Adult Sunday School and Not Batting an Eyelid

ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL AND NOT BATTING AN EYELID

Written Wed. Sept. 5th, 2018, posted Fri. Sept. 7th, 2018

1. The Main Part

I don’t think there’s been a good discussion about not batting an eyelid.  Not batting an eyelid means seeing something unusual and acting as if you have not seen anything unusual.  Therefore, it has a lot to do with handicaps, and handicaps are a hot button in our country, aren’t they nowadays?  So, to give you an example, I’m going to go backward in time and pick a handicap you almost never see anymore: a wen.  A wen is a giant swelling on a person’s neck, right below the jaw.  A bulbous swelling.  Really big.  I haven’t read up on the cause of this old-time medical disfigurement.  But it is useful for thinking about the meaning of the expression “not batting an eyelid.”  “Not batting an eyelid” means seeing someone with a huge wen and acting as if you haven’t seen anything unusual.

Now I’m going to try to draw a connection between not batting an eyelid, and adult Sunday School.

 “Not batting an eyelid” is a behavior associated with the leisure classes.  The leisure classes have more time to think than the rest of the human race, and one of the things they MIGHT have had time to think about is this: If someone has a wen on their neck, it MIGHT NOT be their fault.  Because of that, a member of the leisure classes might see a person with a wen, and not bat an eyelid.

Now I come to a question I have never heard discussed.

Suppose you are NOT a member of the leisure class, and suppose you see a member of the leisure class not batting an eyelid, when they see somebody with a wen.  You might ask yourself this: They act as if it’s nothing strange when they see something strange; DOES THAT MEAN THAT WHEN THEY SEE SOMETHING EVIL, THEY WILL ACT AS IF THEY SAW NOTHING EVIL?

Have you ever thought about that?  One person sees a second person not bat an eyelid, and the first person wonders if the second person would react to a case of embezzlement in the same way that they react to a case of a wen!

That’s where adult Sunday School comes in.

Some members of the leisure class attend adult Sunday School classes.  Many others of the leisure class do not.  But let’s focus on those members of the leisure class who DO attend adult Sunday School.  What are they talking about, in their Sunday School classes?

I’d like to try to answer that question.  Part of what they are doing, is learning to distinguish between wens and embezzlements.  Wens are something you’re NOT supposed to bat an eyelid at.  Embezzlements are something you ARE supposed to bat an eyelid at.  It is actually useful, for adults to spend time distinguishing between physical disfigurements, disgusting things which God does NOT want us to bat an eyelid at, and moral disfigurements, disgusting things which God DOES want us to bat an eyelid at.

I’ve known adults who were very faithful at attending adult Sunday School, and serious about it, but they didn’t look or sound to me like they were having fun.  It was to me as if they were saying, “I have already learned about obedience to God.  Therefore, I do not know why I’m still coming to Sunday School.”

My answer to that is that the point of adult Sunday School is not to keep on studying obedience to God for the rest of your life.  It is to help you distinguish between the things God WANTS you to be disgusted at, and the things God DOES NOT WANT you to be disgusted at.  That turns out to be a lesson that people can study for the rest of their lives, and the studying of it never stops being useful and good.

2. Appendix

You could stop reading here, but I’m going to add a little more.  I go to adult Sunday School, and you might think it’s because I’ve been persuaded by the argument I’ve given above in the main part.  But actually, the reason I go to adult Sunday School is slightly different: because I ENJOY thinking about the boundary between right and wrong.  Mapping that boundary correctly.  Drawing the line between the things God DOES want me to be disgusted at, and the things God DOES NOT want me to be disgusted at, and drawing the line where God wants me to draw it, not where I want to draw it.

I think that has to do with the Bible verse about the person whose delight is in the law of the LORD (Psalm 1:2).  That verse pairs naturally with Psalm 122:1 -- I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.  Psalm 122:1 is about the person who enjoys worshiping God.  Psalm 1:2 is about the person who enjoys studying God's law.  I am lucky enough to belong to both categories!  But there are many good Christians, I think, who do not delight in studying the law of God.  Once they have attached a meaning to a Bible verse, they are not interested in discussing the possibility that it might have other meanings.

Frank Newton