I am a millennial. That’s right, I am certain you have heard of us. We are the ones that are generally to blame for a myriad of issues. We eat avocado toast, we drink expensive coffee, we like to drink good beer, and we are apparently the reason the housing market is the way it is. Millennials are also a hot commodity in the church since as statistics show that there aren’t many. Yes, many words have been written about the problematic millennial generation. Even more so, I recently read concerning the church and the millennials, that the millennial generation is forsaken, lost, and there is no getting them back. I will admit, that this is probably a fair critique. Although a blunt reality that may well be true. 

While this may be the current reality, the church ought not to be content with forsaking anyone. This is not who the church is or the Christ whom we follow and proclaim. Christ makes it clear throughout the Gospels that anyone that still has breath in their lungs is not forsaken. The parable of the lost sheep shows that Christ will not abandon the one that has gotten lost or led astray. Instead, He seeks him out and brings him home. In the parable of the prodigal son, there is a different lens. Christ may not seek out, but when the prodigal son returns, He is there to welcome him home with loving arms, not rejection. The thief on the cross, a man sentenced to death, one many may have forsaken to death, Christ claimed him as His own with His last breaths. This is who Christ is. So if the church is His body, then the church is not in the business of forsaking. The church is not in the business of abandonment. The church is not in the business of wholesale giving up on generations. 

  Yet, there are those who may rather forsake. It is the easier path with much less a burden. But this is not the way of Christ. This is not the way of His church. The church seeks. The church welcomes home. The church forgives, and the church restores. The church does not forsake the wandering and the lost, for Christ does not forsake the wandering and the lost. How many of you reading this today, myself included, were once in a place that felt as if you were forsaken? How many of us have done something that has separated us from God? How many of us have found ourselves lost after wandering away? If this is you, please know and remember, that while some may forsake you, you are not forsaken. 

It was on the cross that Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is the cry of the one that ensured none would be forsaken. This is the cry of Christ, who seeks those out who are lost, wandering, and alone. This is the cry of the one who welcomes the wayward sinner home. So, remember, no matter your generation, no matter your past, no matter your sin, you are not forsaken. While the church may sometimes forget this, Christ never does. He was forsaken so you would not be.