Pastor's Musings

Disciples of Christ

When Moses appeared before Pharaoh, demanding that the Egyptian god-king “let my people go,” he threw down his staff in Pharaoh’s face and it was miraculously transformed into a roiling, writhing serpent. Pretty impressive, right?

Well, some of the servants and royal attendants surely gasped in amazement. But one group of onlookers was completely bored. Who were they? The royal magicians. They snickered and summarily dismissed such a basic parlor trick.

Trained magicians — whether in the court of Ramses or onstage at some Las Vegas venue — are the last people to actually “believe” in magic, in miracles, or in any kind of paranormal mystery. Magicians know too much. They know “magic” is tricks and techniques, smoke and mirrors.

As each new plague swept over the land, it was explained away by Pharaoh’s all-knowing magician-advisors. After all, they knew everything there was to know about magic. Unfortunately for all of Egypt’s first-borns, they knew nothing about God.

In the first “Men In Black” movie, Will Smith (“J”) at first refuses to believe Tommy Lee Jones (“K”) that the earth is playing host to thousands of creatures from other planets. K dismisses J’s “knowledge”:

Fifteen hundred years ago everyone KNEW the world was the center of the universe, five hundred years ago everyone KNEW the earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago you KNEW we were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll KNOW tomorrow!

What do you really know?

If you’ve ever been involved in teaching, whether it is teaching history to a room full of bored eighth graders, or teaching dog obedience to a bunch of frisky pups and their masters, or teaching a Lenten Bible study, you quickly come to one conclusion: the more you endeavor to become learned, the more you define yourself a learner.

The more we “know,” the more embarrassingly obvious it becomes how much we have to learn…