The theme of the 2009 ELCA National Youth Gathering in New Orleans was “Jesus, Justice, Jazz.” However, early on what began to concern me and several friends who attended was that the first one in the list, Jesus of Nazareth, seemed noticeably absent by name in the mass gatherings, particularly from many (though not all) of the speakers chosen to headline the events.

What began at first as a particularly not serious contest among my friends (“Let’s see how long we can go without the name of Jesus being explicitly invoked by the main speakers”) turned out to be a horrifying revelation of the state of this branch of Church. By my count, although the gathering began on Wednesday morning, the first time Jesus was explicitly mentioned was during the Thursday gathering, by Becca Stevens, Episcopal priest and chaplain—who had been preceded by four or five other speakers in the intervening time. I am not saying that the speakers did not give inspirational messages that were challenging; I am saying that little of it was rooted specifically in our identity as followers of Jesus Christ.

I knew we are off to a rough start when I began to lead the first evening devotions with our group. Each participant was given a “Jesus, Justice, Jazz” Bible, essentially the Lutheran Study Bible with a different cover to match the gathering theme and daily devotions for each day of the gathering. The text was the famous christological question in Mark 8 where Jesus asks the disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” “Fantastic,” I thought, “we’re off to a good start.” However, the questions posed in the devotions quickly moved in another direction. Let’s not worry too much about this Jesus fellow. Who do you say you are?

Now I had written the office organizing the event months before to ask for the “daily themes” as in years past, so I could craft our group’s preparation in the months before the gathering. I was told that there were not daily themes and texts, just “Jesus day,” “Justice day” and “Jazz day” with Philippians 2:1-8 (note: not verses 9-11) being the only theme text for the event.

The mass gatherings, no small feat to pull off, felt more like a political rally than a gathering of disciples. The real message of the gathering seemed to be Mahatma Gandhi’s “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Or perhaps more like Rob Schneider’s character in the 1998 Adam Sandler film The Waterboy: “You can do it!” “Be the change” is certainly a noble sentiment, perhaps even an appropriate invitation to growth in faith, but I’m not sure it is the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson did make several attempts to redeem the “missing Jesus” in his sermon and in the Sunday eucharist, but it was almost too little, too late. I don’t recall precisely what was said, but what I observed was the church gathered around word and sacrament to worship the Lord Jesus. It’s just too bad this was more of an afterthought than the real center of the gathering.

Finally, a word about the Bibles that were given as part of the gathering. I realize this is anecdotal, but I heard more than a few stories of Bibles left in hotel rooms, stairwells, or simply discarded as youth packed up their luggage for the trip home. Servant t-shirt (justice)? Check. Mardi Gras masks and beads (jazz)? Check. Bible (Jesus)? I don’t have room for that!

And it is perhaps these Bibles, discarded in the hotels of New Orleans, that are the clearest indicator of just what the content of message of the New Orleans gathering really was. If the Bible is indeed the cradle that bears Jesus the Word before us, maybe the gathering participants, in leaving these Bibles behind, had rightly heard the central message of the gathering: that Jesus was simply a side show on the way to something else rather than the main event.

Matthew D. Musteric is Associate Pastor at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Pemberville, Ohio.