Opus 2011-253, On the Street: Opening Remarks

Teachers on my district have just gone through two days of preparation and the students are scheduled to arrive Wednesday to begin the new year.  Tuesday was our day to prepare our room and do the final things we need to do.  Monday was the great wasteland.

We have a new superintendent of schools.  Our last one did the thing that every tax payer is complaining about.  He came, stayed a few years at a much inflated salary, and retired at the high level.  It is called spiking.  No teachers I know of can do it but the top three administrators on our district just lived up to the stereotype of educators.

The new guy decided to revive the tradition of having an all district meeting the first day.  We were all sitting in the high school auditorium, janitors, bus drivers, office workers, teachers, administrators.  I was trying to figure out who the new guy was.  The only problem was that he wasn’t there and no one knew where he was.  He finally arrived about 20 minutes late and said he had a flat tire and then missed the off ramp from the freeway.  Right.  Did he ever hear about that modern invention called a telephone?  He could have called, or answered the one the district provided him with.

So he gave his speech.  I have been teaching 25 years and I keep waiting for them to come up with something new.  It still hasn’t happened.  Let me see if I got all his points.  Failure is not an option.  Students will rise to the level of our expectations.  Self esteem is key.  And at no extra charge he complained about how much we are spending on prisons.  Those are all wonderful sentiments that are totally worthless when it comes to running a school district. 

By “failure is not an option” he explained that no student should be “allowed” to fail.  If they do no work we are supposed to keep coming back with new strategies until they kick in and become self motivated dynamos.  He implied that the day was coming in which the entire teaching team would have to agree that a student should fail.  The measure would not be "did the study try."  The measure would be did the teacher try every single possible strategy to make them successful.  I wonder what flavor kool aide these people drink.

By having high expectations they mean that we keep making it easier to pass.  In other words, we establish high expectations by lowering the bar.  For instance, last year we were being told that we should make 20% a passing grade.  Another example.  The text books we use are a much lower reading level that the last.  And the kids still can’t understand them.

And of course, self esteem.  I will admit some people have some issues but not the students they are talking about.  They are supposed to learn to feel good about themselves no matter how lazy and incompetent they are.  I personally think it might help if we taught them some skills that they could be proud of, but I am a dinosaur. 

That was just the first, all district meeting.  Maybe I will get into our local meeting some other time.

Let the new year begin.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-252, The Need for Change

If you have the time go dig out your copy of The Screwtape Letters and read letter number 25.  Go ahead, I’ll wait.  If you don’t have a copy get one.  If you won’t get one then you will need t take my word for what it says.  If you have only time to read C.S. Lewis or me, go with Lewis.

This is a part of the book where I found myself copying entire paragraphs.  I will try to respond to what Lewis says, not just copy him.

I think a good Bible quotation Lewis might have used was:

(Proverbs 24:21 KJV)  My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:

First Lewis points out that God made us to enjoy change.

“To experience much of it, therefore, they must experience many different things; in other words, they must experience change.  And since they need change, the Enemy (being a hedonist at heart) has made change pleasurable to them, just as He has made eating pleasurable.”  p. 136

Then Lewis balances it with our need for stability:

“But since He does not wish them to make change, an more than eating, an end in itself, he has balanced the love of change in them by a love of permanence.” p. 136

The balance is presented as rhythm and gives an example.

“He has contrived to gratify both tastes together in the very world He has made, by that union of change and permanence which we call Rhythm.  He gives them the season, each season different yet every year the same, so that spring is always felt as a novelty yet always as the recurrence of an immemorial theme.”    

We are built so that each year Spring is new to us.  I have been through it over 60 times and yet the smells and weather are always refreshing and renewing.  Have you ever had one of those days where there is something about the day, you just can’t put your finger on it.  Then you realize that in the middle of winter you found a hint of spring.  Picture how boring it would be if every day were spring. 

Why can’t we learn that lesson in our music?  We just finished VBS.  (That is Vacation Bible School for those of you who have no cultural background.)  As we were waiting for the closing program to begin the piano was playing all of the songs I had sung as a kid.  When my children came along we continued with many of the same choruses and added a few to enrich the mix.  I looked around and every adult in the sanctuary had that silly smile on their face of fond memory.  When the program began that was the end of memory lane.  All of the songs the kids sang were new.  Nothing existed from the past.

That would not necessarily be bad but I asked myself, “Will these kids be smiling in thirty years when someone plays one of these songs?  Will they remember the impact they had on their lives?”  I doubt it because they couldn’t even remember the songs that Sunday morning.  You may not have noticed but the music now comes with a taped accompaniment.  That you might have noticed but what you may not have been aware of was that the voices you heard coming over the PA were mostly from the tape, not the kids you were watching.  The price we pay for novelty is that the performers become spectators as well as the audience.  What they have not learned they will not remember.

When my kids were at the VBS age Maranatha Music put out a series of tapes featuring Psalty the singing Psalm book.  They worked the Maranatha magic.  They took old, established choruses and spiced them up.  They were new and old at the same time.  They mixed in some selected new songs and built them around a lesson in Christian character.  We would pop those in the tape deck as we drove and the entire family would enthusiastically join in the singing.  To this day, all you have to do is start singing one and the adult children will remember.

Change can be good.  Permanence can be good.  Lets learn to embrace them both. 

Lewis, C.S.  The Screwtape Letters.  Norwalk, Connecticut:  The Easton Press, 2002.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-251, On the Street: Man’s Noisiest Friend

Yesterday I was waiting for someone to come to the door.  Their dog was barking at me from the open window.  Since it was smaller than my shoe, I wasn’t worried.  The neighbor’s two dogs, much bigger, were acting like the neighborhood alarm clocks next door.  Since they were behind a strong fence, I wasn’t worried.  Since I wasn’t worried I had time to be irritated.  I started asking myself, “Why can’t those dogs lose their voices?”  Really, who ever heard of a dog going hoarse from barking too much?

The voice of my Original Sin whispered that it would be fun to go over and torment them to see how loud and long they could bark.  The voice of my inner scientist told me it could be a chance to put the scientific method to the test.  The coward in me screamed, “What if the owner opens the gate!”  Being a Christian and wanting to be kind and gracious, I listened to the coward.

But the question remains.  Why can dogs bark all night and feel no pain?  I guess we could also ask how our neighbors wife can talk all day and feel no pain?  Notice I am talking about my neighbor’s wife since I would know nothing about this personally.

Maybe dogs feel the pain but instinct overrules it.  I have heard of horses being ridden until they drop.  If it doesn’t kill them it makes them useless to ride.  A human would stop and refuse to go any further.  This could be a mark of the image of God that is built into people.  We don’t just react by instinct.  We have instincts.  They prompt us.  But we also have a mind, an intellect.  We have a sense of right and wrong.  We are not dogs.

That still doesn’t answer my question, but tomorrow is another day.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-250, Written Prayers

I was raised in a tradition that always prayed extemporaneously.  That means that you did not write your prayer out before-hand.  You may have had a general outline in mind, but you would stand up and start and expect the Lord to lead you.  As you can imagine this led to some long and totally disjoined rambling as well as some powerful intercession.  Another downside was that it tended to discourage new Christians in matters of prayer.  But it was assumed that only liberals read written prayers.

My liturgical friends used to be in awe of my ability to pray extemporaneously.  I could never figure out why they felt that way until I realized how dry and formal public prayer was in their churches.  Often they had prayers read that had been written months before, miles away, by people who never knew who they were.

I have had a revelation in this area.  Our associate pastor is in charge of the pastoral prayer time.  It took me a few weeks to realize that she was reading prayers that she had written out ahead of time.  It did not take me long to get over my shock because the prayers were really powerful.  She did not just throw something together.  She spent significant time deciding on how to word what needed to be presented.  She is a gentle soul.  She has the gifts of mercy and helps.  Behind the pulpit during prayer time she is transformed into an advocate.  She brings up things that I would hesitate to mention.  She talks politics.  She reproves, rebukes and corrects.  She calls them as she believes God sees them.  She also soothes and reassures.  It is a time of power.

So I have grown.  In September I am going to fill in for her as she goes on sabbatical.  I have already decided that part of my spiritual growth is to learn to present written prayers.  I am looking forward to that. 

I have broached the idea with her of posting the prayers she writes on my blog.  She is not interested in starting her own.  She seems open to the idea.  We would clean them up to protect identities and such but I think you might benefit.  If I can get her to do it.  I am not going to put on a lot of pressure, but I am hoping it will be something she would like to do.

Time will tell.  Meanwhile I am listening to her to try to get a feel for what makes her efforts so meaningful. 

Growth comes in many areas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-249, Body Attitudes

Wesley met two types of attitudes, the sheep stealers and the life boaters.  One disrupting, the other sharing.

As I have been reading his journals I occasionally come across entries like this:

April 28, 1782 “Coming to Congleton, I found the Calvinists were just breaking in, and striving to make havoc of the flock.  Is this brotherly love?  Is this doing as we would be done to?  No more than robbing on the highway.  But if it is decreed, they cannot help it:  So we cannot blame them.” (Emphasis in original)

We see the same attitudes today.  The guilty parties can be Calvinists, Arminians, Pentecostals, Catholics, you name it.  They are people who have serious disagreements.  I disagree with most of them, but they all believe in a core of basics such as the divinity of Christ and salvation through grace.  (Yes, even the Catholics believe in salvation through grace.  The disagreements are on how and why, not what.)  Instead of going after the cults, pagans and atheists, they raid the folds of neighboring shepherds.

Wesley also ran into the opposite attitude.

November 1, 1785, “When I came to Northhampton, the new Presbyterian meeting house was offered me, twice as large as our own.”

This is the way it should be.  This is why so many Sunday worshipers cooperate with Saturday worshipers.  This is why non-English congregations are allowed to rent space. 

John Wesley was an Arminian.  George Whitefield was a Calvinist.  They had their disagreements and some serious head butting.  But they always came back to seeing each other as brothers in Christ.  In fact, Whitefield had Wesley preach his funeral. 

Brothers and sisters, lets stop the sheep stealing and get to changing the world.

Wesley, John.  The Works of John Wesley, Volume IV, Third Edition.  Kansas City:  Beacon Hill
    Press of Kansas City, 1979.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-248, Headlines: What Is a Jihad Social Club?

I followed a link from the Drudge Report about the fighting in Israel.  In reading  I came across this paragraph found HERE.

"The IDF responded in force early Thursday, killing two Palestinians and wounding at least 20 in an airstrike on what the army said was an arms depot in the northern Gaza Strip. Earlier, Palestinian sources said the site hit in the strike was an Islamic Jihad social club."

My guess is that we have a lesson in synonyms here.  It would seem that an arms depot and an Islamic Jihad Social Club are the same thing.  Maybe a sign on the door says, “Rockets R Us.”  Their motto could be “bring us your tired, downtrodden and poor rockets, yearning to be set free.”

Is anybody listening or are all heads in the sand?

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-247, Be a Giant

I believe I have mentioned before my gratitude for the shoulders of the giants that we stand on.  I think of my reading.  Some you have heard of such as Wesley and Bonhoeffer.  Others walked paths you have never crossed such as Herbert Schlossberg.  There are enough giants to go around.  I think of my daily walk.  I touch giants as I sit in church or as I listen to pod-casts.  I thank God for the giants

How many giants are out there today?  I don’t mean the big names, I mean the ones that are faithfully passing on the wisdom God gives them.  Some are pastors in small churches.  Some are teachers.  I wish I could say many, but most follow the drum of the world.  Then there are voices on the internet.  I think of ones I have discovered such as Gorges Grouse, Christian Ear to name two that make me think on a regular basis.

How many Giants were not aware?  I don’t think most of them were trying to be giants as much as simply being faithful.  Did Paul know he was writing for eternity or was he mainly concerned about correcting the local churches he wrote to?  Did Wesley know that people would be reading his journals hundreds of years later?  Did Brother Lawrence know that he would be an inspiration for millions?  Did Tchaikovsky know that the Nutcracker Suite would become a Christmas classic?  Did Jesus..., well, yes, I guess He did know.

How many great artists were not famous until after they died?  How many parents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, strangers on a bus have passed on influence that they were never aware of?

Are you a giant?  Will you be a giant?  Probably not if that is your goal.  Part of being a real giant is selfless servanthood.  Remember when Jesus was talking to the faithful.  Remember their response.

(Matthew 25:44 KJV)  Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

Be a giant today by being faithful and obedient.  Allow the Holy Spirit to use your life to make an impact.  You probably won’t know about it until half way through eternity but God will know now.  The person standing on your shoulders may not even be aware of it, but God will let him know when the time is ripe.

homo unius libri