[Magdalen] Youth Sunday

[Jay Weigel]

Today was the second of two Youth Sundays the Lutheran Church I attend
celebrates during the year. On both, the service is planned and delivered
by the youth group except for the obvious pastoral duties (i.e. the
consecration of elements primarily). I've really become aware of what an
outstanding bunch of kids this congregation has since I've been attending.
Today's service honored the five graduating seniors, and one feature was a
short speech by each one, dubbed a "senior sermon". All five had grown up
in the congregation, most had been baptized in this church, and they all
talked about what the church and the congregation meant to them, but after
that things diverged a bit. One girl wasn't able to be there; she broke her
foot last fall and has had a series of problems and setbacks with it since,
with another this past week, so another girl read her speech, which was
about plans and how they change but God doesn't. The others kind of
followed a pattern of "where I've come from and what happens next and how
much you all mean to me"...except for one. There is one boy I've noticed
all year, a great big kid who I don't think goes to the same high school as
the rest of them. He's funny and kind of a mover and shaker in the group
and a real jokester. His talk was the most eloquent of all....and he's the
one in the group who isn't going to college. He plans to finish his classes
at the local technical school, which he's been taking along with his high
school classes, and farm with his dad. He has grown up on a farm and has
always wanted to be a farmer, and you could tell by the way he spoke that
he has a real tie to the land. He ended with a poem that he attributed to
Paul Harvey, "On the Eighth Day God Made a Farmer." (I don't know if Harvey
actually wrote it, but I remember hearing it.) You kind of got the feeling
everyone in the congregation wanted to applaud, but.....they're Lutherans,
as Garrison Keillor would say. His grandmother was sitting down the row
from me, however, and she was crying. I was very moved. It's nice to know
there are kids like him.