Although I believed that I had clearly heard God’s call on my life when I was 19, I did not begin my seminary training until September, 2005 – when I was 58 years old. The decision to attend seminary was actually made in January of that same year. During the intervening months between the decision to attend and the actual start of classes time provided months for me to receive advice and opinions from others.

One that was fun was a remark by the person who led my two day psychological testing as part of the approval process for being allowed to pursue ordination in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). As we began the process he asked me, so what made you decide that you should attend cemetery? I responded, you mean seminary, to which he responded, clearly you have not been there yet. The result, I relaxed, and the remainder of my psychological testing was a joy and a pleasure.

However, I was very surprised at the number of people who advised me not to let seminary destroy my faith. I found my time in seminary to be very rewarding. My faith was never challenged – at least not in the negative manner about which I had been warned. Quite the contrary I found it to be a rewarding time of growth and study – a way to discover answers to questions that had haunted me for years.

One example – I had always been troubled by the final verse in the fifth chapter of Matthew’s gospel – following are three translations that I had known for years:

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (King James Version); Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (New Revised Standard Version); Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (New International Version).

My response initially was despair – there is absolutely no way for me to be perfect as God is perfect – so I figured why bother and moved on.

Some years later I encountered the translation in the English Standard Version – You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. which only compounded my despair with its addition of the emphatic therefore must be – knowing that I never could be perfect I shoved that verse deep into the recesses of my mind – trying to pretend it was not there – hoping that somehow it might disappear – but – it never did.

Not until several months after I had completed introductory Greek did I dare to look at Matthew 5:48 in the Greek text – where I found:

ἔσεσθε οὖν ὑμεῖς τέλειοι ὡς ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνιος τέλειός ἐστιν.

That was the first time that I realized that the two words translated as perfect in English were τέλειοι and τέλειός – they were not the same words. I knew enough to know that they were related – but I also knew enough to realize that they were not the same. It wasn’t long before I realized that they were different tenses of the same word – the first being a future tense and the second being a present perfect tense. For me – the Good News had just become wonderful news – I now knew to read that text – which had troubled me for so very many years – You will be made perfect as God always has been, is, and always will be perfect.

Just one of many examples where my study at seminary helped to restore my faith rather than destroying my faith in anyway. There are numerous other examples where learning to read the Hebrew and the Greek texts were liberating and restorative, but for now I will end this post by saying that I graduated from seminary when I was 61 and was ordained as a Presbyterian pastor (teaching elder) when I was 62.

More to follow – I hope many of you will join in the conversation! Grace and peace