Acts
11:19-26
For several years I’ve been teaching one class
period per week at the Highlands Latin School in Louisville. It’s been an interesting experience for
me. It’s a Christian Studies
class, and there are three grading terms.
I ask my students to write a paper each term and in the final term I
require them to read one of their papers to the class. They don’t like that very much, but I think
it’s good for them.
My first year teaching I spent a lot of time
grading the first term papers. I
tried to measure each paper against what I thought was the student’s
ability. One of the young ladies
was a very good student, but I gave her a B for her first paper. I didn’t think it reflected her best
work.
The first day of the second term I began the
class by talking about the papers, and immediately, the young lady’s hand shot
into the air. Dr. Charlton, she asked, are
you going to be more fair when you grade our next papers? I noted that she was making more of an
accusation than asking a question, but asked why she thought I was unfair. Because
you gave me a B, she said.
I don’t think she would say I have the gift of
teaching.
As we continue our series on spiritual gifts,
we are continuing with the gifts that I’ve placed under the heading of
Revelatory gifts. Revelatory gifts
are those based on something God reveals to us – a flash of insight or some
measure of knowledge that comes from God rather than from our own
understanding. Two weeks ago we
talked about wisdom, which I presented as a way of life. Last week was knowledge, which deals
with how we think. Wisdom and
knowledge, in the spiritual sense, are about much more than what we know.
The same is true of the gift of teaching. The spiritual gift of teaching is more
than just presenting facts and information to a room full of students. The spiritual gift of teaching is the
ability to present spiritual truths to people. We teach in several ways.
1. By Word.
Does anyone remember their third grade
teacher? My third grade teacher
was Mrs. Marsh. While I know that
the lessons she taught our class are buried somewhere in my brain, I can only
remember one specific thing she ever said to me. One day my friend Ronnie Crupe and I were walking out of the
room, to go out to recess or lunch, and Mrs. Marsh stopped us and asked us to
wait for a moment. After the rest
of the class had left the room Mrs. Marsh told us I hope to see the two of you when you are grown, because I know you are
going to grow up to be fine young men. Now, my suspicion is we were bad that day and it was her way
of trying to instill some good behavior in us. But I’m not sure.
I do know, though, that the fact I can remember those words all these
years later is testimony to the power of the
word.
Teaching is done by word, and the words we use
can teach different things. Mrs.
Marsh chose words that were a very powerful affirmation of my friend and me.
Our Scripture reading for this morning tells us
that Barnabas and Paul – who at this point was still called Saul – spent a year
in Antioch teaching those who were new to the Christian faith. It was important to teach about Jesus
and his teachings and what that meant for their lives.
Ironically, in a society that values education
so highly, in churches we seem to be losing our way a bit when it comes to
teaching by the spoken word. Most
people are now connected to a church through worship, and while that is
important we are less connected to teaching through the spoken word.
A couple of years ago, after my home church had
called a new minister, I asked my mom how’s
the new minister doing? She
had a hesitation in her voice, so I asked her what is it that you don’t like mom? Her answer was very interesting. She said he doesn’t
really preach. He gives Bible
studies on Sunday morning rather than sermons and they are not the same.
I thought that was a very interesting
observation. A sermon and a Bible
study are two very different things.
I approach preaching differently from how I approach a Bible study. A Bible study is more of a teaching
time, where you can ask questions and answer questions, where you can go into
far greater detail, where you can have a discussion. A sermon is more of a broad-brush stroke. There’s not enough time to go into
details in a sermon and so it’s not really designed to be a teaching time in
the same way as a Bible study or a Sunday School class. So be sure and sign up for the Bethel
Bible study class I will be teaching on the Old Testament!
2. By Deed.
While the spoken word is important in teaching,
so is our personal example. We
teach by word but also by deed.
Faith is
more often caught than taught goes the old saying, and many of us have
learned a great deal about faith simply through the observation of others. We often refer to faith as a walk. We call it a walk
because it is a way of life, faith coming alive in the way in which we live and
in the observation of the lives of others we learn a great deal. Luke tells us in our Scripture reading
for today that the followers of Jesus were first called Christians at Antioch
(Acts 11:26). The name first used
for the followers of Jesus was actually those who followed The Way (Acts 9:2 and 22:4).
It was a way of life.
Paul wrote at least two letters to
Timothy. In his first letter to
Timothy, in chapter one, he says I have been reminded of your sincere faith,
which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am
persuaded, now lives in you also (I Timothy 1:5). Lived – it was something observed.
When I was an associate in Lawrenceburg back in
the ‘80s I taught a Sunday School class called the TEL Class. TEL stood for Timothy, Eunice, and
Lois. The class members were a
group of ladies who were the oldest members of the church. They were a great group to teach,
although I’m not sure what I really had to offer to them by way of
teaching. I learned far more from
them than they could have learned from me. To listen to their stories and to observe the manner in
which they lived their lives was tremendously influential to me.
When Paul writes to Timothy and mentions the
faith of his mother and grandmother, he is acknowledging the powerful influence
of a person’s life and character upon others. Timothy lived a life of faith because he observed the
importance of faith in the life of his mother. His mother lived a life of faith because she observed the
importance of faith in her mother’s life.
3. Our words and deeds become a living
testimony to in teaching about faith.
I have done a lot of funerals over the years,
and I am often called upon to officiate at funerals for people I have never
met. I do my best to talk with the
family to gather some information about the individual’s life so I can personalize
the message. It’s surprising that
sometimes people have nothing to say about the person. Maybe it’s the shock of the moment, but
sometimes people just sit there and struggle to come up with anything to say
about the person’s life.
That’s a difficult moment to experience, and
it’s made me think about how others would summarize my life. I certainly hope it wouldn’t be
difficult.
Someone came by the office this week and had a
copy of an obituary printed in the Courier-Journal. I made a copy of it because of one line
that was so unusual. It sounds odd
to say, but we had a great laugh over this obituary. It remained on my desk for a couple of days and I eventually
picked it up and read the entire obituary. The person had obviously written it himself, before passing
away, which is not a bad idea, actually.
I’ve written my own funeral message and it’s called Now That I Can Say What I Really Think. Do you want to know who gets mentioned? And how?
Listen to what this person wrote, with a few
edits I made – It’s been a wonderful
life, but it is time to say goodbye.
I was born on July 12, 1942…My body died on Tuesday, August 22,
2012. These are the highlights of
my life, my wife…my four children.
Their spouses are the easiest I reared and I love them very much.
My
next highlight (and this is the part that struck us as odd, and we assumed it
is an “inside” joke) is my unintelligent, homely, and untalented grandchildren.
Next
are my dear sisters…I want to say a special thank you to my friends of over 50
years…
I want
to speak of all my aunts, uncles and first cousins who nurtured me as a
boy. I want to remember St.
Polycarp which was the Camelot of parishes. My widow and I cannot afford to list all their names.
My job
resume: The dairy home delivery
business, that taught me you can come to work at 2:30 a.m. and be in a good
mood. The Human Relations
Commission (professional and fun-loving co-workers), Pharmacy tech, driver…I
cannot leave out the community of St. William’s warm and peace loving people
that weekly rejuvenated my commitment to Christianity. It is because of this family,
co-workers at these jobs and other jobs, and our cadre of couple friends that I
can say the most important thing for you to remember is IT HAS BEEN A FUN RIDE. Amen, thanks, Dan (Courier-Journal, August, 2012).
What will your life teach others about you, and
about faith? Someone is going to
summarize my life, and your life.
What will our lives teach?
1 comment:
The spiritual gift of teaching is more than just presenting facts and information to a room full of students. Loan Against My Watch
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