With the rector out of town, the youth minister took over the pulpit this weekend! Four services and youth group in between them… I completely respect the priests at St. Michael’s and everyone else who has to preach weekly! Here’s the text I used; I’ll post the audio as soon as it’s up on the CSMSG website.
May the Lord grant that my words are acceptable to Him, and useful to His people. Amen.
Growing up, the day I looked forward to most during the year was my birthday. Each year I came up with elaborate plans for what I would do personally on that day, dropped a steady stream of hints about what gifts and new privileges would be appropriate for me to receive, and planned out my birthday party near-obsessively.
One year I pushed my luck. What I didn’t realize was that the birthday is only important to the birthday child, until a week before when shopping needs to be done and the house needs to be cleaned and all the “maybes” on the invitation list need to be followed up.
Strictly as a piece of useful information related to the sermon, my birthday is this coming Thursday, the 13th of November. When I was about to turn 11, I started planning the party around the 3rd of June. On the 8th of June, tired of every conversation around the dinner table coming back to the party, my parents banned me, under threat of grounding, from mentioning “my birthday,” “my birthday party” or “what you should get me for my birthday” (and even any words that could be made with those individual letters) until October.
“Lots of things can change between June and November,” they told me. “It’s no good planning the party now; you’ll just have to plan it over again later.”
I was crushed. While mom and dad might explain that they already knew what kind of party I would end up with, and didn’t want to hear the same questions a dozen times a day for five months, I believed they simply didn’t know how to look far enough ahead.
In today’s Gospel lesson my eleventh birthday has finally been vindicated. Keep reading →
