Placed number 4 on this year's list, this year's edition of the VCF Annual Teaching (Anntic) Camp shook me up tremendously from my moral ambivalence of the last 2 years or so.
And this had a lot to do with having on one hand, nightly expositions from the Old Testament book of Hosea and on the other, Inductive Bible Study classes in the mornings based on the New Testament book of Revelations.
Like I said in a preliminary post on Anntic earlier, I sensed something was brewing when I found out I got bumped up to level 4 for IBS (which deals with Biblical prophetic literature) from level 3 (dealing with Biblical poetry), which would have been my "rightful" progression since I did level 2 last year and level 1 the year before last.
Just as there was a need for OT prophecy in Hosea's time since God's people betrayed their convenant with God, I guess there was a need for such a thunderous warning of impending tragedy if I don't recognise the folly and repent in my own personal context.
Hosea's clarity of his vision of life and the world accounted for the largely hard-hitting nature of his words of warnings to the people then. While his words may be perceived as an interpretation of the past, it also foretells the future for the sake of the present.
But as Uncle Soo Inn (uncle and not Dr Tan, because as it turns out, he is Mark and John's step-dad!) took pains to look in my direction to remind me at his first exposition on the opening night where I led worship, we must not neglect the fact that God's wrath is also the result of His love for His people.
The extent of His grace is such that although judgement is imminent, He still sent a prophet in the mould of Hosea, as a "last resort" of sorts -- hinting at the possibility of a new way in the hope that His people might repent and claim upon His original promise.
This thread of bleakness tinged with hope was extended in Revelations, for which I did more in-depth study during my morning IBS sessions, where I was also encouraged to persevere and hold on despite temptations to do the contrary.
Being a combinaton of 3 literary genres (apocalyptic, prophetic and epistle) that sometimes contains seemingly contradictory elements, Revelations contains meanings on many levels that are often intertwined.
While often used to literally foretell the second coming or signs of impending doomsday, I think the 4 days of IBS has reminded me how it is perhaps better to resist the "easier" option of interpreting Revelations too literally and out of its context.
Or worse, to be engaging in inconsistent hermeunetics and selectively vacillating between the literal and symbolic intepretations of Revelations, to concoct one's own possible doomsday scenario.
Studying Revelations was a form of encouragement -- while prophecy declares the future, it doesn't work out its own fulfilment. Rather, it stands as witness until the event takes place -- which in turn suggests that the will to obey needs to be exercised, and cannot be enforced externally.
The divided heart and the spirit of prostitution among Hosea's target audience were among the 2 things that lingered in my heart and being while meditating on the contents of the book in my preparation for worship.
I realised later that the charges against Israel in Hosea were effectively charges against me, especially those of superficial repentence, a divided heart, a chronic lack of a fear of the Lord and subscribing to a definition of cleverness not defined by God.
Where the criteria for being a "good" child of God is processual faithfulness and not the success of a particular end-product, I have been found utterly liable on all counts.
In Revelations, John of Patmos attempted to convey an "alternate" reality which is a perspective seen from God's. While it is a message of hope (as exemplified in the Lord of the Rings trailer that Yvonne screened -- "no triumph without loss, no victory without suffering and no freedom without sacrifice"), it is also an encouragement to hold on since if we do not compromise, we must expect persecution to surely come.
But if we hold on, the promise of freedom beckons. Yet, it must be noted that this freedom contrasts greatly with the false freedom in the now and the present to do whatever now.
While I shouldn't be too obssessed with deciphering doomsday predictions from Revelations, we cannot according to Richard Briggs, "remain on a day-to-day level, the world of Revelations, but once we have started to see it, we cannot continue in this world as if nothing had happened either."
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The "conceptual lenses" put together by Hosea and Revelations cast light on a whole array of very specific personal issues. I not only sensed God beckoning me back into some form of ministry from what was to have been my year of sabbatical, I also sensed that He is urging me to be cautious and focused in choosing what I want to get myself involved in.
My year of sabbatical was somewhat disrupted by my decision to start Campus Observer, but that is the subject of another story for later.
The subject of my future dominates in other aspects, like how I am pretty sure my chief editorship of Campus Observer would end with this academic year. Journalism as an intended profession dominated my thoughts. I was already very unsure, and over Anntic, this was made even shakier.
But more crucially, my role as a senior in VCF took a particular urgency. I got reminded of what Adrian said about space and community and Operation Replacement-Green Tables. (okay, this niffy name was my conception and not his...) I also thought of what I might be doing in my final year as an undergraduate -- when that would be is still open to question.
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So this year's Anntic was different from the previous two I attended, because I felt the sharing among my group members were not as authentic as before.
There were many reasons that could have accounted for this, but chief was how there was markedly reduced group Bible study discussion time. Instead of morning and night sessions, we only had night ones since IBS took the morning time slots.
Also, I felt the Bible study questions dived into reflection questions too quickly. The reflection questions also didn't provoke different types of sharing since the questions derived itself from the contents of the corresponding sermons and the last 2 sermons were not adequately thematised.
But I must also add that these were unfortunate since Hosea was not Uncle Soo Inn's speciality. He foregrounded his subjectivities right at the beginning and asked for understanding if we were to find anything lacking.
Take nothing away from the fact that he's essentially a brilliant speaker with a clear gift for teaching. I think it's unfortunate that we only managed to confirm him as our camp speaker very late on and I think that accounted for all of the above that I observed.
I am actually looking forward to hearing him speak again at Crossroads, a retreat for graduating students to aid us in making Godly decisions with our post-graduation plans and beyond. Especially since these are his pet topics, as his work at graceatwork.org might indicate.
As a result, this camp felt strangely intensely personal.
Unlike 2004 where the emphasis for me was about community and befriending, and 2005 where fellowship was so key that it prompted a top 10 moments of Anntic 2005; 2006 Anntic was about waking me up to the realities of my personal moral ambivalence.
Part of it also had to do with how I slept a lot during the camp, because I went into the camp recovering from my customary end-of-semester breakdown.
I suspected that my body got too used to breaking down in the first week of December, and this year the semester got delayed by one week, so I fell really ill in the week of my exams instead!!!
While that was why I always fell sick during Anntic in previous years, this year was therefore unlike previous years since it marked the first time I came back from Anntic all well and refreshed.
Oh well, but it was a great experience especially with people from people from the CFs in SMU, NTU and SIM joining us for the first time.
This practice should definitely continue, although we must find a way to help people bond more authentically -- while retaining IBS and all the changes effected to the Anntic programme this year.
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