“Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” (Hebrews 13: 1-3, 7-8, 15-16)
Over the course of these last weeks, children from kindergarten to college have begun returning to school. If you were to ask any of them how they are feeling about this end-of-summer time, I imagine you would hear quite a few opinions ranging from nervous excitement to absolute dread.
Parents, too, are feeling similar feelings….excited for new experiences for their children and the return to routine, but perhaps a bit of sadness, too….knowing that another precious summer has passed of the few we get with our little ones. Yes, this is a season of new beginnings and new experiences. A season of the known and the unknown.
I can still remember how I looked forward to the start of school each year. I truly loved being in the classroom. Each year was a year that brought fresh ideas and new things to try! New teachers and new books and new curricula. It was all so exciting, and I just couldn’t wait for what the new year would bring.
That is, of course, until my first semester science class in my freshman year of college. Science had always been my strong subject—as a matter of fact, they let me double-up on science classes when I was in high school and skip my lunch period. Earth science, life science, molecular biology, chemistry—you name it, I loved it. And I usually did well in my classes, which just further solidified my love for any subject in the science field.
Well, that is….until that science class in my first semester away at school. With unbridled confidence, I decided to sign up for Astronomy 101. How hard could that be? A little math, a few celestial coordinates—I’d be fine. This was MY strong suit! I could do it. As a matter of fact, I was sure I’d be GREAT at it.
Well, I was wrong. Really wrong. And by the time I realized how wrong I was, the period of time in which I could change courses had passed and I was stuck there. I was so sure that I could do it by myself. That I could work harder and study more and catch up in all the areas where I was lacking. My parents encouraged me to talk to the professor and seek out help from the dean, but I was too proud to admit that I couldn’t do it.
Ultimately, though, I had to admit that I was in trouble. And so I sought out my professor, who got me connected with a tutor. He put us together in study groups of varying abilities so that the strong students could help the weaker students understand things more clearly. But by that point, it was pretty late in the semester and there wasn’t much time for all I still had left to learn.
Now, you might be expecting me to tell you that all of that struggle and challenge inspired me and that I ultimately became a fantastic student of astronomy, but I didn’t. I was terrible at it. I thought I was going to excel! I thought I could do it all myself! I thought I could do it alone, and with just a little more work, I’d be okay.
But looking back, it ultimately wasn’t really about what I learned about the subject. It was about what I learned about myself. I had gone into that class completely assured that I knew what I was doing and I could handle anything and that I could do it alone. And I couldn’t. As a matter of fact, doing it alone had me downright failing. I needed help. I needed guidance. I needed support. I needed a mentor.
While I haven’t thought about that class in many, many years, our passage from the Letter to the Hebrews today has me thinking about that again. Because sometimes, we are guilty of those same mistakes—the things that got me in over my head in a long-ago science class are the same things that get us in over our head when it comes to our faith in God. We think we know the scriptures. We think we know the answers. We think we know better than God when things don’t look like they’re turning out the way we want them to.
We build silos. And we stay there, reassuring ourselves that we can pray harder. We can “do better”. That we know what’s best for us and that we can go it alone. But that’s not how Christianity works. That’s part of the message of this passage—-“Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you.” No matter how much we study and how much we learn and how hard we try, it will all be meaningless if we are too set in our ways and too assured of ourselves to be willing to follow. Discipleship takes our entire lives. It’s a class that we will never master and never complete. There is no graduation day with this major. There will always be more to learn.
Choosing a Christian life requires of us many of the same things that being in school does—an open mind, a heart for learning. For trying and failing and trying again. Since you’re sitting here, I think it’s probably safe to say that it looks like we’re in the same class! Isn’t that great? These first days of school can always be a little nerve-wracking, right? Thank goodness you’re here—because from what I’ve heard from those who have taken it before us, it can be really, really difficult on some days. From others, I know there are a lot of tests—and that sometimes the tests will be sprung on us completely by surprise! We’ll have to make decisions without having all the information. We’ll have to choose a direction without knowing much about any of the possible outcomes. There will be tons of experiments—-and sometimes things in our “labs” will turn out pretty poorly. I heard that sometimes this class is so challenging that there will be days that we will come in and it will feel like a completely different subject that we’ve never studied before! We’ll be asked to do things that we’ve never learned how to do….we’ll just have to wing it. I heard there is a lot of homework, too. The reading should be fine, but there are problems that sometimes seem unsolvable. It’s inevitable that we’ll get assigned group work with people we really won’t like too much or get along with very well. Class discussions might get complicated, they say. Lots of opinions and different ways of communicating….Yes, I’ve heard this Discipleship 101 class can be a doozy.
But you know something? I’ve also heard really great things about it! I’ve heard others say it’s the most interesting subject they ever studied. I heard that the Book we follow is full of amazing stories and miracles like we could never imagine! I know there are field trips to beautiful places and that we’ll get to see things in a completely new way. And about those tests? Yes, I’ve heard there are quite a few, but that the Teacher always has a way of helping us learn from our mistakes. And it’s true, sometimes we’ll have to make decisions without having all of the information, but the good thing is, there are lots of other students who we can count on to help walk us through the tough spots. The homework can be hard and sometimes feels never-ending, but there are so many study groups that we can join together in. Group work can be tricky—we know that—-but we’ve got a pretty clear set of rules and instructions in our course Book. It will give us the guidelines we need to figure out what we don’t know when we hit those times of impasse. Even though the class discussions can be difficult sometimes, there is always a way forward, even if it means a lot of compromise.
Boy, I am really glad we got the same class this semester. I don’t think I could do this without you.
Actually, I know I couldn’t do it without you. That’s what this class is all about. And that’s what our “syllabus” from Hebrews reminds us—in this class, we are going to focus on everything from hospitality, and sharing what we have, and building relationships…to trusting God and showing mercy and doing what is right and just. It’s all here, everything we need to learn, and even if we take it for years on end, we’ll still be beginners. We can only succeed if we’re all here…there are no take-home tests or independent study in this course. We have to do it all in community. What’s pretty crazy, too, is that we will never meet the Teacher in person….but we will come to know Him so well. It’ll be like He’s right there with us, reflected in every face in our class.
I’m sure there will be days we’ll be tempted to skip class. To sleep in and blow off our responsibilities and choose all sorts of empty pursuits instead of this one. But I hope you’ll stay! Discipleship 101 may be the hardest class in this school of life, but it’s also the best. When you find yourself in that inevitable place of frustration along the way….when you’re tired and don’t feel up to studying much anymore, remember this from our “course syllabus” here in Hebrews:
“Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
Like I was saying earlier….It’s great that we’re in the same “class”! Discipleship 101. A lifelong course. I know it will be really challenging, but also really rewarding. I am so glad we’re doing this together. I couldn’t do it without you. Amen.
