Sunday, March 8

Today's Featured Passage: Psalm 22:23-31 for "Camp Sunday" celebrating the role our church camps play in our spiritual lives



As many of you know, I grew up as a child in a small town in Eastern Washington – population 1,500. And while there were many wonderful aspects of growing up in a small town, there was a dark side as well. That dark side had to do with how a person got labeled awfully quickly in life and stuck into a box.

In some cases, the labeling process happened when you were older. In other cases, it happened before you were born. There was a time, for instance, when I was walking down with street with a childhood friend named Josh and heard folks whisper: “Who’s that kid with Craig?”

“Oh, that’s Josh - Fred Jenkins little boy. And you know all about Fred, right?”

I may not have understood what they meant about Fred – but I sensed that things would be impossible for Josh until he got older and could move away.

Sadly, those boxes they put people into were so strong that they even got reinforced in the churches of our community. I remember, for instance, having a new family start attending our church that had two boys whom I’ll call Brian and Stewart. Brian and Stewart’s father had left their mother a few years earlier. That meant Brian and Stewart’s father was divorced. In the black and white world we lived in, there was no room whatsoever for relating to those who were different. So you know what happened to Brian and Stewart? They stayed on the outside of our youth group.

And if such things happened within our church, you can just imagine how folks treated those who went to other churches. Let’s just say it wasn’t always pretty. I remember how exciting it was for many of us in the fourth and fifth grades to race home with news that we had just got an invitation to attend Vacation Bible School with Mark in July – only to hear our parents ask, “What church does Mark attend?” And when we answer, we’d watch our parents say, “Oh, we’re busy that week of June” – without even glancing at their calendars.

So if I had been a child sitting in the chairs where you are sitting this morning, and heard Njeri read the words she read to us, I would have responded very cynically.

“Here in this great gathering for worship..?” – I would have shrugged and said, “What so great about it – it looks just like any other gathering in this town?”

Or if I had heard the psalmist point out – “Down-and-outers sit at God’s table and eat their fill” – I would have looked around the sanctuary and said, “Where? I don’t see any down and outers?”

Or if I had heard the psalmist boast – “All the poor and powerless, too – worshipping! Along with those who never got it together – worshipping” – I would have said, “Have you looked at our membership rolls recently? I don’t see any poor and powerless here!”

In other words, the psalmist would have been a hard sell.

It wasn’t until the summer after my sixth grade year that I had my first taste of the vision the psalmist laid out. And that taste came from my experience at a place called Twin Low – a United Methodist camp located five miles north of Rathdrum, Idaho on Lower Twin Lake.

When I first got news about the camp, I asked my folks if my best friend Scott could attend. Now I knew this was a long shot when I asked for several reasons. Scott was the only child in my class who was growing up in a single-parent household. This was taboo number one. And Scott’s family not only didn’t attend our church – they didn’t attend any church. Taboo number two. And taboo number three – Scott’s family had no money.

But you know what? My mom was on the mission committee of the church – and they did what I thought was impossible. They found the money necessary to send Scott.

And things didn’t end there. I accidentally mentioned the camp to my friend Trish one day on our ride to school. Trish was a nice girl who lived within a couple houses of ours. And to most people she looked pretty normal. But there was a problem. She belonged to another church – one that looked up to this strange German dude named Martin Luther. I was sure that children like that would never attend “normal” church camp like the one I was going to attend. Little did I know that three months later – Trish and I would once again find ourselves in the same car – only this time we were on our way to Twin Low together!

For me – and for so many other youth - our camping programs are the first place where we get a glimpse of what the Reign of God just might look like. I may not have known what the adults meant when they talked about the Reign of God being about the establishment of peace & justice throughout the land – I just knew that the Reign of God must have felt something like the way I felt when I looked to my left while I was playing volleyball and saw my best friend Scott getting ready to set the ball for me. I may not have understood what the adults meant when they talked about God’s grace and unconditional love – but I thought it might feel a little bit like what I felt when Trish and I went out on Twin Lake in the paddle boat together. In other words, summer camp was the first time this thing the psalmist called “good news” really felt like it was good news!

Now you might be thinking to yourself, “All of this summer camp stuff is just making you nostalgic, Craig. And it might have worked for YOU! But maybe it’s not like that for most folks!”

Well, in order to deal with that challenge, I want to share a letter with you that was received from someone else who talked about the transformative effect summer camp had on their family. And I want to share this letter because it comes from a different perspective. It comes not from a child’s perspective – but from a parent’s perspective: a mom by the name of Linda. Listen to her words of support for one of our denominational camps located right here in Colorado:

[Read Linda’s letter]

Friends, this summer we have the chance to introduce our children to pieces of earth crammed with heave through camps like Highlands, La Foret, and Buckhorn. If you are a parent, you can do this directly by talking with Kerrie or David about how to send your kids to camp. If you aren’t a parent, you can support the camping ministries of our denominations by providing financial support that could send a child to camp. You could even volunteer to serve as a camp counselor. Again, see David or Kerrie for ideas about how to get involved.

My hope and prayer for us all is that by the time the bells ring in a new school year next August, that the children in our community will have the chance to not only hear the love and grace of God proclaimed through the lips of the adult in their sanctuaries, but will see that love and grace in action - at a church camp.

Amen