Pool's Open!

Summer is upon us. I can sit out on the porch and enjoy the evening, unless it becomes unbearably humid and until the mosquito sprayer comes through. I’m headed off to camp next week. A highlight of the week will be the same summer highlight kids look forward to throughout the Summer. Just about every kid gets a smile on their face when they hear those magic words “pool’s open.” I remember how it was when I was a kid either at home or camp. Play hard all morning and then go to the pool to cool off. It’s not the same  for me now. For one thing I have “negative buoyancy.” I sink. Additionally I am bald and fair skinned. That calls for a “sun-screen strategy” which kind of takes the fun out of the whole enterprise. 

Kids? They love it. Some kids would spend an entire week of camp in the pool. As most things do , contemplating pool time next week,  gets me thinking about the church. The connection? Allow me to elaborate.

The first day the campers go to the pool next week they will wait outside the fence and listen to a lifeguard lay out the terms for their time in the pool. No rough horse-play. No running. Instructions for passing the test for the deep end of the pool. And the most feared and misunderstood pool-rule known to man. Everyone must take a shower before they get into the pool. There will be some smart-alecky kid who just can’t leave it alone. “How long do I have to shower? How wet do I need to get? Does my hair have to get wet? Does the water need to be hot or can it be cold? Soap and shampoo or just a rinse?” And that does not even take into account the basic questions which define teen narcissism. “Why?” “Really?” “I don’t want to!” (Technically not a question.) And the coup-de-gras “One time I was at the pool and there was this kid who didn’t take a shower before he got in the pool so why should I?!?”

Once they get into the pool everything tends to go fine. I have seen that “shower talk” go on for what seemed like eternity with a hundred and twenty hot, sweaty, agitated campers asking every imaginable question to avoid doing something which cost nothing, takes  almost no time, and which has a greater social purpose. 

Let me get to the part that reminded me of the Church. How ironic would it be if those kids had reversed the polarity on the question. What if, instead of rushing past the shower to get into the pool they were pumped about staying in the shower and avoided the pool altogether. That would be a little weird. The shower is just a taste of everything the pool has to offer. The shower is not the primary experience. The shower is a prelude to so much more. You shower on the way to the pool. Once you have that shower you can jump in, immerse yourself in the cool water, and enjoy the blessing without qualification. 

There are an awful lot of people whose approach to the church mirrors either the very real scenario of the pool-talk or the imaginary scenario of the kid staying in the shower rather than jumping in the pool. The former spend all of their time (and often the time of others) bickering about non-essentials, boundary issues, or liminal terms of admission. It is juvenile and aggravating. But then, that is what teens kind of specialize in: juvenile and aggravating. A person who wants to swim will not bicker outside the gate in the hot sun trying to nail down definitions of all, wet, and shower. This mirrors the attitude of many 21c “Christians” who want to spend all of their time bickering about the non-essentials of faith, terms of entry, definitions of fidelity, and institutional purpose of the Church—while standing on the deck in the hot sun. Far better to stop arguing and get fully immersed in the pool. It is amazing how many petty camp arguments and personality conflicts dissolve when everyone gets totally submerged in pool life. What would the impact be if Church members acted the same way? What if we stopped being in conflict about peripheral issues and were completely overwhelmed by our full participation in the Body of Christ? 

Now consider the second, even more bizarre scenario; the kid who enjoys dabbling and splashing around in the pool-house shower so much that he never wants to get in the pool. Why settle for something so small when the entire pool beckons? Why embrace a second-rate experience when you can go completely under? I would say that our churches are full of Christians who just want a bit of a splash and who then avoid the pool—but that is the point—our churches are not full of these people because they refuse to fully participate. They are satisfied with getting a little wet when the pure pool of  Christ’s grace-defined body is waiting to embrace them. How has this happened? How have we come to a generation of people who are “just a little” Christian who don’t even know the difference between the pool-house shower and the pool? Two answers.

1. The bickering over rules has worn a lot of these people out. They make it to the bath house but they are afraid that the pool will be filled with the same kind of quarreling. The shower is refreshing. So they would rather have a few occasional  showers than get fully immersed in the Body life of the Church. Shame on us for spending so much time on the hot deck of the pool that we discourage people from taking a dip. 
2. We have created a “Christian” culture in which there are so many showers everywhere that it makes the pool (Church) seem inconvenient, unwieldy, and passe. Christian radio…a quick shower. Podcast of my favorite preacher. (Whom I’ve never met because he lives in a different state and it’s not like we are actually in a pastoral relationship) a quick splash on the face! FaceBook prayer-group…You get the picture We have confused what is auxiliary for what is authentic. We have built so many pool-houses with so many showers that our pools are empty. 

The shower is a preliminary. The pool’s the point.