May the
words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight,
O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.
Let us
pray, Lord God Heavenly Father!
Throughout the world and even here in Goodland Kansas there are many
people who are lost. These people we
sometimes meet at Wal-Mart, driving down the street, swimming at the pool or
even in line at the elevator or McDonald’s.
God use us to not let these people continue to be lost, but be found by
the Gospel message. Enable each of us to
proclaim and live the life of faith and the Gospel so they may be found by the
Gospel message of what Jesus Christ has done for all of us saints gathered here
at Emmanuel this morning. AMEN.
This past week
I had the opportunity to attend Confirmation Camp with four of our confirmation
students, Lily Mays who was confirmed earlier this year, Simon Bassett, Kasey
Stramel and Kate Zelfer. In the past our
confirmation kids would go to Sky Ranch outside of Fort Collins, CO for a week
of experiencing God high atop the mountains.
However, earlier this month a lightning strike started one of the worst
wildfires in Colorado’s history, known as the High Park Fire. As a direct result of the fire and for the
safety of the Sky Ranch staff and visitors, the entire camp was evacuated two
weeks ago. So this past week Sky Ranch
has been in exile and held at Highlands Presbyterian Camp in Allenspark, CO.
To say the
least the staff of Sky Ranch began the evacuation experience being ‘lost’ like
the sheep and the coins from our Gospel lesson this morning. In the face of adversity of only having
minutes to pack and evacuate, some Sky Ranch counselors and staff only escaped
with the clothes on their backs, were forced to leave all their personal
belongings, identification, vehicles and all their worldly possessions at camp
because there was no time for them to pack.
Every counselor and staff members main focus was the safety and
preparation and packing of and for the kids like Simon, Kasey, Lily and Kate
and insuring all of their belongings were taken down the mountain.
And so this
week the staff has experienced in an intense way what being lost is really
like. Where they had trained in
preparation for the summer season, the equipment used, the familiar
surroundings was gone because of the fire and their evacuation. But out of adversity the Gospel message of
Jesus Christ came just as the theme for the summer is, “Grace” in the form of a
place to be welcomed and called home.
Highlands Presbyterian Camp gave the greatest gift of Grace in welcoming
Sky Ranch and Lily, Simon, Kate and Kasey with welcome arms and fulfilled what
we heard about here at Emmanuel during our Vacation Bible School. The theme for both the week at Confirmation
Camp and our Vacation Bible School was GRACE meaning, “Giving and Receiving the
Assurance of Christ Everyday” and all of us who attended camp experienced God’s
grace throughout the week.
Every day we
learned more about the GRACE of God as a Gift, Our receipt of it, how it
changes us and how we are free to give it away every day to everyone we
meet. We also felt the grace offered by
Highlands and living out the message of grace and salvation for a group who
were lost and had lost our home.
But the
greatest impact was on Thursday night.
For the final worship at Highlands, all of the campers from Highlands
Presbyterian and Sky Ranch joined our hearts our souls and our voices together
to like our Gospel lesson says to rejoice.
Ironically as part of the worship two of the small groups from Highlands
performed skits as an illustration for our worship. And the Gospel lesson we heard proclaimed today
were the skits that were performed.
Clearly God’s message as portrayed by the children took on new meaning
for me and all of the campers and staff.
With both the parable of the lost coins and the parable of the lost
sheep all of us who worshiped didn’t experience the parables in the same way
they were told by Jesus, but we the ‘lost’ who were welcomed by Highland’s
celebrated the greatest gift given by Jesus Christ. We rejoiced that our God, Father, Son and
Holy Spirit sent Jesus Christ into this world to save all of us lost
creatures. And we the lost have been
found and now are enabled to rejoice and share the message of salvation of what
Jesus Christ did for all of us.
To be one of the lost is for some an unimaginable
thing, but clearly the experience that Sky Ranch and Highland’s has experienced
will clearly change our perspective.
That is exactly what this Gospel is trying to do, change our
perspective. Kate, Simon, Kasey and Lily
and I experienced in a new way what God’s grace is all about. We left here Sunday and had an experience
with the lost counselors of Sky Ranch and were welcomed at Highlands and
experienced the greatest manifestation of the gift of salvation of sharing the
Gospel of Jesus Christ with one another.
And we rejoiced with everyone, for we were lost, but now have been
found. For the Gospel was clearly lived,
shared and celebrated, not because, but in spite of the High Park fire and the
witness we experienced is God’s grace in action with our theme “Giving and
Receiving the Assurance of Christ Everyday”. For Sky Ranch and we the saints
here at Emmanuel have the opportunity to find the lost, give and receive the
grace of Christ because Jesus Christ freely died for all of mankind, including
all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel this morning. AMEN.
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