10/24/2024
As a younger man I was an avid fisherman. Most weekends, and often after work, I would either take my boat to the lake or stand on the bank of one of my favorite fishing holes casting a line. On the way to one such place, I would pass by an abandoned school house. This school was an old one room school that once held students of multiple grades and ages all together where they were taught by a single teacher. That one-room schoolhouse was eventually renovated and converted into a home. The children who once attended there can now drive by and read the roadside marker which has been erected to commemorate the building and the impact it had on this rural community. But as I think back on this method of teaching I marvel at its benefits, and how it resembled a church gathering.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
Colossians 3:16 ESV
I often romanticized about what this little school must have been like years before. I envisioned older children helping with the younger ones, and assignments being given to keep certain grade students busy while instruction was delivered to others. In my mind's eye I could see myself as a small boy, sitting at my desk listening as the older kids were receiving their lessons, and thinking "I can't wait to be like that. I can't wait to be taught those things." I could see a similarity to church in this…
In an environment where older more advanced students are mixed with those who are just beginning their education, the more seasoned students become impromptu student teachers and in one way or another, role models. The teacher would select well verse students to help the younger children. This selection would have been made based on their command of what was being taught, and equally important, the social impact this person would have on forming younger minds.
“But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,”
Titus 2:1-3 ESV
Years ago on Sundays I would go to Sunday school, and then church service at Christ Church in Nashville, Tennessee. I would look forward to Sunday mornings, and as time went by I realized how closely God's model for this church resembled that of small one-room schoolhouses of days gone by. In Sunday services I, being in my 60s at the time, stood before the congregation with Jack Hughes (in his 80s), and John Saucier (in his 70s) and prayed for all those who came forward to the altar. I remember earlier years, when I was much younger, and how I would watch from the pew as Jack, John, and Jim Enoch, Jim was my predecessor on the prayer team, prayed. I would think "I hope that one day I will be an elder like that." Coupled with my Pastor they were my role models.
I remember sitting beside Jack Hughes during one particular Wednesday nightservice, and although I prayed in tongues during moments of fervent prayer, and was familiar with it, I overheard a particularly beautiful conversation as he prayed quietly in tongues that night. I listened to the easy flowing melody of his praise as his voice rose and fell in a near whisper, and thought to myself, "I can't wait to pray, and to teach others to pray through example, like that."
In church we are gathered together; the old kids and the young kids of faith, and we listen to, and learn from, one another. Our lessons are different, but they are being taught to each of us in the same sanctuary, by the same scripture, and at the same time. I always find it amazing how a Sunday school lesson or sermon can reach us individually at the very place we are in our own spiritual walk. Whether we are a child, or a senior citizen of Christianity, we are being fed what we need by the exact same Word of God. The same scripture is being heard, yet is received at that precise level of understanding, and in that spiritual place, of our individual faiths. The one-room schoolhouse model being, in principle, relived in our modern churches every week.
It is important to gather together. It is important to be associated with one another in a community of faith. It is important to share prayers and to be taught through example how to pray corporately, and individually. This Sunday I ask you to listen to the Sunday school lesson and sermon, but to also look around and take notice of the larger lesson you are being taught by those around you in your divine schoolhouse; your one-room schoolhouse of faith. Think on this, and realize that it is not new…
“Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”
Deuteronomy 31:12-13 ESV
Prayer:
Thank you Father for bringing your children together in worship, praise, and to learn from your Holy Word. Thank you for the miracle that transpires as we each hear the same passage of scripture but in a way that is particular to our own spiritual maturity, journey, and need. Thank you Father for instructing us in how to pray and to humbly come before you in ways that are beneficial to your will, and necessary for our understanding. Help us Lord to seek you, and to teach others of your love, mercy, goodness, and grace. Help us to sing equally well, and with the same comfort, the children’s songs, and the most adult of hymns. Help us to teach the young and old in you with equal ease. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who reaches out to us wherever we are in our faith and life. Holy are you who rocks the babies, and yet puts your arm around the shoulders of the men and women with equal love and care. Hear our prayers Lord, whether they are a single word, or volume of thought, hear us as we come before you in song, tongues, utterances, chants, or the sounds of a child. Hear us Abba as we laugh and cry in our prayers, and when we speak to you in quiet whisper or a bellowing voice. Let you Word serve us in our prayer closets, and your Holy Spirit give us perfect understanding in every situation and station of our lives. We praise you Lord in every language, and in every appropriate way; babies by cooing, little children in laughter and tears, and in the solemn prayers of the elders. Know and hear us wherever we are, and be pleased with the progress of our faith, and love for you. Help us to walk through our lives as Jesus walked through His. Teach us as you once taught Him, and bless us just as the beatitudes He spoke of that are your blessings… bless us each according to the understanding you have given us of your Word, and your will.
““Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Matthew 5:3-12 ESV
And to every prayer, lesson, and blessing let all creation say AMEN; which is for every age… from fetus to corpse, and beginning to end!!! Amen. Amen. Amen.
Rich Forbes