A few times a year, the youth of Pasadena Mennonite Church take the reins and plan and lead the Sunday service, from the Welcome and Announcements through Worship in word and song. Here are shared two snippets of the service on November 11th: sermons given by Liza Platonov titled “Fear Itself,” and by Jadyn Tipton titled “The God that says I Can and the Voice that says I Can’t.”
The youth group together chose the theme of fear, and the scripture passages Phillipians 4: 4-7 and 2 Timothy 1:7-12.
Liza defines fear, and her thoughts about how that definition fits the idea of fear of God. She references 2 Timothy 1, and talks about how fear shouldn’t be about shame. It can be closer to respect. It includes wonder, love, curiousity, trust, courage, and calmness. Terror acknowledges that God is real and in control. It’s rational and realistic. Guilt is more about how God sees us: our fear of how God sees our actions and the actions of others. She concludes with the thought that fear of God is not something to be avoided but embraced, allowing us to have a stronger connection with God.
Jadyn begins by referencing an early impression of God based on Veggie Tales’ Jonah and the Whale, and the impression it left her of a booming voice in the sky that she really wasn’t sure she wanted to converse with — given the possibility of punishment for failure. She describes this fear as being somewhat justified in light of God’s power. But she hones in on the idea that what humans really fear is how unknown God is. We as humans hate being clueless, we try to know everything, we like to be in control. But when it comes to God, we are not in control, and so we grow fearful. Yet the passage in Timothy tells us that God is the one who saved and called us with a holy calling — and uses power to fiercely love and protect us. Jadyn tells us about her own feelings of being small in a big world that is constantly and rapidly moving. She talks about the problems of the world and it’s future — those of our country, our planet — problems seemingly unsolvable. Added to this are the fears involved with being a woman in contemporary culture. In spite of the knowledge of God’s presence, it’s difficult to keep faith in light of these things. She references the Philippians passage and it’s exhortation against being anxious. She says that moving forward into the future means moving into the unknown — and into change. She references Timothy and the spirit given by God that is powerful, loving, and self-controlled — and contrasts that to the spirit we place in ourselves that is timid, imperfect and clumsy. Yet these spirits intermingle and work together: to be powerful, we must be clumsy; to be loving, we must be timid; to be self-controlled, we must be imperfect. We must own our anxieties, face them, and discuss them with God, while also remembering to give thanks: for through remembering the things we possess, we reconcile the things we do not. Through all, God continues to protect and to love us.
We at PMC are grateful for the wisdom of our youth who will lead the way into the future.
Hear Liza in more detail here:
Hear Jadyn in more detail here:
Image: Woman in Boat © 2010 Carol Aust | Eyekons
Pasadena Mennonite Church 