Heroes For God

This year’s camping theme in the UCC is “Be a Hero, Be a Friend”.  Superheroes have been a large part of our American culture through comics, video games and movies.  Spiderman, Batman, Catwoman; even those on the “dark side” are held up for their power, even if it is “evil” – Darth Vader, and the Joker come to mind.

Remember how firefighters and police officers became like superheroes after 9-11?  Comic strip and movie superheroes took the back seat that Halloween as firefighter and police officer costumes took center stage! 

Sports figures are sometimes lifted up to be like superheroes in some circles, though they too often fall from those pedestals for one reason or another. 

Recently one of our own Mariner’s, Milton Bradley, asked for help with some serious emotional problems he is having just after talking in front of an impressionable group of young people about his mother – his hero.  He told them about how she “scraped together money working in a grocery store, how she had two piles of bills – one she could pay and one she could not.  He told the kids how he wanted to do something with his life so that his mother could retire.” (Seattle Times, 5/6/10)

Bradley is a true hero in my eyes because he is brave enough to ask for help. 

I imagine that many of you caught the story in the Seattle Times a week ago Friday about 13-year-old Erik Martin who became a superhero for a day thanks to hundreds of volunteers and the Make-a-Wish Foundation.  Erik has liver cancer – but for one day he triumphed over evil as Electron Boy.  It was a very moving story.

However, these are not the stories our young people will learn about at Church Camp this summer.  Camp counselors will remind them of the heroes we hear about in our scriptures:  The story of the young boy who gave Jesus five loaves and two fish, who became a hero through his hospitality or Jonathan who was a wonderful friend to King David. 

It is important that our young people know the stories of our faith as well as they know the ones from comic strips and movies! The Bible stories that remind us that we are each “heroes” for God by how we live our daily lives – these are the stories that our young people will spend time with as they hang out with friends, swim, sing around campfires and walk among tall stately pines, turn off their cell phones and take a break from Facebook and the television.

The characters in these stories do not drive fast cars or wear funny, skin-tight black or red suits or breathe heavily through a plastic head piece and carry a wicked weapon. 

The heroes in our scriptures most often look like you and me, sometimes they simply hide an infant child from danger, sometimes they go out of their way to get help for someone who is sick. 

Sometimes they get scared and when God speaks within them and tells them to use their gifts on behalf of others their first response is “No, I can’t do that…I’m not good enough or I don’t know how.”  But with God’s help, they step out in faith anyway with all of their doubts and insecurities.

Our scripture reading today was from 2 Timothy, a letter in the Bible that was written to a man named Timothy by someone who was a follower of Paul, one of the heroes of our Faith tradition who taught many people about the ways of Jesus.  The author tells Timothy how blessed he has been by his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice because of their faith in God. 

Sometimes our heroes are our parents – an Aunt – an Uncle, a Grandparent.  A hero might be a teacher or a mentor that taught us to see our gifts and use them for love; people who have believed in and encouraged us in ways both big and small.

My mother was one of my heroes as she modeled for me a quiet but persistent relationship with a God of love that helped her get through bouts of depression that took her into a deep valley of loneliness. 

My mother’s name was Ruth – a name that came from a Bible heroin that was brave enough to leave behind all that was familiar and start a new life in a new land – the story of Ruth and Naomi in the Old Testament.

My mother Ruth died too young, but she modeled for me a faith that was not afraid of death.  I am forever thankful for that.

It is easier to name the heroes of our lives than it is to recognize that there are times when you are the hero.  Those of you with big brothers and sisters – sometimes you are their heroes and heroines.  You encourage and protect them, you show them the way.

You are each heroes for God as you allow God’s love to take shape in you by following the ways of Jesus through hospitality, sharing your resources, working towards justice for all people, welcoming the immigrant, caring for the lonely and befriending the stranger in your midst. 

The heroes in our faith stories remind us that we all have the potential to be heroes. 

That we are all in this world together, finding our way with God’s help through love, not force, through compassionate courage, not dominance over others.

I am so grateful that we are a congregation that encourages our young people to attend church camp.

But remember, there are camps available for all ages at both Pilgrim Firs near Bremerton and N-Sid-Sen outside of Courdlene, Idaho. 

It is one thing to be active in a church community, it is quite another to spend a week in nature with others who are there to relax and strengthen their faith journeys. 

A number of years ago I spent a week at Family Camp at N-Sid-Sen with my two kids who were not quite four years old.  We had a lovely time getting acquainted with other families from around the state; my kids had other adults who took them under their wings to give me a break.  In fact Kaila was there – she helped Lindsey make her first basket. 

We worshipped together and sang camp songs; shared meals in the noisy but happy fellowship hall.  We studied scripture with our own age groups and had time for crafts and naps, sitting on the porch in a rocking chair or swimming in the lake.

Getting away from the city and suburb – communing with the trees and the birds – taking time to be still with others enables us to rekindle the gifts of God that are within us. 

Our world does not need more Spiderman’s – we need more Jonathans and Ruth’s, Peter’s and Mary’s – we need more boys who will share their bread and fish, more girls who will protect the innocent and more men and women who recognize their call to work for justice, and more grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, grocery store owners, pastors, lawyers, and doctors who do their part for peace.   We need more heroes for God.



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