Revd Chris Moody's final sermon at St Alfege Church   Education Sunday 23 June 2019 

I am very fond of a saying of Jesus which is only found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 13, verse 52:

‘Therefore any teacher who has been trained in the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his storehouse what is new and what is old’

I imagine the householder to be like an old fashioned shopkeeper who when a customer asks for something unusual is able to say ‘I think I know what you want and I’m sure I have it somewhere’, and then goes back into his storeroom and picks out something which he may not have seen for years but knows is there. He brings it out to the customer and says ‘Is this what you are looking for? And if it isn’t he goes back into the storeroom and looks again until the customer’s face lights up and she says ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I want’ and takes it home and puts it to good use.

I think that’s a wonderful picture of what education is all about- having a great storehouse of knowledge, some of it old, tried and tested, and some of it new, which you might be trying out for yourself for the first time and getting used to. The important thing is the depth and variety of the stock that the shopkeeper has in his store, and the care he takes in meeting the needs of the customer. So it is with a teacher- especially one trained in the kingdom of heaven trying to get across the great truths of religion. A vague or surface knowledge of the stock of truth which is lying there waiting to be brought into the light won’t do. A glib ‘Sorry I can’t help you’ or an insistence that the customer must take what is best for her won’t do either. You have to spread your merchandise out humbly and hopefully and pray that your customer takes what is on offer.

That was the sort of teacher that Jesus was. He could be stern with those he regarded as hypocrites- the ones he described as making a parade of their own learning and importance, who did not want to go into the kingdom of heaven themselves but prevented others from doing so. But with those who really needed and desired his teacher he could be humble and gentle. As the gospel of Matthew says elsewhere a guttering candle he would not snuff out, nor a bruised reed would be break. ‘Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will receive rest for your souls’- a satisfied customer indeed! Who can imagine the depth of the mind and the heart of Jesus, the Christ? And yet he crumbled his teaching into parables so that those who really wanted to understand could do so.

Education is a marvellous thing and closely associated with the kingdom of heaven. The saying I started with comes at the end of a series of short parables about the kingdom of heaven: it is a treasure hidden in a field that it is worth selling everything else to get; it is a pearl of great price; it is a great net to catch everything in and sort out the good from the bad.

I myself have benefited enormously from education. I grew up in the decades after the Butler Education Act of 1944 and went first of all to one of the old South London Board schools like James Wolfe or meridian in our own parish. I never worried at any time whether I was getting the best education or not. I took it for granted. Yes there was the 11+ at the end of it, but passing tests was not the thing that dominated my learning. I was allowed to be interested in things for their own sake by teachers who were prepared to make space for my own desires and curiosity. And if these interests could not be satisfied sufficiently at school then there was the public library and, of course, the church. I know that our teachers are as dedicated, if not more so, today. But in the general direction from the powers-that-be there does not seem to be the same degree of freedom and belief in learning  for its own sake.

Because once you have an education you have a storehouse full of treasure old and new, and you can go on drawing on it for the rest of your life. It is like a magic chest in a fairy tale which, when you open it, continues to offer up new truths, new insights and connections which you never would have imagined before. The important thing is that you should go on learning. Love is the motivating force for this search: the love of truth, the love of others, and the willingness to be of service to the truth and to others. So, in the words of a favourite poem of mine by Edwin Muir, which I have quoted to you before many times, this time from the second verse:

Then let us empty out
Our hearts until we find
The last least trifling toy,
Since now all turns to gold,
And everything we have
Is wealth of heart and mind
That squandered thus in turn
Grows with us manifold.    (From Edwin Muir: The Annunciation)