Sermon: “No Equipment Needed”
It’s hard to believe that our 2024 church camp season is mostly over. JYF, Chi-Rho, CYF, You & Me, and Beginners have all taken place.
There is a weekend young adult camp happening July 26-28, and a Family Camp over Labor Day weekend, but the core youth camps have all concluded.
When youth go to camp, they don’t come home the same. For the most part, that’s a good thing. At camp, kids learn to live in community, they experience intense spiritual growth, and they develop a greater understanding of themselves as well as of God, and what God is calling them to do and be in the world.
In all these ways, they come home changed.
Jesus had changed a lot since the last time he was at home. In the time since he was home last, he had been baptized; he had spent 40 days in the wilderness, guided by the Spirit and facing temptation; and he had begun his ministry.
That’s a lot.
In many ways, Jesus was no longer the same person now than he was when he left home. He had grown, matured, and gained a greater understanding of his identity and his purpose. Kind of like our youth when they come home from camp, but even more so.
When Jesus returned to his home village, he went to the synagogue and began to teach, and the people who knew him (which was everyone, since Nazareth was such a small village) weren’t quite sure what to make of him.
Jesus taught with authority, and they weren’t sure how to receive an authoritative teaching from one they had once taught. They were offended by his audacity. “Who does he think he is?” they asked. They couldn’t see that he was still the same Jesus they knew, but that he had matured, grown, gained new understanding and wisdom. They couldn’t accept that this one who they had taught now wanted to teach them.
A few months ago, when we had our Youth Sunday worship, I watched how this congregation reacted to the leadership of our youth, many of whom had gone to camp in past years, and many of whom had had other experiences that allowed them to grow in wisdom and understanding. I saw how this congregation accepted and welcomed their leadership, and was even willing to learn from those whom we have taught and raised, many from the day they were born.
What a blessing it is to learn from and be taught by those we once taught and helped raise. It’s too bad the people of Nazareth missed out on that blessing.
So Jesus left Nazareth, and went to some of the other villages in the area. His twelve disciples were with him, watching him, learning from him… and then Jesus sent them out on their own, without him. They were ready, although they may not have felt ready. Does a baby bird ever feel ready to fly the first time it leaps out of the nest?
When my boys were in boy scouts, I’d watch their boy scout troop elect a new senior patrol leader every six months. In a boy scout troop, the senior patrol leader is the one scout who runs the meetings. He’s the one in charge.
And every time they elected one of their own to lead them, I’d look at the scout they chose, and think: “Oh, he’s not ready. He’s too young, he doesn’t yet have the experience he needs to lead…”
And everytime, I was proven wrong. Every time!
It’s true, there was a bit of a learning curve,
and they did make some mistakes. But every time, they grew into their role as senior patrol leader, and did a far better job than I would have predicted.
I think it was the same with the disciples. They may not have felt ready, but Jesus was sending them out anyway. He knew that they would make some mistakes, he knew they still had some things to learn, but he also knew that now was the time for them to take that leap, leave the nest, and learn how to fly.
I wonder how many of you who were elected officers last week feel the same. Some of you were elected board officers, some of you were elected elders and deacons… some of you for the first time. Maybe you don’t feel ready. Maybe you don’t feel like you have enough experience yet, or that you don’t know all that you need to know.
Well, let me tell you something from 25 years of experience as an ordained minister: if you wait until you feel ready, you’ll never do it. Few people in ministry ever feel ready for the task to which they’ve been called. Yet God calls us anyway. To figure things out as we go. To maybe make a few mistakes along the way, and to learn from those mistakes, and become the leaders God is calling us to be.
Jesus did give them some last-minute words of wisdom. He said: “Don’t take anything but a walking stick. You don’t need to worry about food, or money, or lodging…”
I like how the Message Bible translates these verses: “Don’t think you need a lot of extra equipment for this. You are the equipment.”
You are the equipment.
Sometimes, we do focus too much on the equipment. A ministry, we think, requires a building—a sanctuary—with a lighting system and a sound system and video projection; and an office with computers and copy machines. Don’t get me wrong; all of this is good, and helpful, in a lot of ways; but all we really need, that which is most important, that which is the only essential thing, is what’s in here, in our hearts, in our minds.
YOU are all that is essential. And you have all that you need. For you ARE the equipment.
Many years ago, during a particularly stressful, anxious moment, I took a breath, and thought back to when it was in my life that I was least anxious, least stressed, and most at peace…
And in that moment, a vision appeared in my mind, of a little tent cabin with a plywood floor and canvas roof, that was my home for several weeks each summer for several years in a row while I worked at boy scout camp.
And I was surprised that that was the image that appeared, the image that came to me, because it was a place where I didn’t have much.
In that little tent cabin there was a cot with a mattress on it. I had a sleeping bag and some clothes, all of which fit in a duffel bag that I could carry.
I had borrowed a milk crate from the camp kitchen, and I had used my boy scout skills to lash it to the side of the tent cabin with rope, so that I’d have a little shelf above my bed. (OK, I may have used bungee cords.)
And that was it. For the weeks I spent there, that was all I had. And it was among the most peaceful, least stressful times in my life.
That memory stays with me, because so often, I get stressed over thinking I don’t have enough. I don’t have enough equipment. I don’t have enough clothes, I don’t have enough appliances, I don’t have enough of all the things that fill my house…
But then the memory resurfaces, and reminds me: I don’t need a lot to be happy. I don’t need a lot of equipment. In fact, even though I think that the more I have, the happier I’ll be, the opposite is often true: that the more I have, the more stressed I become.
And it makes me realize that I’m living with a lie: the lie that says the more you have, the better off you are.
Corporate advertisers tell us this lie, and we hear it so often, we believe it. I need more things! I need more things to make me happy! I need more things to make life easier! I need more things in my kitchen, more things in my garage, more things in my closet!
That message just pervades our entire existence. Breathe in, and you can smell it. Stick your tongue out right now, and you can taste it. It’s in the air, it’s in the water, it’s all around.
You look at people on social media… (I used to say, “you look at people in the magazines,” but now, more often, it’s on social media), and you think, “Wow! Look at that person! They look so cool! So cute! So sexy! If I buy that outfit, then I’ll be the one looking so cool, so cute, so sexy!”
And maybe the first time we wear that new outfit, we’re like, “Wow!” But the pleasure it brings decreases quickly with subsequent wearings. The buzz wears off.
Maybe that’s why the apostle Paul talked about clothing ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and most of all, love, as we heard a few weeks ago, and as our campers heard at camp. That’s the type of clothing that never fades, never wears out, never shrinks or stretches. It’s always a perfect fit.
Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and love.
You don’t need a lot of extra equipment. You don’t need that extra tunic. You don’t need a newer model appliance or the latest gadgets. These aren’t the types of things that are needed to make you happy in the long run, and these aren’t the types of things that are needed for you to do what God is calling you to do.
And, right now, you don’t need knowledge you don’t have, or experience you haven’t yet acquired, or wisdom that hasn’t yet come to you. Those things will come, but you don’t need to wait for them to do what God is calling you to do in this moment.
All you really need is you. God has given you the wisdom and the unique gifts that you need right now in order to fulfill your purpose. You may not know everything, but you know enough.
You are enough. You are the equipment.
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