VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL

                It’s not summer without Vacation Bible School!   Like catching lightening bugs, freezing homemade ice cream, watching baseball, eating watermelon and swimming on hot, humid days, Vacation Bible School is synonymous with the summer experience.  While many churches have already had VBS for the summer, our church begins Bible School on Monday morning, July 23.

            I love Vacation Bible School.  With the exception of a couple of years in college, I have been involved in Bible School for over half a century!   When I was a kid Bible School was the highlight of the summer.  We kicked off Bible School the Friday before opening day with a big parade down Main Street.  I remember one year getting to ride on the fire truck.  Life couldn’t get any better.  It was in Bible School that I learned to recite the books of the Bible, all 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament—in order.  (We did not learn about the Apocrypha!)   I memorized Bible verses and we focused on a different Bible story every day.  We didn’t just sing “The B-I-B-L-E, Now That’s the Book for Me,” but for two weeks we lived it. 

            Without a doubt the biggest thrill of Bible School was carrying the flag.  Each morning Bible School started with an “Opening Ceremony,” in the church sanctuary.   Boys carried the American and Christian Flags while a girl was relegated to carrying the Bible.   Every boy wanted to carry the American Flag, but at least carrying the Christian Flag was better than carrying the Bible—a girl thing.   Yes, we were unashamedly sexist!   But it seems we had an inverted understanding of what was most important.  After all, it was Vacation Bible School, not Vacation American Flag School.  

            Carrying the Bible should have been the greatest honor followed by the Christian Flag (I mean, we are a Christian church, right?) and then the American Flag, but little children didn’t understand it that way and sadly, many adults don’t either.  I guess adults are too old for Bible School, but we are never too old to study the Bible.  And judging from studies I have seen, adults need a refresher course. 

            Sixty percent of Americans cannot name five of the Ten Commandments, 50% can only name one of the four Gospels and 50% of high school seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah were married.  Americans may revere the Bible, but most never read it.  When I started preaching 40 years ago, I assumed most everyone understood Biblical references in my sermon.  If I mentioned “The Good Samaritan” or “The Prodigal Son” I assumed most everyone knew what I was talking about.  Not anymore. 

            Dr. Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University, says that our ignorance of not only our own faith, but other world religions, is dangerous.  His book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — and Doesn't, argues that everyone needs to grasp Bible basics, as well as the core beliefs, stories, symbols and heroes of other faiths.  “More and more of our national and international questions are religiously infected,” he says.

             The Apostle Paul wrote that he was a child, he thought like a child, but when he became a man he put away childish things.  When I was a child, I attended Vacation Bible School in the summer, but now that I am a man, I am involved in Bible Study all year long.  I teach several Bible studies including an ecumenical Bible Study every fall and spring on Monday nights and Tuesday mornings.  There are dozens of good Bible studies that meet in homes, churches, and businesses.   You can also download a good Bible App for your phone.  Most have systematic plans to help you read the Bible and you can arrange to have a Bible verse emailed to you on a daily basis.   The Bible is more accessible today than ever before.  

            We will have both boys and girls to carry the flags in VBS and also the Bible.  While I have fond memories of carrying the flags as a boy, I wish I been privileged to carry the Bible.  I didn’t get to, but I hope I will carry the Bible with me for the rest of my life.