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Gathering Wisdom in its Seasons
(retitled “Sermon on Teaching”)
by Jeff Taylor
September 9, 2012
Ephesians 4: 1-7, 11-13; Acts 18: 23-28
When I was reminded this week that we are back to printing bulletins and was asked for a title for this sermon, my poetic instincts and my natural inclination to “make connections” quickly led me to, “Gathering wisdom in its seasons.” It references the summer theme just concluded and connects it to this new season of learning in the life of the church. It’s not a bad sermon title and someone really aught to preach that sermon one day; but it won’t be me, not today. As I began to write I realized I couldn’t do that topic justice in once sermon, certainly not in the 15 minute limit I had placed on myself. But there are “seasons” of learning – important developmental stages in all of our lives that good teachers acknowledge and work with. These psycho-neuro stages may even relate to stages of religious/moral development and much has been written on that as well. But that very worthy exploration will have to wait for now. Instead, I will offer a very simple word of encouragement to all who learn and teach – teachers and students especially – so kids and young people, listen up! – but also to each of us who all teach and learn in myriad ways.
I was reticent to accept the preaching task for this Sunday. On gathering Sunday we acknowledge a new season of teaching and learning, particular through our Christian Ed. programs, and I have given almost nothing of myself to that ministry, having declined to serve in several ways on several occasions. Okay, I have been an active student on most Sundays, but I still feel a bit sheepish about presuming to offer wisdom to those doing what I have declined to do. But with your gracious indulgence, I’ll carry on.
More than merely being my profession, teaching is a vocation for me; something I have been called (vocal? vocation?) to do – by God, no less. In that list of church servant-leaders we read in Ephesians, I am one of those that God has given to the church to teach. Now please, let’s show God some charity here: she works with what she’s got. My excuse for not teaching in our SS program has been that a week of school teaching, parenting, and teaching music in the evenings has left me too depleted on Sunday morning for a regular teaching assignment. My job can be draining and I have begun to learn how important it is for those of us who are always explicating and extroverting to introvert sometimes. You can’t give anything of value to others if you are an exhausted empty shell. Now, there are people here who do some or maybe even all of those things and still teach in our S.S. programs. I can only marvel at your commitment and apparent endless stores of energy; and as one whose job it once was to ask folks to serve in these ways, I am strongly inclined to thank you for giving your holy “yes” when the church called.
But here’s where I may run into some trouble with those who now have that asking task who also want to hear our “yeses.” Sometimes “no” is holiest answer. Knowing your calling(s) and staying well focused on them is an act of holiness. Indeed to be “set aside for a special task” is literally the definition of holiness. Sure, there are tasks that need to be done that any of us can do and I don’t mind people feeling obligated to do them: we can all pick up after ourselves and help with the dishes. But I offer, respectfully, that teaching is not one of those things that anyone can do.
You heard me say, perhaps audaciously, that teaching is something God has gifted and called me to do. If I was ever lacking proper humility in the face of that calling, humility and trepidation were well restored to me as I prepared for this sermon. If you do a keyword search in the bible for “teachers,” here are some of the hits you’ll get:
· Matthew 7:29
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
· Matthew 23:13
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces.
· Matthew 23:15
“Woe to you, teachers of the law . . . You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
· Matthew 23:25
“Woe to you, teachers of the law . . . You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
· Matthew 23:27
“Woe to you, teachers of the law … You are like whitewashed tombs.
· Matthew 23:29
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’
Yikes! Okay, well Matthew obviously has some sort of axe to grind against the “teachers of the law.” It’s almost anti-Semitic in tone, isn’t it? Actually, Matthew is usually the kindest of the gospel writers to the “teachers of the law;” his is the most “Jewish,” if you will, of the four gospels. Still, this is not a teacher friendly section. Let’s look at some other NT passages on teachers:
Ah, here we are: James, the brother of the Lord who was a teacher of the law himself, after all. James should be more encouraging . . . “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers; because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” (James 3:1-2)
Okay, yes, we can find some spots in the bible where teachers are spoken well of: the two passages read earlier being good examples. And yes, “teacher of the law” is a pretty specific sort of meaning which might almost as well be translated “lawyer” as “teacher.” And of course nowhere in ancient Israel or the Roman Empire or anywhere in antiquity was teaching done the way we usually do it. Indeed there are so many differences between the ways “teaching” was done in the cultures of the bible and in ours that it’s hard to know how to apply much of what is in the bible says about teaching to teaching in our world. But let’s not let those many differences totally obscure a few otherwise fairly consistent themes from the New Testament: teaching is an awesome responsibility and a holy trust; God gifts the church with teachers by his calling; and teachers will make mistakes and face criticism. Teaching is not for everyone.
BUT, if you have heard God’s call, through the church or even in some other way – and even if the call at this point is simply to explore and develop what may be the gift of teaching – I urge you to give a holy “yes” to that call and teach boldly wherever God calls you to do it.
And as you teach, consider our friends, Pricilla, Aquila, and Appolos. Pricilla and Aquila (she almost always mentioned before he) are Jewish Jesus-believers who Paul met in Corinth after they and all Jews had been expelled from Rome. There is no mention of their having the sort of special theological training that Paul had, but like Paul, they were tent makers. Paul learned to see this couple as trusted coworkers, leaving them to care for the fledgling church in Ephesus while he continued his journey. Enter Appolos, a Greek named scholar from the great Greco-Egyptian city of Alexandria, home of perhaps the world’s greatest library. Appolos was eloquent, educated, dynamic, and committed to the Jesus movement as he knew it through the teachings of John the Baptist. But apparently he was lacking some understanding and the Italian couple dared to take him aside (privately) and expand his understanding of who Jesus was. I’m picturing a confident but very ordinary couple from rural Arkansas taking Bill Clinton aside to help him better understand the principles of the Democratic party. No doubt Clinton would respond with grace and charm – but would he really listen? Maybe. Appolos did! He was able to hear God’s voice in the voices of an Italian lady and her husband and from there Appolos went on to preach Jesus as the messiah so effectively that later, when groups of believers began choosing favourite apostles, they identified themselves as followers of either Paul or Appolos.
Pricilla and Aquila didn’t let their status as outsiders on the fringes of the Palestine-centred Jesus movement, nor any lack of formal training, nor Pricilla her gender, dissuade them from teaching as called, even along side the missionary and scholarly super star Paul. Nor did they shrink from kindly, and privately, teaching a superior speaker/teacher when the welfare of the gospel and the church was at stake. These two excelled because of their faithfulness to their call, refusing to be dissuaded by any sense of their own imperfections or any perceived disadvantages.
And Appolos the grandiloquent master teacher proves to be a great learner. Because he refuses to take criticism personally, he gains wisdom and he sets the model for us all of how to be a great teacher: be a great learner. Appolos: a teachable teacher.
If you have been called to teach, or to learn, and have said “yes” to that call, don’t let your inadequacies, as you perceive them, be an excuse not to teach and learn boldly. Your flaws are not that big an item on our agendas. We forget them quickly and so should you. If you have been called to do other work, perhaps you recall someone, a coach, a professional mentor, a school teacher, a Sunday School teacher, or a pastor, who taught you – not flawlessly, but importantly, daringly, and skilfully. Perhaps you can support, with your gifts, even just one other person who is daring to say “yes” to the call to teach. For in our daring to learn and teach and support those who do, we are making our “every effort t
o maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”