Law and Gospel

Camp has gone through a pretty weird change in the last 24 hours or so. Our summer at Mt. Cross quazi-officially ended. Most of our summer staff have gone home to family and school, while a few are lingering behind to help with one more week of Day Camp and about 8 of us are meandering around main site helping with the San Jose Youth Symphony's camp program. It is an interesting dynamic when SJYS comes - especially when they arrive less than an hour after you have had your last worship together as a summer staff. Ridiculous transition. The people who come to run the SJYS program are pretty unique, full of character, gifts, and passions for music and developing the skills their kids come to camp with. Last night we invited everyone from SJYS to join us for First Word in the mornings (scripture and prayer to start the day off right). At the same time another one of their counselors said that he had planned a worship service for the morning (it being sunday and all). So, this morning I went - and I was heartbroken.

When I walked into Upper Jensen it was really exciting to see the number of kids who had been willing to get up early for a sunrise worship service. I couldn't see who it was but someone was sitting on the piano, quietly playing the melody to "Wonderful Maker". As we sang my heart was so excited to be singing songs I haven't had a chance to sing in months. Then, we pulled out our Bibles and started reading from the book of Romans. In my mind, Romans is the book of the Bible that's all about grace. The SJYS counselor who spoke did not view it the same. He began reading from the second chapter, telling the kids that God hates us because we are terrible sinners, that our hate for others is okay as long as it is what they deserve, and that our God is a God of wrath and judgement. Harsh. I waited and waited - I waited for 45 minutes as he read random passages that explain God's judgement on us. Law, law, law... I kept waiting for a little bit of Gospel, Gospel, Gospel. And sadly, it never really came. Not once did he consult the 3rd chapter of Romans, where the Bible speaks of our salvation through our faith in Jesus. Not once did he speak of any reconciliation God granted to His people. He told the story of Saul being blinded by God for persecuting His people, but he did not tell the end of Saul's story when God gives him his sight back and gives him a new name (Paul). It was all law - that our God will judge us and hate us because we are miserable, worthless sinners. All I could do was stare at Romans chapter 3 and wait for the healing words of the Gospel to jump from his mouth; but they never came.

Sitting there in the back of the room listening to the message (that I'm sure the speaker thought was wonderful and just what the room needed to hear), I turned to Kat (a girl I worked with this summer) and we both pointed at Romans 3. We both knew in our hearts that the law is incomplete without the Gospel, and the Gospel is incomplete without the law. If I have learned anything when it comes to the "theology" of my faith this summer, it is that both law and Gospel need to be acknowledged for us to truly understand who we are in Christ and what we are called to do with the life we have been given. Over breakfast we continued talking and we came to this conclusion: Without the law accompanying the Gospel, you cannot live. And you cannot live without the Gospel accompanying the law. If we do not know the law we don't know what to do with our salvation! And if we do not claim the salvation of the cross then we have no life to live at all!

Claim the Gospel - live your life well. Peace.