Be Who You Needed

Last Saturday night at 10:30 p.m., our usually quiet Northern Virginia neighborhood was uncharacteristically abuzz with a graduation party down the street — one of many celebrations at the end of the school year.

Saint Peter’s is joining that celebration with a gathering of our own. This Sunday evening, we will come together for a special catered dinner and prayer to honor our graduating seniors — Cara Brown, Hayden Chipman, Charlotte Gwyn, Harper Johnson, Ginger Lewis, Charlotte Lynch, Jasper Misch, Jack Moore, Brendan O’Reilly, Landon Phelps, Nick Schreiner, Sarah Torchinsky, Thomas Totten.

The entire parish, especially those who watched these seniors grow up here, is invited! (Please RSVP)

The school year is ending. Backpacks are emptying. Kids are going on more field trips. Something in me— even now, long past my own graduation days — recalls the tenderness of the closing of a season of life.

Endings arrive with a mixture of relief and grief, pride and nostalgia. We want to hold on even as we let go. We yearn to mark the moment and make it holy. That’s what we do at Saint Peter’s.

This Sunday, we gather for Youth Sunday — one of my favorite services each year — led by children of all ages. Ginger Lewis, one of our own graduating seniors, will preach. I cannot wait to hear what God has to say through her voice. Then on Sunday evening, we will gather with reflections and prayers to let these seniors know: we have watched you grow, and we are not letting you walk into what's next without a blessing.

This past Sunday, Cory Michael shared this quote that hangs on his office wall — Be who you needed when you were younger. It doesn't just ask us to consider who we needed when we were  young. It invites us to consider who we need to be for rising generations. 

Every one of us is formed in community. We needed people who walked with us — an advocate, a cheerleader, a firm and compassionate hand. And now it is our turn to offer that to others. Cory Michael reminded us that you received the shape of Christian witness you embody today, from from a long line of faithful people stretching all the way back to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20).

That is exactly what we are celebrating this weekend. Our graduating seniors did not grow in isolation. They grew up here — in this community, around our altar, in Sunday school classrooms and youth group gatherings, bagging apples and onions for AFAC, going on mission trips, and on ordinary Sunday mornings where adults showed up and said, I see you, and I care about you. 

Now they carry that forward. They become, in turn, who someone else will need.

I wonder: who was that person for you? Who taught you to follow Jesus — not by coercion or lecture, but simply by walking alongside you? And who is watching you now, learning from how you love?

Enjoy the week. And see you Saturday or Sunday for worship!

Jenifer+