You are currently subscribed to the PCUSANEWS
email list of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
========================================
This story is located at: http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2007/07450.htm
07450 July 23, 2007
Going home
Presbyterian Youth Triennium ends with ringing call to evangelism
by Jerry Van Marter Presbyterian News Service
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN - More than 4,400 Presbyterian teenagers headed for home Sunday (July 22) after a "mountaintop experience" at the 2007 Presbyterian Youth Triennium on the campus of Purdue University here.
But their five days here "is only the beginning," closing worship preacher Perryn Rice told them.
Using the story of the woman at the well from John 4 as his text, Rice - pastor of Faith Cumberland Presbyterian Church of America in Dallas - addressed the triennium theme "Hope is in Our Midst," telling his youthful congregation, "I know you've had hope all week, but like the woman of Samaria, I know some of you have discovered a hope that's designed just for you."
Earlier, a clip from the movie "Rocky" was shown. "This is the greatest underdog story ever shown," Rice said. "Here's a neighborhood tough who gets a shot at the title. But it's not really about the title - Rocky's fighting for self-validation, for self-esteem, to know for the first time that he's not just another bum from the neighborhood."
However, Rice continued, "there's one underdog story that's even better - the sister with issues in John 4. And all of them pour out in her conversation with Jesus.
"She carries the prejudices of her childhood, she goes to the wrong church, she's been married five times and the brother she's shacking with now she's not even married to and she confuses Jesus with just a regular old prophet," Rice recounted. "And the saddest thing is, she's satisfied with where she's at."
When Jesus talks to her of living water, "she doesn't get it at first," Rice said. "Hope is in her midst, but she doesn't realize it."
Then Rice brought the message home: "I don't know what you were into before you got here, but my guess is you've gotten the clue this week. The life you've been living isn't the only choice out there. You came here looking for some answers and I know you've found hope that's been in your midst all along."
The Samaritan woman discovered that in Christ she was a 'new creation,' "and that's exciting," Rice said. "That you can do all things through Christ - that's exciting! That you're more than a conqueror through Christ - that's exciting! That you're the head, not the tail in Christ - that's exciting!' Rice thundered as whooping, hollering and applause reached a deafening crescendo.
"And there's only one thing to do," he said, "Go back home and: scream, 'There's a man that told me everything about me, all the dirt, and then offered me new life. Come see him for yourself!'"
There's people in everyone's life who need that message of hope, Rice continued, "and when you go back home and give Christ's hope to people, the world is going to be blessed. Today there's hope for Darfur, for AIDS victims, for the folk still suffering from Hurricane Katrina."
Rice urged his young audience to carry the message of Christ's hope "teenage mothers who are ready to give up, to crack addicts and the incarcerated and the exonerated, to the underachiever and the overachiever, to the homeless and the hungry. Tell them there's hope and the world's going to change. Go home, go home, go home, go home!"
As the crowd picked up the chant, the Goose Chase drama troupe - which enthralled participants all week - dismantled the scaffolding on the stage and reassembled it into a giant cross.
Rice looked up at it and said in benediction, "You know, this cross used to be a symbol of shame and disgrace, but they messed up and put the wrong guy on it.
"Now it's a symbol of hope."
========================================
You are currently subscribed to the PCUSANEWS
email list of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
To unsubscribe, send a blank message to
mailto:PCUSANEWS-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org.
To update your email address, send your old email address and your new one to mailto:PCUSANEWS-owner@halak.pcusa.org.
For questions or comments, send an email to mailto:PCUSANEWS-owner@halak.pcusa.org.
To learn more, visit http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 100 Witherspoon Street Louisville, KY 40202 (888) 728-7228