell, offering a few kind words when they are needed, offering a bit of food to someone hungry or holding back an expletive whenever we get just a little too annoyed. Believe me; I'm talking about mission work, the little things in the everyday--not the grand spectacles of how we can help others. Not that large-scale mission work is not a valuable volunteer activity; I'm sure the church we've been helping in Haiti would agree that it is. I'm just saying it is possible to give a little offering of kindness--which may ultimately make all the difference--without having to do anything too outrageous. Everyone benefits from helping others, even the helper, everyone being part of one body with many parts all fitting together to help one another.

I realize that I have basically just said every stereotypical "make the world a better place" thing. I mean it though; I sincerely believe that we could all benefit from turning our personal growth into communal growth. Reaching out and helping each other is the cornerstone of our faith after all. All I'm asking is that every person in this congregation takes a moment and not only thinks about how they want to improve themselves, but how they want to contribute to the community. Everyone has a role and worth in the community, but the end product of all those pieces is worth so much more than the sum of its parts.

March 22, 2009
Anthony Long

 

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