July 13, 2014
***
Ebenezer tried something
new this week—Camp in a Van. Three counselors from Clearwater Forest
Presbyterian Camp—Rachel, Martin and Jeremy—arrived last Sunday afternoon in
their van packed with almost everything they needed to bring the Christian camp
experience to us. And for 5 days, they lived among us, ate with us, laughed
with us, and shared our common lot. Martin and Jeremy stayed with Carol and Tim
and Rachel stayed with Lawrence and Alice. They led us on adventures, making God’s
Word come alive through “Bible Quests,” stories, crafts, songs, and more. The
children enjoyed outdoor running games, such as “Steal the Bacon” and they
painted “rock friends.” They giggled and got messy and sweaty! No one said they
were bored! On Friday, they played water games, and most everyone, including
the counselors, got wet.
My favorite time was worship. They gathered for worship at the beginning
and end of each day in a variety of places—the sanctuary, the balcony; the
stage in the fellowship hall and, on Friday, in the parking lot. Martin
strummed his guitar and Rachel and Jeremy taught the words and motions to the
songs. Worship included simple skits, such as on the first day when “Jesus”
called Rachel on the phone and said he was coming to her house. And while she
was cleaning house, her needy neighbors (all of them played by Martin with
different voices) kept knocking on her door—only to be sent away because she
was too busy getting ready for Jesus. At the end, Jesus called Rachel on the
phone again to tell her that he was actually all of the needy neighbors
knocking on her door—and she had sent him away because she was too busy
“getting ready” for Him.
My favorite part of the program was when the counselors and children
prayed. The counselors didn’t use quiet, somber voices while the children sat
passively, looking sad. The children were smiling and eager to participate in
these simple, joyful, conversational prayers of praise and thanksgiving. Some
prayers had themes and actions, such as the “body-builder’s prayer.” Children
pretended to be lifting weights—and even gave thanks to God for their barbells!
I liked that the counselors showed the children that it was OK to be playful when
we give thanks for our food, teaching them to sing the Superman, Batman, Jaws, and other graces before they ate their snacks.
But there were more serious moments, too. One very touching time of
prayer was when Jeremy led a “prayer web.” He held onto the end of a ball of
pink yarn and tossed it to a child who wanted to add words to the prayer. Then
that child hung onto the piece of yarn Jeremy still held and tossed the ball to
the next child who wanted to share. Before long, they were tangled in the
“prayer web”—connected to one another, Jeremy said, through their relationships
with one another and with God. He prayed that our relationships would continue
to grow throughout the program—and beyond.
***
In our reading in I John chapter 2 today, we learn how the way we live
is connected to our knowledge of God and our relationship with Him. We began
our study of I John last Sunday by discussing who the author might be, the date
of composition and the audience. Since we can’t know for sure because the original
writings did not have author’s name, date or titles, we decided to go along
with scholars who say that because of the many similarities in structure,
thought, and vocabulary, the author of the gospel of John may also have written
1, 2, and 3 John. This author may have been John, the disciple of Christ, or
one of John’s students. Modern scholarship holds that 1, 2, and 3 John
may have been written around 100 A.D. (about 10 years after John’s gospel), but
not necessarily in the order they appear in the Bible. The original audience may
have been a church that met in people’s homes in Ephesus, a coastal city in present
day Turkey.
If it were indeed John, the disciple, who wrote 1, 2 and 3 John, then he
would have been an elderly man—at least in his 80s or 90s—when he wrote to his struggling
congregation in the aftermath of a conflict that resulted in some people
leaving the church. The beginning of chapter 2 supports the view of the author
as an aging pastor, who uses affectionate, paternal language. “My little children,” he says, “I am writing these things to you so that
you may not sin.” He uses other endearing terms throughout this chapter, conveying
the close relationships he is nurturing with these house-church believers. He uses
“little children” again in verses 12 and 28, “children” in verses 14 and 18, “young people”
in verses 13 and 14, and “beloved” in verse 7.
That John is stirred to write and warn the church about the threat of
“antichrists” points to his belief that this conflict has left his flock vulnerable.
This is the only place in the NT you will find “antichrist” or “antichrists.” We
don’t know to whom John refers when he says, “As you have heard that antichrist is coming,” or why it
leads him to believe they are in the “last hour”—or what he really means by
that. He may have believed as so many 1st Century Christians did that
Jesus would return within their lifetimes. Although they don’t know the origin
of the word, scholars doubt that John invented the term as he uses it without
explanation, as if it is in common usage. In verse 19, John writes of the
antichrists who deny that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, “They went out
from us; they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would
have remained with us.”
In commentaries on 1 John, the first two
verses of chapter 2 are grouped with the end of the first chapter; the chapter
divisions added in modern times are not always reliable indicators of the
beginnings and endings of a passage. So when John, in I John 2, says, “I am
writing these things,” he is very likely summing up and not introducing a new
topic. Listen to the reading when the first two verses of chapter 2 are moved
to the end of chapter 1.
Beginning at I John 1:9, “If we
confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make
him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these
things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the atoning
sacrifice for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole
world.”
The third verse in 1 John 2, then, is a new but related topic—obedience to
God. “Now by this we may be sure that we
know him, if we obey his commandments.” But what
does it mean to know God and what commandments is John talking about?
The theme of knowing is important to John. He uses the word for knowing
(ginoskein) 25 times in 1 John; 56
times in the gospel of John, as in 1:10, “He
was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did
not know him.” Ginoskein isn’t
just knowing about something; it is “experiential
knowledge gained through (our) effort.” [1]
So learning about Jesus isn’t the same as “knowing” Christ. “Knowing” means
being in relationship with Him.
In verse 3 we encounter the first of 18 times that John uses the word commandment—entole—in 1, 2 and 3 John; 14 times in 1
John alone. Most of the time it’s singular in 1 John, as in verses 7 and 8 when
he refers to the “new” commandment that isn’t really new. He is talking about Jesus’s
command to his disciples in John 13:34 before he is betrayed and arrested, “I
give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also
should love one another.” Jesus’s
commandment may also be the greatest commandment of which our Lord spoke. In
Matthew 22:25-40, we read, “Then
one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Jesus a
question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the
great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is
the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the
law and the prophets.” Here in 1 John, which is in its entirety a call
to love because we are God’s “beloved,” we can safely assume that the
commandment John speaks of is to love. First John 2:5 says, “but whoever obeys his word, truly in this
person the love of God has reached perfection.”
The word translated “obey” (terein)
in verse 3 (obey his commandments)
also means “keep.” When we keep something, we hold onto it and watch it
closely. We keep things that are valuable and we may be fearful of losing them.
“Keeping commandments” (plural) doesn’t specifically refer to the Ten
Commandments. “Keeping commandments” is an idiom, a figure of speech, which one
scholar interprets as “realizing in one’s life what those commandments ask.” [2]
Proverbs 19:16 assures us, “The person who keeps the commandments keeps his own
soul.” What does the Lord require of us? Like Micah 6:8 in The Message says, “But he’s already made it plain
how to live, what to do, what God is
looking for in men and women. It’s quite
simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously—take God
seriously.”
***
During the days and weeks leading up to
Camp in a Van, some people worried we wouldn’t have enough children to have the
program. Only a dozen or so kids were registered. And yet, we felt excited at
the prospect of sharing Christ with the children in our community in a new way.
You see, it doesn’t matter if we have only a few children or many; we are
called to be faithful to serve whomever the Lord brings to us and to do whatever form of
ministry the Lord calls us to. He will lead us to care for people in need.
And the Lord was faithful to use us. He brought us 16 to 20 students and
the volunteers we needed. Two of the students liked Camp in a Van so much that
they are planning to go away for a week this summer to the actual camp in
Deerwood, MN. We trusted it was the Lord’s will to host this new program—and we
obeyed. We took a leap of faith. We wanted to please the Lord and keep His
commandments. To live as God wanted us to live.
Friends, don’t love the world. Don’t walk in darkness. Trust God, obey
God, abide in God. Walk in the truth, walk as He walked, anointed and led by
the Spirit. Embrace the promise of new and everlasting life. When the program
ended Friday night, we all found it hard to say goodbye to Martin, Jeremy and
Rachel. We had truly become connected with them, like Jeremy had requested of
the Lord the day the children made a prayer web with pink yarn. We had come to
know one another and had grown in love for one another while we sought to know
and love God more.
Will you pray with me?
Holy One, we thank you for the wonderful
experiences we shared this week with Camp in a Van. Thank you for Rachel,
Martin and Jeremy and for all our faithful volunteers who worked so hard. Thank
you, Lord, for the children that you have brought us to nurture and raise up in
your loving ways. Grow the seeds of faith that may have taken root in their
hearts this week. Thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, who has made a way for
us to be forgiven of all our sins—and enjoy eternal life with You. Guide us in
your Will. Lead us to trust and obey. In Christ we pray. Amen.
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