“Homily”

Okay, so it’s the last few days of school. Inevitably, we get into the ‘Whatcha gonna do over the summer’ discussion. Everybody starts sharing their plans. Well, so-and-so is going to Girl Scout camp; her friend is going to YMCA camp, and of course, a few say “I dunno, I guess I’ll watch TV”. When it gets to my turn, I tell them that I’m going to Montreat. This is met with a few ‘What’s that?’, ‘What do you do there?’. My first response is, “It’s a church camp.” I’m immediately cut off by at least three people, with the knowledgeable ‘Oh, I see.’ ‘Is it like, mission or something?’. When I say, “Well, no, not exactly,” the response seems to be one of general surprise. What do you do with a church if you’re not doing mission? So now the question is, “What’s the point?”

Those of us that go, of course, know the answer, but the task is putting it in understandable terms. I find that the easiest way to begin is to go back to the name of the camp itself. ‘Montreat Worship and Music’. Ok, that’s a start. It involves music and worshipping. We can assume that it means we’re learning some sort of music. That’s a fair statement. I took an awesome beginner’s organ class, and Kelly took vocal technique. We all, for the most part, took choir, and our Seminar topic of the year was ‘Music and Worship around the World’. So, the music is covered. Now, what about the worship?

I personally feel that worship is a relationship that we, as God’s people, build with him over a lifetime. It’s not something that can be taught to anyone. Much less in a week’s time. So, instead, we shoot for the attributes of worship.

The ‘attributes of worship’, quite obviously, vary from place to place. What you and I consider necessary to a worship setting would be totally different from what somebody in Nigeria or China would consider necessary. This brings us back to the aforementioned seminar class. One of the more interesting things, and one of the ones that spoke to us particularly, was a session in which we came in to find about thirty different depictions of Jesus Christ waiting on a table near the front of the room. Some were drawings, some were paintings, and some were even photographs of sculptures. The thing that made these interesting was that they were from all different parts of the world. And the most fascinating thing was that they all showed Jesus as a person from that part of the world. Now, when most of us picture Jesus, we see a Caucasian male, about average height, brown hair, wearing a biblical time-y robe. Well, in these pictures, there were African Jesuses in traditional tribal wear, Japanese Jesuses in kimonos, Indian Jesuses in turbans. For some, this could be shocking. But really, when you think about it, our culture has done the same thing. And it’s not by any means evil or bad. It all takes root from our desires and intentions to have something personally in common with Jesus. Thus, leading us closer to a personal relationship with Him.

Another big element of worship is the concept of togetherness. With all the worship ideas that have been developed, this is a hard topic to breach in the greater Presbyterian church, and forget it in the church of God as a whole.

Now, unity could be a sermon in itself. In fact, on Wednesday in Montreat it was. It was one of my favorite sermons, and I think a lot of valid points were discussed. I was talking about it afterwards in the van, and summed it up in the terms of ‘Traditional versus Contemporary’. Katie then was quick to mention that the real point was ‘that it wasn’t supposed to be traditional versus contemporary. The suggestion made by the homily of the morning was that they could coexist for a better worship experience’. And that was completely true. If we come at it with an open mind, I think we’ll find that aside from being a nuisance to adjust to a new blended worship, it can be a breath of fresh air. Believe me; I’m as bad as anyone. It’s not always easy to admit that there could be other people, or preferences, that are as vaild as ours. My favorite point of the morning was that God doesn’t care Traditional or Contemporary. To Him, they’re just worship. And worship is really meant for God, not us. Though it’s a way to grow in the spirit, as are praying, and fellowship, and just about anything else in the church, worship is truly meant for God. And he wouldn’t have it any other way. As the Reverend John Bell put it, ‘The only thing that God dislikes is repetitiveness. Whether it be the same three guitar chords or the same three traditional hymn tunes’.

The final big huge important ‘point’ of Montreat was to put us in a setting with other Christians who shared our talents and passions. We could develop in fellowship with those who didn’t necessarily live the same way we did. Some came from big churches where they knew no one, and some came from little churches where they knew everyone. But we were all there for the same point. Music and worship. Through our shared experiences in drama, music, art, worship, and fellowship, we could put together a truly unique experience just as we did here this morning. We didn’t agree with everybody there about everything, but the great part was that we didn’t have to. We all loved God, and that made us brothers and sisters. And that was enough.

Finally, we learned to listen for the call. For some it was the call to drama, for some to sing, and for me it was to preach. The biggest part, I think, about listening for the call is not just to wait around. Don’t sit and think, “Okay. When God turns to me I’ll be ready. I can get up and go and do whatever. I’m in great shape.” That’s an awesome thing to be able to do, but even better, we need to be the ones jumping up and saying “Hey God! Pick me, here I am!”