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Bulletin 137 Date : 24th Jun 2008
Un-learning

Some of you will no doubt be lapping up the tennis at Wimbledon over the next couple of weeks. If you’ve ever played tennis, you can only watch and marvel at Federer, Nadal and all the ‘ovic people from Serbia. Their technique and agility is in a class of its own. But how did they learn to do that?

If, like me, you took up a racket sport later in life, coaching from a top professional will have a limited effect. I spent several weeks some years ago having squash lessons but found that when I tried to apply these lessons to a real game, I invariably defaulted back to my previous technique which was riddled with errors. Without the correct coaching from day one, we develop our own technique and it is never the correct one. So I spent a great deal of time, after my lessons having to un-learn my old technique before the new technique could take over.

It’s not only in sport where we have to un-learn wrong ways. Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount illustrated how the people of his time needed to un-learn what they had grown up with before they could become part of the Kingdom of Heaven. “You have heard it said…” was repeated by Jesus several times (Matthew 5:21, 5:27, 5:31, 5:33, 5:38, 5:43). But how difficult is it to un-learn deep-seated habits in order to adopt the standards of the Kingdom? How difficult is it to break free from our desire to retaliate when attacked, to look down on foreigners because they are different, to tell white lies in order to save face and so forth?

It’s the same in church life too. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself how many ‘bad habits’ you have picked up over the years of coming to church? Do you always sit in the same pew or seat each week rather than worshipping with someone you don’t know so well? Do you always slip into un-spiritual conversations over coffee rather than discussing the sermon or asking after a friend’s spiritual well-being?

There was a young girl named Mary. Every Sunday, Mary would watch her mother preparing Sunday lunch. Each Sunday, mum would cut a piece of meat off one end of the joint, then another piece off the other end before wrapping the meat in foil and placing it in the oven. One day Mary asked her mother, “Mummy, why do you cut a piece of meat off each end of the joint before putting it in the oven?”

“I don’t really know”, replied her mother, “my mother used to do this so I do it too.”

Next week Mary was at Grandma’s house and watched Grandma preparing the Sunday joint. She too cut a piece of meat off each end of the joint before placing it in the over. “Grandma, why do you cut a piece off each end of the joint before putting it in the oven?” asked Mary. Grandma replied, “I don’t really know. My mother used to do this and so I do it too.”

Next week Mary was at great-Grandma’s house. Great-Grandma was sitting in the lounge as dinner was being prepared and so Mary sat with her. Then Mary plucked up courage and asked, “Great-Grandma, did you use to cut a piece of meat off each end of the joint before you put it in the oven?”

“Oh yes”, replied great-Grandma.

Mary’s heart began to pound as she sensed that she was about to uncover the answer to a great mystery. “Why did you do that?” she ventured.

“Oh that’s easy,” said great-Grandma, “I only had a small oven and if I didn’t cut the ends off, the joint wouldn’t fit in.”

So, has tradition been a blessing or hindrance to your Christian life and Church life? Are there things which you need to un-learn before you can grow into a more effective disciple or a seeker-friendly church? Perhaps a few moments reflecting upon Philippians 3:12-14 will help to start the un-learning process.