Senior Youth Sunday - Skit featuring Cody Vance, Tim Mastic, and George Musialik, written by Becca McFadden. Meditations by Krysta Bowen, Tim Mastic, and Amber Rodgers.

Independence is highly over rated. We’ve been sold a bill of goods by voices that say life is about learning to tie our own shoes. Don’t be dependent upon others. You’ve got to take care of yourself. If you don’t, who will? The truth is we never outgrow dependence. God created us for relationship. Someone said, "The test of a Christian’s faith in and obedience to Christ is not first of all a matter of belief, but a matter of love." It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. It is the freedom of being bound to his love.

"Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me." Christians are people who take Jesus’ words at face value. There is no need to speculate about God’s looks. There is no need to ponder what God is like. In the prologue to John’s gospel it says: "We have seen the glory of God-- in the face of Jesus." What we have seen in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is all we need. "Want to see God?" Jesus asks. "You’re looking at him."

The keeper of the sheep is also the gatekeeper to the sheepfold. As long as sheep know their master is guarding the entrance; as long as they can hear his voice, they feel safe and secure. Of course, the sheep can’t stay within the protective confines of the sheepfold. They must “go out” to graze. Venturing into the great wide open, they are vulnerable to thieves and predators. This is why their link to their Shepherd is everything. We know what it means to live as sheep among wolves. Life isn’t safe, but we can live confidently in the knowledge that we have security in the community of faith whose shepherd is Jesus Christ.

In our end is our beginning. This is Christianity’s peculiar take on life. The world tends to looks at life as means that lead to an inevitable and final end. "That’s it, folks. That’s all she wrote. The fat lady is singing. It’s over. Done." Easter knows better. What appeared to be the end for Jesus was a prelude to the resurrection. The way we see it, ends are beginnings. We are not pushed into a cold, dark abyss. We are pulled toward the Light.

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