I’m amazed that I’m doing this. I’m actually going to preach a sermon based on my dissertation topic. Kitty and I have the running question: Can Joel explain his dissertation topic before people get the glassy far-away glazed-over look in their eye. Usually the answer is, “Not quite.” And here I am using my dissertation topic for a sermon. But it does make sense. Really! We’re looking at our core values and rethinking church. Today we want to talk about our second value: learning. Part of our Christian discipleship is an emphasis on Christian education. My dissertation deals with the primary biblical verse that has been interpreted as a call to “Learn everything you can from anyone you can!”

One of the primary questions the church has struggled with is this: what is the proper relationship between the knowledge we have as Christians (biblical/theological knowledge) and all other learning? Should Christians restrict their area of learning interest to the Bible and Theology or can Christians read Plato? Plato was a pagan but Christians really liked his worldview – the world of eternal forms made sense from within the Christian worldview. Can Christians read Stoic ethics? When you read Seneca, he seems so Christian! His values and norms, while not agreeable in all regards, seem to be a wonderful buttress to our Christian values. Now the thought of the Epicureans (who didn’t believe in providence and believed that pleasure was the ultimate good!) were not to be taught in a Christian school. But should Christian kids read Plato? Can they read the tragedians? Can they read the epics of Homer? What is Christian education? Is it only knowing the Bible, or does Christian education include learning from those whose worldview is not Christian? In the classical categories of the great theologian Richard Niebuhr, this is the Christ/culture question.

You are undoubtedly wondering what “plundering Egypt” has to do with Christian education. I’m so glad you asked. The interpretation here is what is called an allegory, which literally means, “To speak about something else.” To allegorize a story is to say, “It has a literal meaning which is obvious. But this story has a deeper spiritual meaning which is not obvious but mystical and spiritual.” Allegorical textual interpretation was common in the Greco-Roman world, particularly with Stoic philosophers. Stoics had very high moral values of self-discipline etc. and they also had problems reading their own literature – the Iliad is full of needless violence, sexual promiscuity, etc. etc. It isn’t good for the morals of children. So we read into the poetry of Homer very high ideals. When Paris fell in love and ran away with Helen, the beautiful wife of Menelaus, this is really speaking of the soul’s love of beauty and truth. This is the true meaning of Homer, according to the allegorist. This was very controversial in Greco-Roman education. Many believed one should “Read Homer by Homer.” In other words, let Homer’s poetry explain itself - it’s a story about love and war pure and simple. But the Stoics said, “No, it speaks about spiritual and ethical realities on an allegorical level.”

Similar forms of Biblical interpretation were common in the early church. Frankly, there are lots of problem passages especially in the Old Testament. I’m sure you’ve puzzled over them yourself. I had a professor in seminary say, “The first four centuries of Christian Biblical Interpretation were primarily based on allegory. Deal with it!” It seems to counter-intuitive to us – we want to interpret in a more historical fashion. Yet, allegorical interpretation can be very helpful under certain circumstances – and some Biblical scholars and theologians have been increasingly interested in it. It isn’t as silly as it may first appear. So the interpretation I’m taking of this passage is allegorical – in line with the great interpretive traditions of the church.

So what is the biblical narrative? This notation in Exodus of the plundering of Egypt is deeply ingrained in the broader story. In Chapter twelve we read in verses 35-36, The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. ³⁶ The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.

Plundering Egypt – doesn’t sound very pretty. The Egyptians don’t seem to know the Hebrews are leaving for good! They loaned them their treasures for a three-day journey and the Hebrews took off with borrowed Egyptian treasures. God commanded them to do this? Sounds a bit questionable! Well, this didn’t happen because they were deceitful or involved in fraud. No, it occurred because God wanted to teach us that we, like the Hebrews of old, are likewise to take those things which we deem to be truly valuable from our surrounding, and put them to good use. For instance, one might surmise that the Hebrews used these treasures to build the wilderness tabernacle – which required much gold, silver and material. Where did the ex-slaves get these materials? From the gold and riches plundered from Egypt.

The purpose of the text is to teach us about a spiritual principle – it is an allegory of the relationship we should have to our environment. Should Christians read non-Christian literature and learn from sources that have no immediate Christian value? Many early Christians said, “Yes, only read Bible and theology!” But this was clearly the minority position. Christians made full use of the texts of the ancient world in spirit of the great moral problems and theological challenge of reading literature that was in noway Christian. Early Christians sought to reject any form of isolationism – any Taliban forms of Christianity.

It is a historical fact that most of the classical texts which exists today were written in a Christian context, often by Christian hands. Monks transcribed Plato etc. Christians read rhetoric and philosophy and often were leading philosophers of their day. In many cases, Christian philosopher/teachers would draw pagan students because their renown and expertise. If Christians were not reading pagan texts, most of them would have been lost. We have classical literature today because Christians were reading it. Very little of it is so ancient (as far as texts which survived for modern study) predates the Christian period. Why were Christians reading these texts and allowing their children to read Euripides, Ovid, Cicero, Homer, Catullus, etc. (pagan writers all!). They were plundering Egypt! This was the primary biblical warrant for Christian education which did not exclude pagan sources.

The church chose not to burn books of pagan writers. This almost never happened and when it did, it was Christian heresy that was typically burned, not pagan writing. If you think of early Christians burning pagan texts, you have the exact wrong impression. They read pagan writers with gusto, and the primary biblical text used to warrant this was “We’re plundering Egypt! We’ll use this learning to build a tabernacle for the Lord. This is valuable to us as Christian thinkers and citizens! It isn’t trash but treasure!

It was possible, according to most Christian thinkers, to be overly friendly with pagan writers. Many Christians thought the Gnostics, an early Christian heresy I’ve mentioned before, had their problem primarily from basing their theology primarily in philosophy and using some Christian ideas only secondarily. The Bible is our primary book and it is its narrative which guides our lives. But because we are people of the book does not mean we only read that book.

To plunder Egypt means not that we simply accommodate whatever is said by non-Christian writers. It does not mean that we reject it in toto. It means that we choose, appreciate, accept, but also subordinate. The Christian worldview as it is shaped by our interpretation of the scriptures lies at the basis of our thought. This is the lens through which we interpret the world. But it is a good working perspective which allows the Christian to engage the broader world and seek to understand it as God’s world filled with God’s beauty and God’s truth. So Christian education is a combination of acceptance of non-Christian ideas but an insistence on subordination of all truth to the greater perspective of faith.

Again, this topic relates to our Methodist history intimately. Albert Outler, perhaps the most well-respected United Methodist theologian in the 20^th Century, identifies "Plundering the Egyptians" as a fundamental value in United Methodist theology which originates in the founder of the church, John Wesley. Wesley quoted regularly from the classics although these were rarely exact or identified. Outler and his staff identified hundreds of quotes in Wesley from classical literature (pagan literature!!) sometimes as mere decoration but often in support. "His preaching and teaching offered both the gospel and a liberal education, as an integrated experience, to the common people who heard him gladly."[1][1]

Wesley was a plundering of contemporary culture also and, as Outler claims, he was keenly interested in the scientific advancements of his age. These truths, Wesley believed, would reveal, to the eyes of faith, the wisdom of the creator. He was an avid reader of the great popularizers of science of his day and supposes throughout that science not only could be appropriated through faith but that it illuminated the very glory of God. Wesley shows himself as a man who grappled with the problem presented by the secularism of his day.

He (like St. Augustine and Origen – great Christian thinkers of the early church) sought to appreciate the treasures of human culture and to appropriate them to a credible Christian theology without forfeiting its own integrity. Wesley plundered the Egyptians and challenged his preachers to do likewise. The well-furnished minister, Wesley wrote in his 1756 An Address to the Clergy, must, besides his knowledge of scripture (preferably in the original tongues), have a good memory, and be competent in history, sciences, metaphysics, natural philosophy, history of Christian thought and devotion, and a knowledge of the world.[2][2] Remember, Wesley was an academic – an Oxford professor – before he became an evangelist. He never left Oxford too far behind.

In our stain glass windows, we commemorate the memory of a man who is as wonderful an example of pious learning as any I can imagine. His name is Daniel Stevenson. For many years, according to Union College history, he fought vigorously for an educated ministry and was opposed by a strong group which believed that consecration to God’s service enabled anyone to preach. He first tried to do this by reviving the old Augusta College near Maysville Kentucky, and then, when funding failed to be forthcoming, was instrumental in the Kentucky Conference’s procurement of Union College in 1887. A Della Rankin wrote this about Daniel Stevenson (p. 36).

I believe that a curiosity about the world is a part of my Christian discipleship. God made this place and all truth is ultimately learning what God already knows to be true. Curiosity is a fundamental expression of Christian discipleship. Let me describe for you two very disturbing realities I find. They boil down to fear and apathy. Fear first: often dedicated Christians have a certain discomfort with education. It is almost as if they fear that if they are challenged to really think about their faith, they will get talked out of it or discover that the atheists are right after all. They fear that they will discover their faith to be fundamentally illogical and irrational. Look: the atheists are not right. We can relax and go to class.

On the other hand, the tremendous apathy that seems to be pervasive I find shocking. Why are we not more curious learners? Are you curious to discover your world? I believe that being a Christian makes you curious because it places value in learning. Learning is no longer simply academic but an attempt to think God’s thoughts after him and to plunder the riches of Egypt for the kingdom of God.

I want to challenge you in this regard. I want to do so on two fronts; Christian education and education generally. Challenge yourself theologically and biblically. Read books that will help you build your understanding of Christian faith. If you haven’t read Mere Christianity by CS Lewis, do not walk but run to your computer and order it today! Read an Introduction to the New Testament so you understand sacred texts more intimately. Read books that do more than challenge you devotionally but books which challenge you intellectually as a Christian. Secondly, be learning, be reading, be studying! Take a class in history or anthropology or English literature. Be expanding the world of your mind. Plunder Egypt for all it is worth.

But sometimes I am amazed at what a poor job we are doing in teaching the Bible. How committed are you in being a student of the Bible? I want to challenge you about this. Have you ever read the Bible through in a year? If I asked you, “Where in the Bible would I go to read stories about King David,” would you know where to look? I would be very interested in teaching a seminary-level class in Old Testament in next year. I would love to find – say 10 people – who would commit to really studying in a seminary level Pentateuch class this spring. Let me know if you would be interested. But in any case, choose today to be a life-long learner – and to think as a Christian. Be reading things that expand your world and your faith. The Church of Jesus Christ has affirmed that Christian discipleship should impel us into the world of broader knowledge - and that all learning can become an act of worship. Plunder Egypt!

[1][1] Albert Outler, Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 1975) 6.

[2][2] Ibid., 21-22.