Creekside Church Sermon of September 7, 1997 "We Need a Teacher " Mark 1:21-28	Rev. David Bibbee
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He finally completed his opus. It was composed of the lives of those he taught and touched, like the awkward red-haired girl who was an atrocious clarinet player who couldn't match up with her musical siblings and live up to her parent's expectations. Years later, she returned to Mr. Holland's surprise farewell as Governor. Speaking to an auditorium packed with appreciative former students, she testified to the influence that one man had on so many. "Look around you," she said. "We are the notes and the melody of your opus. We are the music of your life."

Let's think about the influence one life can have upon another. In particular, let's look at the influence of a good teacher. My grade school teachers are all gone now. Some of my college prof.s are now in retirement communities. But all are very much a part of me; their lessons still reverberating in my life. They help me remember that an education is what you have left after you have forgotten all of the facts. On this day of focusing upon the ministry of teaching in the church, I want to stress the necessity of having devoted, dedicated teachers who bring us before the Educator who came to teach us, by word and act, how to live.

Jesus had just begun his ministry. Having selected his first disciples, he went to the synagogue at Capernaum. The synagogue was primarily a place of instruction and reflection, where the faithful prayed, read the scriptures, and listened to the scribes expound upon their meaning. Mark isn't much for detail, but by placing Jesus in a synagogue at the start of his ministry, Mark is telling us something. Before anyone is healed, before he feeds the five thousand, before he calms the storm, walks on water, or performs a miracle of any kind, Jesus is teaching, which is to say that this was the principal part of his ministry. Of all the titles which Jesus was named, he was called Rabbi, Teacher, more than any other.

Mark says those in attendance were astonished by his teaching because he taught with authority. It wasn't an elected or appointed authority. It wasn't an achieved authority that had a Ph.D. tacked to the end of it. Jesus was the authority he spoke. The people knew they were in the presence of a radically different sort of teacher than the cut and dried, "let me simply quote what the law says" sort of authority. A man with a troubled spirit knew who he was, and broke the decorum of the meeting by screaming, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? I know who you are. You are the holy one of God!"

Jesus ordered the sick man to be silent and healed him, and everyone was amazed. "What is this? A new teaching?" We don't know what Jesus said that day, but a lesson changed a life. Jesus spoke a truth to be trusted, a truth that healed, a truth that could free captive hearts. They had never heard or seen anything like it.

This week I was stopped at the hospital by a nurse who is doing a research project for a sociology class. She asked me to identify three problems that pose the greatest threat to our society. How would you answer? I said, "The growing gap between the rich and poor, the educated and the uneducated. The emphasis upon individual rights over community responsibility, and this is related to a third problemþthe erosion of basic morality that values civility, respect, and responsibility, and this erosion has led to giving equal weight to every opinion, be they right or wrong. Senator Patrick Moynihan wrote about the troubling tendency of redefining and normalizing what is wrong in our society. Because violence is so pervasive we get used to it, numbed by it, and we lose our capacity for outrage against it. People shrug their shoulders, look the other way, and feel overwhelmed and powerless to change anything. There is no shortage of political, sociological, or psychological fixes, but the real need is for instruction from a teacher with authority over all that ails us.

Life today has a way of slapping us silly. This is why we don't need an "authoritarian" teacher, but a teacher whose authority is established upon truth, love, and the desire for people's growth and change. We need a teacher whose authority makes clear a different way to live; whose authority is derived from God. We need a teacher like Jesus.

A major study was done which examined the most pervasive needs in the contemporary church. Do you know what they found? The most frequently requested ministry is teaching. People grapple to make sense of what is happening in their lives and world. They're looking for a place to stand, an anchor to hold fast to while being lashed by social storms. This is why we must recognize the importance of the teaching ministry, and not accept a half-hearted emphasis upon it. We need to remember the power which good teachers have in caringly and courageously sharing what makes for the good life. It is important for us all to reflect upon teachers who shaped and are shaping still our lives.

There was an eleventh grader who walked into a class to wait for a friend. The teacher, Mr. Washington appeared, and he asked him to go to the board to work on a math problem. "I can't." "Why not?" "I'm not one of your students." "Go to the board anyway." "I can't." "Why not?" Embarrassed the student said, "Because I'm educable mentally retarded." The teacher came from behind his desk and said, "Don't ever say that again. Someone's opinion doesn't have to become your reality." The other students knew he was in Special Ed. and laughed at him, but the teacher's words were at the same time liberating.

The young man had failed twice. Labeled retarded in the fifth grade, he was put back in the fourth grade. He failed again in the eighth grade. But Mr. Washington believed no one rises to low expectations. One day near the end of his junior year, he overheard Mr. Washington addressing the seniors in the auditorium. He slipped in and sat down. Mr. Washington told the seniors, "You have greatness within you. You can touch peoples lives." The young man felt Mr. Washington was talking directly to him. He caught him in the parking lot. "Mr. Washington, do you remember me? I just heard you talk to the seniors." "But you're a junior." "I know, but I heard your voice, and as I listened, I realized your speech was meant for me. Is there greatness within me, Sir?" "Yes, Mr. Brown." "But I failed English, Math and History and have to take summer school. I'm slow." "It doesn't matter. It just means you'll have to work harder. Grades don't determine who you are or what you'll produce." "I want to buy my mother a house." "It's possible Mr. Brown. You can do that." And he turned to walk away. "Mr. Washington?" "What now?" "I'm the one, Sir. Remember me. Remember my name. One day you're gonna hear it."

Most of his teachers had passed him on because he was nice, but Mr. Washington held him accountable...made him believe he could do it. Mr. Washington became his instructor during the senior year. His grades improved. He took speech and drama. For the first time he made the honor roll. Mr. Washington had given him a bigger vision of himself beyond labels, grades, and circumstance. And years later, Mr. Brown, Mr. Les Brown produced five specials for public television. Some friends called Mr. Washington when one of Les' programs was aired. That night he called Les in Detroit.

"May I speak to Mr. Brown please?" "Who's calling?" "You know whose calling." "Mr. Washington, it's you!" "You were the one, weren't you?" "Yes Sir, I was."

We need teachers to tell us that other's opinion don't have to become our reality. We need teachers to tell us that the world's reality isn't the only one to conform to. "Don't be conformed to this world," Paul said, "but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." John Wesley said there is really only one miracle that matters, and that is a life changed by Jesus Christ. So much of changing a life involves changing minds, and we need teachers to do that. A confused, frightened man, not in his right mind screamed in the synagogue, and the teacher spoke and he was healed.

There's a lot about life that leaves us frightened, disturbed, and confused. Our need isn't for a doctor so much as a teacher with truth and authority to transform the way we think and live. We need teachers who situate themselves in the stream of Jesus' authority, and motivate us not simply toward another way, but the best way.

Rick Ward remembers a group of Korean men who were part of the church where he grew up. They were in the states for some specialized training. Several of them became Christians and were baptized before returning home. As an expression of gratitude, they commissioned a work of art and sent it back to the little Baptist church. When it arrived, no one at first saw anything very special about it. It was a rather gray, monochrome picture of Jesus. Then someone looking at it in detail said, "Come look at this."

When you got close, you saw the entire text of the New Testament. The artist crafted and shaded the words in such a way that the image of Jesus came through. If you stared too long at the detail, you would get dizzy. You had to stand back for the image to appear.

Here's a helpful picture for us. The words we speak and the stories we tell in worship and Sunday school form the image of our teacher. Our understandings are sometimes incomplete and we struggle with how to piece it all together, but we trust that the Holy Spirit will take the words and stories we speak, and shape them into the image of Him whom we seek.

Thank you to William Willimon for the sermon seed that inspired this message, and to Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen for the story of Mr. Washington.

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