F. Harry Daniel
Second Presbyterian Church
Sermons: August 19, 2007

"The Church Is a Community of Learners"

In 1980 James Cronin of the University of Chicago shared a Nobel Prize in physics. On the day the award was announced, a number of the faculty was gathered for a committee meeting. Spirits were high as they toasted this 48th university-affiliated Nobel laureate. One committee member was himself a very distinguished physicist who was taking obvious and unending delight in Cronin's award, in part because he had helped lure Cronin to the university and in larger part because he so admired and liked the man. How, someone asked, does a Nobel winner spend the day? His colleague said: "Oh, he's spending the day much the way he spends every day. As usual, he went to class."

"What," asked a university official, "is Jim teaching this quarter?"

"He isn't teaching the class he went to this morning. He's taking the class."

Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof desires to be a rich man. Why? To have the leisure time to study the holy books. Michelangelo was made superintending architect of St. Peter's on his 72nd birthday and carried on through the reigns of five popes. When he was nearly 90, and had lost his eyesight and become enfeebled in body, he still had himself carried into the basilica. As he ran those marvelous hands of his, marvelous because he kept on using them, over the statues and decorations, he exclaimed: "I still learn! I still learn!"

And so, my friends, it is with you. Whether you have a great mind or a good mind, whether you are a genius or average, you are still a vital and effective factor in the church, as long as you can say, "I still learn." Being part of a community of learners is being able to give a reason for the hope that is in you. Admittedly, the Christian faith is not simply a matter of what you know. It has more to do with whom you know. But being casual about that learning is always disturbing, especially when we place this casualness up against the intensive learning demanded by our culture in other spheres. The Cronins of this world are a challenge to those who want to take God as seriously as the Cronins of this world take their educational growth.

The early church was a school of faith for all ages. We are their heirs, heirs of a rich heritage of loving God and God's world with the mind as well as the heart. We all need nurture and guidance and we believe that helping others move in that direction is a part of our vocation. Change and growth in a person's mindset, a person's world view is essential. The church at its best is a place where that happens.

Some Christians dropped out of the growing, learning process as young people. They came to the curious conclusion that what they learned and experienced by the age of confirmation is all there is. Conversion and a public profession of faith are only the first steps in a life-long process of growing up in Jesus Christ.

Some resume a pattern of theological and spiritual growth, engaging in classes, small groups, dialogue, personal reading. These continue to grow magnificently all their lives. Others, however, stay with the church, getting by theologically, but not in a challenging way that is exciting or even very stimulating. They are like Alice in Wonderland when the Queen claims to be 104 and Alice can't believe it; they shut their eyes tightly, draw a deep breath, swallow hard and try to believe again whatever it is the church seems intent on their believing. Not very reassuring, is it? And it won't stand up to the pain of life either. That which we haven't worked through and built into our life and into our thinking isn't going to affect us very much! Faith is a conviction of truth, a conviction so deep that far from believing without knowledge, faith is always seeking knowledge. Faith will always face evidence, wrestle with doubt, and inquire as far as truth may lead it. Christian doctrine is not a mental and doctrinal labor. Rather, it is a loving relationship to God that leads to celebration, transformation, knowledge.

Among the first priorities of a growing, learning Christian or a community of learners is to be reasonable enough about the faith so that they themselves and others at least understand. We live in a skeptical world. There is a desperate need for people who can be reasonable and articulate about their faith. That is what our New Testament text asks.

Loving God with our mind is a part of our basic religious equipment. The last thing we are called to do is to park our brain outside the door of the church. The earliest and best in the Christian tradition invites us to love God with our minds. Presbyterians value and celebrate the mind. The Reformation fought for the belief that lay people could and should understand what they believe. The Reformers revolutionized the concept of what it means to be a Christian by insisting the human mind has a part in the process. They welcomed vigorous, critical examination. The Greek word for disciple means "learner."

Presbyterians have been willing and still are to trust the persuasive, gracious power of God in the face of any opposition. They trust God will make the truth known and reveal Godself when minds are stretched and intellects challenged. Nothing that can be discovered about the world or the universe will threaten the truth God has shown in Jesus Christ.

As members of a community of learning I covet for you, earnestly desire for you the study of the Christian faith as an avocation. An avocation is something other than your job, responsibilities or duties that you enjoy doing. It is something that you can get both your head and your heart into. Mine are among others: ancient Egypt, the Middle East and the Civil War.

We don't think of an avocation as a burden. An avocation makes demands and calls for commitments, but we don't interpret them as tasks we have to do. Avocations call forth joy and energy and creativity. We loose ourselves in them. Some of you know what I'm talking about. You do it not because you have to, but because you want to. A lot of Christians have their heart in their faith, but they also need to get their head into it.

You say you aren't a student. But you are: marvelous students of golf, cooking, stock market, baseball, plants, Civil War. These are your avocations. I covet for you growth in understanding the faith as an avocation.

As members of a community of learning I covet for you, earnestly desire for you the wonder of astonishing rediscovery.

Most of us here have made the discovery of the faith. That is why we are here. Rediscovery is that process by which we go back to the Bible, Christian tradition and Christian experience time and time again to rediscover, to plumb the depths, to explore the horizons, to get the heart, the hand, and the head together. We don't need God in just one of those, we need God in all of them.

Too many Christian people have a minimalist attitude toward faith. They get by with the least amount. They haven't made a re-discovery. They haven't been turned on. If they were to rediscover the wonder of it, they would become maximalists. Then there would be experience upon experience, insight upon insight. May you make that re-discovery about faith time and time and time again.

Among the issues facing the church today is a crisis of belief. That which can't be thought through critically and expressed with reasonable clarity can't demand the allegiance of a person's whole being. That which can't grasp the heart and set it singing can't move life forward toward God's kingdom. Rediscovery - back to the sources time and time again - is what can unite mind and heart in a single, passionate, awesome focus.

As members of a community of learning I covet for you, earnestly desire for you a commitment to a program of Christian learning.

I know you are busy. So are we all. But I also know that most of us will make room for what is important.

Such growth has to be handmade. You can't depend on the experts. Don't demean your own grasp of the faith and your own power to comprehend your lives from the Christian perspective. Don't expect the professional to do your praying and theological thinking for you much as you expect your doctor to diagnose and prescribe and your attorney to press your legal claim. What you can expect is help and support from all of us here, as we all grow in understanding. At a minimum this involves study enriched by spiritual discipline and expressed in Christian discourse. Neither popular psychology nor popular religion is an acceptable alternative to a coherent rendering of Christianity which can enable us to understand and enter into the experiences of life more deeply. You have reasons and resources to undertake the task anew with determination and considerable joy.

　Why should you do this? You owe it to yourself, your family, your church, and to God. Because you just might be the theologian destined to be the most influential teacher in someone's life. Don't tell me that isn't in your job description. You are a disciple aren't you? That's a learner.

Part of the challenge, the excitement in being a Christian today is intellectual. It is to stay alert, to continue to grow, to deal with a brave new world that simply writes religion out of the script. God calls us to love God with the mind. "Be ready to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope in you." Our world needs such people who can do that more desperately than ever before. Y'all are some of those people.