Mystic Congregational Church, UCC

Mystic, Connecticut

Sermon from March 20, 2005

“You Are My God”

Rev. Thomas Ratmeyer

Scriptures:

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

Matthew 21:1-11

The Psalm that was read earlier begins with the words “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!”  In Youth Ministry, like at Silver Lake, and in some other settings of our denomination, we have rephrased that.  It goes like this:  “God is good, all the time; all the time, God is good!”  That is something I need you to say with me.  It’s a responsive saying.  I say, “God is good.”  You say, “All the time.”  Then I say, “All the time” and you say, “God is good.”  Let’s do that once more.

Hayley and Michael, Maddie and Chelsea, Jeremy and Martha, Andrea and Nick, James, Andrew and Emma, and then, Liz and Erin who we will confirm in a couple of weeks because they can’t be here today—welcome to the church.  Welcome to full membership in the family of faith. 

I’ve asked the congregation before at 8:00, and I will do it again.  How many of you use Instant Messaging?  Raise your hand.  The youth are having more hands than the adults here.  Instant Messaging is a computer software that allows you to communicate instantly rather than with e-mail.  When you download that, a little window pops up on your computer and you get a message.  Then you respond.  In the end, you have this trail of conversation in every little separate window popping up on your screen.  The magic is that you can have several conversations at the same time.  I’ve never seen you guys type as fast when you write reports as I see you type when you do Instant Messaging.  It’s almost a contact sport because you have to be so fast and not write the wrong message to the wrong person.

Well, there are four instant messages in the Psalm that are directed at you, and that I hope will pop up on the screen of your attention.  The first of the four, we’ve already practiced.  Let’s say it once more:  “God is good.”  “All the time.” (response by congregation)  “All the time.”  “God is good.” (response by congregation)

The second one says, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”  What that means is that God not only made this day, but what happened today is bigger than what Pat and I and you and the whole congregation are doing together.  What happens today is the work of the Holy Spirit.  We very much believe that the Holy Spirit is in this place and that, through the laying on of hands, the Holy Spirit is with you. 

So what did we do that God’s Spirit made happen?  This is the third instant message from the psalm.  It says, “We bless you from the house of the Lord.”  That is indeed what we are doing.  As your family of faith, we welcome you; we promise to support you; we open our doors and our hearts to you; and we bless you in the name of our God.

Our God.  That is our fourth message to you—the hope that our God may be your God.  The psalm says very powerfully, “You are my God.  I will give thanks to you.”  It’s not my God in the sense that it’s not anybody else’s God.  But it’s my God and your God in the sense that God knows you and me.  Our God, the God we have in common whether we are three days old or ninety-three years, this God knows you, and this God loves you, and says, “You are okay.  You are alright, just the way you are.”  So our invitation to you is to say to God, “You are our God.  You are my God.”

Now, let’s do a little reality check.  Every sermon needs a little reality check.  There are days when you don’t feel like God is good.  That’s true for all of us, by the way.  I firmly believe that there are days when you feel that there is not a single person who understands what’s going on in your life.  Certainly, not your parents. Certainly, not your pastor and those who are trying to teach you something.  Sometimes, maybe, not even your friends.  There are days when you feel nobody has any clue what it’s like to be you.  That’s also true for all of us. 

I think that, in some ways, you have it harder than the generations before you.  I also think you have more opportunities than any generation ever before you.  I firmly believe that within my lifetime and, especially, within your lifetime, a woman will be president of the United States, and a person of color will be president of the United States. 

Let’s talk about opportunities for a moment.  Your playground may not be the world, but, for many of you, it is certainly the world wide web; in other words, the internet. You have access to more information than any generation before you, but that makes life both easier and harder.  You have the task to figure out which of all the things that you find are true and which are fake; which ones you need and which ones are superfluous and superficial; and which are helpful and which are misleading.  We—the people who care about you and your well-being, your parents and those adults who feel responsibility for you—are still figuring out how to give you the access and the freedom and the resources that you need while, at the same time, protecting you from some of the risks and dangers of all that freedom and information.   

Let’s talk about another opportunity.  You guys communicate in more ways than any generation before you.  We’ve already talked about Instant Messaging as a contact sport.  Some of you have cellphones and, of course, there’s the phone at home.  There is nothing wrong with that.  But there is an element of stress that comes with getting this much communication.  Sometimes, you do a couple of communication on the computer while you are on the cellphone.  I can’t even handle call-waiting.  So, what I am trying to say is:  Give yourself a break sometimes and don’t let it stress you out. 

Just after I graduated from high school, my parents and I went for a vacation for several weeks in Eastern Germany.  Eastern Germany wasn’t that far along as it is now.  We were staying in this house that didn’t have a phone.  My girlfriend was vacationing in Portugal.  It took two weeks for her letter to get to me.  Can you imagine how long those two weeks were?  Today, we are surprised if an e-mail isn’t answered within the hour. 

Then, you are more intensely and thoroughly entertained than any generation before you.  There is nothing wrong with that either.  But it’s amazing how much we can do now.  You can now order the latest movie through cable TV with Pay-Per-View.  We download our music on the computer.  The part I like about that is that you don’t have to buy a full CD anymore—you can pick the songs you like and then make your own mix of music.  When I did youth ministry in Germany some fifteen years ago, the big debate, the everlasting debate between parents and kids, was whether the kids should wear their earphones and listen to their Walkman in the car.  Car rides had even then replaced the dinner table conversation at home as the most important regular opportunity to talk to each other, for parents to check in with their kids, and kids to talk to their parents.

Well, we were looking at a family station wagon the other day to replace the Jeep.  Chris was looking at the same car.  It comes with an option of a built-in DVD system with screens in the backs of the seats.  The DVD doubles as the game console.  So, the car debate of the future is not whether to wear headphones or not but will be whether the trip to soccer practice is long enough to start a movie or whether we should just play a couple of rounds of a video game.

So, I am glad every time I see you just simply hang out with a friend.  I am glad when I see you make scrapbooks or write letters, even to Ryan Cabrera, or when you simply just do nothing at all because there is a danger that you are more stressed than any generation before you.  Between school and sports and, maybe, music for some, life is competitive enough as it is.  I urge you to make sure to have some fun.

Finally, I want to talk a little bit about my own youth group experience because when I was your age, it was a lifesaver for me to have a once-a-week opportunity to be with friends and let it all hang out.  It was a life-saving time for me to be able to say how I really felt without any fear of rejection, without any fear of not looking good enough or not wearing the right clothes or not having the right grades or not being involved with the right people.  The point was that I could be myself and others would accept that.  All this happened with some awareness of God’s blessing.  That was a powerful experience.  I think, as much as you have an opportunity to communicate in all these different ways, nothing replaces to be in the same room with good friends. 

So, my hope is that you will look at youth group the same way that I did:  as one place where I’m accepted simply for who I am.  The most important thing:  you are never alone.  You will never be alone.  You have entered a faith family today that offers to love you unconditionally and you have affirmed your relationship with God today.

May you know, today and all days:

GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME.

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD.

Amen.