Knowledge, Faith and Discipline

Acts 1:6-9; I Peter 5:6-8a

 

        This is the time of year a lot of folks had planned graduations. How difficult today must be? Regardless if it was graduation from high school or college suddenly they are without that long anticipated walk across the stage. Somehow getting a diploma in the mail lacks the pizazz of tearing up to the endless strain of Pomp and Circumstances. (Kathleen stars to play and I put on a robe) I realize most of you graduated years …. decades …… centuries ago. But now, thanks to this horrific virus, all of us are preparing to graduate into a new phase of our lives. How appropriate the text this morning speaks of a graduation.

It began with twelve guys hand chosen for on-the-job training with one of the most the most brilliant minds this world has ever known.   Each of the twelve had a different skill set.  Some were good with their hands, one was a mathematician, and another was a bit of a poet.  Their education took over three years.  Sometimes they wanted to quit, but they didn’t.  Sometimes they felt the process was moving too slow.  Other times the lesson was so elaborate they scratched their heads in  confusion.  They watched, they learned, but often failed to grasp the real meaning of the teacher’s words.  In the end, eleven of the twelve completed the course.

        When the training was over, a horrible reality crashed down upon the graduates.  No one wanted to hire them.  They had put in all the hard work, they possessed wonderful resumes, but no one was interested in their skills.  The eleven briefly thought about going home and resuming their old jobs.   No one would have thought any less of them.  But that was not why they studied under this great teacher.  To go home would have been to admit failure.

        The graduates gathered one last time for a meeting with their mentor.  “What are we supposed to do?”  The teacher replied, “Use the gifts of knowledge, faith, and discipline which I gave to you. Then become my witnesses.”   With those words, he left.

        Like those eleven graduates, we will soon enter a new world. In the past, you have proven your worth. You were successful in business, teaching, law, medicine, and all kinds of endeavors. You were rewarded by getting to live in one of the most beautiful places on earth.  You have already made plans for your future.  Up until two months ago you could see the goal line and nothing stood in your way. Then almost everything changed. Now we are scrambling to make sense of this new world we are about to enter.   Remember this, like those eleven disciples God also has given you three gifts that can never be taken away.

First there is KNOWLEDGE -   “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” “We have always done it this way.” “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” These are ancient proverbs that no longer hold water. The paradigm has changed.

1. The world is broken.
2. The world is broken because we assumed old remedies were reliable.
3. The world will remain broken unless we are willing to learn some new tricks. 
   Will Durant is best known for his eleven volume History of Civilization that begins with the Oriental Heritage and concludes with the Age of Rousseau. Durant insisted his life was wasted if daily he hadn’t learned something new. Durant lived to be 96. When he died he left behind an outline of the next two volumes of that classic work. He never stopped learning. Durant, a man steeped in ancient thought, encouraged his students to discover the potential found in tomorrow. 
   The collective wisdom and experiences in this congregation are astounding. A few years ago Olivia and others took on a project to record life stories. When I arrived at Rockfish I read that manuscript. It was astounding. You have always pushed forward. You have always broken new ground. So what has changed? Why allow your age to become an excuse for idle behavior?  Let’s put our heads together and figure this new world out. You have done it before and we can do it again.
           The second gift is FAITH – The idea of faith has been poorly represented by some leaders of the Christian faith. They claim faith is what we know to be true. How limiting that becomes. Faith has never been a noun. It is a verb. It is a process rather than something we possess and manipulate. It is a journey into the unknown where eliminating doubt has never been the object. Tillich correctly pointed out doubt isn’t the opposite of faith, but rather an element of it. If we don’t doubt, we never move forward. Faith allows us to look at what we once believed and reconsider the roots of our original premise. For instance, the Psalmist declared, “The heavens are telling the glory of God and the earth proclaims God’s handiwork.” Is that still true? If so, how might we understand this ancient message differently in this brave new world? For centuries we acted as if God gave us the earth in order that WE might be happy.  What are the heavens and the earth telling us today? Faith has always been, “The assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things unseen.” In the face of this pandemic, in the face of rising seas and climate change, in the face of this new world we are about to enter, how will faith both enlighten and transform our thinking?
           The third gift is DISCIPLINE – The development of both faith and knowledge is a discipline.   As a person who tries to play golf, I have never seen anyone stand on a tee and hit their first shot on the green.  It takes instructions and the discipline to practice until the results match your imagination. One must be disciplined to grow in knowledge and faith. Most of us have a routine. Even in retirement I suspect you pretty much do the same thing, the same way, every day. For the past two months that routine has been disrupted. When this particular crisis subsides, will we return to old habits?   What if the old ways have limited both our knowledge and faith?
   A number of years ago I picked up a book edited by Dorothy Bass titled Practicing Our Faith. The book asked, “What happens when our inward journey isn’t enough?” She suggested the real journey begins with each other. How do we listen? How do we heal? How do we forgive? How are we hospitable? How do we keep Sabbath? How do we die? Imagine incorporating these questions into our new pursuit for knowledge and faith. That would take a lot of………..discipline.
           2,000 years ago, Peter, James, John and the other disciples stepped into a new world. Because the words of Jesus were written on their hearts their steps were transformational. From that first day, in every endeavor, they increased in knowledge, they reconstructed their faith, and they found the discipline to press on against impossible odds. 
           How will we face tomorrow? I’m not asking you to reinvent the wheel. I’m just asking you to see if the wheel still rolls. If not…………change it.        
                   To God be the glory.  Amen.