Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

“For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one's foes will be members of one's own household.” Is that supposed to be good news? At the same time the scripture is a fair description of the intractable factionalism of our society today. It’s also one of those passages that creates a tension that forces us to consider our priorities, it causes us discomfort, makes us consider what we should be doing differently. It inspires me to take action, but often my immediate response to my inspiration is that either I or someone should take control and fix or control things.

And I assure you that that is not the answer.

Last week after becoming exhausted and sick of watching the news and trying to figure out in my own mind what should be done, what I could be doing about all of this societal strife if somehow I was in control of everything, I took a mental break and began to think of simpler, more tranquil times . I recalled a profound experience that occurred when I volunteered to serve as the chaplain for a week at Camp Mitchell. Now, many years before I had served as the program director, and when I was in charge of the camp way back when, I ran a pretty tight ship. I was an absolute terror. My camp name was “Killer.” I required that counselors and volunteers sign for any supplies or equipment and if the items weren’t checked back in I’d come looking for you. I didn’t put up with any nonsense from the college age staff even though I was only a few years older than they were. And I required that everything run smoothly every day, every week.

Going back after many years to serve as a chaplain and not being in charge of the entire operation was quite a transition for me. I spent a great deal of energy trying not to be the camp program director. I kept seeing things I wanted to respond to and correct, counselors that I thought weren't doing their jobs, or schedules that really weren't arranged the way I thought they should be. I thought how do they expect to do the wonderful things we did here if they don't do things correctly (the way I thought things should be done).

I walked around all week with these thoughts about how I would change things back to how they were in my golden era. Golden eras are nice to reminisce about, but they can be dangerous if they blind us to new directions that God is calling us to. Of course when someone would ask I would say I thought the camp was going great. And that was true in one sense, but I just thought it would be much greater if I was in charge, that somehow people's needs would be met, that ministry would really happen more productively. The blind would see and the lame would walk if I was calling the shots and in control.

I would have gone all week this way, except for a moment of grace that God allowed about the third day when a former camp volunteer came by for a visit. I remembered him immediately, I could never forget him. Tom had suffered from severe clinical depression. After being hospitalized for several months, his father came to Camp Mitchell and asked me if Tom could come and volunteer in the kitchen. I felt nervous and awkward, and I really wanted to say no. Tom was so withdrawn that he didn't even speak more than a word or two. But, I said that we would give him a week like any other volunteer and if he worked out he could stay for the summer season. If not he would leave. Tom was so withdrawn that my other staff members were afraid of him. He looked scary with the thickest beard I’d ever seen and this intense look on his face. But, the week passed and he did a great job in the kitchen. And as the summer progressed, he began to come out of his shell. By the end of the summer he was a different person; he was talking and laughing and even performing in the weekly talent show.

When he left Camp Mitchell, he went on to culinary school. That day he came back to visit he told me that he was employed full-time and was in the process of buying his own home. Tom’s case was nothing less than a miracle, and I would like to take credit for it, but I can't. The real minister in this case was our camp cook, Bertha Simmons, a woman who oversalted the food, and committed any number of culinary tragedies. But Bertha was present for Tom. She teased and cajoled him out of his shell of pain and darkness. She loved him by treating him like any other human being and expecting the best out of him.

Tom's miracle is why we have ministries like church camp. It's what we hope for. And yet it had nothing to do with the quality of the program that summer, whether there were schedules that clicked along perfectly or camp counselors who performed like I thought they should perform. Tom was ministered to by persons who didn't even plan to minister to him but simply responded to his need out of their being, and by the power of the Holy Spirit that was enough. Not because there was some planned program for his situation, but because people reached out and offered him some hope in a form other than just words, out of their being they created a place for Tom to be.

Tom reminded me just how important it is to let go of our efforts long enough to allow God's Grace and Holy Spirit to work. Tom reminded me that sometimes, probably most of the time, what really needs to be done or said will be given to us if we will let go and allow the Spirit of God to work through us. He reminded me that the words that should be said or the things that should be done occur most often, not when we generate or control them, but when we are supple and willing servants who respond to God as God works through the very core of our being.

Seeing Tom that day called me to remember that God really is in charge, that God really does know each one of us by name and even knows the number of hairs on our head. That memory reminds me today that even amidst social turmoil, an unjust world, and a dysfunctional political arena that God is still in charge, that God really is the creator who continues to create and hasn’t finished with any of us yet. May God give us the grace to allow God’s Holy Spirit to work in our lives in such a way that ministry is not work or drudgery, but rather true ministry that flows out of the core of our being and changes the world. AMEN

The Rev. Dr. Dennis Campbell