Itching Ears
2 Timothy 3:14 - 4:5
by Rev. Randy Quinn

It's been interesting to hear the tidbits of information I get about a young person from our church who is currently a foreign exchange student in Germany.  Hearing about her Latin class, for instance, and wondering how she learns Latin in German and if it's different than if she were learning it in English.

Whether she is learning Latin or not, the class is certainly helping her with her German!  Lettie is becoming fairly fluent in this new language, a language she began to learn just a few short months ago.

While we were talking about how quickly Lettie is learning German, her mother made the observation that it would probably take about 50 years to become fluent in a foreign language the way it's taught in our schools – and she is one of those who teach it!  It'll take Lettie less than a year to become fluent in German because she will be immersed in it.

It made me wonder how we learn about our faith.  What are the models we use for teaching?  Do they fit the topic?

They tell me that we learn half of what we know before we reach the age of two.  (Yes, that is what I said, before the age of two.)  Think about it.  Crawling, walking, and talking for most people come before our second birthday.  By our second birthday we already know how to express and understand many emotions and customs of our culture.

But how many two-year-olds do you know who've spent much time in a classroom?

Their learning doesn't come from lectures and discussions.  It comes from experiences, from patient practice, and from considerable trial and error.

It's the same kind of learning that is happening to Lettie in Germany.  Experiences and practice, along with a healthy dose of trial and error.

How does that translate to the Christian faith?

For the new convert, that normally comes from reading the Bible, from coming to church, from learning our hymns, and from asking questions -- lots of questions.

For most of us however, what we've learned about our faith we learned in Sunday School or as a young child in church with our parents.

Unfortunately, for many, many, many people, Sunday School served more as an inoculation to faith rather than an introduction, induction, or indoctrination into the faith.  And for many of us, Confirmation was seen as a form of 'graduation' from Sunday School.

The man who used to live across the street told me that he had gone to church so many times as a child that he didn't think he needed to go any more.

In our text for today Paul is reminding Timothy -- who is very much like most of us -- that he learned his faith from a variety of sources:  his mentors, his parents, and the scriptures.  But what he learned was not information to be filed away someplace so he would be good at playing Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit.

I don't know how many of you watch TV talk shows or listen to the talk shows on the radio. Lots of people do.  That's why there is one aired on almost every television channel in the afternoons and why it seems there is at least one talk show on every radio station.

People want to listen.  So the broadcasters are meeting their needs with more and more talk shows.  As a society, if not as individuals, we have ears itching to hear the latest story, the latest gossip, the latest twist on familiar tales.

But why?  What is it we're after?  What do we hope to hear?  When I ask those questions of faithful listeners, they tell me it's to learn new things.

I like learning new things, too.  Except I get my information from documentaries and news magazine shows like 60 Minutes and 20/20.

But face it, not many of us is going to do anything about what we learn on those shows.  Whatever the age of the Kennewick Man isn't going to change how we live our lives.  Listening to a woman who is in love with her step-son isn't going to change our understanding of marriage.  (At least I hope not!)

Most of what we pass off as information on these shows is meaningless.  And many of the game shows just promote the meaninglessness!

Paul warns us about people who like to have their ears tickled.  Ears itching to hear new and wild things.

Paul suggests we'd be better off putting ear plugs in rather than allowing our ears to be tickled with stuff that doesn't matter!

That isn't the case with our faith.  It matters.  This book -- the Bible -- is more than just a collection of stories.  It's more than just words on a page.  It's more than just history.

This book has been given to us to form our lives, to shape them in such a way that we reflect the very life of Christ.  You see, the Bible is not meant to provide information, but to serve as a resource for the formation of our souls.  Not INformation, but FORMation.

So how are we to allow this to shape our lives?  How can this form us?

It's not that different from the question Nicodemus asked Jesus (Jn 3:4).  How can we begin to learn the basics?  Must we un-learn everything we've known up to this point in order to find the truth?  How can we become like one-year-olds in the way we learn about our faith?

Clearly, it's easier to add new ideas than it is to get rid of old ones.  Maybe we need to immerse ourselves in this book -- the Bible -- and learn again what it means to be called the people of God.

I know there are people who have learned to swim by being thrown into a deep pool and given the task of sinking or swimming.  But for most of us that won't work.

For the vast majority of us, we learn to swim in a pool where we can reach the bottom.  We need a solid foundation under us.  When we have difficulty with a particular skill, we simply stand up and start over again.  Practice and experience, mixed with lots of trial and error.

Maybe we need to be like Lettie and immerse ourselves in our faith.  There are lots of ways to learn more about our faith, including retreats, Bible Study groups, and personal study.  But the most important ingredient is to allow what we learn to affect our lives.

We don't need to be a Mother Teresa for our faith to show in our lives.  Look around you.  There are lots of examples right here in this room.  From Linnea to April, from Liza to Dan, from Ruby to Jack.  Each of these members of our church has learned in their own way, but each serves as a model for us in their practice of faith.

Paul's final admonitions to Timothy make it clear that how we learn isn't as important as how we express what we've learned.  Whether we learned from our parents, Sunday School teachers, or our direct exposure to scripture, God has been at work in us.  God has been forming us.

Thanks be to God. Amen.