| |||||||||||||||
 |
     | ||||||||||||||
Who do you remember, and why do you remember them? I’d like all of us to imagine a favorite teacher in our lives. Just think for a second about a favorite teacher. It could have been when you were a kid, or an adult. As you’re imagining that favorite teacher, what do you like about them? What qualities do you appreciate about them? And if you’re one of the young people sitting in these pews up front, if you have a favorite teacher now, what qualities do you like about that teacher? Why do you like them so much? Now, I know some of you are in the midst of finals. I’m not sure you like your teachers right now, but as you’re thinking about the teachers that are very important and meaningful to you, what do you think about? And if you’re a teacher --- I know there are lots and lots and lots of teachers in the sanctuary today --- imagine in your own mind what makes you feel successful. And if you’ve had a good day teaching students, what’s made it a good day? What gives you joy and satisfaction in your teaching? Well, as I said, I remember many teachers. I remember a sixth grade teacher who wrote a very important note on my grade card, a note that I can still remember word for word, what she wrote and said about me. Or I remember a choir director, who is a kind of teacher. That choir director knew that I had a very big disappointment in my life, and he invited me to join the choir. I said, “I don’t sing all that well.” And he said, “That’s okay, we’ll work on your singing. But I want you to be a part of this community.” He instilled in me a love of music that I don’t think I ever would have gotten had I not experienced that deep disappointment in my life. Or I remember a soccer coach, another kind of teacher. I’d just moved to a new town. I didn’t know anybody. I’d never played soccer before. And he said, “I want you to be a part of my team.” And I said, “I don’t know how to play. I don’t know what the rules of soccer are.” And he said, “That’s okay. I’ll teach you and help you to learn.” And I’ll never forget, being invited into that experience. And on this day, when we’re thanking and remembering our Sunday school teachers, I did want to remember one Sunday school teacher for you all. Now, this may be hard for you all to believe now, but when I was a third grade Sunday school student, my behavior in my third grade Sunday school class was at times atrocious and awful, which was, you know, the way it was, but it was a little more scandalous because I was the minister’s kid. [chuckles] So when I acted up in Sunday school, it was kind of a big deal. There was one point in my third grade Sunday school class that my behavior was so bad that the Sunday school teacher sent me out into the hall. And I couldn’t believe it. I said, “What? How can you do that?!” She said, “No, you go out into the hall until your behavior is good enough that you can come back and be part of the class.” So the next week I came back, and we talked a little bit, and I (kind of) said I was sorry, and she said, “That’s okay.” She welcomed me in warmly into that class again, and said, “You’ve always been part of this community, but you have to act in certain ways so that we can do what we need to do.” What was my offense? I was thinking about that this week. My Sunday school teacher’s name was Bonnie. For the whole class where I got kicked out I was singing “My Bonnie lies over the ocean…” [laughter] Some of you forget how clever third grade students can be! But I guess I’d sung that song one too many times, and was invited to go out and wait in the hall until it was over. And you need to know also, that in the 20 years I’ve been married, I haven’t sung that song once! [laughter]2 I was remembering a favorite seminary professor. I knew I loved the church and I knew I wanted to be a minister. But I didn’t know a lot about religion and theology and what being a minister was like. In this professor’s class, he really converted me to a lot of the ways I do things and think about things now. I didn’t think I was going to be a minister in city churches. I’d never lived in a big city at all, and suddenly I’m working in Chicago, and Indianapolis, and Rochester. He really pushed us in his class. Those of you who are grownups will know what it means to think critically. That means to really analyze problems and be creative in our solutions. And he said every time you walk into a seminary classroom that you don’t check your brain at the door, but you keep thinking and in fact keep thinking more critically and even more creatively about what you’re being called do in the name of your faith and your ministry. It was several years ago when a friend of mine and I were asked to teach a course out at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. We’re teaching this course and suddenly that retired seminary professor showed up as a student in our class! My friend and I kind of looked at each other and thought, Holy cow! We don’t know what to do! This guy intimidated us when were students in his class. How would we feel now? It was a very intimidating thing. He didn’t say a word in any of the class sessions. But, after each of the sessions, he gave us a little lecture on how we could have done better! [laughter] And you could have taken it in one of two ways. My friend, Tim, and I took it in a way that he had seen something special in us as students. This teacher, who had seen something in us as students, wanted to keep pushing us to be critical and creative and to do our best. We had a party at the end of the class and his wife, Shirley, said, “I’m sorry that Carl scared you both so much during this week.” And we said it was okay, because in truth it was more than that. I think about him. He -- Carl Dudley – died about a month ago. I’ve been remembering him, and his wife, and all he taught us. Even as I remembered his life, I thought that a really good teacher keeps teaching for the rest of your life. What makes a good teacher a good teacher? I think good teachers have expectations. They are high. It’s not that they want you to achieve so much, but they want you to uncover it, and to discover it, and to grow, and to expand and to develop, all the things that our Sunday school teachers and our advisors do. They encourage you. They invite your participation into the community to be the best you can be. Some of us heard a really wonderful presentation yesterday about motivation and satisfaction and happiness. Whether you are talking about doctors or businesspeople or coaches or fathers – and I would add teachers to this list – what we learned yesterday is that good teachers will negotiate but they won’t dictate to you. They won’t solve or control your problems, but they’ll listen to what you have to say. They care about you. They have warmth and empathy that make all the difference in the world. To add to that, I keep thinking about what makes our Sunday school teachers and all of our advisors so wonderful, and how it’s going to lead to the Bible story that Bizzie Vinton read just a few moments ago. Teachers see something in you that maybe nobody else ever sees, and maybe even you don’t see in yourself. They see something in your life, in your interests, in the words you say and in the things that you care about. They help you discover it, uncover it, and celebrate it so you can be the child of God that you are to be. Now this story that Bizzie just read is just an “absolutely awesome” story. I’m glad the children of this church chose it for us to read today. There’s a man named Philip, one of the earliest followers of Jesus. And the Spirit says, “Go traveling on this road.” And when he does he runs into an Ethiopian, a person from another culture and country and religion, who was a court official, a very important person. He took care of the money, we’re told, and had a very important job. The Ethiopian was kind of sitting in his chariot reading the Bible, which would have been an odd thing to discover, I think, don’t you? He was reading the Bible and Philip was watching all this. Philip, I think, was going to choose to just keep walking and not to do anything. But in the way God works, God’s Spirit said, “Hey! Get off your backside and go talk to this Ethiopian person; he’s trying to figure out what this faith is all about.” The Spirit said get over there. And Philip does. The Ethiopian is reading the Bible, and Philip says, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” And the Ethiopian says something quite extraordinary. He said, “How can I understand this if nobody guides me?” I like to think of the Bible as a kind of roadmap or maybe a piece of music, or the instructions to put together something really complicated, or a new language (if some of you are taking languages). You don’t just give it to somebody and say “good luck, I hope you can figure this out on your own.” No, like all things that are important and matter a great deal, you need a teacher and a guide. It’s not like a roadmap where somebody takes the trip for you but they give you the ability to read the map, follow the instructions, to understand the new language. You guide them and help them make the discovery on their own. That’s what I think is happening in this wonderful story. “How can I understand unless someone guides me? How can I understand unless somebody nurtures me like our teachers do? How can I understand unless somebody supports me, like our advisors do? How can I understand unless somebody cares for me, when sometimes it feels like nobody cares for me? How can I unless somebody teaches me” So whatever we imagine a good teacher to be, here’s a great, great story about what good teaching and good learning are. It’s led by the Spirit. The teacher saw a need and was willing to take a risk. The student saw there were great possibilities in this conversation, and was willing to ask questions. And then, what happened was learning and faithfulness. And then, a baptism happened, leading to a wonderful journey of faith. Before I stop talking this morning, I want to express my gratitude with all of yours for all who in this place teach and advise and nurture our young people. I want us all to be clear about being called into our vocation, that we might discover and uncover that we’re all students, we’re all teachers, and we are all children of God. We all learn and grow in our baptisms, together, to be like Jesus in every way. Let us pray. Dear God, We thank you for this beautiful day. We thank you for our friends at church. We thank you for teachers, and advisors, and all who love us. AMEN.
|
|
||||||||||||||
