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A Good Word from CAMP |
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December 2009—St.
(Click on http://www.flickr.com/photos/stpaulmp/
to see photos of the Camp’s work and
life. These photos will not remain here
indefinitely as Flickr is no longer a free service
for me. The most recent 200
ТЬМА—t-MA—Darkness
Matthew 4:16 The people who sat in darkness have seen a great
light, And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has
dawned."
As in the times before Jesus birth, people today are sitting in darkness—and the darkness is growing. As we celebrate the birth of our Savior, we who believe must admit that many of those around us ask, “from what do we need salvation?” Modern ideas about relative truth, confusion between love and expression of love, confusion between God given sexuality and fallen hormone-driven or emotion driven sexuality, confusion in ethics, morality, religious relativism, and so forth all show darkness is growing. People turning more and more to horoscopes, mysticism, amulets, crystals, modern psychology, also show that people who are lost in darkness are seeking light (and finding only more darkness)—seeking salvation—even while they ask, “from what do we need to be saved?” And we Christians, we who have the light and who are called to be light, we who are singing “Joy to the World,” also often forget why we are celebrating the birth of the Christ Child.
Immanuel is God with us—God come to us because we in our sinfulness and brokenness, blinded by the darkness of our lives, could not and would not come to God. This is the way God works—Adam and Eve hide, God seeks them out. Cain hides, God seeks him out. Jesus Himself came to seek us lost sheep and then to save us. This is what we are celebrating—that our Salvation is at hand, that light has shined on the darkness of our souls, exposing the sin, but not to guilt and shame, but rather to remove it from our hearts and replace it with love and light.
We, too, the Church, as the body of Christ on earth, are
called to be light of the world. Loving the sinner while hating the sin means following the example
of God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus did not sit quietly in heaven and wait
for us to seek Him, He came to us, came into our lives, Incarnated Himself into
a human culture, in our time and space.
And when He thus came, He did not simply sit in the
This Christmas as we celebrate that our Salvation has come to us, as we sing “Joy to the World,” let us go out and share that joy, the joy of the salvation we have received with those yet in darkness (even though many in darkness won’t admit they are sitting in the dark). Let us follow the example of our Lord, let us be imitators of Him, and not wait for people to seek us or seek our church, but let us go and seek them in their lostness, in their sinfulness, in their lives, in their time and space. When we get discouraged, let us look at the Christ Child and remember why He came—to free us from guilt and shame, from sin and death, and to give us new life. Love this Child for what He has done for you, and show that love by loving those around you—especially those trapped in the darkness of sin, unbelief, and shame.
What is Love?
2 Samuel 1:26 I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; You have been very pleasant to me; Your love to me was
wonderful, Surpassing the love of women.
I hate when promises go
unfulfilled—especially when I am the person who has made the promise. Already last April I had promised Pastor Boichenko in Nizhniy Novgorod and those who had attended my
seminar there that I would return to lead a discussion of “God’s idea of Sexual
or Married love.” The two terms here are
used synonymously, although many in the world would argue. The seminar and
ensuing discussion took about 5 hours (although we planned for only 2 and a
half hours)—not because of debate, but rather because of honest questioning and
sincere Scripture searching. Amazingly,
through all this discussion, there were no disagreements with God’s truth. So I will try to boil 5 hours into a few paragraphs…
In God’s design, with
marriage as the context for sexual intimacy, sex was created for marriage as an
expression of married love, a means of not only “being fruitful and
multiplying”, but also of deepening and strengthening the bond between a husband
and wife. These are “fighting words” in
a world where love is confused with sex, but in Scripture, in God’s created
order, love is love, sex is a unique form of expression of love reserved for a
specific relationship—marriage between a man and a woman. This is why, for instance, expressing love
sexually to ones children, a parent, or beloved pet is still considered
perversion, and why God and those who hold to Scripture as His word hold that
expressing love through sex to someone of the same gender or to multiple
partners is also a perversion of God’s order. Simply put—sex outside of
marriage in any form is sin, a willful violation of God’s will. When we begin to confuse sex with love, then
we confuse love with emotion, passion, hormonal attraction and physical
need. The model of love is God, since
God is love. Love is love, relationship
is relationship, expression of love is expression and
happens in the context of relationship.
This is why David could deeply love Jonathan and not confuse his feelings
with sex, for David and Jonathan by all standard Biblical interpretations
spanning 2 millennium were never lovers.
In God’s order, His love for us comes in two forms—as love of a father to his children and as a husband for his wife (in other words, as married love). Surprised? The Old Testament is filled with the analogy of God as husband and Israel as the cheating spouse—the prophets time and again equate worshipping false gods with playing the harlot, or if you like a bit of word play, idolatry is equated with adultery. The New Testament also in several places portrays Christ as the groom and the Church or believers as the bride. A Christian husband is called to love his wife as Christ loved the Church—giving himself for her (Eph 5:25). As God’s love is action rather than “emotion” or hormonal, and since it is based on promise, not hormones or outward attractiveness, and since it is given not earned or deserved, and as His love for us is the source and model for our love for each other especially in marriage, we see how confused our thinking about love has become. As God’s love is not earned, unchanging action, faithful, forgiving, open, unselfish and merciful, so are we called to love. Emotion and passion change, fade, rise and fall, but true love like God’s love is a rock that waves can crash against, rise and fall over, wash over in storm or lap up against in calm—but solid. Love is love—this is why there is no contradiction between God loving us as a Father or as a Husband (and sex is not central to His love for us at all). The expression is different, but underneath the love is the same. Many in the World will fight this and claim they do not think this is true, but to paraphrase H.L. Mencken, “just because it is not thought so, does not mean it is not true.”
Prayer Requests
Pray for this coming year—for the possibility of building
the Sanctuary in Nizhniy Novgorod, for the work with youth and young families
there, pray for the parish in Turyo and my work
there. Pray especially for the pro-life
initiative. I am seeking a new official
assistant and Zhanya (my wife) is considering taking
the position (she has been volunteering, but this would be more official
through the church). Pray for Karl and Nastya as they continue to study at
A
little Church news
Although The Ingrian Church is
officially a member of LWF, her bishop and pastors have continually taken a
position of protest—standing on Scripture—against many of the positions that
body has put forth concerning sexuality, marriage and family and so forth. Recent decisions in the ELCA, the Church of
Finland and other European Lutheran bodies which have opened the doors to
blessing same sex marriage, ordaining practicing homosexual clergy (with a case
even of a pastor remaining in position after a sex change operation), has put
the little Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria on
the battle front. Recently, a
conservative block from the other main Lutheran body in
A
Play on Words
The present we really need for Christmas and through out the year is for Jesus to be present! Rejoice this season in your freedom—as His birth, life, death and resurrection has set you free.
Crisis in the village.
I called a friend of mine who lives in a small village outside of Nizhniy Novgorod and asked him how he was enduring the crisis. He said, “Crisis? My goats give milk, the potato crop was good, the river is full of fish, I collected a lot of berries and mushrooms this fall: we have no money, but we also have no crisis either.”
Love came down at
Christmas, Love all lovely, love divine
Love was born at
Christmas, star and angels gave the sign.
Worship we the
Godhead, love incarnate, Love divine,
Worship we our
Jesus; but wherewith this sacred sign?
Love shall be our
token, love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men, Love for plea and gift and sign.
Hymn 37 Lutheran Service book and hymnal c. 1958
In Christ,
Leif & Zhanya Camp
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Click on http://www.flickr.com/photos/stpaulmp/
to see photos of the Camp’s work and
life. These photos will not remain here
indefinitely as Flickr is no longer a free service
for me. The most recent 200
CONTACT ADDRESSES Feedback, questions, whatever are most welcome.
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Our Russian home address: Leif and Zhanya Camp 18 line V. O. dom 43 Kv. 7 St. Petersburg, |
Stateside contact address: Leif and Zhanya Camp, C/O Marli Camp 902 N. 12th |
Ev. Bolshaya Konyushennaya dom 8 St. Peterburg, |
Telephone: after getting an international line by dialing 011, dial 7- 812 (our area code) 321-1508(our phone number)
Note—Between St.
E-MAIL: lzkcamp(at symbol)mail.ru & leif.camp(at
symbol)elci.ru. Prolife web site with Russian materials you
can down load: prolife.elci.ru. Other websites: Lisa Stapp has set up a website which has some
of our last newsletters (with their cover letters and pictures): http://www.worthywomanpage.com/camp/index.html. Also my mother's home congregation has our
newsletters--the latest can be downloaded from: http://www.stpaulmp.org/camp/ a
second site archives our past newsletters since 2002 http://www.stpaulmp.org/archives/ . Please feel
free to share this newsletter with your Church, friends, or enemies if it might
help (just please do not quote things out of context or edit my words in such a
way as to change their intent). If you
would like to receive a copy via e-mail, simply email me directly and ask!
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