Rev. Wesley Menke

20 February 2022 

7th Sun After Epiphany

Well there was some sad news recently. The ELCA youth gathering is canceled this summer. We are a part of the ELCA. The ELCA means Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Some people say, “Elka,” and others say, “E.L.C.A.” We are the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States. The youth gathering typically happens every three years and regularly draws at least 30,000 people for about a week during the summer in large metropolitan centers with adequate hotel and convention accommodations. The youth gathering is the largest thing that we do, outpacing by far our church wide assemblies. For many high school Lutherans  attending the youth gathering is a rite of passage and one that multiple generations of families share. In the 60’s musicians like Pete Seeger and pastors such as Martin Luther King Junior were noted speakers, and controversial at their times. In fact, one of the traditions of the youth gathering is to gently push the envelope a little bit.

I attended a youth gathering called River of Hope in 1997. It was a good experience, and it was an interesting experience. I remember checking into our hotel and taking an elevator up to our floor. When we got off the elevator some boys had duct taped the button down on the ice maker and a huge pile of ice was filling up the hallway. That was kind of crazy. You bring together tens of thousands of teenagers and there will be some shenanigans. But for the most part we behaved ourselves and it was a very powerful experience that can shape and mold a young person in very positive ways. 

I led youth groups to youth gathering in 2003 to San Antonio, then 2006 and 2009 in New Orleans. The youth gatherings in New Orleans were particularly meaningful because of the devastation that was caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. At the time there was overwhelming pressure to cancel the youth gathering. Imagine all of those thousands of parents sending their children to New Orleans after everything that had been witnessed on TV. But in one of its finer moments the Lutherans doubled down and said, we will not cancel, we will go to New Orleans and do a gathering unlike any we’ve done before. We went and worked, and cleaned, served, painted, and planted. And as one of our finer moments of ecumenism the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod did the exact same thing. There was so much service activity in New Orleans following Katrina that when I went there some New Orleanians from a Lutheran congregation said that it felt like immediately after the hurricane hit Lutherans in Minnesota got in their cars and drove down to help, showing up just days later, and staying for a long time.

Then three years later we all went back and did it again. Many teen-agers petitioned to come as servant corps young adult volunteers because they didn’t want to miss out. It was highly unusual to have the youth gathering be in the same spot twice in a row. But we had a purpose, so we did it. 

So 2021 was supposed to be in the Twin cities. It was rescheduled because of Covid to 2022. And just this past couple of weeks, news was released that it would be canceled in 2022 as well. What a contrast to 15 years ago. Then we decided to take the risk in order to serve a higher purpose. This time around we choose to avoid the risk. For the record, I understand and I agree with the decision. The difference is that now gathering itself is the risk. It doesn’t matter where. 15 years ago we were able to go to a particular place and help churches that had been flooded. Today all of the churches have experienced devastation. We are now the ones who need to be helped, and we are like this in every town, city, state, country, all over the world. 

The theme was going to be, “Boundless: God beyond measure.” I agree that we cannot mesure God, but I wonder if this migh