Fellowship Talk at Internship One

given on Friday morning, July 16th -


Fellowship talk at Internship One

INTRO

Two years ago I came up to this study center to lead at Internship One, a total wreck. I had just flown back to the States from the West Bank (which is next to Israel) two months before my arrival here.
So fresh in my mind was this experience that I had just had of spending six months in the West Bank, working at a university student center in a town, hanging out with students, and learning about the political situation there up close.

If anyone knows anything about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, you know that it is incredibly complex, emotionally charged, and honestly seemingly hopeless.
And that’s exactly how I felt – conflicted, emotionally charged, and hopeless.
I had honestly had gone to my limit emotionally and physically.

Not only that, but I also felt like a total failure because I had had to leave about a month and a half early. I wasn’t able to handle the emotional and physical toll this experience was having on me. So therefore, when I arrived at the study center in early July 2008, I was also wrestling with guilt and shame, on top of the immense grief and anger I felt from my time in the West Bank.

I came up to Internship because Jon-Marc had asked me to, on a previous program that summer that I also volunteered at. I should have actually been job-searching, but the fun and the emotional space, and more importantly, the connection with God and with other Christians that I had been given on that previous program showed me that I needed to lead at Internship for my spiritual survival.

However, showing up at the vineyard in the state I was in, felt like showing up to a group project badly prepared – You know what that’s like. You feel awful about it, but there is nothing you can do. There’s only so much of a front you can put up before people around you realize what a mess you truly are.

But what helped me overcome that initial fear was that I’d known enough about Christian fellowship and my experience at FOCUS programs, to know that the people I was going to be with would show love and grace, regardless.

So, instead of having people shun me, feel sorry for me, or scold me for the emotional and spiritual darkness I was going through, I remember feeling totally accepted for who I was, HOW I was – but then ALSO encouraged toward transformation that only God could bring.

I remember the first night I was there at the study center, sitting around in this barn with a couple of the leaders even before the students got there – just praying for each other – hearing about where we were emotionally and spiritually coming into the program, and our greatest expectations and greatest fears about the camp that lay ahead.

Three things happened in that time that sum up what true Christian fellowship is all about. And you might want to write this down (possibly overhead ECW)

There was encouragement, comfort, and we wrestled in prayer for one another.
(I’m going to say that again).
There was encouragement, comfort, and we wrestled in prayer for one another.

I didn’t just get this from my head, Paul talks about it in a passage in Colossians.

I want to show you how Paul and fellow Christian friends experienced this kind of fellowship.
Let’s look at Colossians 4:7-18. Everyone please turn there. Please look up when you have it.
(READ passage

Let me give you some context to this passage. As we’ve said before in other talks, while Paul is writing this letter to the Colossians, he is in prison. You might have a title above this section in your Bible that says something like, “Final Greetings.” He wants to address these people directly, or pass along greetings.

Imagine a few weeks from now that you want to write a letter to some people from this internship. You might use language that shows how much these relationships mean to you.

Paul uses some dear language here to describe and communicate how important these relationships are to him.

So where do we see ENCOURAGEMENT, COMFORT, AND WRESTLING IN PRAYER?

ENCOURAGEMENT
Remember how I said Paul was separated from these people? Why does he send Tychicus? He sends him so that the Colossians could know about how Paul was doing. Because they were concerned. How does Paul describe Tychicus? As a dear brother.

Think about people that have encouraged you – What does encouragement do?

It literally means to give courage to another’s heart.

Maybe you’ve had a coach that pressed you on further than you thought possible. Perhaps you have people back at home, or here that have given courage to your heart to face tough situations at home or at school.

COMFORT
How do we see comfort in this passage? It seems that in v.11, Paul describes his friendship with Justus as a real comfort to him. Why? Because he is one of the only workers for the Jews among him.

Imagine moments where you have been lonely, and all of a sudden a friend shows up, and their presence is reassuring to you.

WRESTLING
Finally, what does it mean to wrestle in prayer? Where do we see it here in this passage? Paul describes Epaphras as someone that has wrestled in prayer for the Colossians.

How many of you have ever wrestled? I’m sure some of the guys have! I’m not an expert on wrestling, but I know it’s not easy. That’s why sometimes wrestling in prayer often is called “laboring” in prayer. Agonizing, struggling over something – with God.

FINALLY
Paul talks about in v. 12, if you look at it, that there is a further goal to fellowship than just experiencing encouragement, comfort, and wrestling in prayer. The purpose is that God gives us the gift of fellowship, of other Christians in our lives to accomplish this:
That we would stand firm in the will of God; that we would be mature; and that we would be fully assured of what we believe (go back to overhead)

Let me go back to my story for a little bit.

As the camp progressed, I sensed a massive “culture” of acceptance, of grace, of acknowledging our weaknesses to each other in freedom; of correcting each other in love. Amazing things happened among our community - People acknowledged areas to one another in their lives where they had been struggling over eating disorders, lust, and depression – and we able to call out the lies we believed, the “philosophies” that we’d been taught and had been engrained within us; and then acknowledge the truth of God that could combat these lies that we’d struggled with for so long.
And within this “culture of grace,” I like to call it – we could bring each other to the ONE that we all knew could really take care of our sorrows and our struggles.

Ok, so that first night of Internship 2008, having a place to voice these circumstances I had just come out of and be prayed for, began the process of transformation.

This is because we were ENCOURAGING one another.

We were COMFORTING one another.
We were, in essence, dressing each other’s wounds of hurt and bitterness through our patience with one another, and just mere presence as we hung out.
And we also WRESTLED in prayer for one another.
We met each other in prayer and brought each other before the only true Healer.

It was a culture that was founded on and moved ahead by our love for God – and foundationally and essentially – His love for us and acceptance of us.

And this encouragement, comfort and wrestling in prayer did not end there. It’s NOT supposed to. God desires to give us what we need at home, wherever we are – that we may be encouraged, comforted, and prayed for.

I know what you’re thinking – “I see that at work here! But I really want to see that at home… HOW does that happen when I’m not around all these people again, and in this context?”

How do think Paul became friends with these people that he says are encouraging, comforting and that have wrestled in prayer?

Well, how do you become friends with people?
You live your lives with them. This is nothing fancy.
How do you think college friends are often so much closer than any other friends than any other stage in life? Life is lived together, doing not just the spiritual things of prayer, but you also eat meals with together, walk to class together.

I don’t think Paul would have made many friends if he was constantly in intense conversations or prayer all the time.
However, he knew the value of fellowship. And he knew that at its core, if it is to grow us more assured of what God wants for our lives, it would include encouragement, comfort, and wrestling in prayer for one another.

I’m going to leave you all with a final story about fellowship, and I hope this encourages you (hey!) to think practically and also intentionally.

In New Haven, every Sunday night, after church, my friends and I would gather at someone’s house, have dinner and play games – like literally, the same games we play here at FOCUS during game time or downtime. Now, let me tell you something about this group of people. It was incredibly random.….. We had a Yale graduate student in sculpture, a University of New Haven grad student in forensic psychology, 3 FOCUS staff workers, a coach, a teacher, a scientist, and an architect. If you think our professions were diverse, you should have seen our personalities. However as hosts, and as Christians, we accepted each other, and we kept our focus on Christ. And because of this, the love that we had for each other spread throughout our community and many of our friends that would NEVER even think to talk about their spiritual beliefs, started coming to church and asking us questions about our lives.

A final thing that I want to say about fellowship is this.

You might now know where to start. You may not have many Christian friends where you are, but I would ask you to pray about it.

These relationships at Internship One will continue, as they did for me after two years ago.
Ask God to provide for you, and He will. We were not made to be dependent on our experiences at camp, as Jon-Marc talked about last night. We were made to live in fellowship always – to have this encouragement, comfort, and wrestling with prayer for and with one another at all stages and seasons of our life.

Internship One 2010

I just got back from weeding at Felix Neck Bird Sanctuary with about 12 students, and earlier this morning, directed a "FOCUS"-version triathlon. I was actually pretty overwhelmed with these tasks just 24 hours ago.

To direct this triathlon, I and another leader had to figure out where students would be stationed, when, how, and what exactly we needed to do to make a successful race involving a 1/4 mile swim, 1 mile run, 1 mile bike ride, another 1 mile bike ride, a final 1 mile run, and then a short sprint carrying members of the team. It felt like a massive SAT math problem. But everyone was into it!

More importantly, this morning in our staff devotions, one of the leaders led some thoughts and prayer out of Hebrews 12:1-3 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

This was very confirming, that even though working through the logistics of this triathlon was a pain, it would definitely be worth it.

The weeding was a part of the service aspect of our program which comes out of the teaching program for this camp which we are taking out of the book of Colossians.

Even though I find myself somewhat distracted at this camp because of certain circumstances in my life - God is clearly at work among this 40 prep school students on the Vineyard. "Hoo-ray," as Richard Gwathmey (long-time Philly staffworker would say).

A Gift

Soon after I left New Haven, a talented friend of mine made a piece of art for me as a going-away gift. I didn't realize how meaningful it would be.

She took two of my favorite U2 songs, and extracted a certain portion of the lyrics, and watercolored the background.

The lyrics are from "Bad" and "Pride (In the Name of Love)"

This is the piece in entirety:

And this is what she wrote about it:

"I'm glad you got the gift! I never found time to write a card to go along with it. It would have explained what I was thinking with the piece- it's small but I think it came out more powerful than I imagined- I'm so glad these were your favorite songs. I was baffled by how deep the lyrics were and how in my mind, the lines that I extracted from the two songs fit together so well. The lyrics for the first song, though I've never heard it in full before, just seemed somber but real. I feel like this is our reality. Apart from Christ, this is where we are, struggling through different situations of painful desperation- and the words they chose were perfect to express the anguish. I imagined this as a note to us from Jesus- "Let it go, let these things go" and in a sense it is a cry of empathy for us, but it is also a command. "What more in the name of love" referring to His sacrifice, that washed away all the chains and oppression of this reality, He is saying 'What more can I ask- my sacrifice is perfect. Let it go, I have better for you."
I don't know, I looked at that combo over and over after I put it together and I just kept hearing the Spirit tell me that the grasp sin has over us might not be as tight as I imagine it to be. That in my fear, in my oppression, I give it power, but He can and will enpower me to let go and be free in Christ. I want that for you too. I want us to know what it looks like to love and live in freedom because of Christ."