On Friday night at stopped at Arby’s and made sure to embarrass one of our youth by singing happy birthday to her in the restaurant. We got to the camp, played some games, sang some worship songs, and hung out by the fireplace.

On Saturday we started off the day with breakfast and a couple of lessons. Our theme for the weekend was the Ten Commandments. We talked about how they are about community: community with God and community with others. We ate lunch and had some free time. Basketball and football were popular choices, as were simply walking and talking with one another. In the afternoon we went on a low elements challenge course which encouraged our teamwork amongst our youth as they solved problems to help them reach their goal. In the evening we ate dinner together, had our third lesson on the Ten Commandments, and played a game of Sardines. We ended the night by hanging out by a bonfire and eating s’mores.

On Sunday morning Pastor Emily led us in worship. We cleaned up our building (not an easy task given the muddy conditions on Sunday morning) and headed home. We had a great weekend and I believe that all of our youth who attended would want to attend again!

Everyone had a piece of paper taped on his or her back and everyone got a marker. Each person was tasked with writing something positive about each person on their piece of paper. It wasn’t hard to think of something positive for each person in this wonderful group. We then had a discussion on encouraging one another based on 1 Thessalonians 5:11, and how when we encourage one another we are living in Christ. We ended the night by eating brownies.  What a great night!

Linda Carter
Amy Jacob
Jogie Miles
Shelley Mobley
Gretchen Payne
Pastor Peter
Sue Schwartz
Betsy Wenzel–our winner!
Kimberly Zimmermann

The cost to eat soup is $5.00. This comes with 5 voting tickets, and additional voting tickets may be purchased 2 for $1.00. (Larger donations may also be made.) Join us in the Fellowship Hall at the conclusion of the 10:30 am worship service!

We will have more Cross-Generational Events in the future, and we hope that all of our families will make it.

Our next youth event is the Souper Bowl of Caring which takes place this Sunday after the 10:30 service. More information will be posted here later this week.

Below is a condensed version of the 2012 Youth Ministry Plan, including the values we seek to exhibit and the goals we hope to achieve. This plan was created with input from our youth, our Youth Committee, and the Executive Committee. I would be happy to talk with anyone in our congregation about how we can best fulfill our goals. It is my hope that this plan, when acted out, will serve as a strong foundation to many years of fruitful youth ministry in our congregation.

Blessings,
Alex English, Director of Youth Ministry

Values: Christ-Centered; Mission & Outreach; Hospitality & Inclusivity; Cross-Generational Ministry. Values that our high school youth have identified as important to live by: Love & Trust; Faith & Christ-Centeredness; Respecting boundaries (physical and emotional); Encouragement; Integrity.

Goal #1: Nurture Vibrant Faith for St. Mark’s youth members and their families
-Hold cross-generational events that are open to youth and their families, which seek to encourage family prayer and faith conversations to take place in the home.
-Provide opportunities for training parents how to be better-faith shapers with their children.

Goal #2: Empower Leaders to act as co-youth ministers who work alongside our Director of Youth Ministry.
-Provide a clear and compelling vision for leaders to embrace.
-Continually identify “next steps” that help bring our vision to fruition.
-Continually recruit members who would like to volunteer their time and talents with the youth.
-Develop ministry descriptions for specific roles within Youth Ministry leaders.
-Create a “Mentor” Team which has the purpose of empower its members to having appropriate and meaningful mentor relationships with youth.
-Support our leaders and provide ongoing leadership training.

Goal #3: Provide space for youth to have ownership over the youth group.
-Consistently allow the youth the opportunity to evaluate our activities so that we might continually improve our programs and ministry opportunities.
-Empower youth to choose the values to which they will adhere.
-As often is appropriate and natural, empower youth to help choose and plan the events and activities in which we engage.

In the coming weeks and months you will read and hear references to the 2012 Youth Ministry Plan.  We will work hard to realize these goals, and in turn, to realize the vision that God has for our youth.

Our youth enjoyed a pizza dinner, dodgeball, basketball, volleyball, and a game of “manhunt” which is like group hide-and-seek. We also enjoyed singing worship songs, taking holy communion together, and listening to a great message from St. Luke’s Director of Youth and Family Ministry Jake Dolan about taking responsibility for our faith life. Our youth had a wonderful time and we are really looking forward to attending the Confirmation Retreat in February!!

Image via Wikipedia

This past week, newscasters seem to have been preoccupied – rightly so – by the terrible event of that overturned cruise ship off the coast of Italy.  As the week progressed, the story intensified with the report that the captain seems to have abandoned the ship before all the passengers were rescued.  As captain, he was responsible for the safety of his passengers.  They should have been his top priority.  The captain goes down with the ship, right?  And yet, he abandoned ship.  And, I think we could all agree, that it was the wrong thing to do in this situation.

What struck me about this story was the mood that surrounded it.  People – survivors, news anchors, fellow seafarers – are angry at this man.  And it makes sense.  If any one of us had been on that ship as it sank into the waters of the Mediterranean, only to find that our captain had abandoned us, we would have been equally livid.

The other thing that struck me about this story, though, was how much this anger has led and leads to the desire for retribution.  People want this captain to pay for what he did, you know, make up for his errors, be punished for his mistakes.  It’s that eye-for-an-eye mentality.  We want justice to be served.  No, not justice.  Retribution. We want retribution to be served.  Wouldn’t the world just love to see this man put on trial, found guilty, and sentenced for his crime?

And this is only one example of many situations in which we want justice to be served.  Casey Anthony, Jon Benet Ramsey, O.J. Simpson;
these were all high profile cases in which the world held its collective breath, waiting – longing – for retribution. But this feeling – this desire for some sort of vengeance – doesn’t only apply to high-profile criminal cases.  It’s a feeling that comes much closer to home when we think of the grudges, the desires for revenge,  the longings for retribution that exist in our own families and relationships.  When someone has done something bad to us, we want that person to pay.  Because if they don’t, it’s simply not fair.

And this is what Jonah was feeling that day God called him to proclaim destruction to the powerhouse city of Ninevah, the capital of Assyria.  In 722, Assyria had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and began a reign of terror over Israel.  Assyria was Israel’s enemy, and because of
that, Israel, including Jonah, wanted to get even.  Israel wanted them to get what they deserved.  And what they deserved, in Jonah’s eyes, was retribution.

And as we settle in to our first reading today, we find that for a brief moment, that’s what God wants as well.  So God sends Jonah to the city to proclaim Ninevah’s destruction.  Jonah’s prophecy is so short – so short he could have posted it on Twitter. In a mere 50 characters, he proclaims, “Forty days more, and Ninevah shall be overthrown!”  But here’s the thing.  Although short, this prophecy is long enough – substantive enough – to cause a change in the hearts of the Ninevites.  Suddenly, they realize the wrong they have done, and out of compassion, God decides not, after all, to destroy the city.  When God sees the sorrow of the Ninevites, God changes that divine mind and God’s mercy,
once again, prevails.

But Jonah can’t stand it.  Jonah’s been holding a grudge against these terrible people for way too long.  The fact that God would forgive this sinful city, that God would show mercy on Israel’s enemies, irks Jonah to his very core.  And feelings of anger and resentment begin to intensify inside of him – anger at the Ninevites, anger at God, anger at the very notion of mercy.  God’s mercy offends him.

Now, that statement sounds crazy.  How could God’s mercy be offensive?  And yet, if we’re truly honest with ourselves, and if we search our own hearts, and if we recall the times we’ve been hurt by other people, we know that God’s mercy, at times, offends us as well.  Like Jonah, we long for retribution.  We long to get even.  We cling to the notion of vengeance while we hate the idea of mercy, especially when it has to do with
our enemies.  For some Christians, this takes the shape of proclaiming God’s judgment on other Christians that don’t worship like they do, that don’t take the same political stances that they do.  And, I don’t care where you fall on the political spectrum.  There’s nothing like a presidential election year and all the mudslinging that comes with it to reveal the extent of how angry we become with and at each other.  The “left” is always judging the “right”; the “right” is always judging the “left.”

But why?  Why is it that we cling to anger, retribution, grudges, and revenge?  Is it because it makes us feel better about ourselves?  Is it because we think we’ve gotten what we deserve, so it only follows that others should get what they deserve?  Is it because, at our core, we’re really
unhappy, insecure, fragile, human beings?  I would say it’s all of the above.

Now, I’m not criticizing the emotion of anger.  It’s a very appropiate anger in certain situations.  But when we start carrying this emotion around
in our beings, the desire for revenge and retribution starts eating away at us.  It starts turning us into something we weren’t meant to be, just as rust erodes iron.  It hardens our hearts.  It makes us put up protective fences around ourselves. It makes us skeptical of kindness, goodness, and mercy.  It makes it hard – almost impossible, sometimes – to love and be loved.

But what we get in today’s Gospel reading is a gracious and radical invitation to an alternative way of living.  You know how the story goes.  Jesus goes down the lakeshore where Simon and Andrew, and then James and John, are fishing.  Fishing represented a common occupation in the first century.  It was the only life these four men knew.  It represents the “old way” of life.  But Jesus invites them to drop their nets, the symbol of this old way of living, and to follow him into a way of living that will actually give them life.

For some of us, anger and the desire for retribution are common emotions.  And I’m convinced that all of us encounter these emotions from time to time.   They are engrained in our human nature.  But imagine, if you can, what it would be like, to lay aside this need to get even, like those disciples laid aside their fishing nets, and to follow Jesus?  What would it be like to live a life not concerned with who gets what they deserve
when?  What would it be like to loosen our grip on the things that box us in, on the things that hinder us from being the people God means for us to be?  Because this is the kind of life into which Jesus invites us.  He calls us to lay aside our former ways and to follow him into a life of love and mercy.  Instead of living a life that will eat us alive, Jesus calls us to love and be loved, to receive and practice grace and mercy.

And this is the time and place every week to do this.  Here we remind ourselves of this.  This is where we lay down our old way of living, the way that doesn’t really bring us life.  This is when hear again and again Jesus’ call to new life.

We’re still going to want justice to be served, and that’s normal.  We’re still going to want people to get what they deserve, to stand trial for their crimes, and that’s normal.  We’re still going to become angry when we’ve been wronged, and that, too, is normal.

But when the tables are turned and it’s we who want the mercy, we’re going to be glad – no, not glad, ecstatic! – that God chooses to show mercy on those we think deserve it the least.  And that fact frees us to find life in our living.

Thanks be to God.  Amen.

You can learn more about the awesome work of the Charlotte Rescue Mission at http://charlotterescuemission.org/