He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."
Mark 4
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"...the only service that Christ demands from us is to aid Him in saving the world; but it is His word alone that saves. In order to co-operate with Him, let us therefore first of all listen to His word, repeat it as does the Church, and not hesitate to make it public when necessary. It does not depend on us that it be believed, but we can do very much toward making it respected..."
Etienne Gilson
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Sometime last winter, a threesome met for coffee just outside of Birmingham. The first was a classicist and a scholar, a teacher of Latin, Virgil and all the other sundry things associated with ancient times. The second two were students - one a Classics Major who smokes a pipe every so often - and the other, me: an English Major who loves children's literature and sheep.
Michael and I were there to talk about an upcoming event for an organization we run at Samford University - The Socratic Club - and the subject was Biblical Authority. After some time, we began to notice a peculiar phenomenon. Our culture has been conditioned to believe that faith is not something to be discussed in public - spirituality is no longer a subject for the classroom and even less, the street. Here, though, was something different. Like children at story-time, the other coffee drinkers stopped slurping so noisily and began leaning in. Some tried to hide the fact that they were interested by pulling out a book that they never made eye-contact with. Others, of course, could care less about the interpretation of some verse in Second Timothy, and continued chatting away merrily. But the few signs of interest were enough to start our minds churning ideas like so much butter.
What we learned that day was invaluable. Coffee shops, we concluded, were one of the few places left in America where discussions of faith and spirituality are still allowed - even with complete strangers.
And so, months later, the two of us are heading off on a road trip to Chicago and back, stopping at every coffee shop we can along the way. Our goal will be to talk with strangers about faith, hope, love and the glory of the gospel - to sow that others may one day reap a harvest. We solicit your prayers.
~Alan Halbrooks
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