This is my first week of sabbatical. This is a great gift that the congregation has given me to take some time to rest, retool, and refresh in order to get ready for the next part of my ministry. I am truly grateful for everyone who has stepped up to help make this possible.
One of the questions that has been on my mind has been “What am I going to learn?” That could be answered academically in terms of books and classes and such, but it could also be answered experientially in terms of how I’m going to feel. I told a few people already that I haven’t missed over 2 Sundays in a row of preaching in 17 years – that 3rd Sunday is going to come with some experiential learning for me.
But I think the question is a good one even if you’re not doing something new like I am. What do you learn while you’re at your job? What do you learn while you’re in your classes? What do you learn with your family? What do you learn when you’re with your friends? Those questions could also be answered academically and experientially.
When Jesus called people like Peter and John and Andrew, He used an existing term to name them. He called them “matheteis,” the Greek word that we translate “disciple”. This word can also be translated “learner”, “student”, or even “apprentice”. When Bartholomew and Philip followed Jesus, they learned – both academically and experientially. They learned His lessons, but they also learned what it meant to follow Him around Judea.
We get that same kind of learning in our discipleship. We follow others as they follow Jesus. We follow Jesus directly. We learn from those who go before us in the faith and we learn from Christ Himself in His Word and Sacrament. We learn in those things – both academically and experientially.
Sometimes I think that our tradition tends to emphasize the academic, which isn’t a bad thing, but it can be an incomplete thing if we disregard what Jesus is trying to teach us experientially. So as you go about your day and your week this week, remember to ask yourself, “what am I going to learn?” and remember that God is teaching you about Himself in both academic ways and experiential ways this week.