Faith and Lifelong Learning

August 23, 2026 homily on Psalm 78:1–7; Luke 2:41-52; 2 Timothy 3:14–17 by Pastor Galen

“…We will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done” – Psalm 78:4b.

Following My Brother

One of my earliest memories as a child was watching my older brother put on his backpack and head out the door to go to school. I was too young to go to school, but I used to pretend that I was a “school boy” as well. I would put on my own backpack and pretend to get on the school bus to go off to school.

My brother was an inspiration to me when it came to school. The school we attended went all the way from kindergarten through twelfth grade, so we attended the same grade school and high school, and seeing how seriously he engaged in his studies inspired me to take my studies seriously as well. Eventually, he came to Baltimore to go to college, and I ended up in Baltimore for college as well.

I doubt that, during our growing-up years, my brother ever thought to himself, “I need to take my studies seriously because my little brother is watching.” He simply loved learning— in particular he loved reading. And although I was much more inclined toward doing things outside and working with my hands, he inspired me to take my studies seriously.

Psalm 78

In Psalm 78, the psalmist declares, “Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth…things we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us” (Psalm 78:1, 3). The psalmist goes on to talk about telling the next generation of “the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders he has done…that the next generation might know them, and the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the words of God, but keep his commandments” (Psalm 78:4, 6–7).

Here the psalmist uses words such as teaching and telling, emphasizing the importance of passing on what we’ve learned to the next generation.

Of course, we do this through our words: instructing the next generation about how to honor God, telling them what is right and what is wrong, and sharing with them the stories of how God has worked in our own lives so that they too can learn to see, know, and experience God for themselves. But knowing that the next generation is learning just as much, if not more, from watching our lives as from what we say, it is even more important for them to see that faith matters to us.

As a child, I have vivid memories of walking down the stairs and seeing my father sitting in the recliner in our living room, reading his Bible. Yes, my father frequently taught Sunday school at church and gave devotions (short talks at church), and when I was older, he became a preacher. But even more than the things he said out loud, seeing him reading his Bible in the mornings spoke volumes to me about the importance of faith and lifelong learning and growth in our relationship with God.

Continual Learning

A number of years ago, when I was a young adult, I remember having a conversation with some of the other young adults at our church about Sunday school. One of the young adults said something that will always stick with me. He pointed out that, growing up in church and attending Sunday school, every few years you would move up to a different class. There was this idea of progression, of learning more and more about God, and that the older you got, the more you would learn and the deeper you would grow in your faith.

“But then,” he said, “you get to be an adult, and you’re just in the adult Sunday school class until you die.”

The insinuation, at least from what I gathered, was that once you get to the adult Sunday school class, there’s no more progression. You’re going to be stuck in a loop, learning the same things over and over again. In fact, he even made a comment to the effect of, “We’ve already heard all of these stories from the time we were little.”

But Psalm 78 presents us with a much more vibrant, dynamic picture of learning and growing. Because if anyone here has ever taught someone something, you know that often we learn as much from the people we are seeking to teach. When we tell the next generation of the deeds of the Lord and “utter dark sayings from of old” (Psalm 78:2), you can bet that they are going to have questions! And those questions are going to cause us to think more deeply about what we’ve seen, heard, and believed. Even the preparation necessary for teaching others often causes us to engage and think more deeply.

Jesus at the Temple

And this is where the story of Jesus going to the temple at the age of twelve fits in. Jesus is, of course, our inspiration for everything, this story even gives us a picture of Jesus growing in wisdom. Jesus shows us who God is, and he also shows us who we are called to be. When we see Jesus at the temple, “listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46), it should inspire us to want to continue learning and growing. 

But I’m also struck by the phrase that “all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:47). Right before this, Luke tells us that Jesus had been listening to them and asking them questions. Now Luke tells us that all who heard him were amazed at his answers.

This speaks to the power of God revealed through Jesus, and also to the way in which God is always at work when we seek to pass on what we’ve learned to the next generation. Their questions and their answers often inspire us toward greater faith and deeper understanding. When we teach others, it brings all of the knowledge and experience we’ve gained to the surface.

Continue in What You’ve Learned

And this idea of continuing to learn doesn’t end with childhood. In our reading from 

2 Timothy, Paul tells Timothy, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed” (2 Timothy 3:14). He reminds Timothy that “from childhood” he has known the sacred writings (2 Timothy 3:15). Timothy has been learning these things for most of his life, and yet Paul still tells him to continue in what he has learned.

I think that word “continue” is important. Our knowledge and understanding of God can continue to deepen throughout our lives. Even when we’ve heard a Bible story many times before, there may still be something new for us to discover, especially as we encounter Scripture at different stages of our lives and through different experiences.

And sometimes one of the best ways to deepen our own understanding is to prepare to pass what we know along to someone else.

Preparing the Next Generation

Recently, my boss at the seminary where I work asked me to write down everything I do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. The idea was that I could have something concrete to pass along to the next person who fills my position whenever it comes time for me to move on to a new job. And so I started to do just that, developing a training manual for the next Director of Admissions & Communications at the seminary.

I started with my job description, which was one page long, and then began to flesh out exactly how to do everything that needs to be done to accomplish those tasks. This is still a work in progress, but would you believe that it’s already up to a 40-page document?

Documenting everything that I do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis also helped me become more organized. Thinking about how I would hand things off to a future successor helped me realize that there were certain things I could streamline and get more firmly in place now, which will help a future successor as well as me and my coworkers now. Teaching, and even preparing to teach someone else how to do my job, helped me become more effective in my current role.

And the same is true when it comes to faith. If we ever feel stuck in a loop or at a place of stagnation, one way we may begin to move beyond that feeling is by sharing with others what we’ve learned, seen, and experienced of God, especially someone who is younger or newer to the faith.

Writing our Stories

Maybe you’re not in a place where you can teach or instruct the next generation. Maybe you don’t have the opportunity, or maybe they just don’t seem interested in hearing. May I remind us that there are many ways to pass along the things we’ve learned, and they don’t always have to involve teaching a Sunday school class.

Recently, I received a phone call from an older gentleman who was interested in taking classes at the seminary. During the phone call, he mentioned that he is in the process of writing his autobiography. He joked that he doesn’t think anyone will ever read it. He’s not even sure that he’s going to try to get it published, but he said that writing his story has been helpful to him, and during our conversation I course sense that to be true.  I’ve spoken with him by phone in the past, and often he had something to complain about. But during this conversation, he seemed much more positive, much more at peace, and much more filled with gratitude and joy.

Perhaps there are some of you here today who may want to write your own memoir of how God has worked in your life. Even if you’re not a writer, you could ask someone else if they would be willing to write down your story as you dictate it to them. With technology and speech-to-text capabilities, you could even speak your story and let your phone type it out for you! Certainly, this is one of the many ways that we could instruct the next generation, including “children yet unborn” (Psalm 78:6), teaching them to hope in the Lord.

Lifelong Learning

This week, as I’ve been reflecting on what it was like as a little boy watching my older brother put on his backpack and head off to school, I’m reminded that there is no age when learning needs to stop. There is always more we can learn and more room for us to grow, particularly when it comes to our faith in God. 

The truth is that, although there are certainly some Bible stories that are more popular than others, I’m sure there are stories in the Bible that we’ve never heard. And even if we have heard them, there are different ways to think about them and new things we can learn from them. Teaching others and fielding their questions is certainly one way we can be encouraged to think more deeply. Writing down our own stories or recording our memoirs is another way. Reading our Bible on a daily basis, or reading Our Daily Bread or The Upper Room devotional and asking God to open our eyes to new insights, can also help us continue to grow. And there are many other ways as well.

Blessing the Backpacks

My prayer this morning, as we pray for and bless the backpacks of our students, teachers, and administrators in a few minutes, is that all of us would recommit ourselves to lifelong learning. And that’s one reason why this year, instead of making backpack blessing tags, we’ve made keychains. This is something that all of us can take with us wherever we go, whether you have a backpack or a briefcase, or a ring of keys. The keychains are inspired by Psalm 121:8, which says, “The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore” (Psalm 121:8).

Our prayer is that you would experience God’s blessing over you wherever your journey takes you, whether to school, to work, or simply through the routines of everyday life. Wherever we go, there is always something more we can learn and more room for us to grow in our knowledge and experience of the Lord.

So this morning, may we recommit ourselves to being lifelong learners and to teaching and inspiring the next generation, through our words and our actions, to put their hope and trust in the Lord. Whether you pick up a backpack or a briefcase, or whether you are officially retired from work, know that there is always more we can learn and more room for us to grow. And as we seek to inspire others, may we too be inspired.

Amen!

Questions for Personal Reflection:

1. Who is someone whose example helped shape the way you think about faith, learning, or life?
2. What are younger people learning from the way you live out your faith?
3. What is one story of God’s faithfulness in your life that you would want to pass on to the next generation?
4. What does it mean for you personally to “continue in what you have learned” (2 Timothy 3:14)?
5. Where do you most hope to grow in wisdom in the coming year?