See You at the Pole

By Stan Lemon

One morning, a little girl was left to pray at her school's flagpole and when questioned about why she was there, she replied, "I'm here to meet God." Here, on what was a bright and sunny morning, this little girl went to see God at the pole. She may have gone alone at her school, but across the country on the same day thousands of youth were also seeking God and rejoicing in how wonderful it was to wake up and try to meet God at the pole.

See You at The Pole (SYATP) refers to itself as a "mighty movement" of "God-sized proportions" that organizes annual events for youth across the country to connect with God by praying together at their school flagpole. SYATP gathers students around flagpoles of middle schools, high schools, and even some colleges.

Of course, the little girl's statement should send up a Lutheran red flag! She may have found God at the pole, or she may have just felt effects from breakfast. There is no real certainty. This mountaintop experience will be quickly forgotten after that first period algebra test and gossip around the lunch table. The flagpole becomes merely another rest stop along the meaningless road of human works.

She came to the pole to get closer to God. All of us want to get closer to God but, despite all of our pious efforts, we cannot get any closer to Him. In our efforts to seek God on our own, we ignore the fact that God seeks us and He does so through His Word. It is impossible for us to approach God; in fact, we have distanced ourselves so far from Him that at times all seems hopeless, even at a flagpole.

Thankfully, God has come to us. God, in the person of Jesus Christ, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, came to take on our very flesh and dwell amongst us. Jesus did this so that He might live a perfect and sinless life on our behalf, and then suffer the death that we deserve because of our sins. Christ has flesh that is no different than ours, pierced for us. He was beaten and nailed to a Tree, all so that we might have eternal life.

SYATP misses out on the fact that Christ regularly comes to us in His Word combined with mere water and with the humble elements of bread and wine to give forgiveness from these things a Christian is not left in doubt or uncertainty but rather comforted by Christ's promises. Certainty is not found in our coming to God but in His coming to us and dying on the cross which gives life everlasting. Certainty is the very body and blood of Christ in our mouths, consumed both physically and spiritually. Certainty is receiving what God has done for us in His promises, rather than at our coming to Him.

God has come to us. He has sought us out and calls us by name to be His children. This is the name we received at our Baptism, which Dr. Luther teaches us to remember daily. In the Small Catechism, we are taught that when we wake up we are to make the sign of the Holy Cross, repeat the Creed and the Lord's Prayer and say:

I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.

Will you go to the pole next time or will you not? Either way, go forth with your day knowing that Christ died for you on the only Pole that really matters: the Cross.

Stan Lemon is a pre-seminary student of theological languages and theology at Concordia University River Forest. He is also the web master for the Higher Things website. his email address is mail@stanlemon.net.