Dr. Crain's Classical Comments
Dr. Crain's Convocation Address: Being Faithful to God's Call
Posted by Administrator (admin) on Aug 25 2006 at 9:59 AM
Being Faithful to God’s Call:
Is. 11:1-5
Scripture:
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD
3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
Introduction
It is a pleasure to address you this evening. Tonight I want to ask you a question: What is God calling this school to be and to do?
The question of call is important. It is important for parents. Why enroll your children at a Christian and classical school? It is important for teachers. Why strive to give a Christian and classical education? It is important for students. Why study at a Christian and classical school?
Asking the “What is God calling” question is one of the most important questions any institution, group, family, or individual can ask because it determines what one strives to do. It provides a measure to see if one is living up to the standard that has been set.
In WWII when the Allied troops were told that they were to establish a beachhead on Normandy on June 6, they knew what their calling was and they could tell on June 30th if they had accomplished it. When President Kennedy said that he wanted to put a man on the moon, NASA knew what they were called to do, and Americans and the world could tell when they were successful. What is our calling as parents, educators, and students?
Tonight I want to give you an answer: Our calling is to equip CCS children to serve God in the world. We see this calling expressed in Isaiah 11:1-5. Here Isaiah gives what is called a messianic prophecy. A messianic prophecy is a prophecy about the messiah, the anointed one, Jesus Christ. The word “Christ” is just the Greek word for the Hebrew word “Messiah.” Christ is the “anointed one” or king, who has come to fulfill all the Old Testament messianic promises.
Isaiah gives us a breathtaking view of what the Messiah will be like. As Christ was so we are called to be. As we look at what God called the Son to do we see what we are to do. This passage shows us that the Father equipped his Son. We are called to be like the Father; we must equip our children in a similar pattern to the Father. The Son’s “equip-ment” is a pattern for us.
I. We must equip. What “equipment” are we giving them?
Without the right equipment you can’t do the job. Without the right equipment our children will be unable to serve God in the world. As you know, my family recently moved here from Saint Louis. We bought a home nearby. It was in terrible need of painting. The ceilings were not white anymore but a dull grey/brown color. Do you think a tiny art brush would do the job? I would still be painting this very minute if I didn’t have the right equipment: a good set of rollers and a wide brush for trimming.
Do you want our CCS children to have the right equipment for life or be as ill-equipped as a new home owner with the wrong paint brush? In Isaiah 11 we see that the Lord gave Christ a specific set of equipment: wisdom, righteousness, and faithfulness.
A. Wisdom. In verse two Isaiah mentions that the Spirit of the Lord rested upon Christ, giving him wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, and knowledge. Make no mistake; we must give our children a thorough grounding in the facts of each subject. They must understand the basics of math, science, history, literature and so forth. In the Bible, though, wisdom is so much more than head knowledge. You can be smart but not wise. We want kids who know God’s world and know how to use that understanding for God—that’s when knowledge becomes wisdom.
B. Righteousness. For our students to use knowledge rightly we must train them in righteousness. Twice in this passage, in verse 4 and 5, Isaiah describes Christ as righteous. Here righteous refers to one’s being morally upstanding and pure according to God’s law.
Isaiah also gives us a specific example of how Christ is righteous: “He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; 4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy.” Christ acts with integrity and with full knowledge. We often judge by what our eyes see at a glance without investigating the heart of the matter. We often judge by the gossipy word quickly given and readily received when we should weigh what we hear more carefully. Christ shows us to judge what we see and hear carefully.
In judging carefully between good and evil we will provide a righteous environment for our students. But we will have failed if we do not provide our students with the proper environment so that they can learn what it means to be holy as God is holy. This means that teachers must live the gospel humbly before students.
Do you know how my own children know if I love holiness? Surely not from my imperfect life, which is certainly less than holy. I believe that my children know my love of righteousness when they see me live the gospel before them by repenting of sin and claiming Christ. We must each learn anew to say, “…I’m sorry….forgive me.”
C. Faithfulness. The last piece of equipment we hope to give them is faithfulness, as verse 5 mentions. A faithful person is a person that comes through in the clutch. They’re reliable. They do the job all the time, on time. They are steady, maybe not flashy, but dependable.
Students, do you want to know why deadlines are important? Do you want to know why turning in papers on time is important and doing homework? Because God wants to take that opportunity to mold your character. He wants to make you into a faithful person. You must realize that the tests you take this year are only part of the bigger test of life and that these tests are from God, who wants to transform you through them.
Where does all this equipment come from? How can we as parents, educators or students ever hope to create wisdom, righteousness, or faithfulness? Verse two makes clear that this is a gift of the Spirit. Without the Spirit’s blessing no education can hope to equip students. Certainly we must provide the right ingredients. We don’t just sit in class and hope for the Holy Spirit to start writing math equations on the board. No, we teach, we strategize, we encourage, we discipline, we put our foot down, we put our pen to paper. But in the end it is like baking a dessert. You can put all the right ingredients together in the right way but without the fire of the oven the dessert will be a cold, wet mass. Similarly, we need the fire of the Spirit to fall upon us turning our educational efforts from a mix to a masterpiece!
II. The second way we equip is through this: We must equip CCS children to serve God. We want our students to know, understand, and embrace this truth: serving God is the most exciting thing that anyone can do. Our educational efforts must be directed towards that end.
We want our students to serve God in everything that they do. For us all, there is no area in our lives when we are not to serve God, even in mundane things. When we take a nap we are to do it for God’s glory (by making sure that our nap is for rejuvenation not because we are lazy or made the poor choice of playing computer games until 3:00 o’clock). When we exercise we are to offer it as service to God—we are taking care of our bodies. When we work as a manager or a customer service rep. or a carpenter, we are to do it to make God’s kingdom known.
God wants us to serve him with satisfaction. Verse 3 says, “and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.” Delighting in fear. These are not normal words. We fear getting in a car wreck. We don’t delight in the fear of getting in a car wreck … except that a healthy fear gives us respect for driving a car safely. We fear getting burned in a fire. We don’t delight in the fear of getting burnt in a fire…except that a healthy fear gives us profound respect for our relationship with a fire.
Living in Saint Louis, I had a chance to observe the mighty Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Seen from an airplane these rivers are impressive but not scary. This past spring, however, a friend took me boat riding on the MO river. This was not like being on Lake Murray here in South Carolina. We saw logs traveling past us at immense speeds. The currents are powerful and treacherous. It is not uncommon to hear of drowning on the MS. If you fall in without a life jacket in the wrong part, you would be in serious trouble.
We were picking up some trot lines when very quickly storm clouds developed. We were far away from the boat ramp but immediately headed back. The waves began to get bigger and the wind picked up and it started thundering and lightning. The boat ramp was in sight when we hit a hidden rock and our boat jerked suddenly. As soon as we got to land the rain poured down. The wind was so violent that, as I held the boat, I was almost pulled into the MO River. I learned a new fear for the MO River and its power that day. And, at the same time, I delighted in the awesome power of the MO river. We want our students to fear God in the same way.
Fear of the Lord is respect for the Lord and his holy attributes. To be in the presence of God is to experience a consuming, purifying fire. God is not a toy to be played with, a dog to be petted, a puddle to splash in. This is the living God! He is an awesome reality! And we want our students to delight in fearing him, to take pleasure in serving him.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ delighted in the fear of the Lord. He delighted so much that he was willing to leave his home in heaven and come to earth. He delighted so much that he died for our sins. He delighted so much that he offers to live with us now.
His delight led him to perform a duty, which leads to our third point. Where are our children to serve?
III. We must equip CCS children to serve God in the world. By being a part of CCS, you are entering into a global movement. Across the world parents and churches have the goal to train their children to serve God in the world. We need a global vision. If it wasn’t clear to you already, September 11th should have made it clear to you—America is not isolated. We are in a global community whether we like it or not.
As Christians we should never want to be isolated anyway. Jesus said that his disciples were to take the gospel to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8) and that means by necessity involvement with the world.
Rather than seeking to shelter our students from the world we want to teach them to engage the world critically. At CCS our students will study, in a safe environment, a variety of worldviews. We want our students to understand the times in which they live so that they can serve the living in our time.
How should our students serve in the world? We see in this passage that Christ served in the world in a particular way.
A. With compassion (v. 4a). When Isaiah writes, “but with righteousness he will judge the needy” he is not speaking of a judgment against the poor but a judgment for those in need. Christ came to help those who are poor—those poor in spirit and those just plain poor.
If all our students want to do is get out in the world so that they can make money, have a nice house, and a cool car then we will not have done our job. Christ came to serve, so must we, so must our students.
How else should our students serve?
B. With zeal. Isaiah writes in 4b, “He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.”
This is a little scary! We certainly don’t want CCS students going forth striking and slaying. We’ll leave that to Jesus Christ…yet this passage does affirm that there is a dichotomy between Christians and the world. There are wicked things and wicked people and though we must pray for our enemies as Christ commanded we want CCS students to conquer the earth in the name of Christ, offering Christ’s mercy to all who accept and throwing down idols and denouncing false ways when they encounter them. We want our students to serve God in the world with zeal.
We live in an age of tolerance, an age when everyone is supposed to accept all beliefs as equally valid and true. I sometimes listen to My Yahoo online music because you can train the station to play the style of music you like. I like this because I get to hear what the world is saying.
One day I heard a song by Dar Williams, a folk artist, titled “The Christians and the Pagans.” This song tells the story of a pagan witch who wants to spend Christmas with her Christian uncle and his family. The pagan witch brings along a witch friend and the lyrics say, “He told his niece, Its Christmas Eve, I know our life is not your style, She said, Christmas is like Solstice, and we miss you and its been awhile, So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table, Finding faith and common ground the best that they were able, And just before the meal was served, hands were held and prayers were said, Sending hope for peace on earth to all their gods and goddesses.”
By the end of the song the witches have taught the Christians how to love and accept. And so Dar Williams is saying, why can’t we just all sit down together and get along.
With compassion CCS must help the poor in spirit—those who don’t know the love of Christ—and with zeal CCS must stand for the truth of Jesus Christ. And, we hope, so will our students.
Conclusion
It is often said as a truism that children are the next generation. But this is a truism that’s true. One day CCS students will be in positions of responsibility. At times this can be scary to us. Parents and teachers alike see the immaturity of students and we can easily lose faith. We can also look at ourselves and lose heart because we see our own sinfulness and lack of spirituality.
The Father has set forth the pattern for us to follow and what he requires in us he gives to us. We have been brought into the divine life of the Father, Son, and Spirit. This means that the Father enables us to equip our sons and daughters, as he equipped his SON, by the gift of the Spirit working in us.
And so God is calling us to be people of faith. We must have a vision that is as grand and great as God is. If we keep before the eyes of our students that God is the Lord who wants to equip them to serve him in the world then we will have provided them with the basic tools for a good life, which is to say, that we will have given them the tools for a godly life, the only life that really is worth living at all.
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