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| Teaching is Learning Psalm 78:1-7
Who was your favorite teacher? As I say that do you have a picture of that person - or persons, in mind? One who made you think - drew you out of your shell, inspired you to go beyond the requirements – one who made you laugh and was able to laugh at her/himself and yet find the serious purpose in any course of study -- one who sought truth? Miss Symmes was my second grade teacher, a small woman with long dresses and a bun. I thought she was ancient at the time but I loved her. She insisted that we learn the basics backward and forward. To that end she used a small rubber mallet to “pound numbers into our head” Up and down the aisles she would walk pounding in 7 + 8 = 15 or another combination. None of us ever forgot. She did not forget us either. Forty-two years later I had the privilege of being part of a delegation from Princeton Theological Seminary who went to her home to receive her gift of her father’s papers and drawings. The Rev. Frank Symmes was the prominent preacher and pastor of the Old Tennent Church. As I entered, I said, “Miss Symmes, you probably won’t remember me….” And she jumped in, “Of course I remember you Suzanne Pogue, and I’ve followed your ministry.” She was a model of integrity and high standards, and one who cared greatly for her students – even following them for decades. Rodney. Sheratsky was twenty-one when he arrived at our high school, fresh out of college. Our honors English class felt compelled to “break him in.” He was a good sport and a wonderfully inventive teacher, making us search out information in new ways, challenging us to read more extensively and write more clearly. He picked on one student – one who had some physical problems and was something of a wise guy. Once he really “lost it” with this student. After class, I marched up with fire in my eye to tell this teacher how wrong he had been. He listened to my tirade about the boy’s physical malady, and after reminding me that he was the teacher and I was the student, said he would think about what I had said. The next day he apologized to the boy publicly and reminded us that just as compassion is necessary so is student responsibility. He was willing to listen and learn even as he taught us. He went on to be honored as “teacher of the year” in his district, his state, and one of several in the country. He was a great teacher. Did you ever stop to think how powerful people like this have been in your life? What a difference s/he made in the way you saw and lived in the world? The author of Psalm 78 is a teacher, telling a story of God‘s way with Israel, creatively shaping the material of Israel’s tradition and past. His purpose is to inform, and perhaps correct, and to nurture the faith of his listeners. This is not a research paper with absolute attention to historical accuracy, but a way to show that the past had a bearing on the present and future of the people. It also instructs his hearers about the perils and promise of being the people of God. As the psalm goes on beyond what we heard to day, it moves from the recitation of God’s marvelous deeds, to the failure of the people, God wrath in response, and an account of God’s grace in maintaining the relationship with a sinful people. Lessons are to be learned from what happened in the past so that those in the present will not repeat the mistakes of their forebearers. The psalm affirms that remembering and telling are essential to existence as the people of God. We’re family whose identity is maintained across generations because parents tell the children who tell their children, how are why they are the people of God, and what that means. We learn of the wondrous acts of God and our responsibility in response. It also teaches each generation to praise God and to learn to trust God in all things. The dangers which the psalm lists includes wanting more and more, instead of being satisfied with what God provides, and worshipping other gods, and the consequences of such actions. Oh, we have much to learn - and are in need of hearing the story again, lest we find ourselves in rebellion against God, and testing the One whom we say we serve. What God offers is life - salvation, blessing, love; - and judgment as well - but in the end, always Grace. We learn that when people fail, God never fails. God’s mercy and forgiveness is what keeps us going and telling the story. Isn’t that what our parents and grandparents have taught us? Isn’t that what we try to teach our children and grandchildren? We learn other things as well - not the good
and savory things but prejudice and hatred. Oscar Hammerstein wrote
powerful lyrics about that in “South Pacific” This morning I opened the Washington Post and saw that one political party is “going to get personal” in this fall campaign. They will spend 90% of $50 million dollars to dig up dirt on their opponents and place negative ads. What does that teach our young people? Is this what democracy now looks like – a state where we look for the worst in people? Where we dig up unsavory things to say? Where we teach fear and hatred? The text in Matthew speaks of the confrontation between Jesus and the religious authorities who gather in fear and hatred. It differs greatly from that of Mark. In Mark’s account a friendly scribe asks a sincere question, Jesus replies positively, commending the young man and declaring that he is not far from the kingdom of God. Matthew’s account is part of the controversy
series. A lawyer poses the question - not in a friendly manner,
but as a challenge. The Pharisees have already tried entrapment
with a question about the need to pay taxes, and a question of whose
wife a 7-time widow will be in the resurrection. For Matthew this
is reminiscent of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness - a
confrontation of good and evil. Jesus’ answer is the two-fold
command to love God and love neighbor- commandments of equal importance
and inseparable from one another. It is a unity that is key to interpreting
all of God‘s revelation in both the Law and the Prophets.
Love is at the nexus of Jesus’ teaching. Jesus has already
taught that love is central in life and that neighbor includes those
called enemies. This is the love that is born in God‘s own
nature, made known in Christ; it is love “unmotivated and
unmanipulated, unconditional and unlimited… not a matter of
feeling but of commitment and action.” (p.425 New Interpreter’s
Bible Commentary, M. Eugene Boring) There are teachers in our churches who give their time and energy and talents to helping us learn those great truths. Teachers like Miss Coombs, who insisted that we learn scripture by heart. She would walk down our street and stop our games and say Luke 10:25 and I’d better be able to recite the parable of the good Samaritan. Or Mrs. Horn, so cripple with arthritis, but with such a twinkle in her eye and such love of Christ in her heart. She made me want to know her Jesus. There are teachers who pound things into our heads and some of us who need that. There are teachers who invite questions and help us find connections we never dreamed were there. There are teachers who think “outside the box” and challenge us to grow in ways we never thought possible. These wonderful teacher have molded and shaped us and have spoken God’s truth. Those who have inspired us and sent us on our way have heard our questions and challenges and encouraged us to find the truth for ourselves. Those who have shared their faith in God through Christ have lived that truth and exemplified what is good and holy. We are in their debt to remember and tell the story of faith to the next generation and those who follow. “A teacher affects eternity; he (she) can never tell where his (her) influence stops.” Says Henry Brooks Adams Other have said, “To teach is to learn twice” (Jos. Joubert 1754-1824 ); “Even while they teach men learn” (Seneca 4bc-ad 65); “The touchstone of knowledge is the ability to teach.” (Anon. Medieval) And there is Jesus, whose words bore the authority
of God; whose compassion embraced the least and last and lost; whose
strength withstood the fierce challenges of the religious leadership
and its protection of the status quo; whose steadfast love confronted
hostility and disbelief; whose teachings we try to emulate; whose
life was, and is, a paradigm for living into the future that God
has ordained for us. Jesus: who “with strength and peace and
magnetism,...draws, attracts, invites and pulls (us) closer to listen
as Jesus speaks, to learn as Jesus teaches.” (Rev. Bruce Tacy). |
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God
Is Still Speaking www.stillspeaking.com |
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