Thrivent Choice program changes...

I received a letter from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans this week, thanking me "for helping to make Thrivent Choice a huge success in 2011." The letter explained some 'important changes' to the program that will take place over the next two years. These changes will affect Camp Lor-Ray.

When I first signed up for the Thrivent Choice program I chose to have my eligible Thrivent Choice Dollars directed to Camp Lor-Ray and also chose the 'recurring direction option' which would direct future TC Dollars to Camp, too. Thrivent will be eliminating the recurring direction in 2013. 2012 is a transitional year and I renewed my recurring direction by filling out and returning the tear-off card at the bottom of the letter I received.

Next year (and each year thereafter) I will have to go online or phone Thrivent to direct my eligible Thrivent Choice Dollars to Camp Lor-Ray or whatever organization I choose.

If you received a similar letter from Thrivent, please fill out the tear-off card at the bottom of it and return it so that Camp Lor-Ray continues to benefit from this charitable program.

Since the inception of this program Camp Lor-Ray has received $2,155.00.

Washing & Made Clean in the Old Testament

For anyone using the three-year lectionary, this section of Scripture from 2 Kings was probably the Old Testament reading you heard today in Church.  Even here, God demonstrates how one comes to faith.  By the word of God's prophet Elisha, Naaman was first healed from leprosy, and then brought to faith.  Nothing in the water of the Jordan was special to heal and save; that came through the word.
Interesting parallels to how God still works today.

Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.” And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”

So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing.  And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.”

[The king recognized that only God has the power to kill and make alive, to heal and make clean.  He thought it was a trick.]

But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.”

[Elisha didn't even let Naaman come into his house, but sent him away first to be healed and cleaned.]  

But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.

[This is often our reaction.  Don't we always want some miraculous sign?  And the world thinks, "only if God would do___, I would believe." The rich man had the same reaction, as did the soldiers, crowd, and criminals at the cross: "Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.”]

But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel...."

[It took God's word and power to bring Naaman to faith.  Some dirty water and the word of God through Elisha healed Naaman, causing Naaman to confess that there is no other God.]
The rest of the account is interesting as well, if you have time, I encourage you to read what Naaman did following this.

Finding God at Camp

In one of the last blog posts, "I have Seen Theophany," I mentioned that sometimes we try to find God where he has not promised to be.  Christian camps seem to be instigators of this problem too.  How often have you heard someone say something to the effect of "going into nature to find God," or, "at camp, you just feel God's presence"?  Sure, God is omnipresent (See Psalm 139), but is God more present at Camp or in the wilderness than He is say in your own home?  Of course not.

We do get (or I should say it is possible to get) an emotional lift at Camp because the works of God are great and glorious (Psalm 111), but that is not to say our faith is being strengthened because we are at camp or that we are getting closer to God because we are spending time in his creation.  Camp, and everything at camp, is a wonderful first-article gift; that is, something that God has made and given to us for our earthly benefit.
For our spiritual and eternal benefit, God works through means.  He works through His Word, through His Baptism and through His Body & Blood.  These are the tools God uses to increase our faith.

Finding God in nature, or equating an emotional lift with a stronger faith is potentially spiritually damaging - there is no promise that that feeling will last.  At the end of camp how sad are we to leave!? What happens then?  Do we need camp to actually be strengthened in our faith?  It may feel like it, but this is where the true comfort lies: God strengthens our faith in His Word and sacraments, whether we feel it or not.  God's doing it, stop worrying and believe.

So, the next time you are checking out other Christian Camps to attend or send your children to (Camp Lor-Ray only runs a few weeks in the summer after all :-), look at what that camp is saying.
Do they claim to get closer to God and let you feel His presence, or do they acknowledge that only through the Word and sacraments does God build and confirm faith?  That's the difference between relying on a camp and on men to strengthen faith and relying on God to strengthen faith.

Camp Lor-Ray relies on God. We just have a ton of fun doing it in the woods.  I know you will too.