Today is a day in which we as Moravians are called to pray for public education as well as our Moravian educational institutions, lifting up students and educators that their minds, bodies and spirits be open to the many things they will experience in the upcoming year. While this is something we all as Christians ought to be doing regularly, I found it very interesting that today’s Gospel lesson has both teachers and students playing a prominent role. In fact, verse ten tells us right away that Jesus was teaching in a synagogue. And it is a verse that most of the time we normally overlook to get to the more interesting parts of the story, where Jesus is healing a woman on the Sabbath. But it seems to me, that the reason the Moravian church has survived for as long as it has is mainly due to the importance placed on both teachers and students.
One of my favourite figures in our Moravian heritage is Jan Amos Comenius. I spoke a little bit about him earlier in the children’s message. He did more than simply add pictures to textbooks; his passion was education for all people throughout their whole lives. While that isn’t exactly the most exciting concept to us today, in the 17th century, very few people had access to education. It was mostly reserved for only the wealthiest males with very few females. Comenius’ revolutionary concept said that learning should be fun, for everyone, from the youngest children to the oldest adult.
Now, I would be shocked if this once radical idea was something any of you disagreed with. Education has become so common that we take it for granted, and our Moravian run schools have become so popular that they are considered some of the best private schools around. The fact that education has become the norm is a good thing, but the influence we have as people of faith is becoming weaker every year and I think it is time that we need a new radical view of education which is meaningful to everyone involved.
So the question we must ask ourselves is what exactly is it that we as Moravians can do to change the way people learn? I think the answer lies by simply rearranging the words in this congregation’s mission statement. Instead of teaching all by reaching all, perhaps we all ought to be thinking of how we can reach all by teaching. I believe that this can be done not by establishing schools or just hoping to bring more people into our churches by fancy programs. Instead, we need to work on building relationships which can enrich both our lives and the life of those we teach.
There is a man at the church where I am currently serving who is 82 years old. For the past four or five years he has designed the set for VBS. Normally, this isn’t exactly the hardest of tasks except he paints 12 cardboard panels which are four feet wide by ten feet high all by hand. He spent the next two weeks painting this huge scene that looked absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately for the church, this is the last year in which he will be doing all of this hard work, and I asked him what he would be doing with his free time. He answered me by telling me that he wasn’t really sure. One of the things I’m going to suggest to him, because he still wants to be active, is teach some of the kids who are interested in art to do some of the amazing art work which he has spent countless hours on. Its something where education isn’t measured in the number of things learned, it’s where education is the time spent with people and building meaningful relationships.
One of my own personal pet peeves with the modern culture is that we pride ourselves on how individualistic we can be. And even though I like to spend a lot of time alone, the times in which I have learned the most about anything are the times when I have been mentored by someone who gave me the gift of allowing me to be around then when they were doing things I admired. It is because of this type of education that I am speaking to you today, and I think it is this type of education that is going to make us better disciples of Christ.
There are more than just practical things that can be taught and learned. And as important as it is to learn practical things, such as art or sewing or how to do woodwork, we must be all be students of people who have deep spiritual roots. Who is it in your life that you have admired in you’re life because of their love of God and their love for others?
When I first thought of this question, I thought it was rather smart. Of course, I was asking it from my own perspective, but when I started asking people who were a few years older and wiser than me, I realized that most of the people they looked up to had already gone to the more immediate presence of our Lord. So the question we need to ask ourselves is who is it in this room that we admire for their devotion to God? Look around…really… taking a second to look at your brothers and sisters in this room and let your heart tell you what it is which you admire about them. Have you ever appreciated the way someone read the scripture or the liturgy, how they brought a bible story to life because they’ve read it so many times? Have you been moved when a person in your bible study prayed such a wonderful prayer and perhaps thought to yourself that you could never say such beautiful things to God? Have you ever been impressed with how someone always seems to be at worship, week after week, year after year, because you know they really love Jesus Christ? Well, the thing that you need to do next is find the courage to find that person after the service and share with them that gift from the Holy Spirit which you see in them. And when someone comes up to you and says that they notice the Spirit working within you, the greatest gift that you can ever give someone is to ask them to be a part of what God has already given you. If they have noticed that you are gifted in prayer, ask them to join you for your next time of devotion. If someone notices how good you are with tools, invite that person to help you the next you fix something. If someone says you have a gift for teaching, invite them to teach a Sunday school class this year.
Starting this type of education is difficult in its own right. Having the courage to point out the gifts that God gave other people is not always the easiest thing to do, but it’s a good first step. The second step is that mentoring relationship where you share your knowledge with the person who seeks it, and in the process, you get to know each other better, as you will get to know God better. The third step, in my opinion, is the hardest of all. I got this idea from the last place I would have ever imagined to bring into the church…my fraternity. We had four responsibilities which we were to follow, and I think that three of them fit in. These three were to spend time, take pride, and replace yourself. We already spend the time doing things which we feel bring us closer to God. Taking pride in those things means that are willing to share it with others because we know that it is all because of God that we have those gifts. But replacing our self is usually the most difficult. It is taking the things we have learned from others and then finding someone else who is receptive to the things you are going to share with them. That is the most difficult part of the learning process…starting the third generation of student teacher interaction is the one that means you are doing it right.
I went to a church planting seminar at the end of May this year and I believe that Pastor Sayward attended the same conference a year before I did. One of the stories that the presenters told us was of a pastor who challenged his church of half a million people which were broken up into small groups to grow by 50,000 people within the next 6 months. It didn’t seem like the easiest of tasks, until you realized that each small group had about ten people in it, and all each group had to do was to find one person to share the love of God with. Now, as Moravians, we don’t work with such large numbers, but if we spend the time with people, first with our own brothers and sisters, and then actively seek out one other person to share our gifts and love with, we will have a movement which will fill our hearts until it overflows.
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