Study: A Way to Know God
This Talk was given at Cornell University in 2018.
How is Jesus Christ relevant to an Ivy League Education?
Aristotle said, “ALL men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of sight. For not only with a view to action, but even when we are not going to do anything, we prefer seeing (one might say) to everything else. The reason is that this, most of all the senses, makes us know and brings to light many differences between things.”
You are in a stage and place in life where the desire to know and to discover is elevated about as highly as it can be. Despite the critique it gets in your newspapers and student journals, the words of Ezra Cornell “I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study…” Gets at this fundamental human desire. Much of the critique of this motto is not a criticism of the pursuit of knowledge and instruction, but to its scope. “What does ‘any person’ and ‘any study’ really mean?” So, the disciplined pursuit of knowledge is a profound good. We don’t argue about that.
We also don’t argue that getting a college education transforms us in more ways than one. By getting a college education you are joining an elite global community, a community that is entrusted with the levers of cultural leadership, environmental stewardship, economic development, technological advancement, and political stability. By getting an elite college education, you are choosing to identify with the leading edge of this incredibly privileged community.
So, what difference does Jesus Christ make? I will make the case briefly that Jesus makes 3 significant differences to our identity as students. These three differences are; perspective, practice, and purpose.
Perspective: Because Christ Transforms my Identity, I Study.
Did you know that study has been a central component of the Christian movement from it’s very beginning? Luke’s gospel, begins this way "Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, 2just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, 3I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first,* to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.”
Luke’s gospel begins by describing the careful investigation and ordering of information that is both the heart and fruit of scholarship. Why? Because the Christian gospel is not a corpus of religious ideas or a set of virtuous actions, it is an announcement of something that happened in history. Jesus of Nazareth lived a life of significance, taught the Hebrew scriptures in a way no other man had ever dared, demonstrated in word and action that Israel’s God was keeping the promises of the Law and Prophets, healed those who were sick and suffering, died a horrific death with political and theological significance, and rose from death 3 days later igniting a radical transformation of the Jewish worldview and ultimately the world.
Christian faith emphasizes study because this gospel is an event that must be understood if it is to be lived out. Christian faith emphasizes study because at its heart are claims about the nature of reality, human identity, relationships, ethics, and meaning. No worldview can truly be called Christian that doesn’t thoroughly embrace the desire to know, to study, to investigate, and to discover.
Because Christ Transforms my Identity, I study. Every field of study matters to God. Every area of life cries out to be understood.
An identity transformed by Christ will bring a unique perspective into practice of study. We will study not just to acquire knowledge, skills, or technical proficiency. We will study as a way of loving God with our minds. Rather than seeing our academic pursuits in a secular or personal category over here, and our Christian life in a separate category over here, a truly Christian perspective will see all of life as a context within which to know and love God, God’s world, and God’s people.
For example, my friend Keegan studied fine arts and photography at Columbia University. Her work was highly criticized by her professors during her senior year because it lacked the deconstructionist and boundary blurring elements that the studio associated with disciplined and educated application of her craft. Keegan took the criticism seriously, reflected on it, and went back to her professors and told them, with convicted humility, that they hadn’t understood her work. She explained her deep knowledge of the kinds of work that they were doing, while simultaneously making a case for a work that explored personhood through portraiture. She won over her professors and ultimately graduated with honors in the program. Keegan’s Christ centered perspective enabled her to see and work differently.
Practice: Because Christ Transforms my Identity, I Study.
Not everything about study and about being a student is glorious and God honoring. A Christ transformed identity gives us perspective through which we unleash our natural desire to know. A Christ transformed identity enables us to study as a way of knowing God, loving God, and serving our neighbor. But… without a different set of practices study will quickly become filled with anxiety, anger, and avoidance. Do any of you experience any of these in your life as a student?
Anxiety is rampant on campuses like Cornell. It’s a great irony that a campus community full of bright students, resourced with every imaginable support structure, is also plagued by anxiety and fear. The fear of failure. The fear of not measuring up. The fear of what your professor or classmates think of your work. These fears drive students to resent study, to avoid it, or to come to it with great stress.
Dallas Willard, one of the smartest and most godly men of the last century, counseled John Ortberg while John was working at this big, dynamic, and incredibly busy church in Chicago. John called Dallas and asked him for spiritual advice. “How,” John asked, “would you advise me to make sure I’m living the life God wants me to live in the midst of the demands of ministry?” Dallas thought about it for a minute and then said, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” And then he stopped talking. Meanwhile John was on the other end of the phone waiting…growing increasingly frustrated, anxious, and distracted because this call was taking a long time… and John had stuff to do… “Is that it?” John asked frustrated, revealing as he just how important it was that he slow down and eliminate hurry from his life.
I want to modify Dallas Willard’s words for Cornell students. Because a Christ transformed identity practices study differently, Christ transformed students ruthlessly eliminate anxiety from their life.
How can we do this? We seek to know God! (I confess I spend far too much time with godly, earnest, sincere, theologically sophisticated, and missional students who do not know God… not really… not in a way that reflects in their life the truth they might confess with their minds.)
If Jesus is king of kings and lord of lords, then you and I can trust him to provide for our needs. This is radically different then the dominant paradigm we live under. Many of us functionally believe, “If I don’t… it won’t. If I don’t work myself to the absolute bone… I will flunk out, fail, and bring shame on myself and my community.”
In contrast the Christian believes that Jesus has the ability and authority to provide us what we truly need.
How can we trust Jesus to provide for us? Because Jesus let go of his life in loving trust of his father, you and I can let go of our lives in loving trust of Jesus. You can give yourself to study without stress, resentment, or avoidance.
Here are some practices that will help you study without stress…
- Take sabbath every week! Too many of us seek the blessing of God while violating God’s command to stop, rest, delight, and be renewed one day per week. We can’t ignore God’s command to rest 1 day per week and expect God to bless our efforts.
- Have a study plan. Years ago I learned from John Stott to study 1 hour per day, 1 block per week, 1 day per month. A study plan bonds our study into a structure that allows us to make space for other things.
- Engage your study as Worship. As a follower of St. Dominic, study is built into the daily rhythm of our life with God. We study in the presence of God and call upon God’s help to learn what we can’t learn alone. This semester I’m teaching myself New Testament Greek. As I study in the presence of God, I find the Holy Spirit illuminating my mind, leading me to deeper understanding, causing me to grasp declension paradigms and recognize words.
Purpose: Because Christ Transforms my Identity I Study.
Let’s look at the passage from Luke 1 again.
Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, 2just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, 3I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first,* to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.”
A Christ transformed identity is set free to study so that others may know the truth. A consumer approach to study that seeks to gather information, skill, or opportunity for oneself is incompatible with a Christ transformed life. It doesn’t matter whether your studying marketing, engineering, or agriculture. A Christ transformed student learns for the sake of knowing and serving God by applying their knowledge in the service of others. Luke, a physician and companion of the apostle Paul, studied carefully so that others might know the truth. You have a similar opportunity.
As Aristotle said, “All men (people) have a desire to know…” But we will only ever know the pitiless and merciless, anxious and grasping way of death unless we are transformed. It’s only when we see the perspective of Jesus who did not count equality with God as something to be grasped, something to be exploited for his own pleasure, but emptied himself…for you. That we can begin to grasp his vision of a transformed life. This Jesus who took on the form of a slave, who came not to the institutions of cultural power, but to a poor couple in an oppressed community at the margins of the empire… This Jesus emptied himself, gave his life, hung naked and vulnerable on a cross.
Jesus did this so that your desire to know can be fulfilled through a lifetime of knowing God in a way that turns you out of yourself and makes you a blessing to others.
Because Jesus transforms my identity, I study. As you enter into this new semester, I pray that you would have your identity transformed by Jesus too! The Christian life, when understood, leads us to practices, perspectives, and purpose that will transform study, making it a transformative way to know God.