Knowing and Believing
Sermon preached in St Leonard’s Chapel, University of St Andrews on the 15th of January 2012 by Rona R. Ramsay PhD, Reader in Biochemistry
“Christians change and grow when truth becomes incarnate in their lives.”
Kevin Kim, assistant pastor, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, California (Aug 2011).
Hearing this statement in early August, shortly after I accepted the invitation to speak here today, the theme struck me as particularly appropriate for this time of year in St Andrews.
So,I will explore with you how cerebral knowledge develops to ingrained, all-encompassingbeliefstarting from the Christmas story and exams.
Christmas
Everyone knows the story of Christmas, some at general knowledge level, some having learned it formally, and others through family exposure. The prophets foretell a saviour; angels announce the birth of a baby in a stable in Bethlehem; the shepherds’ visit and the wise men bring gifts. Christians around the world rejoice in truly 3rd millennium style with parties and general commercialism justified with the thought that we really do know the truemeaning of Christmas despite the superficial glitter and tinsel.
But do we? Few people, even Christians, reflect at Christmas on the path to the cross at Easter. We celebrate birth ignoring the fact the life inescapably leads to death. The reason for the birth - that God incarnate in Jesus would die for our sins so that humankind could be saved- might be mentioned from the pulpit, but for most of us that is knowledge buried in theChristmas trimmings. Is it just knowledge? Or is that message ingrained in the very fibre ofour being? Is it a deep, ineradicable belief, an essential part of life as a Christian?
Exams
What is the difference between knowing and believing? I hope that those who came here for abreak from revising will forgive me for taking exams as the analogy here.
You have had a full semester of lectures, tutorials, and practicals, with notes or fullPowerPoint presentations on MMS. You have read the recommended reading and gone over your notes, and should by now feel relatively well prepared for the exam questions, and readyto regurgitate what you have learned. You know a lot – but does that knowledge translateinto a Nobel Prize? Certainly not yet! What you have in your memory bank at present isknowledge, intellectual facts learned somewhat in isolation. But will you know it next month?Next year? 10 years from now when your boss asks you to give a lecture on it becausehe/she has been rushed to hospital? Knowledge can be very superficial and not very valuableuntil it is set in context and integrated into your thought processes.
In contrast, the marker who will read the exam scripts does know all the same facts and much more without having spent the last month revising. What is the cause of this difference?
How has the knowledge of mitochondrial ATP generation become something I understand without effort whereas it is something that my first year class had to really work at grasping? The breadth of knowledge comes from years of reading reviews and new articles about the topic, the depth comes from reading the experimental evidence for each new finding and doing experiments to test new hypotheses: the hear-see-do, for the three types of learners. This deep knowledge brings the true familiarity of recall without effort from integration of material, all adding up to an embedded understanding.
Do not despair – you can get some of that depth of learning even in a semester (with work!),and as you progress through the years of study you will acquire the true benefit of education –not passing of exams, but a deeply held network of facts, techniques, and skills that you cancall upon to integrate into new thought. As a graduate you will leave confident in your subject,its jargon, sources, and leaders of new thought, completely different from the naïve fresherused to spoon-feeding that you were four years before.
The difference is your years of reading, questioning, rehearsing on a constant basis; using theknowledge often and in different ways until it becomes part of your consciousness and intoyour unconscious being, until needed. Working with material opened to you in each modulecan lead to insightful questioning of evidence and a thirst to follow up things that do not makesense: the difference between just passing or making the Dean’s List by being able todemonstrate an integrated grasp of the subject.
Surely this is what we need to find in our life of faith:The difference between knowing the Christmas story enough to pick up references inliterature and understanding and integrating the Christmas story enough toacknowledge forgiveness in Christ and accept the power of the Holy Spirit in everydaylife;the difference between knowing the life and teachings of Jesus, the accounts of Hisdeath and resurrection, and believing that Christ died for the sins of the world,believing as if part of breathing that God loves each and every one of us, and providesstrength for each day.
So, how can we change and grow to allow knowledge to become incarnate in our lives? The evangelic jingle, “Read your Bible, pray every day” is like an ad on television; it sticks with you– but hopefully its message does too: “and you’ll grow, grow, grow.” The hard work of constantly studying and investigating (not just mugging it up for the exam at the pearly gates)is as essential in faith as in academic study. Olympic hopefuls do not shirk the hard workand sometimes even getting tone exercise class a week is hard.
Do not misunderstand me – salvation is the gift of God freely given (no fees!) as is faith but we must respond. Becoming a Christian means accepting the offer, taking the knowledgeof it, the abstract concept of forgiveness and salvation through Christ, and working to make ita concrete part of daily life, (“..by your deeds you shall be known”).When belief drills down tothe centre of your being, it becomes alive there and that drives change.
How? I’ve given you tips to make the Dean’s List, so what can I suggest for integrating the knowledge of God? I must acknowledge sources here – every Christian writer for the last2000 years has provided the answer: through prayer and meditation. The text is the Bible andthe tutor is the Holy Spirit. The same message is found in Psalm 1. Pastor Kim equated thePsalms as a textbook for prayer, and indeed the Scottish tradition uses the Psalm in the muchloved metric form. The first psalm is a meditation on the importance of prayer, the water oflife. It presents in wonderful imagery the way of good and bad people but the central messageis that the Word of God is essential for the life and fruitfulness of His people. It emphasisesthe absolute necessity of the Bible in acquiring the stability and fruitfulness that it promises forthose who integrate its message.
Psalm 1
1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way ofsinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leafdoes not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of therighteous;
6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Note that meditation on the Word of God is the key to stability and fruitfulness – it does not promise immunity from stress. In contrary winds, the chaff of superficial knowledge can be blown away (like crammed facts in an exam) but a well-rooted tree can withstand drought andhas the resources to continue the constant processes of growth and repair.
Prayer and meditation on God’s Word can give growth in depth of understanding of the meaning of Christmas, the birth of a baby to redeem the world. Just as the roots of the tree provide resistance to drought and stress, prayer and meditation give stability to deal with thetrials and distress of modern life. It does not prevent these adverse events, but with a core offaith and well-integrated belief, you will have the strength to face the adversity, and the faiththat God is there for you.
Christians change and grow when truth becomes incarnate in their lives. May this New Year bring growth to all who celebrated the birth of Jesus at Christmas.
Amen