Helping the World Reach Agape

This past week was the first of my last two weeks with Summer in the City. Those of you who may not know, SITC is a service based camp for middle school youth from the Raleigh area Presbyterian churches. The week is spent doing various service projects at local shelters, food pantries, thrift shops, and any other non-profit organizations (usually Christian based). This is my fourth and final year working with this camp, and every year I fall more in love with it.

This year's theme is "Feed My Sheep" based off of John 21:17 (expanding out to John 21:15-17).

15When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?"
"Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."

16Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?"
He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."

17 The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."

One thing to note is that scripture follows Peter denying that he knows Jesus prior to his crucifixion. This denial occurs three times. In this scripture, Jesus is asking Peter if he loves him, to which Peter responds "You know all things, you know that I love you." Interesting... but that is for a later time when I know more about how to approach it and all of that :)

Back to the point though... the original translation (Greek) uses the words Agape and Philo in place of love.

Agape being an unconditional, eternal, unexpecting, freely given love, one that is very hard to reach for humans because there is always an underlying bit that we might think of at some point preventing from this full agape love that I believe only Jesus/ God/ Holy Spirit is capable of. Sure, you can say that you have this love for your significant other or your best friend... but what if they cheat on you? Or they lie to you? can you honestly say that you would not falter one bit in your love for them? Jesus and God DO NOT falter in their love for us.

Philo love is a brotherly love. This is typically the love we feel for our best friends, significant others, family... it has a stronger basis than Eros (emotional and physical, easily broken) but is not as strong as Agape.

When I was discussing this with my small group on our first night, one young lady (7th grade I believe) tied it very nicely into what our week at SITC was about... "To help the world reach AGAPE". WHAT A GREAT MOTIVE!! If we can truly work to help the world reach agape, can you imagine how much nicer it would be? Even if it never happens, even a miniscule difference could be incredible.

I truly think that is how the youth approached this week at SITC. In talking to some of them over a box of toilet paper (we had to cut packs of 4 in half to make packs of 2...), a rising 8th graders told me that they didn't really want to come to camp because of the work... they would rather be home at the pool or watching tv. However after they saw the difference they were making (or were potentially making), this was so much better than any tv show. That right there is exactly why I love the program so much and can't wait to continue along the same line in my ministry.

Going back to the theme of the week, "Feed My Sheep", as the week continued we asked the youth about the scripture- What is love? How do we show love to others? To God? What does it mean to "Feed My Sheep"? How can we feed HIS sheep outside of SITC? This spurred lots of conversation and thought in my small group as we came to many conclusions about each, however it became very apparent that there is no single answer to any of it, just as it should be (and completely against my list that I had already written, waiting for the check marks to go by each item). Every person has their own answer and none of them are wrong. Oh the things you learn from children!

What a wonderful thing when we can appreciate and respond to the needs of our world... whether that be some toilet paper that a family may not be able to get if they didn't go to this organization for help, or that extra push closer to agape. So here is my question after all of this- 25 middle schoolers came last week, and there will be 27 this week, all working towards providing for even the most "simple" needs of others they don't even know and may never know and helping the world reach agape, what are you doing? Are you sitting at home watching tv or tanning by your pool? Or are you looking for ways to do what these youth are doing? How are you feeding HIS sheep?

Trust me... it isn't always found on a check list, so go out there and find your way, and DO IT!