The Theology of Camp
June 22, 2008

 

A sermon by

The Rev. Dr. Laura Barnes

 

 

Vacation Bible Camp was here on the DCC campus every day this past week. We want to thank our church family for your support and your love. We are also most grateful to our leaders and counselors, because we could not have camp without them.

 

We have learned a lot together this past week. I am always reminded, each year, during Vacation Bible Camp, how deeply theological children can be. We talked together about showing our love for God through random acts of kindness, taking better care of our environment, being bold in our faith and believing in a God we have never seen.  There were wonder-filled discussions each morning in group time and other times throughout our day. We also did crafts, played games, had snacks and enjoyed music time with the talented Angela Borba.

 

The overarching theme for the week was a Beach Party. Each morning we had a new Beach Be-Attitude to help us focus on our scripture story.  They were:

 

Beach Be-Attitudes

“Hang Ten!” for Be Obedient

“Catch a Wave!” for Be Kind

“Wipe Out!”  for Be Forgiving

“Surf’s Up!” for Be Bold

“Cowabunga!”  for Be-lieve

 

Monday’s story was about Gideon and how he learned to trust and obey God. This is a great story for a dramatic skit, with Gideon talking directly to God and having doubts about what he is hearing. God asks Gideon to reduce his army before going into battle with the Midianites - REDUCE his force, DECREASE his own power!  Gideon does as God instructs, eventually, and he is victorious. We talked about letting go of things we do not need in our lives - things like MORE electronic gadgets, MORE toys, MORE stuff - and then moved into a discussion of what we really wanted more of in our lives, like FAITH, HOPE and LOVE!

 

The story of Gideon, from Judges, Chapter Six, is a great story for all of us to remember. Gideon is an example of how we struggle to do God’s will on a daily basis, even when it is VERY clear what it is and why we are to do it. Doing what God wants us to do, and not always doing what we want to do is a spiritual discipline we all decided we needed to keep working on. Sound like a good plan to you as well? I thought so...

 

Tuesday’s focus was on being kind, as exemplified in our skit just now, about David and Mephibosheth.  The Counselors in Training, or CITs, are in my group and we had ten members, with four Junior Counselors. The CITs are in grades 4 through 6 grades and their job at camp, besides being role models for the younger campers, is to share the bible story and theme with the camp every morning. They arrive 30 minutes early each day, at 8:30AM, to rehearse and prepare the story for the day.  The Junior Counselors come from our youth group and their job is leadership of our game time and helping lead the discussion times for their groups.  We had twelve youth helping with camp this year.  We are so grateful that they are willing to get up early each morning to come and be with us at camp. Thanks, JCs!

 

The discussion about being kind, like David was to Mephibosheth, led to a conversation around performing random acts of kindness. Perhaps your young camper came home and made their bed, or helped their little brother with his toys, or offered to clean up after dinner...perhaps they will tonight after being reminded! We also were kinder toward one another at camp through encouraging one another and through validation of our counselors.  I really liked Tuesday!

 

We had scheduled a trip to Crab Cove Educational Center in Alameda for Wednesday and then we heard all about “swimmer’s itch” on the nightly news. Apparently folks who had been on the beach the week before had broken out in a bright red rash. So, we decided to go ahead and visit Crab Cove, but had to promise not enter the water or even play on the beach. The day was lovely and we had a great environmentalist tour and time to explore in the visitor’s center. We then picnicked on their lawn. We took a hike around the area and found ground squirrels, ducks and other birds everywhere...we even thought we saw a kangaroo....or at least I thought I saw one... We played with our big parachute - you can see photos in Koinonia Hall of this event - blew bubbles and played with large beach balls. A very successful day, even though we could not go in the water.

 

Before the trip to Crab Cove, the CITs presented a skit about the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant from the 18^th chapter of Matthew.  This is a great story about how a king forgives a servant of an enormous monetary debt and that same servant goes out and demands payment from one of his friends for a much smaller debt. This story not only highlights human greed, but also the way we all seem to forget how we are forgiven by God ourselves and therefore we are not always eager to forgive each other. There was a good conversation about how we all hold grudges and find it hard to forgive people sometimes when they hurt our feelings - even if they have forgiven us, and totally forgetting that God forgives us every day.  Be-forgiving was a Beach Be-Attitude we all needed to work on.

 

Thursday’s theme was boldness and action - that which is required of all Christians.  We also planted flowers along the patio area, an act of kindness and good stewardship for our church grounds. Thursday’s story included the woman who was healed by touching the robe of Jesus and the story of Jarius and they were intertwined in our morning skit, just as they are in Luke 8.  Both the woman and Jarius have faith that Jesus can help heal them and their loved ones. Both of these characters are bold in asking Jesus for what they need and in believing that they will get their needs met.  The woman is healed and Jesus himself declares it is her boldness in faith that enables her to get well. Jarius believes in Jesus so much that he travels a long way to save his sick daughter.

 

This is a tougher conversation to have - how does each one of us express our faith to others? When are we bold in our faith?  We eventually decided we should tell others about our church and invite them to visit DCC. We want to be bold about being Christians, even though, in today’s modern society, the label “Christian” is not always a positive one.  We want to wear our VBC, Camp Caz and God is Still Speaking T-shirts around Danville and let people know about our open and affirming congregation.  Being bold takes courage, like the woman and like Jariius, and we hope to find ways to follow their example.

 

Friday came and no one could believe we had been at camp for a week. Our final story and theme came from the story of Thomas and Jesus, as told in John 20.  The disciples are in the Upper Room discussing the rumor that Jesus himself has risen from the dead. Thomas will not believe that story until he touches the actual wounds in Jesus’ hands. Jesus appears to the disciples and Thomas believes. However, Jesus has this to say:

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.  (John 20:29b)

 

We believe in a God we have not seen, none of us have touched the wounds in Jesus’ hands, but we still believe. We thought a lot that day about what it means to believe, how it feels and how our actions are influenced as a result of being believers. We decided that, if we believe, then we are called to be obedient, kind, forgiving and bold....just as the week of Vacation Bible Camp had taught us.

 

The theology of camp and our campers is inspiring. We are delighted to be able to continue to offer this program to our children and to have our youth so involved. This kind of interaction among the age groups is important to the younger ones as they look for role models in the youth. It is critical to our youth as they develop their own theology and become the new leaders of our church. It is a very powerful time for leaders such as myself and the other adults as we are reminded that our children and youth have a lot to teach us about God.

 

We are deeply grateful to this church community for helping to make this happen.

 

Thanks be to God.

 

Amen