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Today is Outdoor Ministry Sunday, a time to celebrate how God speaks to us when we are in the great outdoors. Outdoors. I’ve always wondered about that word. It assumes that our real home is inside a house, a building with doors. Inside our homes is our frame of reference, our true home. But is this always the case? Is it possible that you and I have a home that is outside the doors of a wooden structure? Let me share with you the story of Isaac, son of Yekel. Isaac, son of Yekel, lived in a poor rural village in 17th century Poland. He lived there with his wife and children in a small house. One night Isaac, son of Yekel, had a dream while he slept. In his dream he had traveled to a distant city where he discovered buried treasure under a bridge spanning a great river. He wondered what it might mean, especially when he had the same dream the next night. After experiencing this dream for seven nights Isaac, son of Yekel, decided that he had to do something. He packed his mule, said goodbye to his family, and set off for Krakow, the largest city in Poland. When he arrived in Krakow he was overwhelmed with the size of the city. Day after day he wandered the city streets, not knowing for sure what he was looking for. Suddenly, he turned a corner and there it was! The bridge from his dream! His heart quickened at the thought of buried treasure. He began to dig near the shore under the bridge, but found nothing. A policeman arrived and demanded to know what he was doing. Isaac, son of Yekel, described his dream to the policeman who laughed in his face. "That’s ridiculous! You can’t follow your dreams. Why I just had a dream about a man named, Isaac, son of Yekel. I dreamed he had a buried treasure under the floorboards of his kitchen. Do you think I am stupid enough to try to follow this dream?" The policeman left and immediately Isaac, son of Yekel, turned towards home. He arrived to a joyful celebration with his family at his safe return. Then Isaac, son of Yekel, removed the floorboards in his kitchen and discovered a box filled with gold. No longer would they be poor. No longer would they be hungry. One of the reasons we leave home for the outdoors is to discover the treasures we have at home. You and I have treasures we will not fully appreciate until we travel to another place where God reveals them to us. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why God created us with a basic wanderlust. We want to know what’s beyond the next mountain, the next state, the next country. It’s part of our spiritual nature to explore. So I’m not sure I like the term "outdoor ministry." It implies that our true home is inside a building with doors. What about "creation ministry" or "natural world ministry?" Our true home is wherever God is. According to the psalmist, this includes all of the natural creation…fire, snow, mountains, animals, and people. Regardless of what we call it the fact remains that Christian ministry at places like Birchwood Camp continue to provide significant faith formation for our children, youth, and adults. Ask any professional minister about their call into ministry and they will likely tell you about a camp experience. My entire childhood was lived near people whose skin was the same color as mine. My large high school near Cincinnati was all white. It was my church who gave me my first cross-racial experience. My youth pastor encouraged me to attend a big brother/big sister camp where we were matched with African-American children from inner city Cincinnati. There were so many children who wanted to attend this camp that they gave me two little brothers. It was a powerful experience for me. We shared our common humanity and the love of God at that camp. I remember visiting my little brothers in their homes after the camp. That camp experience for two years became the foundation for my future relations with people of color. And it was all because I left home to live in a Christian camp surrounded by the beauty of God’s creation. Where is your true home? Where do you feel most comfortable in a spiritual sense? I’m not talking about physical comfort. Physical comfort is related to spiritual comfort, but not entirely. Spiritual growth is like the dream out there that can show us the treasure right here. In other words spiritual growth is about stretching ourselves beyond our comfort zones. It’s about not knowing what will happen, but trusting God to show us the way. I’m almost embarrassed to tell you the story of a creation experience I had with 7 eighth grade students. I was their science teacher and we were on a field trip in the north Georgia mountains. Our plan was to backpack up a thickly forested valley to a mountain logging road and explore from there. We left our base camp after dinner in the dimming light of dusk full of expectation with our upcoming adventure. My mistake was in leading those kids up the steep hills without a trail. We were bushwhacking! Soon darkness fell upon us. Hiking through the heavy brush and fallen trees was like walking through alders in Alaska. We still hadn’t reached the logging road when the sound of thunder boomed all around us. And then came the rains, which made the trek even worse. After several hours we arrived at the muddy logging road. We pitched our tents in the pouring rain. Some of the girls were sick, mostly from fear, I think. What’s important in this story was that these were kids who were from different social classes. Some were athletes, cheerleaders, smart kids, and regular kids. They had been through an extensive training program in trust and adventure back at school. So I told them to stay put in their tents while I went down the mountain to bring up the truck. Now I was scared, leaving seven 14 year olds in tents on a stormy Georgia mountain. I took a flashlight and followed a stream down the mountain, slipping and sliding in the mud all the way. I made it to base camp and brought another teacher with me in the truck. Driving through the pounding rain we weaved our way up the road to the kids. They were very glad to see us! After loading them in the truck we then had to find a way to turn around on this one-lane road. That’s when we got stuck! The kids got out and placed rocks under the tires and pushed. We made it safely down that mountain. Back at school when we talked about that night everyone was able to say positive things about the experience. Barriers were broken down as students had to depend on each other. The so-called cool kids actually talked with the kids they considered uncool. Surrounded by the discomfort of a dark mountain storm they discovered something deep within. They discovered that not only could they survive that night, but that they could care about and lean on each other, despite their differences. Christian ministry that happens in the beauty of God’s creation can have powerful, life-changing possibilities for people. It is a place where, at least for 3-5 days, they can experience Christian community. Our children need to learn how to get along with each other. They need to learn how to talk and respect each other. They need to learn how to forgive. When I was a dean at a Birchwood camp many years ago there was an unpleasant incident where a boy had hurt a 4th grade girl. Because Birchwood has a child protection policy we began the process of interviewing kids. At the conclusion of all these meetings the girl was asked if she wanted to meet with the boy. I’ll never forget that moment as we brought her in from a big camp game. The boy apologized. And the girl said, "That’s alright." She looked at me and said, "Can we go out and play now. I’d like him to be on my team." Forgiveness. Reconciliation. That was a holy moment, a God moment. And it happened at a special place we call Birchwood Camp. I think it’s safe to say that St. John is the primary supporter of Birchwood Camp. All but one of the deans for this summer’s camps are St. John members or staff. We also use the retreat cabin at Hope for youth and women’s retreats. Now we don’t get down to Juneau much, but we have a great camp there as well. The point is that on a day like today we can be proud of our conference’s outdoor ministry program. The reason I am serving as your pastor today is because of three backpack/mission camps I led to Alaska when I lived in Ohio. They were stepping stones God used to call me to ministry in this great land. The Spirit wants to call more of our youth and adults into ministry by speaking to them through one of our camps. It is up to us to keep the financial and people resources flowing to our camps. Because of our support now, at some point in the future God will connect with a camper. A call will be given. That call will be heard and a minister of Christ will be born. And the church will have leaders who will help us dream God-sized dreams, dreams that will take us away from our homes, dreams that will lead us to know the spiritual treasure chests right where we live! |
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04.21.02 - Treasures That Lead Us Home (Psalm 148)
