Christ Episcopal Church
June 2, 2013
2 Pentecost C-Procter Sunday
Last Sunday, as many of you know, Don and I were at our son Slocomb’s wedding. The wedding was at Procter Camp and was a wonderful celebration of both Slocomb and Leslie’s love and commitment to each other, and of the communities that raised them and brought them to this point in their lives. Certainly, for Slocomb, Procter Camp has been an important part of that journey. He was a camper for a number of summers, on the grounds crew one summer, was a counselor for three summers, and has arranged his calendar around family camp ever since. Once Leslie became a part of his life, she became a family camper, arranging her summer around a trip to Procter each year. So when the time came to pick a spot for their wedding, Procter was a natural choice. Procter had the ambiance, the memories, the friendships, and the unique Procter experience of God they wanted for their wedding.
Coincidentally, today is Procter Sunday at Christ Church. Each year on or about the first Sunday in June, the Procter Summer Camp staff comes to Christ Church with their music and stays for coffee hour to talk with both adults and children about Procter Camp. The counselors talk about the games we play at Procter, the food we eat, the unique way that we say or sing the blessings for the meals, and the way we engage the children in worship and Christian formation activities. But the reason I invite the camp staff year after year has nothing to do with the great activities at camp, or the good food, or the meaningful worship, as wonderful as all of those things are. This will be my 16th summer at Procter Camp as a chaplain. As a priest, and as a parent for that matter, I am committed to Procter Camp for yet another reason.
In all three of our readings this morning, God’s people are wrestling with the question "How do we know what is of God." In the reading from I Kings, the people want to know whether Baal or the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the real God. What is of God and what is not? The people in I Kings figure this out by preparing two bulls. The people of Baal call upon their god and the Israelites call upon the God of their ancestors, and the god that answers with fire is, indeed, God. While we might often wish for a way to determine what is of God and what is not that is this simple and straightforward, animal sacrifice is not part of our contemporary decision making process.
In the reading from Galatians, the apostle Paul is livid with the Galatian Christians. Paul founded the church in Galatia, a Gentile Church, and converted them directly to Christianity, teaching them that they are a new creation in Christ and do not have to follow the Jewish law in order to become Christians. But after Paul left, other Christians came to Galatia and taught the Galatians that they must first become Jews before becoming Christians. The Galatians believed them and turned their backs on the gospel Paul had preached, believing that they must follow the Jewish laws and dietary regulations in order to be followers of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. Paul is furious and I imagine the Galatians are confused. How are the Galatians to know what is of God and what is not?
In the gospel reading, we hear of the faith of the Roman centurion as he seeks healing from Jesus for his slave. The Roman Centurion’s faith is so deep that he does not need Jesus to come to his house. If Jesus only speaks the word, even from a distance, the Centurion knows that his slave will be healed. How does he know that? How does this Roman know to send word to Jesus? How does he know that Jesus is not just another false prophet? How does this Roman know what is of God and what is not?
How do we know what is of God and what is not? The reality is that we spend our lifetimes working on this question. Sometimes we are successful and sometimes we are less so. But while we do not have a ritual like the people in I Kings, we certainly do have tools to help us on this journey. These tools are things like Scripture, prayer, communities of faith and the experiences of others, and practice. When we make big decisions, and try to determine what is of God and what is not, we do not make those decisions in a vacuum. We do so with prayer, in consultation with trusted family and friends, based on our understanding of Scripture, and over time, we get more and more practice figuring out what is of God and what is not.
I am a supporter of Procter Camp because at Procter Camp we live together for a week and as a community, we practice using the tools of our faith to answer this most basic question. When we want our children to become better athletes, we send them to sports camps in the summer where they have a chance to practice their skills with experienced coaches, ask questions about the game, learn how to handle situations as they come up, and become better players. When we want our children to become better musicians or more fluent in a foreign language, likewise we sent them to those camps, where they practice their skills, learn from each other and experienced teachers, learn how to recover from mistakes, and have some fun along the way. Do our children come home from a week of soccer camp, or language camp, or band camp a perfect player? Of course not. They continue with weekly lessons and lots of practice. So, when we want our children to be better Christians, to be better able to determine what is of God and what is not, we provide them with a safe place and a week of living in Christian community to learn from each other and experienced teachers, to practice, to learn how to admit mistakes and ask forgiveness, to learn to use the tools of our tradition-prayer, scripture, community-to discern what is of God and what is not. Will we send your child home as a perfectly formed Christian? No. Will your child still need weekly lessons and lots of practice? Yes, just like all of us. And we are called as a congregation to be a community of faith that provides that ongoing opportunity for practice.
What is of God and what is not? The people in the Bible teach us that answering this question is not always easy. We will make mistakes along the way. We will need experienced teachers to guide us and communities of faith in which to practice. And over and over again, Scripture reminds us that God loves us simply because we are God’s children, and what God asks is that we practice being those children.
Amen.
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