theologer

"But he said, 'Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!'" - Luke 11:28

One of my brothers in law is here staying with us for the weekend. He'll be heading home today but he's an interesting guy to talk with as he's in the last semester of his seminary education. He's also lived overseas for a couple of years doing ministry and will likely go back.

I was talking with Him this morning about some of the blogs I read and how many people I read who are educated in the original languages or carry seriously interpretive Bibles to church on Sunday mornings and scrutinize everything the pastors say. I don't mean this in a bad way, being educated and not taking everything your pastor says at face value is not a bad thing. My comment was how I wasn't sure I would want to preach to these people feeling like they would pick apart my every argument.

His response was something along the lines of how it doesn't matter if you can preach to those people or not. There are people out there who are much more interested in the academia than they are in being able to preach and relate Christ. You need to worry yourself with the latter.

I thought this an interesting argument. The field in which I work is filled with several seminary educated people but our discussions are never about theology or scripture or these things at all. Rather we're always discussing what so and so needs to hear before they'll likely turn to the Lord, or about broken relationships, or disfunction in our churches and how we address such issues.

Then I get on a plane and I go to seminary in the summer for a few weeks at a time and I'm surrounded by people who care much more about a specific interpretation of one verse, or how great of professors they've had etc...

The field is just a different world than the academic campus. I guess I'm glad I get the best of both worlds. I just want to make sure I'm hearing the word of the Lord and spending my time keeping it rather than scrutinizing it. Seeking the Lord and loving Him and following His commands needs to have precedence in my life over my head knowledge. Both are important, but the Love and obedience need to come first.

"They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out." - John 9:34

This whole section (John 9) about the man born blind is awesome for a few reasons. First because Jesus proclaims he was born blind so God may be glorified. Second because Jesus heals a man, he could not see and then he could, this is an AMAZING gift to receive.

Finally I like it because the Pharisees get so worked up over the healing and the man handles it so well. First they call him in to challenge that he was indeed originally blind (because they don't believe). Next they ask how Jesus did and establish clay should not have been made on the sabbath (looking for grounds to call it false). Then they go to the man's family and question them about his vision (they still do not believe) and the final section when they call the man back in is by far the best.

Them: "Give glory to God because this Jesus you talk about is a sinner and therefore should have had no power to heal you"

Man: "What do I care if He's a sinner, all I know is I was in utter darkness and now I see the beauty of the world around. I can walk without a guide, I can see the sun set and rise, I can gaze at the stars and trees whenever I want to!"

Them: "Tell us how he healed you."

Man: "Are you deaf? Have I not already told you? Maybe you need healing in your ears like I had in my eyes. Or maybe you want to become His disciples."

Them: "Don't even associate us with this man. We are disciples of Moses, we know he is great, we know nothing about this Jesus, not even where He came from, he must be a nobody, why would we follow a nobody."

Man: "That is amazing. You are the scribes, the teachers, the wise men, and ya'll have never heard of Him. Yet I was only a blind man and he thought me worthy of knowing Him. Even though you claim He is a nobody He had the power to heal my eyes! God wouldn't heal through Him if He was a sinner. God must have thought Him worthy of some power. No one has ever heard of blind man healed from his blindness and yet Jesus did it. If that's not from God what is? If ya'll don't want to be associated with this man, who DO you want to be associated with?

Them: "Woa there, WE are the the teachers, the scribes, the wise men, and YOU would presume to lecture us?"

And they threw him out....

I love this story because this guy was in their face, calling them morons for not tuning into the power of Jesus and where it must come from. I love when the Lord uses the weak to shame the wise. And this man's personality is something I can totally relate to. He is a biblically famous smart-alec.

*please take my interpretation of the verse with a grain of salt and understand I'm illustrating the situation, not re-translating it.

As I'm adjusting to being a student of theology it has occurred to me that I don't think I'm being groomed to be a pastor (perhaps as I assumed I would be in an M-Div program). I think I'm being groomed to be a teacher.

This, I think, is due to the fact that I'm a student at a reformed seminary. Some of the teachers have even said things along the lines of "we know that because we're reformed we tend to care so much to know ABOUT God, that we often are bad at KNOWING God."

Is this my experience just because of the tradition in which I'm receiving my education? Or is this the experience most people have attending a seminary? I must admit that I planned on walking out of school being a pastor... but that doesn't look the be the case. For me this is alright because I aspire to be a teacher, not a pastor... but I imagine there are some people out there who would be more than a little bit bummed out to be better at educating people than leading a flock.