Your Succession Plan
Pentecost 19, Proper 21
September 29, 2024
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
One of the great blessings of Camp Wingmann is it’s leadership development. Ideally, great campers apply to become counselors in training, then become junior counselors and counselors. A few will eventually become assistant directors. It’s a great training ground because these young people take on increasing levels of responsibility. It’s very serious work watching over a cabin full of children or youth. They learn to creatively solve problems as they work with the campers and each other.
I have spent a lot of time with those campers and counselors over the last 25 years. And for the first 20 or so, while the camp was being reestablished, I saw a particular dynamic shape dozens of young leaders including three of my own children and their spouses. They have all sorts of procedures to follow, schedules to keep and responsibilities to fulfill. But undergirding it all was a simple rule, a simple law that was unwritten and usually unspoken.
Above all: They did not want to disappoint Fr. Bill Yates. He never raised his voice. He seldom had to fire people. Whatever consequences they might endure for their actions or inaction were very secondary. They could not bear the look that Fr. Bill would give them when they disappointed him.
Behind that look was his fierce devotion to the mission of the camp, which was and is to help kids know and grow in Christ. Failure to meet one’s responsibilities, to care for and treat the campers properly, counselors having problems with each other, was worse than a bad camp experience. It could tarnish their perception of people who follow Jesus, and therefore interfere with their relationship with Christ himself.
It’s that very same mission that Jesus is preparing his disciples to lead.
Jesus has just taught them how they should receive new believers as precious children. John responds that they tried to stop someone casting out demons in Jesus’s name because he was “not with them.” Jesus corrects him firmly. It’s akin to the hypocrisy or the Pharisees, Chief Priests, the scribes and the elders who have religious positions but impose “the doctrines of men” instead of the righteousness of God. Is this guy is casting out demons in Jesus’ name? Don’t stop him. You don’t have an exclusive franchise. He’s on Jesus’ side and we will encourage everyone on Christ’s side. Even if they just give you a cup of water. There are two clear sides.
This brings up a point that I want to be very clear about because people tend to confuse faith, religion and church.
Being a Christian is, at heart, all about loving Jesus. We are to engage him. We are to seek and follow his will in our lives as individuals and in community at every level. We are to repent and receive his grace as we fail. It’s all about following Jesus.
Religion is the set of practices we choose to enact our following him. We develop habits of prayer, worship, Bible study fellowship and service. Christianity is how Christians live what we believe.
Church is how we live in community to transmit our Christian witness to each other from generation to generation. We share a set of beliefs, articulated in our creeds, and we find our style of worship integrates those beliefs with our worship. We learn together and from each other. We serve together within and outside the church.
Jesus warns his disciples about the temptations of leading. Don’t put stumbling blocks in front of anyone trying to reach him. Who wants to be dragged to the depths of the sea with a huge millstone around your neck. That’s terrifying.
Yet, we see it all the time. Churches fail. Church leaders fail. Nothing wounds the Body of Christ like clergy misconduct. People within the church get sideways with each other. Sometimes we hurt each other inside the church and we hurt people outside the church. All of that deflects people from Jesus.
As discouraging and painful as such wounds can be, do not ever allow them to distract or discourage you from following Jesus. He’s the reason we know those hardships are wrong. But the bottom line is following Jesus.
They must not do that. He gives shockingly harsh warnings about their roles as leaders. These are clearly hyperbole to underscore the urgency about sin that spreads like poison. And each symbolically represents a broad spectrum of trouble that applies to us as much as to them.
The hand represents our actions. We can do so much good, and we have great capacity for evil. If your actions, your habits and your inaction are interfering with your relationship with Christ and worse affecting others, end them. Change them.
The foot represents the path that we walk, the direction that we’re going, the direction that we are leading. And make no mistake, if you are a Christian, you are representing Christ to others. The direction you choose to walk, the places you go and don’t go, really matter. Think of that as parents and grandparents, neighbors and friends.
The eye represents your vision, for your life today and your future. How do you envision the world and your place in it - for and with Jesus? Are you seeing with Christ's eyes?
We are to represent Christ as faithfully as we can. When we fail, we repent and get back at it. It’s very much like those young adults wanting to have the blessing of Fr. Bill and never disappoint him. At the end of each day, we want to be able to look back over our day and know that Jesus is saying, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” We don't ever want to disappoint him.
AMEN!