In much the same way that Jaws “invented” the summer blockbuster, Sly and the Family Stone’s 1969 single, “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” originated the tradition of a singular pop song encapsulating the Zeitgeist of a given summer.
It’s a great single, although the lyrics wouldn’t challenge Larkin or Eliot. “Them summer days, those summer days,” Sly purrs, “that’s when I had my fun back, and everything it’s cool, oh yeah.” (One of the great things about pop music is that you don’t necessarily need profound words to mint a punchy single.) Still, “Hot Fun” captures something of the warm breeziness of the summer, not just of ’69 but of every year.
I doubt Jesus thinks that the selfishness woven into our summers is such a grand idea.
Everyone loves summer, am I right? If you don’t, you’re truly un-american, and quite possibly Canadian.
If we think about summer from within the framework of Scripture, it’s possible to hear various themes from God’s first act of his great story for our world – namely, a good creation – richly echoed by the summer season. From June through August, we’ll indeed luxuriate in rest, changes of pace, and refreshment. We’ll pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars just to sit and look out at beautiful aspects of God’s earth. We’ll hunt and gather for foods and libations that are gifts from a benevolent creator. Life is good!
Or rather, life is good, but we can still mess it up. Remember that the second act of God’s story is that we’re fallen people that live in a broken creation. As a result, something good like summertime is refracted through the prism of the fall: like every season, summer can often be about me, myself, and mine. Summer simply becomes more time for me (or for me and my family) to disengage from normal routines and people and just spend time on me, for a change.
I doubt Jesus thinks that the selfishness woven into our summers is such a grand idea.
Instead, as we enjoy summer for its alteration and alleviation of life’s pace and responsibilities, perhaps no season is as conducive to mission as this one. Sure, folks are out of town a lot, but if you’ve been meaning to have that neighbor over for a meal, invite a coworker out to a happy hour, linger at a playground with other parents, join a softball league or a yoga class, summertime loves ya. It isn’t that we shouldn’t practice mission during the rest of the year, but if so much outward Christian praxis relies upon the building of relationships with others, there’s no time like now.
As we turn the page to summertime, I’ll be encouraging our people at Liberti Collingswood to treat this season as one to reexamine our life patterns of worship, community, and mercy for the sake of others, and to implement positive innovations. What can we change, or do differently and better this summer?
In addition, here at Liberti Collingswood we’ll be enjoying a break from some of our September-to-June activities. Things like Sunday School and most of our small groups will go on hiatus, but in their place we’re going to try something that other Liberti churches have done in the past – summer “mini-courses.”
Beginning once the public schools let out, for the next two and a half months, we’re planning on offering an array of enrichment activities that will run for differing lengths of time and with various levels of intensity/commitment. We’ll put on four sessions of financial counseling, two for cocktail mixology, a few for yoga, two for painting, six for frisbee golf, and one to better appreciate America’s best musical outfit, the Beatles.
Our prayer is that these venues will not only enrich us ourselves, but that Liberti Collingwood types will take advantage of these courses and invite out lots of friends, neighbors, and countryfolk to these gatherings. There’s no substitute for Christians living in community with others from all backgrounds and types, and especially in our cultural moment, there are few better ways than genuine friendships by which we might introduce others to God’s continuing acts in our creation story.
We pray that this summer, more will hear of and believe in God’s redemption and restoration of all things begun in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God. Because of Christ, the real summer break is still ahead.