In one final scene, we see the results of John and Charles’ youth group adventures at Camp Crystal Lakewood.  They brought their youth group to a camp, hoping for a retreat from the world and a time of spiritual renewal. But it sure is difficult to find Christian organizations that share theological commitments!  And the Bros quickly discovered threats at every corner!  It turns out our church members and youth are gathering beliefs from all over, not just our own teaching and preaching! Be it from para-church ministries targeting youth and college students, or Christian nationalism permeating the very breath of American religion, or online influencers and news sources…your people have alternative messaging coming from every direction! How terrifying!

In the face of insurmountable odds, our heroes revealed the true nature of their villains.  They were sheep in wolves’ clothing all along!  What do we do when the wolves are our siblings in Christ (or at the very least, enabled and put into power by our siblings in Christ?!)?  For the past ten years in a country growing farther and farther apart, I have struggled alongside so many in ministry to understand our spiritual calling when the overall witness of the Church is something we’d rather distance ourselves from.  And over and I over I come to the same conclusion.

If you want to leave, I don’t blame you.  Maybe it’s safer to pursue Christ apart from the institutional church in America.  We are super hideous right now.

But if you want to stay, brace yourself for an incredibly painful journey of insisting that God’s love is truly for all people.  Even the people who are ruining it for everyone else.  Even the people who put wolf masks and forget that they are just sheep, too.  Even the people who talk out of both sides of their mouths and refuse to acknowledge self-righteousness and hypocrisy.  Even me.

Leaning into God’s grace is the hardest thing.  It’s not actually wishy washy or a cop out.  God’s grace is the relentless insistence that the love of Christ is free for all and free in all.  It a constant reminder that we’re all image bearers called to follow a lamb who was slain for loving with the love of God.  It’s an insistence that God is able, even when…especially when, we are not.  It’s reliance on God’s resurrection and victory that only comes through crucifixion at the hands of self-righteous empire.

This here ends the Camp Crystal Lakewood storyline.  I hope you’ve enjoyed it and been challenged by the ideas in this story.  Please lean hard into the incarnation of Christ as we enter Christmastide.  Give yourself space to breathe in the goodness of God.  To breathe out the pain and sorrow of all that is broken.  Give yourself room to accept your limits, and take delight in the image-of-God shining brightly within you.  Let that be the beginning of your inspiration, your creative response in the upcoming year to all that threatens.

Happy Christian New Year, my friends.  Blessed Christmastide, siblings.