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Lent and Christian Teaching

2 Timothy 3:10-17

March 3, 2003

Paul’s Charge to Timothy

¹⁰Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, ¹¹my persecutions, and my suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. ¹²Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. ¹³But wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived. ¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All scripture is inspired by God and is^£ useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

One week, a Sunday school teacher had just finished telling her class the Christmas story, how Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem and how Jesus was born in a stable and laid in a manger. After telling the story the teacher asked, "Who do you think the most important woman in the Bible is?" Of course, the teacher was expecting one of the kids to say, "Mary." But instead, a little boy raised his hand and said, "Eve." So the teacher asked him why he thought Eve was the most important woman in the Bible.

And the little boy replied, "Well, they named two days of the year after Eve. You know, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve."[1]

Sunday School teachers work very hard.  And they are faced with significant challenges.  Even after many years of teaching, kids often get it all a little bit upside-down.  Consider some of the other biblical truths some students professed after many years of Sunday School.

These quotes are said to be written by actual students:

·        Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree.

·        Noah's wife was called Joan of Ark.

·        Samson slayed the Philistines with the axe of the Apostles."

·        "Moses led the Hebrews to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread without any ingredients.

·        The Egyptians were all drowned in the dessert. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten ammendments."

·        The first commandement was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple.

·        The fifth commandment is to humor thy father and mother. The seventh commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery."

·        "Moses died before he ever reached Canada. Then Joshua led the Hebrews in the battle of Geritol.

·        David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. (spelled l-i-a-r instead of l-y-r-e) he fought with the Finklesteins, a race of people who lived in Biblical times.

·        "When Mary heard that she was the mother of Jesus, she sang the Magna Carta."

·        When the three wise guys from the east side arrived, they found Jesus in the manager. Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate contraption.

·        "A Christian should have only one spouse. This is called monotony." [2]

After all that hard work, obviously, these students were close but not quite correct as they tried to display their bible knowledge.

Why bother?  Why do we need to spend all that time and effort trying to teach our young people the bible?

What about us?  Do we ourselves need to learn anything more than what we already know about Jesus, God and all the topics covered in this book?

Is our knowledge of the bible as good or any better than that of these kids who participated in this survey?

I know you won’t find it hard to believe that before I entered seminary, and then subsequently entered this now decade-long career of preaching and teaching the bible as I have, my bible knowledge was severely lacking, This was especially true for bible memorization skills and accomplishments.  I still find it very difficult to remember particular biblical passages, where they can be found, who said what, who was who's father, or daughter or whatnot…

What does it matter?  Was my life going to be any worse for the lack of knowledge?  Will the obvious lack of biblical knowledge of the young people I've just quoted effect their lives in any way? 

Last week, I insisted that some of the important things we can do during the Lenten season involve 1. placing ourselves in the proper mental, physical and spiritual position to help the process of repentance, 2. service and outreach, 3. prayer and 4. teaching and learning about the life of Christ and that which is biblical.

I recalled that this teaching and learning element was one of the earliest aspects of Christian life in the ancient church, as new converts to the faith were prepared during Lent for their baptism at Easter by learning about all aspects of Christian life.

So what if its an ancient tradition?  Is it still relevant?  Is knowledge of the bible still helpful for daily life in the 21^st century.

The Apostle Paul says, "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work"

According to him, work in the Christian church must be informed, guided and transformed by the bible and its teachings in order for it to be fruitful.  According to the Apostle, as the bible is taught, as it is used to discipline and train the Christian for service, as proficiency in the ways of the Word, and in the Way of Christ is reached, then and probably only then, a Christian disciple is properly equipped for ministry.

So what of it?  Some words of advice spoken thousands of years ago, about some other words and lives, spoken and lived dozens, if not hundreds and thousands of years before they themselves were spoken.  Who cares?  Do these word carry any meaning today?

Lloyd C. Douglas, was the author of several novels, one of which was made into an academy award winning movie in the early 1940's called "The Robe."

At one point in his life when Douglas was a student, he lived in a boarding house. On the first floor of that boarding house lived a retired music teacher who was in poor health, unable to leave his apartment. He and Douglas developed a friendship and a daily ritual.

Each morning Douglas would come down the steps from his apartment, open the music teacher's door and ask him, "What's the good news?"

The music teacher would pick up a tuning fork, tap it on the side of his wheelchair, and say "That's middle C! It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now. The tenor upstairs sings flat, the piano across the hall is out of tune, but my friend, that is middle C!"

There are certain things that are timeless and reliable and irrefutable.  Middle C is one of them.  The rising of the sun and the movement of the planets and moons.  The changing of the seasons and the fact that once again, spring is coming.  Today's temperature and the inevitable melting of the snow and appearance of grass that will green and grow so lush and beautiful, attest to their very truth.

For us, who are Christians, we believe in the truth of a few other things as well.  

Open up with me to number 310 in the back of our red (AEUNA) hymnal.  The Apostle's Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Statements of Faith.  These and so many other such confessional statements set us, as Christians, apart from the peoples and the faiths and religions of the World.  "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth…"  starts the Apostles Creed. 

"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God…By whom all things were made; who for…our salvation, came down from heaven…and was crucified…he suffered and was buried; and on the third day he rose again…and ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of the father," continues the Nicene Creed.

"He bestows upon us his Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church of Jesus Christ, binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues and races," continues the Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ, approved in July of 1959.

All of these are typical beliefs of the Christian faith.  If we call ourselves Christian, then these beliefs somehow inform, guide and transform our lives.  All of these statements have their roots in the Bible and in the ancient writings which describe the life of the Israelite people, Jesus whom we believe is the Christ and all those who followed him as his disciples. 

As Christians, we believe these words give us direction, give us an anchor, give us hope and give us life.  This is so because they refer directly to the Word, and point directly to God.

A traveler hiking through the heart of the Ozark Mountains was lost. He ran across a native, "Am I on the road to Kansas City?" "Well," the mountain man said, "Not exactly, Bud. This road just moseys along for a piece, then it turns into a hog trail, then a squirrel track, and finally runs up a scrub pine tree and ends in a knothole."

Most everyone has come to a place in life where confusion and loss of direction sets in, and the road traveled upon seems like a dead end, like a road that ends in a knothole.

Maybe you have been down that path, perhaps you feel like you're on that path right now.[3]

What sets us apart as Christians is that we believe that there is a Way, a Truth, and a Life (John 14:16) that even if it comes up against that tree with its knothole, doesn't end, but keeps winding upward and onward to God.

Our hope, our belief and our confession as Christians is that Christ gives us these gracious gifts.  And the way to know Christ is right here.  In this Word, in these Testaments which we believe are of God.

The Apostle Paul says it, and as Christians we hold it to be true:"All scripture is inspired by God and is^ useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work"

And so we teach our children, we encourage each other, and we discipline ourselves with these words and with the Word Incarnate, the life and light of Jesus Christ.

During Lent, I hope and I pray that we will attend our Monday night bible study, which is only one opportunity which encourages us and prompts us to open our bibles and use our minds, to apply the lessons and the testimony we find on those pages to our own lives. 

But this is not the only opportunity to grow in the Word.  There are so many ways to grow in the Word today.  If you learn and are interested less by the Bible than by other books, there are many books and resources that can help your study of the life and Way of Christ.  Many authors throughout the ages have worked hard to bring those lessons to life, to supplement the words of this book.

If you learn and are interested less by the books than by other media, there are many other resources in this new century that can also help your study of the life and Way of Christ. 

Videos, audio tapes, sites on the Internet, software for your computer, interactive on-line chats and other resources, there are endless ways to learn and turn to learn the Way of Christ, to learn the Word, during Lent and at any time.

Even if we are unable to join other Christians in study-time gatherings; even if the calendar slides along and it's no longer Lent; even if we aren't actually reading; even if our memories are like sieves and our retention of the facts, figures, names and details of the scriptures are imperfect, the gift of God, the Word Incarnate revealed to the world and pointed to in these words, is always available to us. 

I encourage us all to take some time each and every day.  Spend it in study, challenge yourself with the words of this book and the Word of God.

You will be better for it.  You will grow because of it.  Your way will not be lost.  And you will draw closer and closer to our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer in heaven.

 Amen