Summer is officially here. School is out for most children. Consequently, summertime is the time when most people take a vacation, as we Americans call it. Other strands of the English language describe such events as “going on holiday,” from the old usage of refraining from work on a religious “holy day” observed at various points in the church calendar year.
Being somewhat more secular from its inception, however, in American one does not “go on holiday” but rather one “takes a vacation.” A vacation, taken from the Latin verb vacare, means “to leave empty,” and when Americans go “on vacation,” they often leave their places of employment, their homes, and their seats (and offering plates) in church empty. Despite this “negative” connotation, most Americans think positively of vacation, of this “leaving empty,” as an opportunity for rest, relaxation, or adventure. For some, this often means that vacation is filled with all manner of “unholy” activities both day and night.
To combine the notions of “holiday” and “vacation” more constructively, Christians are reminded of the centerpiece of our faith, namely the event of Easter Sunday. On that day, Jesus created a holiday (holy day) by leaving his tomb empty! Human sin and death were transformed into divine righteousness and eternal life so that through faith alone sinful human beings might live with God, holy forever.
To continue this linguistic game on a more mundane plane, what should we make of the concept “Vacation Bible School” (VBS)? On one hand, VBS takes place during “vacation” when Americans leave work and school. Such “vacation,” as mentioned, provides an opportunity for rest, relaxation, and even adventure. Nowadays, adventure, whether biblical or even quasi-biblical, seems to be a necessary ingredient for VBS.
On the other hand, many people are left empty by the term “Vacation Bible School.” Although VBS was originally directed at children and their parents whose lives were actually or effectively empty of the Bible, one needs to ask, who really wants to go to “school” during vacation? Also, despite attempts to make VBS into an adventure of biblical proportions, most VBS curricula seem empty compared to modern fantasy adventures of video games, multimedia entertainment, and theme parks. What can an old book about long forgotten times say to tech savvy people today?
Perhaps we need to reassess our questioning. Why did Jesus vacate the tomb into which he had been laid? How did he get into that tomb in the first place? Why was he here in human time and space at all?
Since creation, humanity has been dogged by the fact that it has left itself empty of faith in God’s word and work. When it vacated God’s word, humanity was forced to vacate the Garden of Eden. Ever since then, human history tells the story of people desperately trying to fill the voids in their lives with any and every means possible, whether constructive or not. As modern advertising shows, people are enticed to spend their money to spend their waking moments trying to fill their stomachs, senses, needs, desires, and so forth with all and sundry in order to stave off preoccupation with our eventual full-time occupation of those empty places called graves.
So, in answer to our questions about Jesus above, St. Paul wrote words long ago which continue to speak to humanity in every day and age:
“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:1-11).
As the son of God, Jesus vacated himself in order that we might be filled with the spirit of his word and work, all active through faith alone granted in Christ alone as communicated to us in scripture alone. Thus, for us Christians, everyday filled with Christ and his word is a lesson in vacation Bible school, looking not to our own interests and needs but to the interests and needs of other sinners. Living with this mind of Christ, we too are called to empty ourselves in order that through the gospel of Jesus Christ those whom we encounter might live wholly and holy in him forever.
