Optimizing Flow In learning Systems

Teaching any discipline in a community college can be a frustrating experience.  Students often enter our classrooms without being prepared.  Basic reading, writing, math,and critical thinking skills are deficient.  Students have a hard time paying attention, doing assignments, or arriving for class on time.  Many present with a poor learning attitude.  Students are frequently stressed beyond their ability to cope, and thus present with a wide range of behavioral issues which disrupt the classroom environment.   While we have no lack of theoretical analyses and presentations of best practices, many instructors feel discouraged in the immediate reality of the classroom by a lack of practical guidance on how to teach students who are not ready or willing to learn.  This paper will provide a combination of practical advice and a theoretical/philosophical background to our present difficulties. 

Understanding cultural resistance

In his review of the most common difficulties facing students as they learn critical thinking skills, Stephen Brookfield defines cultural suicide as follows:  “Cultural suicide is what often happens to learners who are in the critical process and who are seen by those around them to be reinventing themselves. In cultural suicide, students perceive that if they take a critical questioning of conventional assumptions, justifications, structures, and actions too far they will risk being excluded from the culture that has defined and sustained them up to that point in their life. The perception of this danger, and experience of its actuality, is a common theme in community college students’ autobiographies. The student in a critical process who was formerly seen by friends and intimates as “one of us” may be seen as having betrayed, or left behind, his or her peers. The critical thinker is viewed as taking on airs and pretension, as growing “too big for her boots,” or as aspiring to the status of intellectual in contrast to her friends and colleagues who feel they are now perceived as less sophisticated creatures. The learner who has come to a critical awareness of what most people take for granted can pose a real threat to those who are not on a similar journey of self-discovery, or who do not see themselves as engaged in the same political or intellectual project. In the eyes of those left behind, the critically aware student is perceived as having “gone native,” or having become a full-fledged member of the tribal culture of academe.” [1]The heart of the matter here is that students will put up resistance to any changes which may force them to let go of the cultural biases and preconceptions by which the grand narrative[2] of their lives has been composed. 

From the perspectives of Religious Studies and Geography , we face a continual difficulties with the tension between the competencies required to live successfully in a postmodern global society, as opposed to the comfort obtained by the denial of modernity in favor of a return to a pre-modern, more tribalist world view.  In North Carolina, many students belong to a culture that distrusts education and seeks to use religion as a way of denying educational imperatives.  A strong culture group distrusts education and intellectualism in general.  In popular discourse this is often presented as the “conflict” between science and religion.  Historically this is represented in the conflict between creationism and evolution.  It is also evident in popular hot button topics such as stem cell research, issues pertaining to biotechnology, globalization, and diversity.  People who are motivated by a desire to return to a pre-modern world view often favor supernaturalism over rationalism and Biblical mandates over secular social realities.  This is not just an issue faced by educators in the “Bible Belt” Southeastern United States.  Religious fundamentalism is a global issue with obvious negative social outcomes.  Many of our students will not face the uncertainty of postmodern life, and will cling instead to a pre-modern religious grand narrative. 

Regardless of our discipline, effective education is a matter of inviting students to move forward into a new culture.  Any new culture brings with it new cultural imperatives, new stresses, and new rewards. 

The question of relevance

Relevance is required for learning to occur.  For us to learn effectively, we must perceive the subject matter at hand as deeply relevant.  Otherwise we will either ignore the subject entirely, or forget all about it after memorizing the required facts in order to receive a grade.  At the outset of any learning process, the instructor must establish the relevance of the subject matter to be presented.  One of the most frustrating conversations between students and instructors is; “Will this be on the test?”  “Test” for many students is the single criterion which determines relevance.  This paradigm of establishing relevance consistently breaks down because once we frame relevance in this way, all the student wants to know is what they must memorize in order to check off the right answer on the test.  To improve our effectiveness as educators we must become more effective communicators of relevance. 

In many classroom situations this task is accomplished by relationship building.  The message communicated is; “I care about this stuff deeply, therefore, you should also care.”  It is difficult to find success here because instructors and students do not usually belong to the same cultural demographics.   Therefore a relationship alone is seldom sufficient to communicate relevance. 

What is needed is a shift in consciousness.  According to R. Buckminster Fuller, consciousness is a system by which information is sorted and processed and data are either included or excluded from consideration according to relevance or irrelevance.[3]  Information is included or excluded from the system of consciousness because it is either too large, or too small.  Consciousness exists at a balance point between information that is too large and information that is too small to be adequately processed.  We determine that a question is relevant, and therefore worthy of our time, energy and consideration if it appears to be neither too large (macro-irrelevant) nor too small (micro-irrelevant).  This is how we arrive at a “consideration set”, or “workable problem,” or some other determination that a given issue is worth the time and effort of conscious thought.  We apply ourselves and our resources to those issues which fall perfectly between the extremes of macro and micro irrelevance.  The problem is that we frequently miss crucial information and fail to make critical decisions because our awareness is not properly tuned.  We exclude concepts, threats, and problems because we think they are either too small or too large to merit our concern.  Issues pertaining to global warming provide a good example here.  Many people wonder why we should be concerned about something that is so large.   Instructors are familiar with this struggle because we are either trying to get our students to pay attention to the conceptual “big picture,” or we are trying to get them to pay attention to crucial details. 

Trends toward increasing social and cognitive deficiencies and the need for barrier free learning environments

The general population of adult learners todayfaces a combination of difficulties whichwprk against success in a traditional higher educational context.  These deficiencies include but are not limited to: 

·         ADD/ADHD, and other attention disorders

·         Autism spectrum disorders

·         Other developmental disabilities and disorders resulting in a lower IQ

·         Substance abuse related cognitive difficulty

·         Stress related cognitive difficulty

·         Traumatic brain injury

·         Other physical, auditory, or visual impairment

·         Dementia and Alzheimer’s related disorders

·         Digital divides (Not able to use a computer) 

·         Economic/financial problems

This is only a partial list of potential barriers to student success an instructor might meet during any given semester.  The science of designing courses to transcend barriers is called Universal Design for Learning, or Universal Design for Instruction, (UDL/UDI.)[4]  The UDL/UDI educational movement developed from origins in the field of architecture where builders learned that they would not need to go through expensive retrofits if they designed buildings for maximum accessibility from the start.  Now all buildings and building codes require that basic standards of accessibility be met.  The objective of UDL/UDI is for instructors to design courses at the start which will be accessible to students presenting with a wide range of strengths and learning styles.  The UDL/UDI instructor checklist calls for instructors to provide three basic ingredients in course design. 

·         Multiple Means of  Representation

·         Multiple Means for Action and Expression

·         Multiple Means for Engagement

Representation refers to the information provided in the form of lectures, audio, visual, and any other means by which the essential language and symbols of the course are presented.  Action and Expression refer to the means by which students demonstrate or communicate mastery of required subject matter.   Engagement refers to the more abstract areas of motivation and relevancy. 

Barriers are not boundaries and boundaries are not barriers. 

While UDI/UDL provides the motivation for the design of barrier free learning systems, it is important that we distinguish between barriers and boundaries.  A barrier is an arbitrary condition or circumstance which prevents student success.  A boundary is a standard, a skill set required to do a certain kind of work.  Conversations about UDL/UDI will only be productive if we understand the difference between these two realities.  We can remove barriers but we cannot remove boundaries.  In fact, boundaries need to be continually reinforced throughout every course.  This consists of the constant reminder that “You must master this (given) skill set in order to pass this class!”  A great deal of confusion results in the lives of students if boundaries get confused with barriers.  A barrier is a workable problem which can be solved with accommodations or appropriate allowances.  Barriers can be and should be removed.  Boundaries cannot be adjusted in any way.  If writing skills are required to pass a given class, writing skills must be demonstrated.  As more pressure is brought to bear on our learning institutions from funding sources which demand higher graduation rates, completion rates, and pass rates, it is inevitable that instructors will be pressured to lower standards.  It is beyond imperative that administrators encourage instructors to hold the line with regard to standards. 

Constructal theory and optimized flow architecture

With all the barriers to effective learning we should note that people learn by nature and that learning was going on long before education became an academic discipline.  Likewise, if all of the departments of education at all of our universities and colleges were to cease operations, people in the future would continue to learn on a daily basis.  This is because learning is one of the main things human beings do.  Some of us may learn faster than others, some may conduct abstract thought more or less proficiently.  Other people may not learn what we wish they would learn, but they do learn.  Learning is part of a natural flow system.  It is like breathing, eating, growing, or any of the other activities we engage in.  As a flow system, learning will possess its own flow architecture.  “Flow architecture” is borrowed from the engineering discipline known as “constructal theory.”  Pioneered by Adrian Bejan at Duke University[5], constructal theory analyzes the geometry of flow systems to show how flow systems evolve a given shape in accordance with optimized flow.  Systems have a natural tendency to morph in such a way as to optimize flow outcomes. 

If we examine the theory of learning as a natural flow system, we can see it begins with relevance.  Learning originates where there is a perceived need to learn.  Where the need arises, language systems develop by which information is communicated.  To acquire any skill, we must first understand the language system by which that skill is communicated.  When fluency exists in language systems, fluency exists in skill and knowledge acquisition.  Note that the word “fluent” is related to the word “flow.”  Note that the word “course” is also related to the concept of flow.  Information flows through the mind and body of the learner as knowledge obtained becomes skills expressed.  Knowledge then flows from person to person through a learning culture.  The end result is that some crucial need is satisfied.  When language systems fail by not being understood, knowledge is not obtained, skills are not expressed, and needs are not met.  This develops a pattern of failure which can easily escalate as related systems fail when needs go unmet. 

When a classroom functions as an efficient flow system, students know where the information being presented is leading them.  They are continually reminded of the connections to other disciplines, work, and life situations.  They are offered flexible benchmarks by which progress can be measured toward specific learning outcomes.  At any given point during the course, students are aware of where they stand and how they should navigate toward a favorable outcome.  The benefits of the classroom experience will then flow forward into other disciplines, work, and life experiences. 

Language

Language is a system for constructing and communicating meaning.  Every course has its own language.  Language is an attribute of culture and human cultures are constantly in the business of evolving languages.  As the primary medium of understanding, language defines the flow architecture of any learning system.  This means that learning systems will flow efficiently or fail to flow efficiently according to the extent that language is being properly shared by all participants.  We must speak the same language, or be “reading off the same page” for learning systems to flow properly.   Language functions on the basis of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax.  Vocabulary is an obvious part of any curriculum.  This is usually what we test students on, and require them to understand in order to pass our classes.  The problem is that vocabulary alone is meaningless without the grammar and syntax necessary to apply it.  Grammar and syntax are more abstract and more difficult to master.  Grammar describes the predictable rules, or paradigms by which vocabulary works to construct meaning.  Grammar tells us who, what, where, when, why, how, and how many, among other crucial details required to construct and communicate meaning.  Syntax is a subset of grammar, describing the frustrating and obscure processes by which grammar and vocabulary can be rearranged to construct completely different meanings using the same words.  Vocabulary gives us the meaning of the individual words, while grammar gives us the structures, (paradigms,) by which words change to supply different forms of information.    Syntax describes the way the whole picture works together to enable the efficient flow of meaning in intelligent discourse. 

Neuroplasticity

Emerging information in brain physiology[6] demonstrates that a neural pathway is developed and maintained for every action we take.  Viewed in this way, learning is the acquisition of new neural pathways.  Neuroplasticity provides us with the ability for adaptive learning.  The amazing truth is that people learn continually in spite of the actions taken by educators and educational systems.  People learn regardless of a wide range of disabilities and negative life circumstances.  As educators our challenge is to adapt our methods to learning trends which are already operative.  Neuroplasticity can inform the teaching process when we design courses so as to form good learning habits.  This is as simple as that old gold standard of instruction known as memorization.  Key concepts need to be repeated and drilled at every class meeting.  Assignments need to be repeated over and over again until students learn them by route.   When students are being made to acquire new skill sets they will be stressed and they will complain.  This is a normal part of the process.  Learning to build new neural pathways is like learning to play a new sport.  The same analogy applies when we have mastered a given neural pathway.  Mastery brings enjoyment.  This creates an awkward dynamic of relationship in the classroom when the instructor is enjoying the mastery of key material while the students are struggling to grasp it.  If we understand how important it is and how difficult it is to acquire new neural pathways, we can engage the students with sympathy but also with firmness. 

Seven Suggestions

1.       Define a New Culture.  From the first day of the class students need to be reminded that by virtue of being enrolled here they belong to a distinctly different culture.  Much has been said of about uniforms in education over the years, but any casual observation of a nursing class reveals that the uniform is a vital part of distinguishing the nursing student from the other members of the student body.  The point is to establish a new learning culture on day one of the class and to reinforce that culture every day. 

2.       Teach Relevance.  Every assignment, every lecture, every presentation and every discussion should touch upon the reason why we need to learn this material.  Instructors must not presuppose that students are self motivated or that they understand why the material being presented is essential for further success.  Teaching relevance requires that instructors clearly articulate the need for expanding horizons to include items previously regarded by students as either macro- irrelevant or micro-irrelevant.  Students must be given the big picture and they must pay attention to minute details.  The instructor should indicate the changes in material as the class moves between large abstract concepts and important major details. 

3.       Address Barriers.  Each class should be designed to maximize accessibility and to minimize barriers.  Formal training in UDL/UDI is ideal, especially in applying new technologies to the area of breaking barriers. 

4.       Reinforce Boundaries.  Boundaries give us pride and effectiveness in our respective professions.  Not everyone can be a nurse, a respiratory therapist, or a radiographer.  These professions require licensure.  Boundaries should be celebrated in the classroom environment.    All classes, including developmental studies must hold fast to their required exit outcomes. 

5.       Optimize Flow.  Learning systems are connected to other learning systems.  No class exists in a vacuum, separate from all others.  We learn in order to learn how to learn more.  Viewed as a flow system possessing optimal flow architecture, each item we learn is connected to another item in a system by which knowledge is communicated and applied.  Along the way, as we progress toward degrees and certificates, careers and achievements, we need to be constantly reminded of the progress we have made and the ways our course is moving us along toward other learning opportunities.  

6.       Teach language.   Text books and curricula in Developmental English have been strongly influenced by teaching ESL, or English as a Second Language.  Unfortunately many students approaching developmental education are simply not fluent in the forms of academic language we use in teaching.   We need to work at every turn to make certain that our learning environment is safe for students to admit that they do not understand what we are saying.  In many cases, students are waiting to find out the right answer to complete an assignment or pass a test, and they know that any given problems they are having with understanding will just pass on by.  The idea that concepts build upon one another to create a conceptual whole is nowhere in the skill set they bring to class.  To address this issue we need to be identify ourselves, regardless of discipline, as teachers of language.  Teaching language means that we point out key vocabulary, as well as all the rules by which meaning is constructed and communicated within our discipline.  

7.       Repeat, Repeat, Repeat!  This is where we can gain the educational holy grail of long term memory.   Before there ever was a modern educational system students learned from teachers by the repetition of key paradigms.  Somewhere within our cultural collective memory we can still hear the Latin class at the academy chanting as they repeat:

Ø      Amo[7]

Ø      Amas

Ø      Amant

Ø      Amamus

Ø      Amatis

Ø      Amant

The bottom line is that repetition works.  Students often resist these exercises by saying things like “They treat us like children.”  This is where the instructor needs to be clear about why we are doing this.  While we are repeating and memorizing, we must remember that this is always connected to the larger processes of culture, relevance, and functional language.  Memorization is worthless by itself.  It is vital if connected to the larger flow of a learning process. 

Conclusion

In our challenging teaching environment, we must welcome students into the culture of higher learning.  We must help them to understand that enrolling in our classes means entering a new culture and experiencing all of the stresses and rewards of any confrontation with cultural diversity.  We must never presuppose that the relevance of our subject matter is obvious.  Students will be lost when they are asked to broaden their conceptual horizons and when they are asked to focus on important details.  Students bring their barriers with them to the classroom, and so instructors and administration need to be creatively searching for ways to eliminate or work around these barriers.  Boundaries must never be confused with barriers.  Boundaries define us as teachers of essential cultural competency.  As such they are not negotiable.  Teaching is never an isolated event occurring without impact on larger systems.  Our students must understand that the content of our classes is part of a life-long commitment to understanding and interacting effectively with the world around us.  Learning is part of a natural flow system, and as teachers all we need to do is to optimize that flow.  As we do this work, we need to be continually aware that students do not speak our language, and so we must teach them to do so.  Finally, people will respond to messages that are repeated over and over. 

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[1] Brookfield, Stephen D.  “Overcoming Impostorship, Cultural Suicide, and Lost Innocence:  Implications for Teaching Critical Thinking in the Community College.”  New Directions For Community Colleges, no. 130, Summer 2005, pp. 49-57.  Recovered at NC Live.

[2] The phrase “grand narrative” belongs to Jean-Francois Lyotard in his critique of modernity and development of post-modernism as published in The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.  English edition published by the University of Minnesota Press, 1979. 

[3] Fuller, R. Buckminster.  Synergetics Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking.Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc. 1975, 1979.  Available online at: http://www.534trivium.net/texts/SYNERGETICS-BuckminsterFuller.pdf

[4] The best source for exploring the UDL/UDI movement is found at www.cast.org

[5] While Bejan is regarded as the father of Constructal Theory, a lucid and accessible application of this theory to the philosophy of education is in “Constructal Theory: From Engineering to Physics, and How Flow Systems Develop Shape and Structure,” by A. Heitor Reis.  Published in Applied Mechanics Review, Vol. 59, September, 2006.  This article is available online at: http://www.mems.duke.edu/sites/mems.duke.edu/files/mems/bejan/downloads/constructal_theory_from_engineering_to_physics_and_how_flow_systems_develop_shape_and_structure.pdf

[6]The Brain: How the Brain Rewires Itself,” Time Magazine January 19, 2007.  Available online at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1580438,00.html

[7] This is the basic declension of the Latin verb amare, “to love.”  It has been repeatedoutloud by students for the past thousand years.  ”

Quid Est Veritas?[1]

Rev. Stephen A. Herring

December 9, 2011

Religion is a way we have of working to untangle truth from falsehood as we seek answers to the larger questions of life and death.  Religion articulates the blessings to be gained by following the truth and the curses that come to the followers of falsehood.   We face a problem, however, in determining just who gets the blessings and who gets the curses.  It seems nearly impossible for us to accept the possibility that perceptions of truth might differ from person to person, from time to time, or from place to place.  We also face a dilemma in that our religious hunger is for an unchanging truth within a world where all things are changing continually.  In Matthews Gospel Jesus says; “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away[2].”  This verse is usually interpreted as an affirmation that the doctrines and dogmas of any given Christian community of believers reflect an unchanging, fixed truth in the midst of a sea of continual change.  While such beliefs may be temporarily comforting, they are clearly false if viewed in the context of shifting thought over a period of a few decades.   A set of evangelical Biblical pamphlets from 2011 are entirely different from those in use 100 years ago.  While the words themselves may remain, our problems, needs, interpretations, translations, and applications all change continually. The idea that there can be an absolute, unchanging set of fundamental doctrines seems delusional when we see that the world which requires such doctrines is in constant flux.  Even for fundamentalists, the fundamentals of today are not the fundamentals of yesterday.  Where then, in all this change, is the truth? 

In Sura 77 of the Koran we find a formula repeated ten times which says; “Woe on that day to the rejecters.[3]”  The day in question is judgment day, and the rejecters are those who disbelieve the revelation of the Koran.  Earlier, the Koran advises; “Do not mix up the truth with the falsehood, nor hide the truth while you know it.[4]”  This call to accept truth over falsehood reminds us of many passages in the New Testament.   At the end of John’s Gospel, Pontius Pilot asks Jesus; “What is truth?[5]” earlier, Jesus proclaims; “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.[6]”  Jesus says; “I am the way, the truth, and the life.[7]”  Evil itself is depicted as a lie.  “When he lies (the Devil), he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.[8]” 

The Dead Sea Scrolls are another group of ancient Semitic texts which are fairly obsessed with the question of truth and falsehood.  These texts discuss the conflict between an individual known as the Teacher of Righteousness and another known as the spewer, sprayer, or spouter of lies.   A drama unfolds through the Dead Sea Scrolls in which followers of truth struggle against the promoters of falsehood until the day of Yahweh brings perfect justice.    

Few things cause us more pain as religious people that hearing others proclaim teachings which we know to be false.  Though our specific beliefs may differ such that we can’t even agree on what falsehood is we all share a common hatred for falsehood as we perceive it.  While we blame each other and accuse each other of falsehood, we share a common love for truth and a common aversion to things that are false. 

In the political domain, we are driven to distraction by political advertisements which present us with spun falsehood and half-truths.  Socially, we are bothered by people telling us stories which we know to be false, or at best highly embellished, but they are presented as truth. 

Why does falsehood exist?   Do we honestly desire to live in a world with no falsehood, only pure truth?  If God is God, then there must be a reason why we continually confront falsehood.  Lies must exist for a reason.  They must serve some essential purpose within the framework of creation. 

What would the world be like if there was no falsehood?  What would the quality of our experience be if the world knew no lies?  How would it be to live in a world made up of nothing but pure truth?  Would such a world be perfect, or would it be unbearable?  Such a world might not be as perfect as we imagine.  This is because falsehood is the unique creation of the human imagination.  A world without falsehood would be a world without imagination.  Such a place would be far from humane.   It would not be a world where humans could live. 

To explain this we need to know a little more about what the words “truth” and “falsehood” mean.  To start with we can repeat a statement made by Thomas Aquinas, drawn from Aristotle.  “Verum est id quod est.[9]”  “The truth is that which IS.”  With this definition, falsehood is simply “id quod non est”, or that which is not.  In this case, falsehood has no existence apart from our imagination.  Falsehood is that which has no objective reality apart from what we imagine it to possess.[10]  This is why we perceive falsehood whenever someone else perceives a truth that differs from the truth we perceive.  We have the intellectual choice to accept or reject any statement.  Thus, falsehood is a uniquely human phenomenon. 

Shared, measurable, objectively verifiable information is what we determine to be “truth.”  Truth is that which exists and can be demonstrated to exist in a repeatable, measurable, and objectively verifiable fashion.  Falsehood includes everything else, including that which we only imagine to be real.  This makes falsehood a unique crime of imagination. 

The problem with falsehood is that things which are not real cause real and lasting harm to those who believe what is not true.  History is full of examples where people have been harmed because of their own lack of understanding or because of the lies of others.    Because so much horror has been committed in the name of falsehood, a person of faith has to wonder what the essential nature of non-reality is.  How can something which essentially does not exist cause so much harm?  While falsehood may not exist in the physical sense, it does certainly exist in our imagination.  Because we constantly act out imagined realities within the physical world, falsehood becomes its own type of reality with which we must contend. 

Life is a text woven from interconnected threads of information.  These are the threads of our individual experiences.   The whole picture of our life is composed like a woven tapestry as our experiences are woven together into a narrative to make a cogent whole.  These threads are multicolored.  They have many textures.  From a literary standpoint we might say that these colors and textures correspond to the emotional value of our subjective perceptions.  In all these shades of experience we also encounter shades of truth and falsehood.  Who among us is completely free of self-deception?  Is there a person on this earth who does not occasionally lie to themselves?   These deceptions may be necessary to our continued wellbeing.   Our hopes, our dreams, our aspirations, and even the loves of our lives are all interwoven with threads of deception.  Were we to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, we might not be able to maintain faith, hope, or love. 

In our own internal landscape we exist in a state of tension between two opposing sets of desires.  On the one hand, we desire to know the absolute truth about ourselves and our God.  On the other hand, we also wish to hide from this truth at all costs.  This awkward dynamic places us in the position of both seeking the truth and hiding from it.   Moses wanted to see the unfiltered glory of God, but God told Moses; “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.[11]”   To see God face to face would be to stare into the abyss of unmitigated, absolute truth.  This truth would illuminate us completely and it would likewise illuminate our world and everything else.   This creates a situation where we simultaneously desire to behold God and we desire not to behold God.  This means we are stuck in a world of incomplete perception.  “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.[12]”   We desire the truth, yet we cling to falsehood in order to survive. 

Within all religions there exists a voice crying out from within its own wilderness.  This voice cries; “I AM WHO I AM.[13]”  Our human mind reaches out to touch a larger mind and in so doing it speaks the truth of its own existence.  As voices differ and people differ, these messages of self- identification will speak diverse truths in many and various ways.  There is a core truth, however, which says; “You are my child, today I have begotten you.[14] “  This is an affirmation spoken by the only created entity which can contemplate the nature of its own Creator. 

In the end we are faced with the realization that we are mind and from mind emerges all truth and all falsehood.   The truth about falsehood is the truth about us.  We depend upon falsehood in order to properly arrange the narrative of our lives. 

An interesting sort of self-deception occurs whenever Christian believers observe the following scriptures. 

·         “I am who I am.”

·         “I am the truth.”

·         “You are my son.” 

Followers of any given Christian sect will usually substitute “He is” for “I am”, and “you are.[15]”  Our response tends to be; “God is the Great I Am.”  “Jesus is the Truth.”  “Jesus is the Son of God.” 

The problem with this interpretation is that it encourages us to make these mystical texts into affirmations of our own limited perceptions.  The One “who fills all in all[16]” becomes our own personal truth, the God of our sectarian perceptions, the God of our tribe.  In order to reinforce these walls of division, we must relegate all others to the realm of falsehood. 

Another possibility emerges if we own these texts as affirmations of our personal relationship with divinity.  We can each take these texts as affirmations of who and what we are.  In one moment, when we understand what it means that we exist, what it means that we ARE, our self-identification with the divine begins.  We possess the power to claim truth for ourselves.  We possess the power to define falsehood for ourselves.  Once we define truth and define falsehood for ourselves, we must live out the consequences of our decisions.  This is an awe inspiring and unique attribute of humanity.  We form our destiny by the truth we choose.  Even though our definitions may differ from those of others, we all have the divine right to claim this property for ourselves.  Our task as human beings is to uncover the truth and to share the truth as we have experienced it.  If we fully own this process of claiming truth and claiming falsehood, we can grow into taking responsibility for our own inevitable misperceptions.  Though we claim the truth and we claim falsehood, we also must admit that the limited nature of our own intellect renders us unable to grasp either truth or falsehood as a whole.  At best we will only see in part and we will only know in part.  We can stand together in awe of the ultimate truth we seek, while also seeking the grace to deal with our own limitations. 

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[1] “What is truth?”  These words were spoken, presumably in Latin, by the Roman governor Pontius Pilot to Jesus at his hearing on charges of sedition. 

[2] Matthew 24:35

[3] Koran, Sura Al-Mursalat 77:15, 19, 24, 28, 34, 37, 40, 45, 47, 49. 

[4] Koran,  Sura Al-Baqara 2:42

[5] John 18:38

[6] John 8:32

[7] John 14:6

[8] John 8:44

[9] Aquinas, Summa Theologica Q. XVI.1.1

[10] See Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1027b.25.  Aristotle states that falsehood exists only within the intellect, or dianoia. 

[11] Exodus 33:20

[12] I Corinthians 13:12

[13] Exodus 3:14

[14] Hebrews 1:5

[15] This is exactly what Yahwist Hebrews did in their interpretation of Exodus 3:14 to 15 where the Hebrew first person singular, AHYH (I am) becomes YHWH, a connection of the tribal God Yahweh with the root meaning “He is.” 

[16] Ephesians 1;23

In the Wilderness

Mark 1:1-3, Isaiah 40:3

A Sermon Prepared for the Hollywood Presbyterian Church

December 4, 2011

Rev. Stephen A. Herring

The Gospel of Mark begins with these words: 

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ

The Son of God

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet. 

Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,

Who shall prepare thy way

The voice of one crying

In the wilderness

Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” 

These words are taken from Isaiah 40:3 which says:

“A Voice cries:  In the wilderness Prepare the way of the LORD

Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” 

There are two important Hebrew words here which we need to understand in order to see the fullness of this scripture.  One is translated as “wilderness.”  This is the Hebrew word MiDBaR.  We will transcribe this word simply as “midbar.”  The Other word is translated as “desert.”  This is the word ARaBaH.  We will transcribe this one as “arabah.” 

If you look in a concordance, you will see that these words occur nearly 300 times within the scriptures.  The word “wilderness” (midbar)  occurs 267 times in the Hebrew Old Testament.  In the Greek New Testament (in the Greek form eremos) it occurs 35 times. 

The word “desert” (arabah) occurs  12 times.  This word is similar to the word for Arabia.  We can note here that some Biblical sources indicate that Mt. Sinai is in Arabia.  (See Deuteronomy 1:1, Galatians 4:25)  There is a connection within the scriptures between the land of Arabia and the wilderness where God is revealed. 

If we think about the whole story of the Bible and review it in our mind, we will see “wilderness”, (midbar/arabah) occurring in the same way over and over.  All we need to do is to ask; “What happens in the wilderness?” 

It was in the wilderness that Abraham came into covenant relationship with God.  It was in the wilderness that Moses received the words of Torah and the Covenant of Sinai.  It was in the wilderness that Elijah heard the voice of God and it was in the wilderness that Elijah was received into heaven on a flaming chariot.  Isaiah states that the path of the Messiah will be in the wilderness.  John the Baptist preached in the wilderness.  Jesus went into the wilderness at the start of his ministry in order to face Satan and to be confirmed into the fullness of his earthly power.  The wilderness is the place where Peter and James and John witnessed the transfiguration of Christ as he spoke with Elijah and Moses.  (See Matthew 17:1-8)  Paul met Jesus, the Risen Christ in the wilderness and he went into Arabia (the arabah) following that encounter.  (See Galatians 1:17) It was in that desert that Paul came into the fullness of that which had been revealed within him.  Finally, John received his revelation within the wilderness, on the desert island of Patmos. In Revelation 12, John sees a woman clothed with the sun who gives birth to the Christ Child.  She flees into the wilderness where God has prepared a place for her.   

The word midbar is an amazing Hebrew word because it is related to the Hebrew root DaBaR which means “word”, “speech,” or “to speak.”  This is because the wilderness is the place where we can hear the voice of God.  God’s word comes to us within the wilderness.  Throughout the Bible, revelation consistently happens within the wilderness.  The wilderness is the place where we are most likely to hear the word of God.   

To understand this, we need to contrast what happens in the Bible in the wilderness with what happens in the city.  The city is always the place where the earthly king is.  The city is the place where the temple is, where people make their offerings.  As a result, the city is often a place where the priests become fat and corrupt.  For example, look at the sons of Eli in I Samuel 2:12.  The city is the place where the prophets of God are stoned and killed.  (Matthew 23:37)  The city is the place where Jesus dies.  It is the place where Paul dies, James dies, and Peter dies.  Finally, the city is the place where Babylon, the great Harlot rests upon the Seven Hills of Rome.  (See Revelation 17:4-10)  Through history, two great cities have had a powerful corrupting influence upon the church of Jesus Christ.  These cities are Rome and Constantinople.  At the end of the Book of Revelation, God reconciles all earthly conflict with the appearance of a New Jerusalem, the Golden City of God, which represents the reconciliation of all our earthly political and economic divisions. 

In a personal sense, The city is the place where our ambition leads us.  The city is the place where the principalities and the powers of worldly success reside.  It is the place where the prophets are tested.  It is the place where we face the corruption and the temptation that come with earthly prosperity.  It is the place where the house of God becomes a den of robbers.  (See Matthew 21:13) 

The wilderness is different.  The wilderness is the place where we receive the revelation of the voice of God.  The wilderness is the place where God speaks to us.  It is the place where we are free of the distractions which would drown out the voice of God within our hearts.  The wilderness is the place where we encounter the fullness of the mercy and the covenant of God.  The wilderness is the place where we grow into the fullness of the risen Christ.     

Both the city and the wilderness offer us temptations.  Within the city we are tempted by all the power and prestige, the money and the glamour of earthly success.  In the city we are tempted by the desire for political power and influence.  Within the wilderness we are tempted as well.  Remember that Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness.  The Israelites were also tempted in the wilderness.  Temptation in the wilderness is all about our refusing to accept the simple mercy and all-sufficient grace of God.  Within the wilderness we become frightened that we might starve of die of thirst.  While we are so afraid that our needs might not be met, God surrounds us with the bread of heaven.  While we are so frightened about needing water, God offers us the fountains of living water from the rock at Horeb/Massah/Meribah as in Exodus 17, and God offers us fountains of living water from the hearts of those who believe in Jesus Christ as we find in John 7:37-39.  

This brings us to the big question of the day.  Where are we now?  Are we in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord, or are we in the city of earthly delights?  I ask you to ponder this question both as individuals and as a church.  As an individual you are in the wilderness if you are in a place where you are being forced to depend completely upon the mercy and grace of God.  The hospital room is the wilderness.  The nursing home is the wilderness.  The experience of being unemployed is the wilderness. When we lose someone we love we go into the wilderness.  The experience of being divorced is the wilderness.  The experience of loneliness is the wilderness.  We are in the wilderness when we are forced to let go of our worldly attachments and expectations.  We are in the wilderness when the plans we made for ourselves are not the plans God made for us.  We are in the wilderness when nothing else can go wrong and there is no place left to go but up.   

Remember, the wilderness is where God can reach us and God can speak to us.  The wilderness is where revelation happens.  The wilderness is where we come into the fullness of a covenant relationship with God.  The wilderness is where we encounter Jesus in his fullness as our risen Lord and Savior.  The wilderness is where we require the mercy of God for our only food and our drink. 

Through all the years I have been preaching, I have always found Christmas time to be the most difficult.  This is because Christmas has been stolen from us as a spiritual holiday and it has been replaced by an economic holiday.  The shopping malls and stores, the money and the parties, the celebrations all belong to the city.  If we are going to prepare a place for Jesus to enter our lives anew, it will not be within the financial shrines of our earthly success or the temples of our prosperity.  Jesus will not be born within a shopping mall.  If Jesus is to enter our lives with new power and a new voice of revelation, it will be in the wilderness. 

Today, our church is in a wilderness of sorts.  We are not seeing the rewards of high attendance and great earthly success.  We are not growing as we would like to be growing.  Many of us are in the wilderness ourselves, because life has brought us as much stress as we can face.  Today, I am going to suggest that the scriptures tell us it is OK to be in that wilderness.  In this wilderness God can speak to us with a fresh voice.  In this wilderness we can find his Word with fresh conviction and fresh power.  So let us carry on and prepare him a way in the wilderness.  Amen.