Flavored Condoms and Lectio Divina

Myles Werntz has a blog I particularly enjoy reading. This post made me think of one particular day on the trip to Puerto Rico.

Wednesday was an off day in the middle of the week for us. Buses took us to downtown Caguas for a few hours where the kids could shop and then on to the beach for the afternoon. After we arrived at the beach, the chaperone of another group we shared the bus ride with pulled one of my chaperones aside and informed us that one of our youth was in the back of the bus reading the ingredients off of a box of flavored condoms. Nice huh?

After we got back from the beach we held a group meeting. We said we didn't know who bought the box and we didn't really care because what bugs me most was that no one during either the purchase of the condoms or the reading of them on the bus stepped up and said that it was inappropriate for the trip. When the purchaser volunteered himself, I thanked him for admitting to it, but I also pointed out that is was someone besides him who was pointed out for reading them on the bus. And know one listening in the group thought to stop it. So I was disappointed that as a group know one used better judgement. There was no punishment but a warning was given that step out of line again and the snorkeling trip on Saturday would most likely be cancelled. The kids were sulking but I think they understood my frustration.

Later that night we had devotional. Since there was no work day to reflect on, I took the section of scripture that verse for the day came from and did my own version of lectio divina with it. The passage was I Corinthians 9:19-27. I read it to them five different times, each time asking them to listen from a different perspective. First I told them about Paul, the author of the passage, and asked them to put themselves in his place as I read the passage. Then I told them about the church in Corinth, asked them to imagine they were there, and then read it again. Then I told them to imagine they were part of an oppressed minority anywhere in the world at any time in history, and read it again. Then I told them to imagine they were someone else at our church, and read it again, Finally I told them to come back to right where they were at this moment, and read it to them one more time. I gave them a few minutes to reflect, and then asked them to share what they had heard. I told them the usual Sunday School answers were off limits, they had to tell me what really struck them or what bothered them or what they didn't understand or what new thing they may have heard.

To my surprise everyone really seemed to love this exercise. Many didn't like the idea of Paul changing who he was to win others to Christ. Others said imagining they were someone else at the church gave them a new perspective on both the text and that person. I didn't offer any answers to the questions and challenges they raised, I only reminded them that every generation has to wrestle with the text and come to their own conclusions about it. And I reminded them that one of the beauties of the text is that throughout one's life the same text will come to mean different things. The important thing was that we learned to listen with fresh ears each time we heard the text. It was truly one of those moments when I think everyone "got it."

From flavored condoms to lectio divina in about 8 hours. The highs and lows of youth ministry may just kill me. But I think the highs are good enough to sustain me through the lows.