Prepare for Something that is Bigger than You!
Text - Ephesians 2:1-11
Philippians 2:1-11
1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Watch Movie Clip: Like first 2 minutes.. so, Pier scene, and then dancing, and praying, with awesome music in the background…
Let us pray:
Creating, Redeeming, and Sustaining God, Hide me behind the Cross of Christ, your son, so that I can fall into the shadows so he can emerge. Let the words that I speak tonight, and the meditations of all of our hearts, be good, pleasing, and acceptable to your will, O God, our Rock, and our Redeemer.
Amen.
Every acre of camp is sacred ground.
Ira Barnett.
This summer you are entering into something that is bigger than you are. You are entering into the story of Warren W. Willis United Methodist Camp, and this story is a rich and wonderful story of God’s love. You are called here by God and you are supposed to be here! In Philippians, Chapter 2, we hear Paul saying that we need to be like Christ. We need to have one mind with Christ Jesus! At camp you have the opportunity to enter into a story where team members, for the past 61 years, have sought to be one in mind, with Christ Jesus. They were able to do this because they were able to serve. They were able to look at the interests of other team members and the interests of campers over themselves. In order to be like Christ, and in order to serve Christ in this place, you must not serve yourself. You are not here for yourself.
This summer is not about you! This summer is about being a Servant. This summer is about being a part of something that is so much bigger than you are! What is it about the story and history of Warren W. Willis camp that allows you to be a servant?
Team Leadership
This summer you have the opportunity to serve on an awesome leadership team. You may some find of your best friends on team, you may not. But this summer you are all together, living in community. It is your job to serve another. It is your job to love another as Christ loved you. Friendship is only true and authentic friendship if Christ is at the center of the friendship. This goes with any relationship. If Christ is not at the center, and if you are in the relationship to only gain benefit, then it is not a true, authentic relationship. This summer other team members will feel left out, let down, tired, overwhelmed, sad, fed up, you get what I’m saying. You yourself will feel this way. During Orientation Week and on the weekends when you get time off site, if you see a fellow team member down and out, go to that team member and love them with the love of Christ. Later this week, we will work on a covenant that is the basis of our community, but know that you are here to serve each other, especially at the times when the campers are not here. So, the relationships you form here, can allow you to be a servant of Christ as you look out for the interests of others on team.
Radical History of Inclusion and Love
You also enter into a story that is radical. You are able to serve Christ when you love with a love that is radical. I am not sure how many of you have seen the camp history video celebrating 60 years of ministry here at Warren Willis but if you have seen it, you will have heard the story I’m about to tell.
Back in the 50s and 60s when segregation was still alive and thriving, it was against Methodist policy for African American pastors and campers to come to a “white” camp. This thought was so unpopular that when Reverend Warren Willis invited members from the Central Jurisdiction (this was the African American part of the Methodist Church, yes there was a separate jurisdiction for African Americans) a prominent public figure, sheriff McCall, said that if the camp voluntarily allowed black people onto camp property, he would come himself and lock everyone in the camp. Warren Willis, a man of radical love, did not listen and invited churches in the central jurisdiction to come to camp. He invited African American pastors to come and talk and share the love of Christ. He did this even though it was illegal and he did this knowing that it was unpopular.
This summer you are entering into this history of radical love and inclusion. The body of Christ is diverse, and yet we are all one body, and we are called to love each other. There are team members that are different and will feel excluded, there will be campers that are different and will feel excluded. The sad thing is that this exclusion happens because of their skin color, how rich or poor they are, their sexuality, their gender, whether they have a disability or not, their awkwardness, I could go on. But you have the chance to serve those who are not like you. You have the chance to love those who are excluded because that is what being in the Body of Christ is all about. If we are all one body, then why should anyone be excluded from the body of Christ??? In 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about the Body of Christ, and how even though the body is diverse, it is still one body, yet each member has a part in the body. Furthermore, the weak, the excluded, the vulnerable, these members of the body serve a greater function, and often times bring the strong, the mighty, the powerful, the popular, back to the ground. Therefore to serve as Christ served and to live as Christ lived means you are to serve those who are not like you. You are to serve and love those who other people might cast off. Warren Willis UM camp has sought to include those who are different in the past, it is your job to include and serve those who are different in the present. So love and serve those who are different.
You are first and foremost here to serve the campers!!!!
Finally, you are not here for yourself, you are first and foremost here for the campers. You are here so that they can know the love of Christ. You are here so they can know that Christ is real and that Christ is an ever present reality in their lives. In the Video of camp history, Professor Wait Willis says this about his dad, Warren Willis,
“My Father made clear what our job was at camp, of course we were here to have a good time, but we were here as servants. We were here to serve the campers, and we were to serve them in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
You are preparing yourself this summer for something that is so much bigger than YOU! You are here this summer to serve these campers! You are here to love them with the love of Christ.
Many of these campers will have never heard of Jesus Christ, or the love and salvation that he has to offer them. Many of these campers will have come from broken homes and they may never experience love at home. Many of these campers come from environments that some of us would never ever step foot in, and yet they are here this summer, and we are called to serve them. Some of these campers are awkward, some will smell, some will get on your nerves, some will be loud and obnoxious, some will hate you, some will love you, some will cling to you, but what you need to remember is that all of these campers are beloved children of the Triune God and they need to be treated as such.
This camp is a place where campers will be transformed for the first time because the coolest camp counselor in the world shared with them what it means to have Christ in their lives.
This camp is a place where campers come and they realize that they are children of God, but they have not been living as a children of God. In a moment of clarity and because of the service of you all, campers realize that they are called to be a disciples of Jesus Christ in a world where being a disciple of Jesus Christ is unpopular.
This camp is a place where a girl may be sitting in chapel and she realizes her call to ordained ministry. This is a calling God has placed on her but she realizes it because she has recognized what it means to be in ministry when she sees all of the awesome team members in ministry.
This camp is a place where a camper might come from a life where he is all alone. No one knows his name, no one knows his story, no one cares enough about him to ask him how he is doing. He feels unloved, uncared for, and he is bitter. But he comes to camp, and he meets the coolest counselors ever and they make him feel like he is loved. They listen to his story, they ask him how he is doing, and they know his name. He feels love, he feels cared for, and he finds a bit of healing in his life, which is totally broken.
This is what camp is about. It is about you being servants to these kids! It is about you being servants for each other. It is about you loving the unlovealbes, and including those who feel left out. Camp is about you becoming a servant of all, so that you can be in one mind with Christ Jesus. This servant hood is foolish. This servant hood is not easy all the time, but this servant hood brings Joy! This servant hood brings the Joy of Christ. When you experience the camper who “get’s it” for the first time; when you hear the camper say, “you’ve loved me and I’ve never known what love is”; when you hear the camper say, “I want to start living my life like Christ”; When you hear the camper say, “ I think God is calling me to be a full time minister”: When you hear the camper say, “You have helped me to realize that God loves me no matter what I do, no matter who I am, no matter what people tell me I am, I know that God loves me because you loved me and Christ loves me.” That is what it is all about. It is soooooooooo much bigger than you. You just have to step into the role of servant and start serving the God that created you. You have to become like Christ. And I promise, you will find Joy!
Amen.
