Hello St. Matthew’s! By the time you read this, I will have been in New Orleans at the national Youth Gathering for a few days already. I’m writing this the day before I leave… at 3:00 a.m.! Please keep all of us in your prayers. The last Youth Gathering got canceled because of the pandemic, so it has been a few years since the church put one on. I don’t know what to expect—but I’m sure it’ll be awesome for all of us. It’s not every day you get to gather and worship and celebrate your faith with 16,000 other people! This year’s theme is: CREATED TO BE.

“We have been created to be ourselves. Created by the Holy One. Since the last time the ELCA came together for an ELCA Youth Gathering, our young people have experienced several major life events. Still today, we are experiencing an ongoing public health crisis mixed with an economic and political crisis. However, we can rest assured that we are created to be in relationship with one another. We are created to be BRAVE, to show up with an open mind and heart, willing to be challenged. We are created to be AUTHENTIC, to bring our whole selves and know that we are loved by our Creator. We are created to be FREE, to be transformed by the gospel. We are created to be DISRUPTIVE, to work for justice for all our siblings. We are created to be DISCIPLES, to be sent out into the world to love our neighbor just as we are loved by God.”

There’s some deep stuff there. And all of it applies to us as adults as well, not just youth. There’s a lot of the Gospel in there too. “Willing to be challenged”—bravery includes vulnerability. We don’t hear that often and yet that is also what it means to be a disciple—called to take up our crosses. That frees us from conformity to the “world” and makes us disruptive. All of this flowing from the relationship we have been created to have in God through Christ.

Peace,
Pr. Christian