Youth Sunday Mark 1: 40-45

The youth did a terrific job yesterday leading worship. As I listened to the sermon on the leper, I was struck by several thoughts.

1.  As diverse as we may think we are when we look around the congregation and see people who have different interests and viewpoints, we are still much for demographically the same than diverse.  One of our youth preaching noted that we look pretty similar and asked how we can change that.  I think that's an important challenge for us to hear.

2.  One of our youth preaching made the point that the leper asked Jesus and that Jesus did not have to say yes.  I don't recall focusing on those points when I've read the passage previously.  It reminded me of the vulnerability of stepping out in faith and risking to trust in Jesus.  I am going to play with the idea of why Jesus said "yes" or what it would mean for Jesus to say "no."

3. As I heard them preach, I quickly scribbled notes for a series on "insiders" and "outsiders" in the Bible.  I think that could be an informative and meaningful sermon series in a time when our world seems to be getting more and more polarized and the points of separation seem to be growing.

4. Their prayer of confession also had me thinking about why it was important for the priest to declare the leper clean.

5. Listening to the text also made me want to preach on how compelled the leper was to tell everyone, even though Jesus asked him not to tell anyone.

A fruitful day for me as I heard our youth preach and lead us in worship.

Peace,

Richard