Greece is The Word

I have recently been at Kalamos. Being at a kids’ camp for 17 days provided plenty of opportunities to talk about confession and forgiveness. My first opportunity was in English (phew!) with a couple of English-as-primary-language boys. They had been bickering and being mean to each other for about a day and I had innocently asked one of them how they were doing. He tearfully explained the situation and how it was making him miserable but he didn't really know how to stop. We talked about the fact that these things escalate when we treat others the way we think we've been treated rather than the way we want to be treated; when we justify our behaviour by our twisted perception of other people’s actions. What he needed was to seek the forgiveness of the other boy and to forgive him. We talked about how that kind of conversation couldn’t start with him pointing the finger but with him confessing his own part in the problems. For a 10 year-old he was impressively mature and willing to do this. So we went to the other boy, I explained that I was just there to witness the conversation. He confessed his part (his guilt, his sin) and asked for forgiveness, which he was given willingly. The other boy, without prompting, apologised for his part and asked for forgiveness and received it. I then congratulated them both and prayed for their friendship. It was a heart-warming experience!

It happened again the next day with a couple of smaller girls, again in English, and then again later in the week in Greek with other girls. There was one occasion where, due to a fight between two boys from different tents, the boys from each tent were plotting revenge against the offending boy from the other tent. The leader of the camp called the tents together and talked about vengeance vs forgiveness, and opened a floodgate of apologies and forgiveness given. This was all very encouraging and right for a Christian camp: opportunities to remind the children of the gospel that they know about but don’t necessarily trust in for themselves yet; a reminder about how much we should be prepared to forgive others even if we are ‘innocent’ because of how much God has forgiven us. Little did I know that in our final week I was going to have to put this into practice in a way I hadn’t anticipated.

On the final Monday of the camp we had a πανηγύρι (panigiri – fête). Over the course of the camp we had been earning camp money through chores and exceptional behaviour which we could spend at the πανηγύρι. There were stalls with games, a popcorn/candy floss stand and little ‘basket stalls’ with goods to buy: mostly second hand bits and pieces, various stationery goods with Bible verses, etc. I found a very cute little metal blond boy carrying a rake that would make a good little present for the absent Jonathan. He actually had two brothers that I also wanted to buy, but a couple of girls expressed an interest in them, so I let them buy them. At the end of the evening I decided not to put him in the suitcase for fear he’d get damaged and elected to put him on the shelf in the bungalow instead.

The next afternoon during free time most of the girls from my ‘tent’ – the bungalow – came to me with a bag containing the little boy, now beheaded. Apparently they had all been playing in the bungalow and one of the girls, let’s call her Maria, had taken my boy off the shelf and started mucking about with him. The others had, apparently, told her not to do that and warned her that he was fragile and wasn't a toy. Before she knew it, his head was off and they were all outraged. She begged them not to tell me and ran off to hide/play on the swings. Their sense of injustice was aided by the fact that Maria had been a bit whiny and annoying for most of them most of the camp. They smelt blood and came to me to report this transgression.

I am not very proud of my initial reaction. I was furious and just about managed to contain that fury. I told the girls to not play in the bungalow but to go and do something else and that I would talk to Maria. They didn't know where she was. I went to the bungalow first to put away the bits and see if Maria was there. By the time I found her I had calmed down considerably and had begun to think about how I might approach this. Maria is only five years old and this is her first time away at camp, so I needed to do a good job. It went something like this:

I explained to her that I had found out about the boy and that I had been angry and upset. The fact that it was a present for my husband probably made it more upsetting to me than it would have been otherwise. I didn’t lay it on thick, but I did make sure that she understood that I thought this was serious. As I spoke she wept. I then asked her to explain to me what had happened. She didn’t really want to speak, but I encouraged her to take a deep breath and say what she needed to say. She recounted the ‘incident’ and even admitted to asking the other girls not to tell me. I told her that I had been angry to start with and upset but that I couldn’t stay angry. I told her that I had wondered if there was an appropriate punishment that I could give her. I explained that, by the time I had found her I had realised something. That I needed to forgive her. That it was better if she was sorry and easier for me, but that either way, I needed to forgive her. You see, she’d broken this little boy that had only been mine for a few hours, but that God had broken his own Eternal Son, so that He could forgive us all that we had done against him. That her sin against me was like a tiny speck of dust compared to a whole world of sin that I had committed against God and He had forgiven me in Jesus. I told her that, in forgiving her, I was going to forget about it, not hold it against her, not remind her of it and that we would go and speak to the rest of the tent. So I encouraged her to apologise and I forgave her. We hugged and I prayed for both of us.

Hand-in-hand we went to find the others. In our little tent pow-wow I told the others a bit about our conversation. Some of them struggled a bit more than Maria and I did about the whole business of simply forgiving her and not speaking of it again. Like the natural Pharisees that we are, they wanted to point out again that they were right to tell her not to play with the boy and that she had done a bad thing in ignoring them. I told them that as the wronged party I had forgiven her and that they now needed to leave it. We prayed again, all together and happily carried on with the rest of the week. Because of the upset and the forgiveness, I think Maria and I had a much stronger bond than we had done before.

As I’ve recounted this story, to Jonathan and to others, I’ve been reminded that it’s not rocket science; it’s not that complicated or that exceptional or that unusual, but it is profound because it’s so clearly not the way of the world. I am naturally like Maria, wanting to avoid my sin and deny it, not blatantly (mostly) but passively, wanting to hide it from God and from others.

I am also naturally disinclined to forgive. I want vengeance or justice or payment even! I want to stay angry or upset or both and feel that that’s the right way to respond when someone sins against me. The line in the Lord’s Prayer is a simple concept though and one that I have had some understanding of since I was Maria’s age. It’s not simply “forgive us our sins”, although God does that, in Jesus. The proof of our understanding and our appreciation of the weight and strength and power of that forgiveness is in the second clause: “as we forgive those who sin against us”. How could I stay angry or upset or both with Maria? What could she do, anyway, to repay me for her sin? Even if she could buy me a new boy would that really make it all ok? No, forgiveness was the only appropriate response. And just as I have grown in understanding and appreciation of what that means, I pray that so too would Maria and all the other lovely little girls from my tent. That in years to come they would know the enormity of the forgiveness they have been given in Jesus and freely, willingly (and more quickly than I?!) give that forgiveness to others in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Great to have an opportunity to teach from Titus and to see evidence of fruit on a quiet island. A couple of ladies from Orthodox backgrounds regularly take part in mid week Bible study and we're part of a small congregation of about 12.

Against my wishes (and probably against their better judgement) I ended up leading the whole meeting, probably leaving out several normal elements of a Greek Evangelical morning meeting, but I doubt they were crucial!

As far as I can tell it made sense and will hopefully be of some encouragement. Yet again, let's be liberated by the great simplicity of the biblical strategy for the growth of the gospel: believe it, preach it, live it out well and publicly. Not only is that how the gospel goes out, but it is also, if we'll believe the scripture, the good life.