Last month, I spoke about going to my 30th High School Reunion in San Diego. Well, I just got back from the reunion and am I sun burned!! The concluding event for the Reunion Weekend was a family picnic at a park on Mission Bay. I planned to be there for about an hour and it turned into four hours. I was not prepared for the length of stay and to say that I’m a bit sun burned is an understatement.

I actually found the reunion to be a very rich and full experience providing many moments to cherish and hold. There is much I would like to share and I will as I continue to reflect on friends and their lives 30 years later. But there are a few things I’d like to share with you now for your consideration.

As conversations about High School memories were shared, there was little to no comments about a “favorite” teacher or class. As one person stated, “I don’t remember the teachers. There wasn’t a one who gave me a lesson or a word that I could take with me and help shape my life. That is not to say that those words weren’t offered, perhaps they just weren’t heard. This honesty didn’t bring sadness or disappointment to those of us who carried this memory, it’s just the way it was at our school. For a few, they did carry fond memories of some teachers and it was good to hear those memories.

Where this is leading to is that we, as a community centered in passing faith on to the young people God has entrusted to us, we must take advantage of having young people in our presence. To share a “Hi” or to say, “It’s good to see you again”, is to show that you, and we as a church, are interested in their well being. And this doesn’t apply just to youth, but to all who worship with us. And yet, there is something about a word that can be given and received which can truly help shape the life of a young man or woman in our midst. We can not over look the importance of what God is doing among us. He is calling us to be evangelical and we are just that when we share a word, no matter how brief, with our youth and with all people. In sharing a brief word, we recognizing their existence, we give them a sense of being and a sense of hope.

It was interesting to note at the reunion that when our conversations evolved to a point in which it was made known that I am now a pastor, the faith stories came out. For many of those I spoke with, faith is a very large factor in shaping who they are today. For it is in faith that we all receive a hope that passes all understanding and a hope that the future can and will provide a sense of fullness and peace which comes to us in the Word and Sacrament of our Lord and Savior.

Let us all pass this hope with a word, especially when we gather at church, to be church and God’s people.

In Christ’s love and Service
Pastor Dan