Something along those lines, “You can’t learn what you don’t already know,” was one point of an E. P. Sanders retrospective on his teaching career. (Anybody have the link for that? It was a talk he gave at Duke a year or so ago.)
I discovered afresh this weekend that this is absolutely true. We hear what we think we are going to hear. Especially when we’re listening to something we think we already know about.
Have you ever been in a situation where you thought someone was going to say one thing, but said something else? And have you ever then not been able to recall what they actually did say because you remember your own expectation more vividly?
I spoke this weekend to a college group about the resurrection of Jesus. Among the implications of “new creation” that I outlined was that God’s work of redemption occurs not just with respect to individuals but also with respect to communities and also then with respect to the whole created order (natural, social, etc.).
Or, if you won’t take my word for it, “He comes to make his blessings known far as the curse is found,” where “far as” entails everything, starting with the dirt and going on up to God.
Folks were with me, tracking, not watching too many of the passers by on the beach (yeah right)… But then I sent them to talk for a few minutes in small groups about these questions:
- Where is there “darkness” or “curse” or “fallenness” in the corners of the world you inhabit?
- What would new life look like in such a situation?
- How might you [in a cross-shaped way?] be an agent of that new life?
Interestingly, every response I got was looking at the larger setting of the world, or the felt needs, as means to the end of bringing about the conversion of another individual. The corporate and cosmic potential of new creation in the resurrected Christ fell entirely on deaf ears.
What does this mean?
For one thing, it reawakened me to the need to keep working for a transformed idea of what “gospel” means among the evangelicals with whom I run. It’s not just about personal conversion and forgiveness of sins so that I’m in a right relationship with God. It’s also about feeding, healing, restoring so that the world experiences rectification.
For another, it reinforced the fact that teaching and learning are hard work. Maybe this is why teaching is the best kind of learning…
This should be read by anyone who tries to communicate new ideas to others. If you aren’t aware of the pre-conditioning of your audience, they may not be hearing what you think you’re teaching them.
Thanks – nice photo!
Would you be able to do a post (or link me – you’ve probably done one already), where you talk about this creation-restoring angle of the resurrection of Christ?
Particularly, my question would be yes – Christ’s resurrection is cosmic in scope, and will ultimately bring about the redemption of creation, but why is it something we, as those in Christ, do now? Are we agents of this creation-restoration in any way other than by being Christ’s ambassadors?
I have a similar experience when I teach in the (smaller) theological colleges here in Australia. It’s quite frustrating. But you’re right, I just have to be patient and keep working on it.
(Thank you for your blog, by the way. I am learning heaps from you. And I really like your book, Unlocking Romans.)
Thanks for the kind words, Siufing.
Perhaps part of the answer is being more clear about where what we’re saying contrasts with what they’re thinking. That, of course, entails knowing what they’re likely bringing through the door with them!
Sam,
I think that I deal with some of it in my recent CT article, “A Resurrection that Matters”.
My theological grid for understanding salvation is one of grabbing hold of the future and bringing it to bear on the present. Inaugurated eschatology is the reason we can say we’re justified, adopted, sanctified, glorified, God’s children, etc.
That individualized realization of the future is part of a corporate inauguration of our future identity as God’s people. If the future is people from every nation, tribe, and tongue bowing down before God and the Lamb, the present is to be a foretaste where “we all together, with one voice, glorify the God and father” (Romans 15).
From individual to corporate, I think we are right to take the next step to “cosmic”. “If anyone is in Christ–new creation! The old things have gone away. Behold! New things have come.” In his book, When the Kings Come Marching In, Rich Mouw has a section entitled, “What are the ships of Tarshish doing here?” He points out how in both Isaiah and Revelation the final pictures of God being glorified in the Holy City include things we would have assumed to have been destroyed in the earlier purifying purges.
But somehow, the kings of the earth bring the glory of the nations in. What glory might the nations have that is pure and undefiled and therefore worthy to be brought into the Holy City? Somehow, the realm of redemption extends beyond the persons and people of God.
Or, if you prefer the theology of Gladiator, “What you do here will echo through the halls of eternity!”
Thanks Daniel, that’s very clear. I certainly appreciate the “appropriating the future now aspects of redemption” for the persons and people of God – I’ll have to think about the cosmic category! Initial suggestion would be that perhaps the only category is the redemption of the people of God; the others are implications of that central redemption?
Hmmm… I might say that the only category is new creation, one that is inaugurated with the creation of a new humanity in the resurrected Christ. But it might just be that they all come together and you can’t have one without the other.
I have had similar experiences when working with people at my church. I think the natural human reaction, when we hear something different, is to try and relate it to something we already know or are familiar with it. So what ends up happening is that what is familiar is the grid through which the new stuff is heard, which makes it not being so different. I guess we got to know our audience. We got to guess what they will latch onto and then try and get them not to do it.