Priorities (Amos 8)

 As many of you know, I spent most of this past week co-directing church camp at Loch Leven, the camp and retreat center owned and operated by Bixby Knolls Christian Church and the other 100+ congregations of the Pacific Southwest Region.

The campers were young: first, second, and third grade. I’ve never been to camp with campers this young! 

Fortunately I had some amazing people to work with. My co-director, Cathy Perring, is an experienced Worship and Wonder facilitator, which made our morning keynote times meaningful for the campers and even for the counselors. 

Susan Gonzales Dewey, our former regional co-minister, was our camp chaplain; and our counselors included her husband and our other former regional co-minister, Don Dewey. 

T.J. Hillig also brought his unique and growing set of skills and talents to our staff, as did others - some of whom I had known previously, and others who I met for the first time.

And let me tell you: the campers we had were incredible. We had fourteen 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders who all experienced such incredible growth in understanding themselves as beautiful, beloved, children of God, and they quickly learned to share that love and to affirm one another - even when they were playing games that had them competing against one another.

When I counsel or direct camp, I set a pretty high goal for myself: I want this week at camp to be the best week of the year in campers’ lives, and I want their lives to be forever changed because of their time at camp. That sounds like an impossible goal, and for me to achieve it on my own it would be impossible, but God does amazing things at camp. 

And that’s why I keep going back.

It takes a lot of work to make camp happen. This year, it took even more work than usual. 

The COVID pandemic has made everything harder for all of us. On top of that, the El Dorado Wildfire in September 2020 affected Loch Leven, damaging part of the camp’s water system. These two events both happened just months after our previous camp manager unexpectedly resigned, which means leadership at the camp was lacking. And for the past two and a half years, the camp sat empty, unused, and in many ways neglected.

Any one of these four things would have presented a challenge, but to have all of them happen during the same time period was almost overwhelming. 

This past year, our regional board made the decision to enter into a partnership with United Camps, Conferences, and Retreats - also known as UCCR - a nonprofit organization that manages camps for their owners. UCCR was started by Disciples and for many years has operated the northern California region’s camp property, where I helped run camps in the years before I came back to the Pacific Southwest region, so I have prior experience with their management.

Since the beginning of this year, UCCR has been working hard to fix all the things at Loch Leven that needed to be fixed before we could resume camp. 

The list was long. Items on the list needed to be prioritized, and the most important things were worked on first: the road leading into camp was repaved, which provided access for equipment needed for other projects. It also made camp safer overall, since emergency vehicles such as firetrucks and ambulances could also more easily and quickly access the camp should they be needed.

The water system was repaired and made functional once again. That is essential, because if there’s no water, there’s no camp.

Flooring was replaced and cabins were cleaned, and in some cases, painted. Some of the furniture was replaced.

In short, a lot of work took place in just a few months, so that we could have camp this summer.

But because the list was long and needed to be prioritized, some projects and tasks had to be left uncompleted.

The meadow has no grass. After two years of neglect, it’s just dirt and a few dead weeds.

The tree climbing activities are not available… and neither was archery, at least not last week.

And this is disappointing, because many returning campers love these activities. 

But like I said, the list of projects and tasks had to be prioritized, and the important ones - the ones essential to having camp at all - had to be at the top of the list. With more hard work and the generous support of congregations and church members, hopefully more items on the list will get completed for next year.

And because those high-priority tasks were completed, we were able to have camp. And my mini campers were able to experience the life-changing wonder and joy and affirmation and spiritual growth that camp offers. And so were the junior campers who were at camp with us. And so were the chi-rho campers earlier in the summer. 

And so will our CYF campers - which includes Rajal and Rahail - be able to experience camp this summer. Nothing in this day and age is ever for sure, and I do know of some camps in other parts of the country that have had to cancel sessions because of COVID, so I invite you to join with me in offering ongoing prayers that our summer camp season can have a successful end with CYF camp.

I am thankful that UCCR took the time to prioritize the tasks that needed to be accomplished, because otherwise camp wouldn’t have taken place at all. Making lists of priorities is a good exercise. I know that too often I focus on accomplishing tasks that really aren’t that important, leaving more important tasks undone. I don’t always get my priorities right. 

Or, I’ll get started on an important task, but then I’ll take a break, and before you know it, a less-important task has distracted me and pulled me away from my more-important task. It really is helpful to have a list of priorities to guide me, and someone who can hold me accountable to that list, to say, “Why are you focusing on this less-important task when you have neglected what is most important?”

One way you could look at the work we do with children and youth in the church - and at camp - is to help them reorient their lives according to God’s priorities. In other words, to help them live lives that are focused on the things that are most important to God.

And the Bible is very helpful in letting us know just what is at the top of God’s priority list. Someone even asked Jesus once: “What is the most important command?”

And Jesus replied: “The most important command is that you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.”

And that is what we try to teach our children and youth at camp, at church, in Worship & Wonder, at VBS, and anytime we have children and youth present: Love God wholly, completely, with all of who you are. Let your love for God be present and evident in every aspect of your life.

Jesus also said there is a second command that is very much like the first, and almost as important: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus said that these two commands: Love God, and love your neighbor - are the two commands on which all the other commands hang. I think Jesus was picturing a door with two hinges. The two hinges are the two commands, to love God, and to love one’s neighbor. These are the two priorities. You can’t have a working door without these two hinges. To focus on anything else without focusing on these two commands is to get your priorities out of order.

And boy, have God’s people gotten their priorities out of order. In just about every generation. 

Throughout scripture, we see that love for one’s neighbor is expressed by implementing justice, and by making sure that no person is neglected, forgotten, or excluded. 

In today’s reading from Amos, we see that the leaders and rulers and businesspeople have prioritized wealth and commerce and the economy over loving God and loving their neighbor. 

The religious observances that are meant to help people remember to love God, they find annoying. 

They can’t wait for these holidays to be over, so they can go back to business, making their profits, and even cheating their customers so they can get even more money for themselves.

We have the exact same problem with misplaced priorities today. People care more about the economy and the stock market than they do about justice, about doing what is right for the poor. They neglect the poor - perhaps I should say, we neglect the poor - just so we can see our own income grow. 

It bugs me every time I hear about a survey that shows that, for most Americans, the economy is the number one issue. People are saying that the next election may be decided by people’s opinions on the price of gas. 

Now, I don’t like high gas prices. I don’t like inflation. But what about justice? What about the poor? What about the millions living in poverty? 

Doesn’t “loving one’s neighbor as oneself” mean that we prioritize the wellbeing of others as much as we prioritize our own wellbeing? 

Voting rights are being taken away from poor people and Black people and Brown people. In many states, voter registration rolls have been purged, and districts have been so gerrymandered to ensure that an oppressive minority is made that much more likely to rule with power, while the oppressed majority is further oppressed and neglected and cast aside. 

And this is being done by people who claim to be Christian, who even claim that this is a Christian nation - all while they ignore the priorities set forth by Jesus, to love God and love one’s neighbor as oneself. 

Amos does not regard those who do such things favorably. Neither does Micah, or Hosea, or Isaiah, or Ezekiel, or any of the other Biblical prophets. And neither does Jesus; he also frequently condemns those who do not treat the poor with kindness and justice, and who therefore fail to love their neighbor. 

There are also many Christians today who move other issues that really aren’t a priority for God to the top of the list, above even love for one’s neighbor. A lot of what some Christians say about sex and sexuality comes to mind, and even a lot of what some Christians say about abortion. 

Why do some Christians talk so much about what the Bible says so little about, and why do they talk so little about what the Bible says so much about? Their priorities are completely out of whack.

Love God. Love one’s neighbor. These are the priorities. 

And they are implemented by doing justice. They are implemented by bringing good news to the poor, and freedom to the oppressed. They are implemented when we show love and affirmation to every individual - especially those who have been excluded, cast out, or condemned. 

These are God’s priorities. These are at the top of God’s list.

And I know we’re not perfect, but I am thankful that at Bixby Knolls Christian Church, and at Loch Leven, and in the Disciples of Christ, we really are trying to get our priorities right, and that we’re teaching our children to do the same - all as we try to be the church we say we are: a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.