Summer Spirit: Spirit Gathered

There is no better time for a kid than Summer Camp, and Montlureis finishing its fourth week! Pray for Stephanie Hamilton! Pray for the counselors! And pray for the all the children and youth who will be blessed by getting away from their routines in order to get into Jesus.

Last week I served as chaplain for the senior high camp andwas excited to bring this year’s theme at Montlure: Power Up in the Spirit. The fourthday’s lesson was taken from Ephesians 4:1-6, which says in part:

…Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

This passage was quite fun to teach as it allowed me to break out the story from Dr. Suess’ The Butter Battle in which two tribes from the same locale war over the correct way to butter bread: butter side up versus butter side down. I divided the campers into two groups and asked them to shout out their answer to the question, “What is the proper side of the bread to butter?” As each side made their voices heard, in ever increasing volume, the cacophony blurred into a single, guttural cry that sounded something like, “AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!” Sadly, this exercise is in some ways a metaphor for the Church.

There are seven “ones” in this brief passage of Ephesians: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all. Seven being the symbolic number of heaven for the ancient Israelites, this passage speaks both literally and symbolically toward our unity even in the midst of our differences, the triumph of diversity over division for those who share in Jesus Christ.

But how is such unity in diversity accomplished? In the presbytery as it is in the church, in the church family as it is in the extended family, among all families and friends, the character qualities the Lord seeks of his people, and which draw us toward a common heart for the Lord Jesus, are humility, gentleness, patience and forbearance. To demonstrate the reconciling power of these character qualities, imagine the reverse of these traits. What kind of teamwork, unity and common purpose is found when members are arrogant, obnoxious, impatient and intolerant?

At the Camp Dance the evening of day four, the senior high campers – a famously cliquish tribe – brought joy to my heart as I observed them dance with one another almost exclusively in groups, large and small, constantly morphing, constantly changing who was dancing with whom. It was as if they had figured out that jocks and musicians, theater folk and brainiacs were all different and yet somehow one. Our presbytery and our churches can learn a lot from their example. Indeed, may we learn from their example the “new math” of the Kingdom: 1 + 1 + 1+ 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = ONE!

Pray on these things,

Brad