“A Little Bit of Knowledge”
A Sermon by Sid Burgess for Edgewood PC, Birmingham, AL
Rally Day, September 7, 2008
Text: Psalm 149
A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. That makes me a dangerous person indeed, especially with access to the Internet. I can do research on just about any subject from my desk chair. This week’s topic: Sunday school. With relish, I delved into the history of this teaching ministry of the church. Earlier in my life I had assumed that Sunday school was fore-ordained by Moses and the Prophets, taught by Jesus at the age of 12 in the Jerusalem temple, with St. Paul in charge of writing all the lesson plans.
Turns out that in our 3,000-year-old Judeo-Christian tradition, Sunday school is a relatively new phenomenon. The movement began in the Mother Country-- in England--in the 1780’s. The idea was to provide instruction for poor children who were employed in mines and factories six, hard days a week--provide them with instruction on the one day of the week they did not have to work. The founders were not entirely altruistic-- they felt the rowdy children of the urban poor needed discipline. Quickly, the concept spread to American cities, where organizers hoped to provide basic literacy training to poor children and adults on their one free day. In this model, clerics and merchants hired local schoolmasters and directed them to use the Bible as their central text.
But this concept quickly gave way to something entirely different. A new-style Sunday school arose in the early decades of the 19th century, taught by volunteer teachers, a majority of them women. The US HISTORY ENCYCLOPEDIA says that during the early 1800’s, “Sunday schools and public schools grew in tandem, developing a complimentary relationship.”
Not everyone was happy with the innovation. Some ministers saw Sunday school as a threat to their authority and control. Lay teaching jeopardized clerical preaching; religious and secular subjects were sometimes blended; and women acquired new roles in the church--often, for the first time, leadership roles. Church historian Martin Marty writes:
We are told of ministers who chased female Sunday school teachers with sticks and brooms, calling them servants of Satan. In Nashville, TN, in the early 1820’s, one congregation posted a sign, ‘No desecration of the holy Sabbath, by teaching on the Sabbath in this Church.’
But the Sunday school was destined to prevail. As individual congregations grew into denominations, the Sunday school proved to be an effective program of evangelism. It was a way for each denomination to teach it’s particular interpretation of the basic Protestant gospel.
Sunday schools were in their heyday during the middle of 20th century. Each and every church--the large and the small--expanded their facilities to provide classroom space. Edgewood Church was one of thousands upon thousands to build a building devoted expressly to teaching and learning--our education building. Though volunteer labor predominated all across the nation, professional Christian educators staffed denominational bureaus, produced curricula, and promotional resources. Larger congregations also employed Christian educators.
In our own time, Sunday school attendance nationwide is in decline. According to a national religious research firm, less than a quarter of men and women in America today participate in Sunday school. Unfortunately, I could not find statistics on the number of children attending Sunday school, but I did find some fascinating data. I was intrigued by a 1997 study conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. They surveyed 3,500 children nationwide to determine how they spend their time. As you might expect, the survey reports children spending 33 hours a week in school, and another two or three doing homework. But you’ll be relieved to know that children do still play--on average, eight to 11 hours a week. They spend 12 to 13 hours a week watching television, or nowadays, playing computer games. This study reported children spending four to five hours a week playing team sports. All of this leaves precious little time for church--according to the survey, just an hour and a half a week.
But not to worry! I think I have found us some time. A substantial block of time we could use right here at Edgewood Church--time enough to teach our children all the books of the Bible, the shorter catechism and the longer catechism, plus some Hebrew and a little Greek. According to this highly regarded survey, cited by Newsweek, Time, and the Associated Press, our children are spending five to six hours a week doing household chores!
I say, ‘Free the children!’ Moses says, “Let my people go!” Wake up, says St. Paul, “the night is far gone, the day is near” we gotta get these kids in Sunday school! “Let us lay aside the works of darkness”--all the sweeping and mopping and vacuuming, washing those dirty dishes, plus the pots and pans. Free these boys and girls from doing all the laundry, and cutting the grass and raking the leaves. Lay aside the works of darkness, dear parents, and let your sweet cherubs “put on the armor of light!” Bring them to Sunday school!
Bring them here to learn a new song to the Lord. To sing God’s praise in the assembly of the faithful. “Let Israel be glad in its Maker,” advises today’s psalm; “let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.”
And why would we want our children to sing praises to God? It is not because singing makes them so cute, so adorable here on the chancel steps, though that it does. It’s not because we know that a singing faith is a living faith, though that it is. Rather, we want our children to sing praises to God in defiance of all the false gods seeking to enslave them. Enslave them to our debt-ridden, consumer culture; enslave them to sex, drugs, and alcohol; enslave them to excessive work or irresponsible play.
You see, our ancient Hebrew ancestors have been there and done that, more than once. They know what it is to be exploited, to be taken advantage of. They know what it is to succumb to the allures of shinning steel and glittering gold. Here is their first line of defense, laid out clearly in today’s responsive reading. In Psalm 149 Israel pledges its ultimate loyalty, it’s ultimate allegiance--come what may-- to Holy God:
4 For God takes pleasure in God’s people;
the Lord adorns the humble with victory.
5 Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy . . . .
Even in a foreign land, even under the foot of the oppressor, Israel will sing God’s praises. But that is not all. There is a sharp, sharp turn in verse six of this poem-- the kind of turn we can spot in the close study of Sunday school. Verse six begins, “Let the high praises of God be in their throats . . . .” But then Psalm 149 turns . . .
(let) two-edged swords (be) in their hands,
7 to execute vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with fetters
and their nobles with chains of iron . . . .
In other words, we’re not going to take it lying down. Here is divine authorization for us and for our children to stand up and challenge those powers bent on the exploitation of God’s people, those forces determined to oppress the poor, to enslave the children, to perpetrate cruel injustices on “the least of these our sisters and brothers.”
Just goes to show you, Sunday school is not for sissies. not for the faint of heart. Psalm 149 concludes with the assertion that our “adornment”--our ‘crowning glory’--is the exercise of human responsibility in the fight against injustice and oppression.
Like I said at the beginning, a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing and I want our children to have that knowledge! Our children and their parents, and their Christian sisters and brothers. I want you to have the sacred knowledge that God empowers you to stand up to injustice, to challenge inequities, to combat cruelty and crime wherever you find it. We begin the fight not by taking up weapons but by raising our voices:
1 Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
divine praise in the assembly of the faithful.