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The Rev. Frank
Logue
Generationally Challenged “Teen” is a four-letter word. Ok that sentence didn’t work as well as I wanted it to because the word teen does actually have four letters. It would probably work better to say “teenager” is a four-letter word, so that you understand what I mean. The word is used like it is dirty. I was sensitized to this in seminary, by my classmate Vinnie who had teenage boys. She had discovered all the negative ways people used teen, as if a teenager was a bad thing to have and the really good parents had children who passed from 12 to 20 overnight, skipping those bad teen years. It is true, and those of us who have passed through our teens already know from experience that the transition from child to adult which begins in earnest in our teens is not a seamless transition. But this does not make teens bad. It just means that those years can be tricky for parents and their teenage children to navigate. Separate from raising my own daughter, who is well into her teenage years at 14, I have worked a fair amount with teens in the Diocese of Georgia. Through the summer camp program and retreat weekends, I have spent just shy of two full months of 24-hour ministry with teens in the Diocese. Often this has come in concentrated time with 10 day summer camp sessions and 3-day weekends of spending all our time together. And I have been blessed by the wisdom and insight the teens bring to their faith.
I bring this up today as this is the day in the church year when we hear the Magnificat, the beautiful song praising God written by an unwed teenage girl. So today is a day for acknowledging the voices we are not hearing. There is no doubt that Jesus’ mother Mary was a unique and special girl, but we need not elevate her so high above all others that we fail to realize that the love of God she had and expressed so well is found in others as well. There is much that could be said about the Song of Mary, but I want to concentrate on one line. The mother of our Lord sings “He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation.” Let’s look first at fear and then we’ll return very briefly to every generation. Fear of God is a foundational concept in the Old Testament. Through the Hebrew scripture we are told of this fear. Abraham is told in Genesis, “Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Genesis 22:12 When Moses needs to share the leadership of Israel, he is advised by his father-in-law, “You shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens.” Exodus 18:21 There are dozens of other verses which tell of the fear of God, especially in Deuteronomy, the Psalms and Proverbs. Here is a selection of those verses on fear:
This good and godly fear extolled in these verses is not the sort of fear we usually discuss. Fear, as we usually mean it, is revealed to not be of God with scripture including 2 Timothy 1:7 which says, “God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind.” We also learn that part of Jesus’ ministry on earth was to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” Many teachers are quick to point out that the word “fear” as Mary means it in the Magnificat means “reverence” and “awe.” So the verse could equally read “He has mercy on those who reverence him in every generation.” Yet, we should not be so quick to understand the biblical teaching of fearing God as having nothing to do with actual fear. To truly encounter God in a powerful way brings with it a clearer understanding of who God is. Feeling something of the full measure of God’s power will awaken within us real fear, as well as reverence, and awe. This is an appropriate response to God. This sense of fear and trembling in encountering the divine is handled well by C.S. Lewis in his book “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” When the four children hear of the Jesus-character, the lion Aslan, his very name causes a strong reaction within them. The idea of meeting this great lion causes the youngest, Lucy, to ask if Aslan is safe. The reply is “‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.” The same applies to God. Ellen Davis, in her book “Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs” notes that we can see what happens when someone encounters God and does not have that fear of the Lord. The story of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt tells of how the Pharaoh hardened his heart. Moses says in Exodus 9:30, “I know that you still do not fear the Lord God as you should.” Pharaoh encountered the mighty power of God and still was so unfeeling that he did not have the sense to fear God. There was no mercy for the Pharaoh. But Mary tells how God shows mercy to those who have the proper fear, reverence, respect, awe for God. And Mary says this is true in every generation. I began talking about teens, in part to make a point about teenagers, but mostly because Mary was herself a teen when she first sang these words. She was a voice of a new generation. As a church, we should be open to both teaching the fear of God to each generation and to hearing those in every generation. At King of Peace, we are not generationally challenged. Instead, we are blessed each week as we join our voices in worship that our ages span well from birth through the mid-80s. Though, we probably err on the side of offering things for young children and teens rather than, say to seniors. The challenge is to find balance so that every generation has equal opportunity to learn and equal chance to be heard. Meeting this challenge of the generations is not a task for me alone. I do try to discern where God is leading us as a church, but the task of finding ways to gather is not for me alone. I challenge each of you to think of ways in which new small groups, and other new opportunities could help make sure that we teach a fear, respect, reverence of God to each generation, and are open to the ministry of every generation as well. For he has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. Amen. |
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Being a teenager is, if nothing else, a
time to begin to decide what habits, thoughts, attitudes of your parents are
going to be yours and which you are going to reject. So that decade is also a
time for making your faith you own. I have heard some wonderfully insightful
teens articulate their faith better than I can articulate mine as they give
talks at our retreat weekends. And without a doubt I have heard more questions
and often better ones from teens working through their faith than adults. By
the time we get a few decades behind us, we are in danger of deciding that if
we don’t have those answers we should, and so perhaps we shouldn’t ask. 
