Introduction
Last Sunday through Wednesday our church sent four campers and two counselors to Jr. Camp at Camp Christian. I was privileged to be among them—along with my wife Julie, my daughter Violet, son A.J. and two other students—Ava Lazor and Arianna Fraley.
Now I have counseled a lot of camps but I have never counseled at a camp with students younger than high school and was worried how it would all go. I mean, I know how two kids that age can be, and so the thought of more than 50 of them all together was daunting to say the least. But I just kept telling myself, “It’s just til Wednesday. You’ll survive. Probably.”
So you’ll imagine my surprise when Wednesday arrived and I was kind of sad our time was coming to a close.
Not only were my fears unfounded, but the joy of being back at Camp Christian—and camps happening at all—and then to be there with my entire family and special friends, was incredible.
And what all of this has done has gotten me thinking and remembering all the time I spent at Camp Christian—the events, the stories, the antics, the songs, the classes, the Vesper and Consecration services, the laughter and tears. And of course, most of all, the friends.
Now it might be a shocker to some of you, that the main reason young people go to church camp is NOT for the classes or Vesper or Consecration services. Sure, they’re in the top five. Top ten. Well, it’s in the gamut of reasons that they go.
Ask campers who go to Camp Christian why they go and they will tell you a variety of reasons— the Ho-Down, the Talent Show, fishing, boating, chipped beef, to have fun, and so on.
But the main reason why students go to Camp Christian is to see their friends and make new ones because a camp friend is like no other friend.
Sure, they all have good friends beyond Camp Christian, friends that are true and loyal. But a camp friend is unique and special. A camp friend is one who shares beliefs, faith, the desire to grow closer to God in a world where faith and church is often viewed as a constraining way to live, even a waste of time.
A camp friend is a friendship that has been rooted in a mutual relationship with God. Which makes a camp friend unlike any other friend.
Move 1
The concept of friendship can take on many meanings in our world and can even have many conditions in our world.
In the “real world” to be a friend of someone can often times mean you have to have something that will be of benefit or of use to a person before they will be your friend.
Ask the young people of our church family and they will likely tell you that in the world of Jr. High and High School in order to be a friend to certain people you first have to look a certain way, act a certain way, and have a certain status in order to be a part of a particular circles of friends. Such criteria are not so different even in the adult world.
So what is a “friend”? Seems to be a fairly simply question. But when you really begin to try and answer it, and formulate a definition, it can become somewhat problematic.
Some years ago medium.com asked the question “What is a friend?” and offered a prize for the best definition. Among some of the thousands of responses received were these:
“A friend is one who multiplies joys, divides grief, and whose loyalty is unbreakable.”
“One who understands our silence.”
“A watch that beats true for all time and never runs down.”
The winning definition read: “A friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out.”
I really like and appreciate all of these definitions. But having just spent a few days at Camp Christian for Jr. Camp—after not being at camp for a while—I see now that none of those who responded to the “What is a friend?” definition competition, had ever been to camp at Camp Christian. I know this because had someone who had been to camp at Camp Christian submitted a definition, then it would have most assuredly been the winning definition.
I know this because if you ask any person who has spent a week at Camp Christian, you would get a response to “What is a friend?” unlike any other response.
You would get responses like:
“A friend will hug you and laugh with you even after you just embarrassed him in a ‘spirited’ game of gaga ball.”
“A friend is someone who doesn’t care how crazy you act or dress, and someone who doesn’t care if you make a fool of yourself in front of others.”
“A friend is someone who you meet at camp and became so close with in such short time that they will literally be there for you for life—even if you rarely see each other.” I have two such friends from my camp days. The three of us have only been together in the same place three times in the last twenty years—but we are literally, friends for life. We will all be together again in September when me and one of those friends co-officiates the wedding of the other friend.
*******
It is safe to say, that in whatever form the definition takes, the young people who spend time at Camp Christian will say their camp friends are their friends as long as they do one thing—accept them for who they are, because that is what they are going to do for you.
Acceptance without condition. That is the Camp Christian definition of friendship. And it is Jesus’ definition of friendship too.
Move 2
In our text for today Jesus says, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned I have made known to you.”
Now it should be noted, during this time period in history, a rabbi or teacher would have followers, and those followers were considered servants—not friends. But what Jesus is doing is he is changing the relationship he has with his disciples. He now calls them friends— calling them to not serve only him, but calling them to serve the world as he serves the world: with love for others.
It is important to remember that in our text for today, the Last Supper has already taken place and Jesus is headed for the Garden of Gethsemane, where he will pray, and then be arrested tired, convicted, and crucified. Therefore, what he is saying to them are among some of the last words Jesus will say to his disciples before he dies. And in saying such Jesus is telling them their relationship with God is now complete.
Jesus is sharing with them a deeper knowledge of God. He was taken them to a new level in their relationship, giving them something extremely special here and that if they’re not careful and faithful, they are going to completely miss it.
Move 3
Now, what I just told you is not new to you in any way shape or form. You might just be sitting there in your pew, or at home, thinking “‘Jesus is my friend’—thanks Rev. Tell us something we haven’t been told since we were kids”
Well, I know you all know this. Yes, you all learned it years ago in Vacation Bible School and Sunday school. You all are reminded of it each and every week when you come to church.
But the reason why I tell you again, and root this message in this particular scripture, is that Christ is not just telling us how to be his friends, but Christ is telling us how to be friends in the real world—in today’s world where “friendship” comes with a lot of conditions.
Jesus is telling us how to be friends in the real world that has countless rules and expectations—expectations that you have to look a certain way, act a certain way, and be a certain way before you will be accepted.
Christ is telling us we should not be a “real world” kind of friend. He is telling us, commanding us, that we be a friend like Christ is a friend to all—open, accepting, caring, compassionate, loving. Be that kind of friend to the world, share what you have come to know and experience through your mutual friendship with Jesus Christ, so that those around you in the “real world” will know it as well. Be that kind of friend and we change the world for the better.
Conclusion
“You are my friends.” It’s clearly stated right here in our text. Jesus was giving his Disciples himself, and the same relationship he has with God.
Jesus tells his disciples then and today, that he is—by any and all definitions—our friend. And there is no greater gift to be had.
Yes, it’s hard to be that kind of friend. It’s hard to be the kind of person who will accept someone else without condition. It’s hard to embrace someone who is different from us, or outside our circle, or has differing opinions from us. It is hard to call someone a friend who we barely know. But that is what it means to be a friend of God.
And so if it seems too hard, and you’re unsure how to be a friend of God to all, well, then just go and talk to someone whose been to Camp Christian—or remember your Camp Christian days, and then you’ll know exactly how to be the kind of friend Jesus is calling us to be. You’ll know again, how when we are friends of God and Christ Jesus, we change the world. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, July 25, 2021
God of love and grace, we know the command Jesus gives is simply put: Love each other. And the condition for friendship with Jesus is just as simple— that we follow his example.
We know we are meant to love others as Christ loves us and others—not to demand someone be a certain way or act or think like us. We are commanded to love one another as we are loved by you our Creator, and Christ Jesus our Savior.
We know when we have someone in our life that is our friend—a true friend, not a casual superficial friend—it is a bond like no other. True friends share one another’s hurts and hopes, dreams and dilemmas, joys and sorrows.
We know this connection between such friends mirrors the kind of relationship your Son, our Savior, wants to have with us; and us with others.
And we also know that at first glance this appears rather simplistic.
But how many times have you heard your children give some kind of condition on their friendship—especially to you? And if you don’t fulfill those conditions, how many times has the relationship with you be severed? How many times have you seen us do this not only with you, but with one another?
Help us Lord, to know just know how to be a friend, to not just know how you are always our friend, but to be a friend—a friend to you, a friend like Jesus to all.
Help us to see others as you see all— as holy and beloved— for in doing so, we have taken the first needed step of making someone friend.
With this help, we know, O God, that we will not only be fulfilling Jesus’ command, but we will be making the world more and more as you intend it to be.
We know you will hear our prayers O God, so we ask you would hear them now as we offer them in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of Christ Jesus, who taught us to pray, saying, “Our…”