FEATURED COLUMNIST
The Way Forward Through Chaos
I
By Rene Schlaepfer
t was already a tough year: The corona- self-sacrifice. King felt that selfless loving virus, civil unrest, a national reckoning action is what makes a person, and a on racism, a divisive presidential nation, truly great. Jesus’ sacrifice was part of King’s own narrative as an example of election. moral courage. Then the fires happened. But suddenly King was overcome with What’s the way forward through this kind of chaos? It’s very personal for me. tears: “I never will forget the experience… The church I help lead runs a camp near something overwhelmed me, I fell to my Big Basin where generations of Santa knees. Before I knew it, I was weeping. I Cruzans had their first summer camp started thinking in a way that I’d never experience: Camp Hammer. While we have thought before of the meaning of the cross. The cross…tells us not only about not yet been able to conclusively the moral commitment of Jesus determine the extent of the fire Christ, but it tells us about the damage, all indications point to love of God himself. What is the catastrophic destruction. cross but God’s way of saying The very good news is that to a wayward child, ‘I still love the entire staff and their families, you, and I am willing to go any about 20 people, are safe. length…in order to redeem you.’” The bad news: They lost But the cross was only the everything else. Their experience is shared by scores of others in Rene Schlaepfer first half of the storyline. “From that cross, there was a little our county, many of whom sheltered at our walk, maybe about seventy-five feet. They church last week. How does anyone get through that? told us that this is the tomb where Jesus To handle tragedy, everyone seeks a story was buried. But our guide said, ‘I want you line. This how we make sense of our world. to know that this tomb is empty. He is not Consciously or subconsciously, we write a there now.’” King continued, “This is our hope. narrative to explain our experience. So what’s your story line? How you The tomb is empty. Jesus lives…This is frame your experience can bring courage what keeps us going. This is why you can go out with new hope for the future. No or fear, hope or despair. This week I read a sermon preached matter how dark it gets…let us not be disby the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in illusioned. So often we’ve been crucified. 1959 where he talked about the narrative We’ve been buried in numerous graves… that framed his life: Two events from a But I’m here to tell you, the resurrection reminds us…God will bring the light of 2,000 year-old story. Dr. King described his visit to the day out of the darkness of midnight.” The storyline that kept King going? ancient Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the place where Jesus Christ is The cross (self-sacrifice and death) leads to thought to have been crucified and buried. the empty tomb (hope and new life). Out He told how he stood first before of crucifixion there can be resurrection. a cross, stirred by the example of Jesus’ I believe this. Our communities can rise
again better than before. We can grow closer together, less afraid, more eager to understand. Last week I met with our camp staff hours after the fire. We sat at our church, in a large circle, face-masked, socially distanced, crying. Then Eric Swanson-Dexel, our camp director, turned to one of his daughters. Through tears he said, “I want you to remember the meaning of your name… Phoenix. The bird who died and then rose out of the ashes to new life. We chose that name for you because our faith tells us, out of ashes, new life rises. And I want to tell you, new life will rise out of the ashes of camp.” That’s the gospel story line. Out of the ashes comes new life. Out of this crucifixion there can be a resurrection. Is that your storyline now? Then you can face anything. n ••• Rene Schlaepfer is pastor at Twin Lakes Church in Aptos, which is making parking
Photo Credit: Kevin Painchaud
spaces available for up to 50 fire-evacuated residents, with bathrooms, water and food available.
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Eric Swanson-Dexel announces the closure of Camp Hammer 2020 due to COVID-19. Reports make it unlikely that Camp Hammer has survived the fires.
www.tpgonlinedaily.com Aptos Times / September 1st 2020 / 9
