cathedral times The Weekly Newsletter of the Cathedral of St. Philip, Serving Atlanta and the World
YOUTH SUNDAY SERMONS!
May 14, 2017
Last Sunday, May 7, high school seniors Betsy Brennan and Bradley Reeves preached at the 8:45 a.m. service. A portion of each of their sermons is below; the full text is available at stphilipscathedral.org/sermons. From Betsy Brennan: ... It wasn’t until these past three years that I began to realize what the word faith actually meant to me, and how I could make it MY faith instead of what I was told to believe. My mom has always told me that being baptized in the Episcopal Church was her and my dad’s decision, but after confirmation freshman year that’s when it was time for me to grow up and make my own decisions about my faith. My sophomore year when I went to Happening at Camp Mikell was when I finally started to take ownership of my relationship with God. I was able to share something with everyone at camp and church that I never could with my school friends. I became so close with everyone at Camp Mikell because we had something in common that was much deeper and more special than going to school together, or playing on the same sports team. We all understood the true meaning of God’s love and his grace, and through the few summers of being a counselor and camper at Camp Mikell and participating in youth retreats like Happening and DYC, I’ve been able to find a community that proves that God’s unconditional love stretches beyond the walls of the Cathedral, and is present in people we have never met before. It is important that we find what makes our faith special and in what ways we feel closer to God. From Bradley Reeves: ... I’ve grown up around the church and a large part of who I am developed directly out of just coming to Sunday School, going on youth retreats, Kanuga, acolyting every Sunday, acolyting weddings. The Cathedral, especially the youth group, has done so much for me.
Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”
From this week’s lectionary John 14:1
... These people have really shaped the way I think about religion, the way I see myself as a member of the Cathedral. They helped me make and change my views not only on religion, but on all aspects of life. What I love most about our youth group is that we don’t only discuss God and the Bible every Sunday; we speak about everything that we have going on in our lives—everything from school, friends, sports, family, to music and anything else we have happening. Then seamlessly, our youth leaders bring everything back to religion. That really is fascinating! Through them I’ve learned that everything that happens to us comes right down to what we believe. How we act around others is all dictated by what we believe. I choose to be Christian, especially Episcopalian, not only because of how my parents have raised me, but because I consider myself to be a member of this church. I stand for everything our church believes. At this point in my life, I’ve developed my own ideas about religion. I haven’t always been as passionate as I am now for Christianity. I owe a large part of this directly to church and especially the youth group.