“If you are the Messiah,
tell us plainly,” the people say.
I
know these people—they are all over the place. Just tell us plainly, they say,
until he does. And then they use those words against him, because that’s really
what they want, because they are so afraid of what is possible. In reply, Jesus
goes for the whole hog here and says, A) I have told you already and you don’t
believe, B) the works I do are testimony enough, but also C) The Father and I
are one. Jesus takes the worst of what he is being accused—a false prophet—and
turns it up to 11 here. Not only does he claim to be the messiah, he claims to
be one with God. You can imagine how this goes over.
About the same as it goes over whenever anybody speaks truth to power. And Jesus, bring truth-incarnate, embodies what is good and true in a world that is fearful and protective of what we have. Jesus breaks us free to what is possible on the other side of fear, but the problem is: We crucify him first. We would rather be afraid than chance what might be. It is the universal human problem—we are afraid, we act out of our fear, and we kill the very thing that is sent to save us.
There are a hundred reasons why kids come to camp—thousands of stories of lives changed—and one of the threads that connects so many of those stories is about conquering fears. Whether it is ascending a climbing tower and jumping off a zipline, the first nights away from mom and dad, fear of bugs or wild animals, or even just spending time with so many strange people, camp is a place where fear is at work. But there is something else as well. In stretching our boundaries, we inevitably discover the God who was there to catch us all along. We were created to venture further in, deeper into creation, deeper into our faith and into our awareness of God’s call for us. We believe all this because of the radical God who comes not as the leaders of the day expected, not to ascend on a throne but to ascend on a cross and back again when the stone is rolled away.
It is
easy to stay inside: to stay inside our house and listen to whoever we have
hand-picked to tell us what to believe; to stay inside and carve a god in our
own image; to stay inside and hold our faith so tightly that it oozes out
through our finger tips for the pressure we put on it. Meanwhile, God calls us
out—out to serve our neighbors who are in need; out to experience this big and
beautiful world in all its colors; out to meet Jesus on the way, where he
always seems to be—somewhere we didn’t expect. The temple leaders in our story
assumed everything was black and white and any hint of gray was a scary, scary
thing. Jesus meanwhile turns the paradigm on its head. God is not
black-and-white, but nor is God particularly gray. God is a kaleidoscope of
colors more vibrant than anybody expects, so colorful even that Jesus can turn
around and say something crazy like “The Father and I are one.” That takes a
leap beyond the paradigm. It takes getting out.
At camp, we get out. We test ourselves. We discover the God who once met us in familiar places now calls us over that next hill—that next challenge—because that God who we put to death calls sheep like us, and that’s amazing! Because all of us doubt—all of us have struggles—all of us feel unworthy—and yet, this God meets us specifically where the stuffy temple leaders would scoff; and instead, Jesus calls us child of God. So it is at camp. You are a child of God, now go experience life in the freedom of that reality. Go stomp around in a creek. Go hoot and holler in the woods. Go sing songs and play games. Go meet new friends. Go, because Christ compels you outward so that you do not become the stuffy temple leaders. We have too many of those. Instead, go out! Because God is waiting out there.
This is one of Jesus’ lessons that I believe to be as applicable to camp as it is to all of our lives. God has freed us from fear, not because bad things cannot happen to us, but rather because Jesus has gone their first and there is something waiting on the other side. When we live in fear, we miss the gifts we are given and the opportunities that arise in a world drenched with grace. We are called to something better. So often we fail to live up to God’s hopes and dreams for us, but the great news it that we are a people of resurrection and God’s mercies are new again every morning. Every day we rise again with Christ. So, whatever burdens you carry with you today, whatever feelings of failure, or whenever you suspect you are not enough, God meets you again and again with a promise that you are enough through Christ who has been there first. And you need not live in fear or regret any longer.
So, I want to thank you all
for having me again today. It is my pleasure to help you begin your pastoral
transition, and even as I bring you some news about Ewalu, I also had to preach
a bit as well, because all of us need that reminder to live beyond our fears.
We need Jesus over and over again. And we should take every opportunity to
remind one another of that.
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