The Church of the Redeemer

June 2, 2002

Second Pentecost 

    A year ago last January, our Church School Committee became frustrated with the mass-produced curriculum we were using. It was clear to us that our young people were not receiving a well-balanced Christian education. What put us over the edge was the fact that at the start of eighth grade, our candidates for confirmation demonstrated little knowledge of the content of the Bible.  Troubling still, when we asked them who the main focus of the Gospels is, none could answer, let alone define Gospel.  The committee went to work developing goals and objectives for the entire program. After concluding that none of the published curricula met our needs, the committee set out to write our own curriculum.  Today, our young people and teachers are celebrating the conclusion of year one of the Redeemer Curriculum.

            Any young person who has been consistent in attending church school this year will have noticed a shift in emphasis.  First, they would have noticed that our committee has taken to heart God’s words spoken in this morning’s reading from Deuteronomy, “You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand . . . .”  Throughout this program year and into the years to come, our curriculum will focus on the content of the Bible.  Keeping in mind the opening statement of this month’s Episcopal Life, that “the Bible lies at the heart of our worship, our belief and our lives”, our children have studied stories from the Bible and have interpreted these stories in three ways: first through the traditional telling of the story.  Then, through visual art, the products of which has graced this church each month.  Finally, the classes have acted out the stories through plays they have created, some of which have been performed in Children’s Chapel.  We hope that all of this hard work, creativity and activity will fulfill the vision the Church School Committee has for each child – that, each child who grows up in our program will have a working understanding of the foundation of Christian Faith, the Bible, upon which to build the structure of their own personal faith and relationship with God and God’s Church.

            Taking the time to expose our children to the seeds of Christian faith, both here at church and at home is vital if we expect to see this parish community and the greater Church to thrive into the next generation.  Further, we, as parents, Godparents, and Grandparents, must deliberately take on the role of Christian educator with our children.  In today’s world where our media and culture proclaim a pseudo Judeo-Christian world-view, our children are developing a distorted view of what Christianity is.   Do we want our children’s understanding of our faith to be founded on the teachings of television evangelists, sit-coms, advertising, and the hedonistic slant of the media?  Of course not, we all know that such standards encourage our children to build their faith on foundations of sand.

            Building faith on a solid foundation for our children and us is not new to the twenty-first century.  As our Gospel reading indicates, the very matter of foundations is an issue that Jesus battled.  In today’s reading we heard the familiar parable of the men who built their homes on rock or sand.  And, like so many of the parables found in Matthew, at first glance we dismiss this story because we assume that as Christians we have built our houses on rock.  A fair assumption, until we realize that St. Matthew has addressed his Gospel to a Christian audience, and in this context, Christ is speaking to his followers.  Therefore, the metaphor of the two houses is not about Christians and non-Christians, but about Christians and Christians.    St. Matthew reminds us that there are two types of Christians.  The first are those who have built their faith upon the solid foundation or rock that is the god of the Bible.  These are the ones whose prayer life, and involvement with the Church spring forth from a deep and abiding relationship with God as understood through scripture.  In St. Matthew’s day, Christians who had built their faith upon the Rock were easily recognized.  They were the ones whose faith rarely wavered in the midst of crisis, and as was typical of the early Christian experience, they were able to stand proudly and proclaim their faith even in the face of persecution and martyrdom.  Then, there were the other Christians, those who found their way into the church, perhaps by birth, or because they were attracted to the community life of the local congregation, or maybe because someone from the community did them an act of kindness. Despite their relationship with the community, they failed to internalize the Gospel story; they failed to realize the mandate to walk in the footsteps of Christ.  Thus, when the storms of life and persecution came, their faith collapsed because it had no foundation to support it, and then they ran, denying any belief in Christ.

            It is essential that we all build our lives and faith upon the strong rock that is God, for there is no other sure foundation.  Children by nature do not know this.  As they look out into the world, they are fooled into believing there are many solid foundations upon which to build.  Our culture tells them that they can be strong and self-sufficient.  That they can put their trust in the numerous products sold on television.  And the bad joke of adolescents is that one’s peer group can take care of you.  The message few tell them is that all these alleged foundations in life are transient and cannot withstand the storms of life.  If we have done our job well, our youth eventually discover the truth and build their lives on the foundation of God as their own.

            This is why it is important that we focus on teaching.  Teaching our children is more than just telling and sharing, it is also setting the example. We have often heard it said that our faith is known through the fruits of our labors.  Most often we define this to mean that our faith is known through our success.  However, this is a misinterpretation of the saying.  In ancient days, the fruit of one’s labor was a reference to one’s behavior, meaning that one’s faith could be outwardly measured by how consistently we integrated its teachings into our daily lives.  If we tell our children that God is important, then we must show them God’s centrality in how we prioritize our lives, how we treat others, and upon whom or what we shower our generosity.  If we tell our children that God is important but actually make God a low priority in our lives, we give them a mixed message that ultimately says - God is not important.  If we tell our children that God is everywhere, and fail to make time for prayer and worship beyond these walls, we convey to them that God is only present to them in this building.  This could be why many of our children’s relationships with the church are on shaky ground.

            John Finley often quips Episcopalians are so trusted by God that God gives us July and August off each year. So as we celebrate the close of the Church School Year, I sense a true challenge for each of us.    The challenge is this; continue worshiping regularly this summer, both here at the Redeemer at our 9:00 clock services, or at any of the local churches or summer chapels where you will be vacationing. Remember to say grace at family meals. Be radical and really go for it – read a Bible passage every day.   By doing so, you will continue the lessons our children have been learning in Church School; that God, whom they met in the Bible, is important, present in all places, always available to them - and most importantly that God is the rock upon which you have built your life.  Amen.

Craig R. Swan

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