Second Sunday in Advent, Mission Sunday,
December 8th, Year of Our + Lord 2013
St. John and Trinity Lutheran Churches,
Fairview and Sidney, Montana
Christian Education – Educating for
What?
This morning we, both St. John and
Trinity, are celebrating Mission Sundays, considering the Word of God before us
with particular Christian Education efforts in mind, for St. John, Martin
Luther School of Bismarck, and for Trinity, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. So we are covering each chronological end of
the educational spectrum, from kindergarten and elementary school, the
beginning of formal education, through Seminary, where men are taught towards
serving in the Office of the Ministry.
Both of these educational institutions are committed to working within a
Lutheran ethos, God’s Law and Gospel, His Holy Word, reigning supreme in what
they say and do. These are both worthy
causes for us to be supporting.
But as we support Christian Education with our money and prayers, it
would be a good thing to know the purpose of Christian Education, why
we do it, and what we should expect from it.
Knowing the purpose is good for us, as we consider our own Christian
Education efforts, and our personal involvement, as well as for considering
what schools we should support, and how we might hold them accountable.
It’s always good to consider the why of education, Christian or
otherwise, so that we can then take a look at how it’s going. Why do we
teach anybody anything? Why do we
teach a baby to eat with a fork, and teach toddlers to share? Why do our public schools exist, and what
should their goals be? What is the goal
for parents when they choose to home school?
What are the goals of our educational efforts, and the measurements for
their success? Who has the authority to
determine these things? You might
think the answers are obvious, but these days the why and what of public
education is highly controversial.
Thankfully, that’s not our question this morning. But we will consider the goals and means and
measurement of Christian Education.
Now to be sure, Christian Education has some earthly elements mixed
in. If you want to study the Word of
God, which was recorded in Hebrew and Greek, then to do your best you will eventually
need to consult some worldly scholars.
God has chosen to use earthly languages to communicate with us, and of
course the Church speaks in the languages of the world, because Christians do,
and also because the Church is always seeking to speak her message to
the world. So, there is no purely
spiritual, Biblical education, without any interaction with the world. And very much today, both in the Lutheran day
school and in our seminaries, the concerns of worldly education are heard and
felt. Our schools must meet laws and
regulations. Lutheran schools seek to be
accredited, by secular accreditation boards.
It can get a little messy, trying to sort it all out.
It was probably less confusing in the past, because not so many
centuries ago, virtually all education was done by and through the Church. But no more today. In our context, every Christian school must
also meet government standards, which may have nothing to do with the faith,
and often may be at odds. Again, we
won’t try to answer all these questions.
Rather, I bring them up to point out how easily we might get distracted,
pursuing as of first importance any number of concerns, which may not have
anything to do with the real purpose of Christian Education.
So, what is the primary purpose, and the proper goals, of Christian
Education? With this question in mind,
it strikes me that we have a very helpful bunch of readings before us on this 2nd
Sunday of Advent, readings focused, as we always do for at least one week in
Advent, on Christ’s return in glory, coming to judge the living and the
dead.
So with the Return of Christ in mind, let me ask a question: Is Christian Education for making better
people? Is its goal that we live happy
lives? Be successful? Is Christian Education primarily about this
life, or about the world to come? I
submit to you this morning, that while a concern for this life is not contrary
to Christian Education, and indeed is a part of what Christ has to teach us,
this life and how we live it is not the proper primary focus. Teaching
children, or adults, to be good people and live a good life is not the first
goal of Christian Education.
This is, I think, pretty much the goal of secular, worldly education, to
enable people to live good, productive lives, contributing to the republic and
the society, and enjoying themselves along the way. There’s much good, and nothing necessarily
wrong about such education. But we
should be careful not to let this become the primary goal of Christian
Education. Because doing so is eternally
dangerous. I recently read a compelling
article about how to raise a pagan in a Christian home. The upshot of the article is that if
Christian parents make learning to be good people their primary goal for their
children’s involvement in Church, the probability those children will grow up
and leave the Church is very great. You
see, the problem is the teachings of Christ don’t necessarily, actually don’t
normally translate directly to worldly success.
So kids, taught by their parents that living a good life is the most
important thing, end up doubting or dismissing the value of Christ.
Christ and His Apostles do teach us to love our neighbor, for example
this morning Paul exhorting us to please our neighbor, and build him up, to
live in harmony and welcome one another.
These teachings are fairly well accepted by the world, in theory at
least. But the Lord also teaches us that
the world hates Him and will hate His followers. Jesus and His Apostles teach us to flee from
sin, and give us very specific lists of sins, many of which the world doesn’t
consider problematic at all. For
example, professing God’s teaching about sexual purity and the sanctity of
human life from conception will today get you labeled a religious nut, or a
bigot, or, strangely, a woman-hater. But
the Savior teaches us to speak the truth, even when it is unpopular. The Lord teaches us to trust in Him and His
Word, and not in the promises of earthly power and wisdom, so much so that He
says gathering with believers in Church, hearing the Word, and receiving the
Sacraments, is more important than making money, or having fun, or anything
else. None of these teachings will
necessarily lead to a successful life in the world, and in fact often work
against it.
Besides, if a good life on earth is the goal, there are better places to
learn those lessons than in the Church.
Hockey or gymnastics or football or academic Olympics or just focusing
on grades at school, all of these are arguably better teachers of the life
lessons kids need to succeed in the world. Sending kids to Church just to learn to be
nice people is unnecessary, and kind of inconvenient. God’s goal in sending out His Word is eternal
life for sinners. If parents instead
teach their kids that the most important goal is learning to live a good life,
kids will soon learn to consider the Church unnecessary, or perhaps even
foolish, something to be cast off as soon as possible. And they do, in droves.
So, as we consider Christian Education, we need to be careful to keep
God’s goals in mind. And in very real
terms, the End is His goal. That is,
readiness for the return of Christ is the goal of Christian Education. This is really the same as saying repentance
for sins and faith in the forgiveness offered by God for Christ’s sake are the proper
goals, because readiness for Christ’s return depends entirely on forgiveness,
and on faith which receives forgiveness, and on the grace of God, which readily
forgives repenting sinners, freely, for Jesus’ sake. Being a nice person cannot be the primary
goal of Christian Education because we can never be nice enough to earn God’s
favor, and so we can never by our own goodness make ourselves ready for the
End. Only by clinging as a forgiven
sinner to the promises of Christ can anyone be ready to stand before God.
We can only be ready for Christ’s Return by hearing the truth, about our
sin, and God’s grace. Worldly wisdom may
help you die with a big bank account, but only the Wisdom of the Cross gives
eternal life. The world likes to say
“cleanliness is next to Godliness,” and we truly live in a hygiene-focused
culture. But the only bath that makes
one clean enough for the Last Day is the washing of Water and the Word in Holy
Baptism. It is a blessing to earn enough
to buy food, and an even greater blessing to have someone in your household who
knows how to cook it well. But the only
meal on earth that prepares us for the End is the Meal that Jesus serves, His
Body and Blood given and shed for the forgiveness of sins.
Now, readiness for Jesus’ Second Coming, and readiness to live a good
life are not opposed. Indeed, they are
closely related. Certainly Jesus taught
a great deal about living a good life, that is, a life of love toward God and
love toward the neighbor. Christian
Education will be concerned with how we live, but we need to be careful to
understand the relationship between a good life, and being ready to stand
before the Son of Man. For there is no
true good life, for sinners like you and me, apart from the grace of God in
Christ. Apart from Jesus, we might live
good lives in earthly terms, certainly, but not in heavenly terms. We are all sinful by nature and incapable of
pleasing God with our works. If we ever
unlearn this most unpleasant teaching of Scripture, then we will be in danger
of making our works the main thing, and this would be setting ourselves up for
the sharpest fall imaginable, when the End comes, and God judges us based on our
works, and our works are found lacking.
What an eternally bitter moment, to realize too late that all our
efforts to make ourselves good people have fallen short.
Apart from repentance for sin and faith in Christ crucified and
resurrected, the best we can hope for is a good earthly life, in human terms,
but a life that ends in eternal disappointment, terrible, suffering-filled
disappointment. But true Christian
Education teaches of a new hope, a better hope, a hope that is as sure as the
blood of Jesus, shed for you. God, not
willing to miss out on having a holy people for Himself, sent His Son to teach
us the way of holiness, the way of truth, the truth of the Law, revealing our
sins, and the truth of forgiveness, for all who trust in Jesus alone. For to all who trust not in themselves but in
Christ, God grants forgiveness, and even gives us credit for all the good works
Jesus did in His life of service.
Even more, after teaching you to know and trust that in Christ you are ready
to face the End, God then works another miracle, producing in you the good
works that He has planned for you. Jesus
tells us that as we see the leaves on the fig tree and know that summer is
coming; so also, we should see the signs and know that He is coming, soon. We also know that, just as the leaves on the
fig tree tell us the fruit will soon be coming, so also resting in the promises
of Christ will lead to fruit in our lives, the fruit of faith that clings to
God’s Word, and rejoices in serving the neighbor.
God grant that Martin Luther School, and Concordia Seminary, and all our
Christian Education efforts teach us to rely on Christ alone, for eternal
readiness, and for love today, in the Name of Jesus, Amen.
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