Let us pray: O God, bless these words and use them - that they may lead us to better understanding of your will for us, your people. Amen.

    About twenty-five years ago in the early 1980's, I was in the heyday of my backpacking career. It all started on a boy scout outing. We had taken the boys - that was before the time of co-ed scout groups - we had taken the boys on a winter outing to the cabin of one of the leaders. I recall it being a glorious late winter day, and some if not all the leaders had gathered in the cabin. One of the leaders was a fellow about five years younger than me, on a co-op work term. He had been involved in scouting back home in Ontario and he wanted to pursue that interest while he was working in Alberta. As I recall I had done a number of day trips in the mountains, and perhaps even an overnight trip or two. Despite the less than pleasant experience that one of those day hikes had provided to me, the mountains had worked their charm on me and I was ready to explore them and myself in the context of longer and more involved visits. So, there we were, Kevin and I, sitting in the cabin. I don’t even remember how the topic came up, but I remember turning to him and asking if he was interested in doing some backpacking trips. Thus began a great friendship. Over the next five or six years we spent many a spring, summer and fall weekend logging many dozens of kilometres exploring the Rocky Mountains of Southern Alberta and British Columbia. Eventually, my new found knowledge and experience led me to explore opportunities to lead other trips. One very memorable occasion was a trip that was advertised as part of a church camp programme. That’s a story that deserves its’ own time of telling, so I won’t go into details except to say that the participants were two leaders, myself - a thirty-something, a fifty-something minister with lots of experience, and two women - one in her fifties with absolutely no experience whatsoever - not just as a backpacker, but practically no experience in the outdoors at all, and another woman in her early 80's - who turned out to be one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. That may sound like a recipe for disaster as we planned a five day trip in the fairly remote recesses of Kootenay National Park, but despite the fact that we ended hiking out a day earlier in ten inches of snow, it was a hugely enriching experience, and one that taught me an important lesson about the hazards of pre-judging a situation, and the indomitable nature of the human spirit.

    Now this may all sound like me offering my credentials for the outing that the newly formed Men’s group is planning for next weekend, but really that is not part of my intent at all, other than coincidentally.

    As you will see from the bulletin cover, this day in the church year is designated as Church Camping Sunday. I’ll have to admit that when the worship committee was meeting a couple of weeks ago, even though the designation came up as a possible theme for worship, it was not in my mind to give more than a passing mention to the recognition of church camping. That’s not because I deem it to be unimportant. It’s more that I just expected that some other theme would be more prominent this year.

    However, it seems that God had a different idea - if you believe as I do that God has some say in the theme that will be addressed in worship and my reflection each week. I won’t go into details about the virtual mind map that led me in this direction, except to say that it all started with further reflection more on the passages from last week than this one.

    You may recall that the Acts passage from last week told how the early Christians organised their community. Here’s a brief excerpt from that passage:

    32Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. 33With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. 35They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”). 37He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

    I remember in one of my Christian Education classes assigning myself the task of doing some deeper reflection on Christian community, my own faith journey, and the camping experiences which had always been so important to me. My career before ministry was a very technical one. I was a systems programmer charged with the responsibility of keeping a large mainframe computer running efficiently and securely. My job relied heavily on technology and the knowledge I needed to support the technology. So, it seemed strange to me in one sense that much of my leisure time activity would centre on simple living as it was fashioned on the hiking trails and in backcountry campgrounds. Now some of you will say that such ironies and contrasts are the stuff of life. I would agree, but I was still compelled to do some deeper thinking about this, because it didn’t always make sense to me.

    To make a long story short, my research revealed that my camping experience was one which mirrored my image of the faithful life. I lived simply - everything I needed was either in my pack or in the environment that surrounded me. Given that much of the time we were hiking in a national park, the environment did not really provide much in the way of consumable resources, so mostly what I had to use was on my back. I also remember thinking that when I was camping I usually went to bed early - because I was tired enough to do so and I got up early - usually with the sun. In other words, I lived in camp the way I wished I could always live. Remove the distractions of radio, television, and other media, and the devices and appliances that are said to simplify our lives, and you discover that the simple life is really something else. I also did not camp alone. I had one disastrous attempt at that later on in my backpacking career and it showed me how problematic that could be. So, while the community was small - it was still a community. My backpacking partner Kevin and I had a great relationship - we trusted each other, respected each other and in turn were able to experience many fantastic adventures and vistas together. It’s no surprise that my backpacking trips were reduced greatly when he decided to return to Ontario to pursue a career in teaching.

    Well, despite my brief mention of one church sponsored backpacking trip, so far my reflections have not been specifically directed towards church camping. I think, however, that some of the observations I made about my own experience have direct relationship to the importance of church camping. Many people have their first experience of Christian community in the context of a church camp. The church camp is often the first place where children learn to live outside of their family unit. The experience is often made more poignant by the first experience of homesickness, living day and night with people whom you’ve never known before, and often with leadership that is not much older than you are.

    It is also a time where we are introduced to the importance of ritual. Despite the attempt in church camps to have meaningful worship experiences - and in many cases the informality and beauty of an outdoor setting are powerful experiences, I believe it is more often the nightly campfire which creates more lasting memories. Here is where the story gets told, here is where songs of fun and also deep meaning get sung - songs which celebrate joy and mission. It’s been a few years since I was directly involved as a leader at church camp, but I know that very surprisingly to me, the absolute favourite song at the campfire was one made famous from my own youth - One Tin Soldier - a song with deep meaning about the stupidity of war and the importance of understanding among different groups of people. The popularity of that song said more about the inner desires and the spirituality of the kids sitting around that campfire than any hymn we sang during vespers or morning worship.

    Today’s passages focussed on the Easter story - Peter reminding his listeners about the story as the power behind the healing that had just been performed, and the story of Jesus appearing to the disciples. Any of you that have spent time camping - whether in a church camp, car camping as part of your vacation experiences,  backcountry camping, or as a community building event in the formation of a men’s group, will know that campfire is story telling time, and knowing and telling the story are so important to our understanding of who and whose we are. Imagine yourself sitting around a campfire, and recall these words that you might remember from the sacrament of baptism last week: Do you covenant to bring your child into the life of the Christian community to worship, to hear the story of the roots of our faith, to be called into response to the Gospel, and to be in relationship with other believers as he grows into his own choice of faith in God?

    Images and memories speak louder than words. Amen.