Camp C.U.M.O.

This week many teens from the ECY will be at camp C.U.M.O. (Cincinnati Urban Mission Outreach). For those of you who do not know, the camp is run in large part by ECY and the youth group from the Withamsville Church of Christ in Cincinnati. This is the third time that ECY will be going to camp C.U.M.O. and we are all excited for this opportunity to serve others.

C.U.M.O., is a unique camping experience, for our youth, is not really a vacation for the teens, it is a lot of hard work, and requires a ton of patience. This camp is not created for the teenagers, instead the teens are asked to be the counselors to a whole crew of inner-city elementary school children.

This week of camp is not a walk in the park; it is taxing mentally, emotionally and physically as we try to wrestle with keeping all those kids under control as well as trying to fulfill our mission of helping those who are less fortunate than ourselves. Many of the teens going have been before, and know the challenges that lay ahead, yet they know that their presence in the camper’s lives means something very real to the campers. For some campers, this is the only week where they will eat three meals a day, and many of them will be safer at camp going down the zip line, then they would be in their beds at home.

This week is very important to the campers, not only is it a safe place, where there are three meals a day (which they love!) but it is also a place where they can learn about God. It is surprising how little many of these children know about God and Christianity, but this camp is a place where they can learn how to follow God.

This week’s theme is “Crossover”, it emphasizes the change that takes place when one becomes a Christian and there are three main points. “From one coach to another” teaches the campers that Christians follow God. “From one team to another” encourages the campers to work together and not be divided by worldly things. Finally “One Attitude to Another” reminds the campers that a Christian has a different attitude then non-Christians.

This week will be taxing, but rewarding for all of the camp’s volunteers, please remember them in your prayers as they empty themselves for others for the glory of God.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel

A Parody;

Mine eyes have seen the orgy of the launching of the Sword;
He is searching out the hoardings where the stranger's wealth is stored;
He hath loosed his fateful lightnings, and with woe and death has scored;
His lust is marching on.

I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded him an altar in the Eastern dews and damps;
I have read his doomful mission by the dim and flaring lamps--
His night is marching on.

I have read his bandit gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my pretensions, so with you my wrath shall deal;
Let the faithless son of Freedom crush the patriot with his heel;
Lo, Greed is marching on!"

We have legalized the strumpet and are guarding her retreat;*
Greed is seeking out commercial souls before his judgement seat;
O, be swift, ye clods, to answer him! be jubilant my feet!
Our god is marching on!

In a sordid slime harmonious Greed was born in yonder ditch,
With a longing in his bosom--and for others' goods an itch.
As Christ died to make men holy, let men die to make us rich--
Our god is marching on.

~Mark Twain~

Independance Day

Patriotic holidays are always difficult for me. It is in these times, perhaps more than any that I feel estranged the most from America at large. In my family, these holidays were times for all my aunts, uncles, and cousins to get together at my grandparent’s farm for a cookout, some football, softball, and volleyball and to just spend time together. For my family, nationalistic pride was not on the menu for Independence Day, or Memorial Day, but instead, they functioned more as a sort of Thanksgiving. That’s not the only reason I feel disunity with most of America, though I’m sure the way I was raised does factor into the equation.

The way in which I understand Christianity, there is not much room for rampant patriotism or nationalism. I’m not saying that one cannot be happy, thankful, and proud of where they come from (though pride is perhaps difficult when one generally has very little choice over their citizenship), but I think it is difficult to give as much allegiance as the country leaders would hope for. It is difficult to give allegiance to a country when we have been baptized into a new, world-wide community and sworn fealty to a King which supercedes governments on Earth.

Nationalism is a very dangerous force, and it is in it’s nature to both draw together and divide. It is the part that divides people which makes me nervous. Nationalism draws together people like “me”, people who live in America, and though there is surely a lot of variation within America, I think we are more similar than different. But that same force causes us to drive others away. Nationalism places people into two different categories; American, and Not American. It is this divisive force which worries and upsets me.

While Nationalism holds its ground based on division, Christianity places all people into one group: God’s beloved. Christianity calls us to love those that are not like us, the tax collector, the prostitute, the Samaritan, the enemy. Jesus says in Matthew that anyone can love people that love them. Anyone can love a friend, but it takes God’s love to love an enemy, yet that is what we are called to do.

What makes me most uneasy is the marrying of nationalism and Christianity to the point where God is seen as America’s God to the exclusion of other peoples. This is often done unknowingly and inadvertently, but the danger still remains. For more thoughts on this topic, presented in a more complete way, read Lee Camp’s “Mere Discipleship”.

Plans

Uh-oh, I may have made a mistake. Last week I referenced Star Wars in my article… now that seems to be all I can think about, so you may be locked into a series of Star Wars related articles for the next little while… if they get old, let me know. I will try to eliminate as much geek-speak as possible, but for those of you that know me well, that is pretty difficult!

Anyway, I was thinking about one of the main characters from the movies, Luke. Now Luke goes through quite the adventure and changes drastically from the first movie (okay, I know technically it’s the “fourth”, but I’ll be referring to them in order of production) to the third. I’d like to take a minute to focus in on young Luke.

If you recall, in the first scene that has Luke in it, he is portrayed as a whiney teenager. Let’s not even get onto the topic of how despite how the media portrays them, not all teenagers are whiney all of the time, as that is its own can of worms. Instead I would like to talk about the way that Luke views his world.

A fan of the series will remember that Luke is anxious to leave his hometown to go to the Imperial Flight School, to join his friends. He is not happy with his place in the universe, he is far outside of the normally travelled area of the galaxy (he lives in “The Outer Rim” if you’re interested), and he is just a farmer on a desert planet.

As any good movie maker knows, you can’t leave your character on a desert planet as a farmer if you want to make a really good science fiction movie. He can stay there for a little while, but at some point in time he is going to have to stop traipsing around the desert looking for rouge droids and instead eventually (SPOILER ALERT!!) blow up the Death Star.

Here’s the deal though, if Luke wasn’t on that planet that he was on, the epic story about him could never have taken place. If Luke wasn’t on Tatooine, then he wouldn’t have come across the droids, Obi-wan, Han or Chewie, and would have never saved the princess. It turns out that the very thing that he found to be unbearable was the very thing that was necessary for a happy ending for the rebellion.

George Lucas is a good screenwriter, so he had a plan for his characters in his characters, and knew what they needed. How much more then, will God, the author and perfecter of life have a plan for each of us! Jeremiah 29:11: “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”

Heroes

I like the Star Wars Epic. I see the scrolling golden text and I am filled with giddiness. Judging from the franchise’s staying-power and financial success, I think that I am not the only one! I think there are a lot of aspects about Star Wars that makes it so likeable. I think everyone secretly wants to be caught up in some grand adventure, where their dearest loved ones are in danger, and the dreamer is the one who springs to action at the last minute, defeating all odds to rescue all those in danger. I think everyone wants to be a Hero.

I remember as a child that most of my imaginations had a common plot line: One of my friends, or members of my family (or the girl I had a crush on at that point in time) was in trouble, and I, with all the gusto my 60 pound body could muster, took it upon myself to save that person from certain doom. It was a simple plot, but the circumstances could be varied greatly, and they always had the same happy outcome: Everyone was safe in the end. It was my imagination; of course I was the hero!

I wrote a series of short stories that involved my older brother, and myself, as well as our respective best-friends Mark and Trent. In each of the stories someone was in trouble, or a mystery had to be solved, and even though adults were baffled or unable to take action, the four of us were ready to serve.

I don’t imagine hero stories for myself much anymore, although I have caught myself “saving” my fiancé a couple of times! I usually imagine different things, like cars that I want, or computer parts that I want, or books that I want. I want, I want, I want… far less noble, I think, than the imaginations of my youth. In fact, I think that young me might be a bit disappointed with what the current me imagines; cars and computers are awfully dull compared to an action story filled with speeding trains, power-hungry bad guys, and damsels in distress!

I think young me, if he did exist, would be right to be upset with me. I think that young people sometimes tap into something, quite inadvertently that is vital to the human story. This something is what we “educated adults” would call “Truth” I think. I did not realize it then, but at that young age, I was recreating the Jesus event in my own life, I was doing Christianity. The New Testament Scriptures are peppered with phrases like “in humility regard others as better than yourselves” (Phil. 2:3) and “Be Subject to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph 5:21).

Even if it was only imaginatively, what I was unknowingly doing was emptying myself (Phil 2:1-11) for others, doing in my mind what Christ did in the world, for all people. It is this self-emptying that we are called to. We aren’t called to wax philosophical laboriously over who really wrote the book of Hebrews, we are supposed to go out there and serve. Now, it may not take the form of a rescue, and hopefully it is more than just imagination, but service is indeed what we are called to.

Are we ready to put away our adult imaginations and remember the truth of what we are called to? Are we ready to live cruciform “cross-shaped” lives? Are we ready to be Heroes?

On the reduction of Baptism

I was reading Patrick Mead's blog today an I came across a blog title that interested me "How small can we make baptism"
Since it was an old post, I dont expect to get much conversation on my comment, so I will put a link to the post here and my comments follow:

I appreciate what you have to say, however, I’m not sure your argument is particularly strong. Your first argument is one of semantics isn’t it? You are saying that immersion was immersion, that it was a cultural practice of the time makes no difference? We have defined a word with its definition, which is helpful, but does not seem to necessitate it on a theological level.

Your second point seems to fail in that the letter to Romans is not a church leader’s handbook on how things should be run. It seems to me that Paul was referencing a common experience between Christians to create an analogy to the Christ event, not mandating submersion as requirement.
Your third point stresses the importance of community, and you have drawn a nice image of entering into community. As community is your point, is immersion the only way in which community can be displayed? In many high churches, where they baptize infants (though infant baptism is not the topic of discussion) through submersion or sprinkling, it is as much of a commitment of the parents to raise their children in the faith as it is a commitment of the congregation to walk alongside that child in his or her faith as well. What a strong show of community, one that is not simply imagery, but a vocal acknowledgment of the responsibility of the community to the individual.
What, may I ask, do you do with the Didache, and its teachings concerning baptism?

I am not trying to be contentious, just trying to encourage discussion as I try to flesh out my thoughts on baptism.

To blog or not to blog

For the past couple of weeks I've been thinking about whether or not I really wanted to start a blog. Do I really care enough to update it enough to make it worthwhile for people to read? Do I really want people to read my random ramblings and nonsensical nothings? What should I write about? Myself? What I'm doing these days? Thoughts about God and the Church and people in general?

I don't really know, but I figured if I have to write a weekly newsletter anyway, I might as well put that up here, and then if I have something that I want to write, I'll have a venue for it. So assuming all goes to plan, I should have one update a week, though it is geared more towards a short article for the church that I am ministering to, than an internet audience.

Anyway, here is the first:

Honesty

I am currently reading a book by an author name Anne Lamott titled “Grace (Eventually)”. The book isn’t about anything in particular, and is framed in such a way that each chapter is a short story about the author’s life, detailing a particular event, or giving some idea of what her life was like in the past. I don’t agree with Ms. Lamott on many things, and we are not similar in many ways, yet I think there is value to her book. While I do not agree with many of the things that she says, or does, there is value to hearing another person present their thoughts and ideas. In some ways, it is especially nice since she is not right here, I can’t get into an argument with her about some of her ideas. Instead, though I disagree with her, I can only simply accept her for who she is. She is not ashamed to let her readers know her mistakes and is straight-forward about the blunders that she has committed in her relationships with her friends, her son, and with God. Perhaps it is easy for her to exercise this self-disclosure because of the distance that is put between her and her audience due to the nature of books, but I think that perhaps she realizes the importance of being honest.

Being honest with the people that you are in communion with is no simple task, it is a risk on your part, and it takes a listening ear and a non-judgmental mindset from the person that you are being honest with. It would be much simpler if one could control all of the variables, but being honest requires you to lay yourself on the grace of the other party. But there benefits from being honest, for one thing, the pressure that we put on ourselves daily by acting to be something, or someone that we really truly aren’t, is lifted. But there are benefits also to the person to whom you are being honest. Perhaps it would provide a good learning experience on exercising grace, but it also opens the doors for more honesty. The more honest that we our with ourselves and each other, assuming we all keep in mind that we are to be filled with the grace of God when dealing with one another, the better off you and I and the community will be.

Honesty isn’t simple, and it isn’t always welcomed with open arms. One should not expect honesty from the beginning of a relationship either, trust needs to be built, but if the mask never comes off and the walls come down, the trust that is needed to be in true community with one another, the community that is part of being the body of Christ, will not be built and our mission on Earth to show others the grace of God, becomes much more difficult.