Teaching Ted Talk

 

I was 28 when I started teaching. When I walked into that classroom for the first time, I didn’t have much “teaching” experience, but I did have 10 years of youth ministry experience. I think that really shaped my approach to teaching. I have now spent nearly 30 years teaching in a small Christian school. For the first 15 years of my teaching career, my parents didn’t really understand why I stayed at such a small school for so little money. They kept encouraging me to go work in the public schools, or at least at a bigger private school. That all changed when I started coaching volleyball. It wasn’t the volleyball that changed anything directly, it was the fact that they started coming to games. It was at those games that they started to get to know my students and they started to understand that what I was doing was more than a job, it was a calling.

Teaching, done correctly, is as much of a calling as preaching is. Just as the minister is called to the pulpit, the effective teacher is called to the… whiteboard? Podium? My philosophy has always been, “Teachers teach students, not a curriculum.” Yes, there are things we are hired to teach, but it is the other things that really have a lasting impact. I saw a story about a rich man, maybe an athlete or CEO, it doesn’t really matter, questioning a teacher as to why they did what they did for so little money. He asked why they didn’t find a “real” job and get paid more money. He said, “I make X amount of money a year. What do you make?” The teacher answered simply, “I make a difference.”

When our kindergarten teacher starts the year in August, babies walk into her room. In May little people walk out. Yes, they learned numbers and letters and how to read, but more than that they learned how to be people. In the elementary classes, those teachers take those little people and start building them into the men and women that God designed them to be. The students walk out as adolescents. Those adolescents come to us in the secondary classes and we continue, brick by brick, to build them up. They walk out on the verge of adulthood.

Most people are lucky to have an impact on one or two people in their lifetime, teachers impact roomfuls of people on a daily basis. I have been reminded of the impact that a teacher can have in many ways. I have had several students that went on to become teachers tell me that something I said in class made them decide to become a teacher. In a few cases they have told me exactly what it was I said to them 5, 6, 7 years ago that inspired them to teach. I have to take their word for it, because I have no recollection of saying those things. I give character awards to the seniors every year. They are fun, and everyone smiles and then we go on with the day. I didn’t really think they went any further than that. Then I was at the house of someone that had graduated a few years before to get a sofa and saw that he had his character award framed and hanging in his room. I have had 2 students tell me they were pregnant before they told most of their family. I have had a former student that you can probably count on one hand the number of people that have seen or heard him cry, call me tears because he was struggling with difficult life decisions and he knew I would tell him what he needed to hear, not what he wanted to hear.

Things like that humble me, but they also reinforce the impact that a teacher can have. I am not special; I know teachers all over have similar stories. If you are a teacher reading this, you are making a difference. Building future adults is a special calling, do not grow weary in doing good. If you are not teacher, you can still make a difference. Just stop and actually listen to the people around you. Listen to understand, not just to respond. Most people only require small course corrections and you may be just the person to set them on the new path they are looking for.

A Holy Mess

     It was the first Sunday of Advent and the sanctuary was finally ready. The service was about to start when it happened. The lights on the Chrismon Tree went out. You could hear the gasps and several people leapt into action. After some jiggling, order was restored. As the prelude was being played the acolytes were lighting the candles. One of the candles just wouldn't light. Then it was time for the welcome and announcements and the sound system wouldn't work. Would nothing go right? You could just feel it in the air, this isn't what Christmas is supposed to be like. Christmas is supposed to be perfect.

     It was late, it was cold, and the town was bustling with people. They were late and all the accommodations were already taken. This is livestock. Those are shepherds. This is a dirty stable. This isn't how this is supposed to go. Christmas is supposed to be perfect. 

     Christmas is perfect, but it is also messy. That is what Christmas is. If it wasn't messy, it wouldn't have been necessary. The world that Jesus entered was not perfect, it was far from it. His entrance was messy, birth is messy. Christmas is messy. If your Christmas is not going as planned, welcome to the club. Messy isn't bad, messy is why we have Christmas. Messy is why we need Christmas. Celebrate the messiness and embrace the Savior that entered this mess to make it clean.

     The sound system started working. The lights stayed lit on the tree. The candle finally was lit. The word was preached. The sermon was title, "A weary world rejoices." That is what Christmas is, perfection entering a messy weary world to make it whole again.

  

Fully Man, Fully God

     On Good Friday it is common to hear the Seven Last Words of Christ. These last seven utterances of Jesus are full of  significance and there are lots of teachings to be found in them. Today I want to look at the fourth word. It can be found in Mark 15: 33-34. At this point, Jesus has been on the cross for six hours and is near death. He cries out, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" (Which means, :My God my God, why have you forsaken Me?) Jesus was both fully human and fully God. At this point Jesus, who knew no sin, has taken on all of the sin of mankind. Because of that, God could not look on Him and for the first time Jesus feels separation from God. This feeling, that we as sinful humans are used to, was a new sensation to Jesus and it causes him to cry out in despair. Oh that we could be so sensitive to the presence of God that we notice when He averts His gaze due to our sin. 

    There is more to this though, I think. Jesus was also fully God and He knew exactly what He was saying. You see, His words were not just random words of despair. Come with me to Psalm 22.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

    Why are you so far from saving me,

    so far from my cries of anguish?

2 

My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,

    by night, but I find no rest.[b]

3 

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;

    you are the one Israel praises.[c]

4 

In you our ancestors put their trust;

    they trusted and you delivered them.

5 

To you they cried out and were saved;

    in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

6 

But I am a worm and not a man,

    scorned by everyone, despised by the people.

7 

All who see me mock me;

    they hurl insults, shaking their heads.

8 

“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,

    “let the Lord rescue him.

Let him deliver him,

    since he delights in him.”

9 

Yet you brought me out of the womb;

    you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.

10 

From birth I was cast on you;

    from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

11 

Do not be far from me,

    for trouble is near

    and there is no one to help.

12 

Many bulls surround me;

    strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

13 

Roaring lions that tear their prey

    open their mouths wide against me.

14 

I am poured out like water,

    and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart has turned to wax;

    it has melted within me.

15 

My mouth[d] is dried up like a potsherd,

    and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;

    you lay me in the dust of death.

16 

Dogs surround me,

    a pack of villains encircles me;

    they pierce[e] my hands and my feet.

17 

All my bones are on display;

    people stare and gloat over me.

18 

They divide my clothes among them

    and cast lots for my garment.

19 

But you, Lord, do not be far from me.

    You are my strength; come quickly to help me.

20 

Deliver me from the sword,

    my precious life from the power of the dogs.

21 

Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;

    save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

22 

I will declare your name to my people;

    in the assembly I will praise you.

23 

You who fear the Lord, praise him!

    All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!

    Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!

24 

For he has not despised or scorned

    the suffering of the afflicted one;

he has not hidden his face from him

    but has listened to his cry for help.

25 

From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;

    before those who fear you[f] I will fulfill my vows.

26 

The poor will eat and be satisfied;

    those who seek the Lord will praise him—

    may your hearts live forever!

27 

All the ends of the earth

    will remember and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations

    will bow down before him,

28 

for dominion belongs to the Lord

    and he rules over the nations.

29 

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;

    all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—

    those who cannot keep themselves alive.

30 

Posterity will serve him;

    future generations will be told about the Lord.

31 

They will proclaim his righteousness,

    declaring to a people yet unborn:

 He has done it!

Sound familiar? Even minutes from death, Jesus is choosing His words with the utmost care, He knows that many of those at the foot of the cross were religious scholars. They would instantly recognize that He was quoting the Psalms and they would know how it ends. Psalm 22 sounds like it was written after the events of the crucifixion, not centuries before. It ends declaring the glory of the Lord. Jesus used His last words to let His accusers know that this was all ordained from the beginning. Good Friday is called Good for this very reason. Because of His sacrifice, "The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who see the Lord will praise Him..."