Which is more important: knowing Jesus loves you, or knowing how to live-out the reality of that love?

Of course even as I write that I know the answer is both/and.

The reason I am thinking about this sort of thing is because of VBS. For those of you who grew up outside the fundamentalist or evangelical bubble, that means Vacation Bible School.

Now, my little post-modern, post- evangelical, post-mainline kiddos don’t go to Sunday school. They know their Bible stories, a fistful of songs, St. Pat’s Breastplate and how to do centering, encircling, and Sabbath prayers – but they do not go to Sunday school. So far Paul and I and our monkfishy friends have managed to be their primary indoctrinators. We don’t kid ourselves. Even though we call VBS “indoctrination camp,” we know we are indoctrinating them here too. It’s just that our doctrine is one of love, graciousness, inclusion, and shalom. So I’ve been hesitant to send them to anything too “churchy,” anything that smacked too much of “us and them” or “in and out.” I don’t want them immersed in anything where the ethos is: “Quick! Get ‘em to say THE prayer before they leave so they won’t end up in hell for eternity.” You know?

But sometimes, when you are six, you just have to make a bee out of Twinkies and Oreos in order to learn something about David and Goliath. (Seriously. This was one of the lessons from a Group VBS one year.)

The truth is, my kids like hanging out with other kids and making things out of craft foam. They like singing “Spring up oh well! Splish splash And save my so-ole’!” And also, by the end of the summer they are B-O-R-E-D. So I send them to VBS. Three a year to be exact, one a month June, July, and August. I mean, come on, at $20-$40 dollars a week, wouldn’t you? Sure, some of the stuff is confusing. (Mommy? What does this mean? “Ooo-oo living water, and you’ll never be thirsty again?”) But five blissful childfree mornings is worth the risk, right?

So in June the kids went to VBS at a huge evangelical powerhouse – University Presbyterian Church (UPC). When I was at the Seattle Vineyard we referred to this church as “the city.” They have parking attendants to help the Jaguars find their way in and out of the parking garage–it’s that big. Not one to purchase a VBS program on-line, UPC writes their own in-house every year. They even write new songs, and record them on CD for the kids to take home. There are matching t-shirts and all the Mom-helper’s wear hand-painted aprons with goodies stuffed in the pockets. There is a drop off zone with orange-vested parking attendants and you know your room number ahead of time. It is a well-oiled machine.

This year’s theme was “Son Quest: going to the heart of the Son.” Rocket ships lined the halls; planets were made out of paper mache, comets dangled from the ceiling. It was a great week of fun stuff – Bible stories wrapped in skits, goofy relays, water balloons, and crafts involving lots of glitter. Eden fell in love with her high-energy teen-aged group leaders, and Catie learned more songs with hand motions than you can shake a stick at. I’m not sure if the Bible stories stuck, but I’ll be damned if Catie doesn’t take those hand motion songs to her grave! The main message was Jesus loves you, this I know. They also learned that songs are always better if you throw in “Oh Baby” and make a guttural sound in your throat as in: ‘Pharaoh Pharaoh, Oh Baby, let my people go – Ungh!—yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.’

In July, the kids went to Cathedral Camp. Cathedral Camp is at St. Mark’s Episcopal. We go there for all the high holy holidays. It is our tabernacle. And the children love it–all muted and dark with candles and labyrinths and wine in the silver communion goblet. But when I got there last Monday, I thought I had the wrong dates. Where were the long lines of mini vans dropping of kids? Where were the banners and posters and color-coordinated staff t-shirts? Another mom found me wandering around the mostly-empty parking lot.

“Are you looking for Cathedral Camp?”
“Yes.”
“They are in the Nave.”

In. the. Nave. They took the children into the holy of holies.

St. Mark’s Cathedral is like no Cathedral I’ve ever seen. They ran out of steam and money at some point and the whole thing is finished, but bare, austere, and flat-out amazing. It is stark, awe inspiring and undeniably holy. And the kids were in there…..sitting on the steps leading to the altar table and learning how to sing “Alleluia” to a Native American chant. I melted. Then I worried. Where was the band of college-aged contemporary Christian musicians? Where was the rah and the rah and the shish boom bah? Wouldn’t my kids be bored? Would they start to dislike our beautiful cathedral because Episcopalians didn’t know how to put the sparkle into Bible camp?

Answer: No. They were in love. They loved their little classes. They loved their plain-faced wooden figurines at Godly Play. They loved playing tag on the verge and running giggling through the labyrinths. They were just as hooked on Cathedral Camp as they’d been on Son Quest. And if the main message of the UPC VBS was “Jesus loves you,” then the main message at Cathedral Camp was its perfect partner: “So go out and love the world.” Want an example?

Day One: Disparity between the rich and poor and what Jesus thinks about it as illustrated by the stories of Zacheus and the Rich Young Ruler. Eden comes home asking about how we could give up our things to follow Jesus. Cate sings, “Ikea-us was a wee little man” and does hand motions. (Ikea-us. Isn’t it ironic?)

Day Two: Honoring the created order: stewardship of the earth illustrated by the creation story in Genesis. Craft project: decorating re-useable cloth grocery bags.

Day Three and Four: Cross cultural relationships and global economic inequity, illustrated by the missionary journeys of Paul and the communal lifestyle of the early church. (This is where Eden picked up the whole gnats and grizzly bear thing from yesterday’s post.)

How much do you love this curriculum?!? Dang. I wish I could go to Cathedral Camp! This is some serious discipleship! And I repeat, my kids loved it!

It’s just stuck with me: the high energy show, this low-key experience. Is one better than the other? I don’t know. I know my kids need to know the extravagant, exuberant love of God. I also know they need to learn how to live like Jesus. All I know for sure is, I’m grateful for the diversity and I’m grateful each of these communities welcomed us wanders in.

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…’cuz Jesus loves me this I know. (Oooo Baby….Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.)