A Far-Out Teacher
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
With summer winding down and back-to-school planning on the minds of the young people and teachers in our congregations, "educator-astronaut" Barbara R. Morgan got a head start on the new school year this past week by teaching a class from space. The class was a bittersweet reminder of Christa McAuliffe, the martyred astronaut-teacher from the Challenger disaster -- and in fact, Ms. Morgan was McAuliffe's understudy for that ill-fated flight. The connection between the two was further underscored by anxiety about a gouge in the current space shuttle's heat-protective tiles, which could lead to a disaster upon re-entry. We all hope and pray for Endeavour's safe return -- and we'll know the outcome in the next few days, as Hurricane Dean has forced a change in the shuttle's scheduled landing date.
In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Barbara Jurgensen notes that the Lord tells Jeremiah in this week's Old Testament passage, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy'; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you..." (Jeremiah 1:7). In making available a schoolroom lesson from space -- especially at a time when the future of the mission itself is in some jeopardy -- NASA is highlighting the importance of educating those who are "only a boy," or "only a girl." Barb points out that to truly prepare our young people for the challenges they face, we need to draw on the wisdom of the greatest teacher of all. Team member Steve McCutchan offers an additional perspective, and suggests that while we may instinctively distrust so-called "experts," we need to resist the temptation of anti-intellectualism. After all, Steve reminds us, God has provided us with brains capable of remarkable reasoning power, and our challenge is to use them with humility in the service of God's purposes.
A Far-Out Teacher
by Barbara Jurgensen
THE WORLD
Talk about one far-out teacher!
When Barbara R. Morgan began teaching her class on Tuesday, August 14, her students were in Idaho but she was out in space, orbiting the earth aboard the International Space Station.
Ms. Morgan showed the class, watching her at the Discovery Center of Idaho in Boise, how she and her three male colleagues could play toss with a softball, down their drinks in microgravity -- and how she could get her exercise by lifting two of the men.
Students were given time to ask questions, such as, "What do the stars look like from out there in space?"
The astronauts explained that because space has no atmosphere, the stars do not seem to twinkle as they do here on earth. And it's hard to see the stars anyway because the space station is so brightly lighted.
Back here on earth, as students and teachers head back to school, it's good to remember that every child needs a good education, and that every child is important -- which was what the astronauts were trying to remind us.
The prophet Jeremiah also reminds us of this. When the Lord called Jeremiah at a very young age to follow him and do his work with him, Jeremiah said, "I'm only a boy."
But the Lord said, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy'; for you shall go to all whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you" (Jeremiah 1:7).
Are we getting our children ready to do the work the Lord is calling them to?
THE WORD
Our Jeremiah text this week echoes the words of John 15:16, where Jesus says to us, "You did not choose me but I chose you."
Our faith is a gift. The Lord said to Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5)
The good news is that the Lord came not only to Jeremiah but that he is coming to us as well -- he came to us, he is coming to us, and he will continue to come to us. The good news is that the Lord can work through us, just as he worked through Jeremiah.
Our Psalm text builds on this: "For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother's womb" (Psalm 71:5-6).
Our Luke text reminds us that our Lord works with us, not only before we were born but throughout our lives. And just as he straightened up the woman who had been painfully bent over for 18 years, he can straighten us up in whatever ways we need.
Our Hebrews text speaks of "the spirits of the righteous made perfect" (12:23) when they reach the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, reminding us that he who has begun a good work in us will continue it until the day when we at last see him, face to face.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
It's a big job, being a teacher. Barbara Morgan found that out in space. A teacher needs to figure out what their students already know -- and what they need to know -- and take it from there to lead them along toward the goal.
When you think of it, in one way or another all of us are teachers. Parents have a big job, teaching their children how to cope with the many problems they'll meet up with in this world. And grandparents and uncles and aunts can do their share of teaching too.
Children who have younger brothers and sisters find themselves having to show the younger ones many things -- how to throw a football, how to make a grilled cheese sandwich, how to ride a bicycle.
On-the-job trainers need to be able to help new employees develop the skills they'll need to do their work. And of course, schoolteachers and college professors are responsible for helping students move along from one skill and understanding level to the next.
Then there's the Lord, who's trying to help us become the people that he sees that we can become. And he apparently begins this even before we first see the light of day, as he did with Jeremiah.
So what does the Lord have in mind for you? What might he be preparing you for? What abilities and aptitudes has he given you? What exciting things might he have in mind for you to be doing as you move through your life?
It's a fascinating thought that the Lord begins working with us from our earliest days, trying to help us gain not only the skills we need for life such as the 3 Rs -- reading, writing, and arithmetic -- but also wisdom.
We each need to grow in wisdom, in our ability to see what's really, ultimately important in life. We need to discover what's really worth living for. Our lives can be much more than just eating, sleeping, doing whatever work we need to do, then numbing our minds with our TV, our computer, and our other electronic gadgets.
Because the Lord calls us to a great adventure with him. First, he calls us into a relationship with him: He will be our Father and we will be his much-loved children. We know that he already loves us with all his heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, and he calls us to love him in the same way in return.
And the Lord is busy building his loving community, calling each of us to love those around us as we love ourselves -- a big order, one that we can't fulfill perfectly, and certainly not by ourselves, but one that, with his help, we can work at day by day throughout our lives.
Sometimes this doesn't make sense to us. We tend to think that if we instead just concentrate on ourselves, if we just concentrate on getting all the things we'd like to have for ourselves, that then we'll be the happiest. But if we look at the people around us who live that way, we'll find that, no matter how much they get, they never seem to have enough. There always seems to be something more, something that if they could just have that, then they're sure they could be happy.
But it's as if the goal keeps moving on, because each time they get what they thought would be the ultimate thing, something more that they really, really want appears on the horizon.
But if we say to our Lord: "Here I am. I'd like to live your way. I'd like to use whatever gifts and abilities you've given me to do your work with you. So here I am; take me, train me, use me. Let me be your follower, going where you go, doing what you do." If we say this to him, the Lord will be pleased to do this in your life and mine. He'll come into our lives and help us to become the people that he intends us to become. And we will know the greatest sense of fulfillment, of purpose, of our life having meaning.
We can say, "Lord, teach me. Teach me, every day, throughout my life."
Now there's a really far-out teacher.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Stephen McCutchan
As I write, experts have declared that the space shuttle Endeavour is safe for re-entry. By the time you read this, hopefully the astronauts will be safely back on Earth. But given some of the recent stories of ineptitude by supposed experts, how would you like to trust your life to some experts who are willing to say, from a position of safety, that they are 100% sure that it is safe? David Halberstam coined the phrase "the best and the brightest" to speak of the young intellectuals that surrounded President Kennedy and resulted in our getting into the Vietnam War. Many would suggest an equally intellectually bright crew, often referred to as the neo-conservatives, convinced the current administration that they should invade Iraq.
When you are in your next social conversation about some complex issue, test out the response to your saying "Experts agree that..." On the other hand, if we don't trust those who have applied their knowledge to such issues, who do we trust? From political campaigns to decisions about what to teach in schools to our response to military decisions, we seem to want to rely more on how we feel at the moment than applying our intellect to the problem. I would suggest that currently we are once again going through an anti-intellectual phase within our country.
One of the problems confronting our students as they return to school is the tone of anti-intellectualism that seems to be prevalent among many in our society. Who do you turn to as you are deciding your response on such subjects as evolution, climate change, biblical interpretation, etc.? There is a whole industry that makes a great deal of money out of bringing disrespect to the conclusion of experts in these fields. How do you encourage young people to study hard and develop an intelligent foundation for their lives while at the same time disdaining those who have studied hard and developed an intelligent foundation for their understanding in specific areas?
In such a complex society as we live in, and with so many examples of the failure of our leaders to apply the best thinking of our society to our problems, is it any wonder that many of our youth feel overwhelmed? Understandably, they might reply as did Jeremiah when he was called to be a leader in a society that was falling apart: "Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." Yet, in this passage Jeremiah is coming to a new understanding of the sovereignty of God that includes both time and space and Jeremiah's role in what God was doing: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."
What if we were to convey to our young people that the reason that they need to apply themselves to their studies is that they are part of something much larger than themselves? From a perspective of faith, each of us is invited to sense God's call in our own lives. When we sense that call, we are invited to ask what God's intentions are for our lives in the larger context of God's work. For what purpose did God provide for our birth?
At a variety of levels in our society, we are asking our young people to prepare themselves to play their part in the unfolding of God's purpose in a world that appears to be experiencing a great deal of chaos. Of course such an understanding is frightening. It is so tempting to keep silent in the faith and to feel inadequate in the face of the complex issues of our society. There is always someone who knows the Bible better than we do or has a better argument about the issues. Jeremiah was called by God to proclaim the faith at a time when society was falling apart. He was called to challenge the experts of both faith and politics, and boldly interpret what God was saying in the midst of chaos. His first response was to resist the call and point out his youth as an excuse. Like Moses before him, he felt overwhelmed by the challenge.
God's response was that God would be present and provide the words and the courage to respond. That conviction would be one of the most precious gifts we could provide our students as they continue their studies. So many Christians have withdrawn into a private faith and refused to provide our society with a framework to understand what God is doing in our midst. While it takes courage to speak in the midst of our chaos, Christ has promised to be with us as we teach the nations (Matthew 28:19-20), and God touches our mouths so that we might provide understanding in the midst of confusion.
Our society cannot afford to bow to the idol of anti-intellectualism. God has provided us with a brain to use and, as God said of all creation, it is very good. We are challenged to use the minds that God has provided us. We do so with full awareness that intellectual thought can get us into big problems if it is shaped by a false pride. However, when it is utilized with a humility that it is in the service of God and God's purposes, our brains are a gift that can be a blessing for the whole world.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Because the word that God speaks to us is always an incarnate word -- a word spelled out to us not alphabetically, in syllables, but enigmatically, in events, even in the books we read and the movies we see -- the chances are we will never get it just right. We are so used to hearing what we want to hear and remaining deaf to what it would be well for us to hear that it is hard to break the habit. But if we keep our hearts and minds open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize, beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear him, he is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, his word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling.
-- Frederick Buechner, Now and Then (Harper & Row, 1983)
***
Jesus had a way of putting things that time does not wear out. He might have discussed neighborliness in the abstract, like a lawyer analyzing in terms of current practice. Had he done so, we probably should never have heard of it. Instead, he personified neighborliness in the good Samaritan, making him stand out in vivid contrast with the unneighborly priest and Levite, so that not only did his contemporaries grasp his meaning, but we do also. Personal incarnations have a perennial continuance in the understanding of the race. Abstract condemnations of economic greed have been both frequent and transient, but the rich man who "feasted sumptuously every day," while "a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores," begged at his gate has not been transient; nor that other rich man who said to his soul, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry." Such incarnations walk the streets of New York and London as plainly as they walked the streets of Jerusalem.
-- Henry Emerson Fosdick, The Man from Nazareth
***
In the fifth grade, if we were done with our classwork we were allowed to raise our hand and get permission from the teacher to go to the library to get a book. Because I loved to read, I would race through the work. Tired of my constant handwaving, Mr. Grasso finally told me one morning, "When you are done with your work, you may quietly leave the room to go to the library. You don't have to raise your hand any more."
In the 10th grade, my American History teacher, Mrs. Mozingo, asked me to stay after class one day. She simply said to me, "I see that you are bored in this class. Here are some books I think you should read. We can talk about them after school."
In my senior year at high school, Mr. Everett, my homeroom teacher, wrote in the yearbook, "To Thom, who can become whoever he wants, if he would only believe in himself."
In college, Fred White, Ken Keeton, and host of other professors played roles in my life that, back then, I did not see. They were my mentors, my nudgers, my supporters, my critics. They were my teachers and my friends.
In seminary, Wellford Hobbie, Betty Achtemeier, Doug Ottati, and so many others lived out the faith taught in the classrooms. In the hallways, on the quad, in a hospital room, around a lunch table, they did their best to help us understand that ministry was more than just an academic endeavor.
School is starting this month, and I give thanks for all these people, and so many more, who taught me with more than words. What a great cloud of witnesses has enveloped me through my life!
-- Thom M. Shuman, "Occasional Sightings of the Gospel" (www.occasionalsightings.blogspot.com)
***
As we think about learning, much of the impact comes from examples that we learn from others. What are your examples -- both good and bad? Historian George Grant writes in Carry a Big Stick (Cumberland House, 1996):
By any measure Theodore Roosevelt was a remarkable man. Before his 50th birthday, he had served as a New York state legislator, the undersecretary to the Navy, police commissioner for the city of New York, U.S. Civil service commissioner, the governor of New York, the vice president under William McKinley, a colonel in the U.S. Army, and two terms as the president of the U.S.
By the time he was 50! And if that weren't enough to make you think you've done nothing with your life, Grant continues:
In addition, [Roosevelt] had run a cattle ranch in the Dakotas, served as a reporter and editor for several scientific journals, newspapers, and magazines, conducted scientific expeditions on four continents. He read at least five books every week of his life, and wrote nearly fifty books on an astonishing array of subjects from history and biography to natural science and social criticism. He was a hunter, boxer, and wrestler; a taxidermist, botanist, ornithologist, and astronomer. He was a devoted family man who raised six children and had a lifelong romance with his wife. (So, what have you done with your life?)
And yet, when he came to write his own autobiography, as many former presidents do, it wasn't about leaving a legacy or rewriting history or sweeping scandals under the rug. Roosevelt wrote this about himself:
In most things I am just about average; in some of them a little under, rather than over. I am only an ordinary walker. I can't run. I am not a good swimmer, although I am a strong one. I probably ride better than anything else I do, but I am certainly not a remarkably good rider. I am not a good shot. I never could be a good boxer, although I do keep at it. My eyesight prevents me from being a good tennis player, even if otherwise I could qualify. I am not a brilliant writer. I have written a great deal, but I always have to work and slave over everything I write. The things I have done are all, with the possible exception of the Panama Canal, just such things as any ordinary man could have done. There is nothing brilliant or outstanding in my record at all.
Roosevelt has many things to teach, but perhaps the greatest of these is humility.
***
In the late 19th century there was a Jewish family, living well in Germany. The father was a man of faith and made sure that his children were raised in the Jewish tradition. Life was good and the business was prosperous, until the economy turned and the family had to move to a nearby village in which the father set up his shop once again for a fresh start.
The difference in this new German village was that nearly 100% of the people were Lutherans (which was not so bad -- many of my best friends are Lutheran). But a Jewish family trying to make a living was an issue in that town. So one day the father came into the house and announced that from that day on, they would be Lutheran. The young boy asked, "How? How can we do that? How do we give up our faith and traditions?" But the father was not one that took kindly to criticism, particularly from his son.
That son eventually went to England for an excellent education, but was still in pain, emotionally and spiritually, trying to sort this out years after the fact. How do you give up a core belief so easily, so dramatically, and for what reason? And there, in the library, this young college student wrote that religion was the opium of the masses -- and that the real force behind religion was not truth or salvation or forgiveness, but that it was motivated purely by economic considerations.
Karl Marx was profoundly embittered when he was let down by a leader, by a hero who was revealed to be a hypocrite. Karl Marx turned this one experience into a global axiom against the Christian Church. He learned his lesson well.
***
If you ever thought about the power you have with your children, listen to what Anna Quindlen wrote in Living Out Loud (Random House, 1988):
At two o'clock in the morning, I am awakened by the appearance of a person no taller than a fire hydrant, only his black eyes visible over the horizon of the mattress. "What do you want?" I whispered. "Nothing," he whispered back.
What can have awoken my younger son and brought him down from the third floor to stand here in his blue pajamas, watching me until I stirred? It usually boils down to some small thing: a glass of water, a night light, a token rearrangement of the blanket. I always suspect that, if he could put it into words, the explanation would be something else entirely: reassurance that he is not alone in a darkened world, that nothing horrible is going to happen before daybreak, that someday he will sleep the sure, steady, deep sleep that his elder brother sleeps in the twin bed next to his own. His search for reassurance leads him to our bedroom that night where two terribly fallible people toss and turn but who still are the closest thing he knows to God.
This is what no one warns you about, when you decide to have children. There is so much written about the cost and the changes in your way of life, but no one ever tells you that what they are going to hand you in the hospital is power, whether you want it or not.
***
Many years ago at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, a young sociology professor assigned his class to a city slum to interview 200 boys. "On the basis of your finds, predict their future," he said.
Shocked at what they found in the slums, the students estimated that 90 per cent of the boys interviewed would some day serve time in prison.
Twenty-five years passed. The same professor asked another class to try to locate the survivors of the 200 boys and compare what had happened. Of 180 of the original boys located, only four had ever been in jail.
Why had the predictions not turned out? A common denominator was sought in their lives, some value or influence that may have marked the difference. Through more interviews, it was found that over 100 of the men remembered having the same high school teacher, a Miss O'Rourke, who had been a tremendous influence on them at the time.
After a long search, Sheila O'Rourke, then 70 years old, was found in a nursing home in Memphis. When asked for her explanation, she was puzzled. "All I can say," she concluded, "is that I loved every one of them."
***
Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again.... And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are?
We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move.
You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel?
You must work -- we must all work -- to make the world worthy of its children.
-- Pablo Casals
***
Did you know what was the first food ever consumed, and the first liquid ever poured out, on the surface of the moon? It was communion bread and wine.
Buzz Aldrin -- who along with fellow Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong were the first men on the moon -- was a Presbyterian elder. Before the mission began, his pastor, Dean Woodruff, had given him a tiny home communion kit, with a silver chalice and wine vial about the size of the tip of his finger.
During the morning he radioed, "Houston, this is Eagle. This is the LM pilot speaking. I would like to request a few moments of silence. I would like to invite each person listening in, whoever or wherever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the last few hours, and to give thanks in his own individual way."
"In the radio blackout," he wrote later, "I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, 'I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit.' I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the last minute Deke Slayton had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas. I agreed reluctantly... Eagle's metal body creaked. I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements."
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz_Aldrin#
http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/communion.html
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call to Worship
Leader: Before we got up this morning and decided to come to church,
People: God was waiting for us, to welcome us with grace.
Leader: When we are unsure of what to do,
when we falter before the next step,
People: we come to listen to God's voice,
to learn from the One who teaches us all we ever need to know.
Leader: When we are surrounded by cruelty and injustice,
when our fears cripple our souls,
People: God delivers us with steadfast love;
we are set free to be God's sons and daughters.
Prayer of the Day (and Our Lord's Prayer)
Rock of Ages:
when we are afraid and can only whisper our fear,
you bend over to listen to us.
When everyone acts as if they can't remember our name,
you know us as your Beloved.
When we cannot seem to tell others all that you have done for us,
you put the Word into our mouths.
And we tremble with praise.
Word of the Lord:
when others would weigh us down with shame and guilt,
you set us free with your joy.
when we are bent over by our doubts and questions,
you reach out to touch us with your hope and grace.
And we tremble with praise.
Refuge of Wisdom:
when we wander from one crippling spirit to the next,
yet once more, you lead us into hope.
When our fears shake us to the core,
yet once more, you touch us with your serenity.
When we cannot stand up and see our way,
yet once more, you take us by the hand to lead us home.
And we tremble with praise.
God in Community, Holy in One,
we tremble with praise and joy as we pray as Jesus has taught us,
Our Father . . .
Call to Reconciliation
When we were children, we learned not to touch hot things so we would not be burned.
If only avoiding sin were that easy!
But sin seems so comfortable, so easy, so harmless that we cannot stop ourselves
from reaching out to touch it over and over again.
Let us confess our sins to the One who chooses to forgive us and love us unconditionally.
(Unison) Prayer of Confession
Yet once more, we come to you with our prayers, Holy God.
Our crippling spirits keep us from following you.
Our grudges weigh us down until we cannot walk straight in your way.
Our anger becomes a fire which scorches our friends and loved ones.
Our fears blind us to the goodness in those we believe to be different.
Forgive us, God our Rock, and set us free from our wrongdoings and failures.
From the day of our birth, we have known your love, grace, and hope.
So may we offer you our joyful thanks, as Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior,
reaches out to touch us with your healing forgiveness.
(silence is kept)
Assurance of Pardon
Leader: God chooses not to turn a deaf ear to us, but to listen to our prayers.
God chooses not to shame us, but to save us.
People: This is indeed good news for us!
We are set free to drink deeply from the waters of life.
Thanks be to God! Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Standing on Two Feet
Purpose: To help children understand why religious education is essential to true life.
Material: No special material is needed.
Scriptural Background: "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good" (Psalm 14:1).
I would like each one of you to stand up this morning. Now, stand on just one foot -- and as soon as you lose your balance and have to touch the floor with the other foot, sit down. Some people find that they can stand on one foot for a long time, but such people usually have to concentrate on what they are doing to maintain their balance.
Now, everybody stand on two feet again. Which way is easier? Of course, it is much easier for us to stand or move about when we use both feet. Our feet give us a special stability in life when we use them properly.
This is also true in regard to the things we learn in life. All of you are (or will be) expected to go to school during the week. There are basic things that you must learn to be able to function properly in life as you grow up. But that education is just part of what you need. It is like standing on one foot.
In the church, we believe that in order to be a complete person you also need to learn the things that are offered to you on Sunday in the church school program. This is like the second foot that enables you to stand or move about through life.
So I hope you will remember how important it is to get a complete education. Your Sunday education is just as important as your weekday education. I hope you will pay attention both here in church and at school, so that you can learn all the important things you need for life.
(from Open My Eyes, by Kenneth A. Mortonson, CSS Publishing Co., 1996)
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, August 26, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Barbara Jurgensen notes that the Lord tells Jeremiah in this week's Old Testament passage, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy'; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you..." (Jeremiah 1:7). In making available a schoolroom lesson from space -- especially at a time when the future of the mission itself is in some jeopardy -- NASA is highlighting the importance of educating those who are "only a boy," or "only a girl." Barb points out that to truly prepare our young people for the challenges they face, we need to draw on the wisdom of the greatest teacher of all. Team member Steve McCutchan offers an additional perspective, and suggests that while we may instinctively distrust so-called "experts," we need to resist the temptation of anti-intellectualism. After all, Steve reminds us, God has provided us with brains capable of remarkable reasoning power, and our challenge is to use them with humility in the service of God's purposes.
A Far-Out Teacher
by Barbara Jurgensen
THE WORLD
Talk about one far-out teacher!
When Barbara R. Morgan began teaching her class on Tuesday, August 14, her students were in Idaho but she was out in space, orbiting the earth aboard the International Space Station.
Ms. Morgan showed the class, watching her at the Discovery Center of Idaho in Boise, how she and her three male colleagues could play toss with a softball, down their drinks in microgravity -- and how she could get her exercise by lifting two of the men.
Students were given time to ask questions, such as, "What do the stars look like from out there in space?"
The astronauts explained that because space has no atmosphere, the stars do not seem to twinkle as they do here on earth. And it's hard to see the stars anyway because the space station is so brightly lighted.
Back here on earth, as students and teachers head back to school, it's good to remember that every child needs a good education, and that every child is important -- which was what the astronauts were trying to remind us.
The prophet Jeremiah also reminds us of this. When the Lord called Jeremiah at a very young age to follow him and do his work with him, Jeremiah said, "I'm only a boy."
But the Lord said, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy'; for you shall go to all whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you" (Jeremiah 1:7).
Are we getting our children ready to do the work the Lord is calling them to?
THE WORD
Our Jeremiah text this week echoes the words of John 15:16, where Jesus says to us, "You did not choose me but I chose you."
Our faith is a gift. The Lord said to Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5)
The good news is that the Lord came not only to Jeremiah but that he is coming to us as well -- he came to us, he is coming to us, and he will continue to come to us. The good news is that the Lord can work through us, just as he worked through Jeremiah.
Our Psalm text builds on this: "For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother's womb" (Psalm 71:5-6).
Our Luke text reminds us that our Lord works with us, not only before we were born but throughout our lives. And just as he straightened up the woman who had been painfully bent over for 18 years, he can straighten us up in whatever ways we need.
Our Hebrews text speaks of "the spirits of the righteous made perfect" (12:23) when they reach the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, reminding us that he who has begun a good work in us will continue it until the day when we at last see him, face to face.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
It's a big job, being a teacher. Barbara Morgan found that out in space. A teacher needs to figure out what their students already know -- and what they need to know -- and take it from there to lead them along toward the goal.
When you think of it, in one way or another all of us are teachers. Parents have a big job, teaching their children how to cope with the many problems they'll meet up with in this world. And grandparents and uncles and aunts can do their share of teaching too.
Children who have younger brothers and sisters find themselves having to show the younger ones many things -- how to throw a football, how to make a grilled cheese sandwich, how to ride a bicycle.
On-the-job trainers need to be able to help new employees develop the skills they'll need to do their work. And of course, schoolteachers and college professors are responsible for helping students move along from one skill and understanding level to the next.
Then there's the Lord, who's trying to help us become the people that he sees that we can become. And he apparently begins this even before we first see the light of day, as he did with Jeremiah.
So what does the Lord have in mind for you? What might he be preparing you for? What abilities and aptitudes has he given you? What exciting things might he have in mind for you to be doing as you move through your life?
It's a fascinating thought that the Lord begins working with us from our earliest days, trying to help us gain not only the skills we need for life such as the 3 Rs -- reading, writing, and arithmetic -- but also wisdom.
We each need to grow in wisdom, in our ability to see what's really, ultimately important in life. We need to discover what's really worth living for. Our lives can be much more than just eating, sleeping, doing whatever work we need to do, then numbing our minds with our TV, our computer, and our other electronic gadgets.
Because the Lord calls us to a great adventure with him. First, he calls us into a relationship with him: He will be our Father and we will be his much-loved children. We know that he already loves us with all his heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, and he calls us to love him in the same way in return.
And the Lord is busy building his loving community, calling each of us to love those around us as we love ourselves -- a big order, one that we can't fulfill perfectly, and certainly not by ourselves, but one that, with his help, we can work at day by day throughout our lives.
Sometimes this doesn't make sense to us. We tend to think that if we instead just concentrate on ourselves, if we just concentrate on getting all the things we'd like to have for ourselves, that then we'll be the happiest. But if we look at the people around us who live that way, we'll find that, no matter how much they get, they never seem to have enough. There always seems to be something more, something that if they could just have that, then they're sure they could be happy.
But it's as if the goal keeps moving on, because each time they get what they thought would be the ultimate thing, something more that they really, really want appears on the horizon.
But if we say to our Lord: "Here I am. I'd like to live your way. I'd like to use whatever gifts and abilities you've given me to do your work with you. So here I am; take me, train me, use me. Let me be your follower, going where you go, doing what you do." If we say this to him, the Lord will be pleased to do this in your life and mine. He'll come into our lives and help us to become the people that he intends us to become. And we will know the greatest sense of fulfillment, of purpose, of our life having meaning.
We can say, "Lord, teach me. Teach me, every day, throughout my life."
Now there's a really far-out teacher.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Stephen McCutchan
As I write, experts have declared that the space shuttle Endeavour is safe for re-entry. By the time you read this, hopefully the astronauts will be safely back on Earth. But given some of the recent stories of ineptitude by supposed experts, how would you like to trust your life to some experts who are willing to say, from a position of safety, that they are 100% sure that it is safe? David Halberstam coined the phrase "the best and the brightest" to speak of the young intellectuals that surrounded President Kennedy and resulted in our getting into the Vietnam War. Many would suggest an equally intellectually bright crew, often referred to as the neo-conservatives, convinced the current administration that they should invade Iraq.
When you are in your next social conversation about some complex issue, test out the response to your saying "Experts agree that..." On the other hand, if we don't trust those who have applied their knowledge to such issues, who do we trust? From political campaigns to decisions about what to teach in schools to our response to military decisions, we seem to want to rely more on how we feel at the moment than applying our intellect to the problem. I would suggest that currently we are once again going through an anti-intellectual phase within our country.
One of the problems confronting our students as they return to school is the tone of anti-intellectualism that seems to be prevalent among many in our society. Who do you turn to as you are deciding your response on such subjects as evolution, climate change, biblical interpretation, etc.? There is a whole industry that makes a great deal of money out of bringing disrespect to the conclusion of experts in these fields. How do you encourage young people to study hard and develop an intelligent foundation for their lives while at the same time disdaining those who have studied hard and developed an intelligent foundation for their understanding in specific areas?
In such a complex society as we live in, and with so many examples of the failure of our leaders to apply the best thinking of our society to our problems, is it any wonder that many of our youth feel overwhelmed? Understandably, they might reply as did Jeremiah when he was called to be a leader in a society that was falling apart: "Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." Yet, in this passage Jeremiah is coming to a new understanding of the sovereignty of God that includes both time and space and Jeremiah's role in what God was doing: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."
What if we were to convey to our young people that the reason that they need to apply themselves to their studies is that they are part of something much larger than themselves? From a perspective of faith, each of us is invited to sense God's call in our own lives. When we sense that call, we are invited to ask what God's intentions are for our lives in the larger context of God's work. For what purpose did God provide for our birth?
At a variety of levels in our society, we are asking our young people to prepare themselves to play their part in the unfolding of God's purpose in a world that appears to be experiencing a great deal of chaos. Of course such an understanding is frightening. It is so tempting to keep silent in the faith and to feel inadequate in the face of the complex issues of our society. There is always someone who knows the Bible better than we do or has a better argument about the issues. Jeremiah was called by God to proclaim the faith at a time when society was falling apart. He was called to challenge the experts of both faith and politics, and boldly interpret what God was saying in the midst of chaos. His first response was to resist the call and point out his youth as an excuse. Like Moses before him, he felt overwhelmed by the challenge.
God's response was that God would be present and provide the words and the courage to respond. That conviction would be one of the most precious gifts we could provide our students as they continue their studies. So many Christians have withdrawn into a private faith and refused to provide our society with a framework to understand what God is doing in our midst. While it takes courage to speak in the midst of our chaos, Christ has promised to be with us as we teach the nations (Matthew 28:19-20), and God touches our mouths so that we might provide understanding in the midst of confusion.
Our society cannot afford to bow to the idol of anti-intellectualism. God has provided us with a brain to use and, as God said of all creation, it is very good. We are challenged to use the minds that God has provided us. We do so with full awareness that intellectual thought can get us into big problems if it is shaped by a false pride. However, when it is utilized with a humility that it is in the service of God and God's purposes, our brains are a gift that can be a blessing for the whole world.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Because the word that God speaks to us is always an incarnate word -- a word spelled out to us not alphabetically, in syllables, but enigmatically, in events, even in the books we read and the movies we see -- the chances are we will never get it just right. We are so used to hearing what we want to hear and remaining deaf to what it would be well for us to hear that it is hard to break the habit. But if we keep our hearts and minds open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize, beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear him, he is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, his word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling.
-- Frederick Buechner, Now and Then (Harper & Row, 1983)
***
Jesus had a way of putting things that time does not wear out. He might have discussed neighborliness in the abstract, like a lawyer analyzing in terms of current practice. Had he done so, we probably should never have heard of it. Instead, he personified neighborliness in the good Samaritan, making him stand out in vivid contrast with the unneighborly priest and Levite, so that not only did his contemporaries grasp his meaning, but we do also. Personal incarnations have a perennial continuance in the understanding of the race. Abstract condemnations of economic greed have been both frequent and transient, but the rich man who "feasted sumptuously every day," while "a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores," begged at his gate has not been transient; nor that other rich man who said to his soul, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry." Such incarnations walk the streets of New York and London as plainly as they walked the streets of Jerusalem.
-- Henry Emerson Fosdick, The Man from Nazareth
***
In the fifth grade, if we were done with our classwork we were allowed to raise our hand and get permission from the teacher to go to the library to get a book. Because I loved to read, I would race through the work. Tired of my constant handwaving, Mr. Grasso finally told me one morning, "When you are done with your work, you may quietly leave the room to go to the library. You don't have to raise your hand any more."
In the 10th grade, my American History teacher, Mrs. Mozingo, asked me to stay after class one day. She simply said to me, "I see that you are bored in this class. Here are some books I think you should read. We can talk about them after school."
In my senior year at high school, Mr. Everett, my homeroom teacher, wrote in the yearbook, "To Thom, who can become whoever he wants, if he would only believe in himself."
In college, Fred White, Ken Keeton, and host of other professors played roles in my life that, back then, I did not see. They were my mentors, my nudgers, my supporters, my critics. They were my teachers and my friends.
In seminary, Wellford Hobbie, Betty Achtemeier, Doug Ottati, and so many others lived out the faith taught in the classrooms. In the hallways, on the quad, in a hospital room, around a lunch table, they did their best to help us understand that ministry was more than just an academic endeavor.
School is starting this month, and I give thanks for all these people, and so many more, who taught me with more than words. What a great cloud of witnesses has enveloped me through my life!
-- Thom M. Shuman, "Occasional Sightings of the Gospel" (www.occasionalsightings.blogspot.com)
***
As we think about learning, much of the impact comes from examples that we learn from others. What are your examples -- both good and bad? Historian George Grant writes in Carry a Big Stick (Cumberland House, 1996):
By any measure Theodore Roosevelt was a remarkable man. Before his 50th birthday, he had served as a New York state legislator, the undersecretary to the Navy, police commissioner for the city of New York, U.S. Civil service commissioner, the governor of New York, the vice president under William McKinley, a colonel in the U.S. Army, and two terms as the president of the U.S.
By the time he was 50! And if that weren't enough to make you think you've done nothing with your life, Grant continues:
In addition, [Roosevelt] had run a cattle ranch in the Dakotas, served as a reporter and editor for several scientific journals, newspapers, and magazines, conducted scientific expeditions on four continents. He read at least five books every week of his life, and wrote nearly fifty books on an astonishing array of subjects from history and biography to natural science and social criticism. He was a hunter, boxer, and wrestler; a taxidermist, botanist, ornithologist, and astronomer. He was a devoted family man who raised six children and had a lifelong romance with his wife. (So, what have you done with your life?)
And yet, when he came to write his own autobiography, as many former presidents do, it wasn't about leaving a legacy or rewriting history or sweeping scandals under the rug. Roosevelt wrote this about himself:
In most things I am just about average; in some of them a little under, rather than over. I am only an ordinary walker. I can't run. I am not a good swimmer, although I am a strong one. I probably ride better than anything else I do, but I am certainly not a remarkably good rider. I am not a good shot. I never could be a good boxer, although I do keep at it. My eyesight prevents me from being a good tennis player, even if otherwise I could qualify. I am not a brilliant writer. I have written a great deal, but I always have to work and slave over everything I write. The things I have done are all, with the possible exception of the Panama Canal, just such things as any ordinary man could have done. There is nothing brilliant or outstanding in my record at all.
Roosevelt has many things to teach, but perhaps the greatest of these is humility.
***
In the late 19th century there was a Jewish family, living well in Germany. The father was a man of faith and made sure that his children were raised in the Jewish tradition. Life was good and the business was prosperous, until the economy turned and the family had to move to a nearby village in which the father set up his shop once again for a fresh start.
The difference in this new German village was that nearly 100% of the people were Lutherans (which was not so bad -- many of my best friends are Lutheran). But a Jewish family trying to make a living was an issue in that town. So one day the father came into the house and announced that from that day on, they would be Lutheran. The young boy asked, "How? How can we do that? How do we give up our faith and traditions?" But the father was not one that took kindly to criticism, particularly from his son.
That son eventually went to England for an excellent education, but was still in pain, emotionally and spiritually, trying to sort this out years after the fact. How do you give up a core belief so easily, so dramatically, and for what reason? And there, in the library, this young college student wrote that religion was the opium of the masses -- and that the real force behind religion was not truth or salvation or forgiveness, but that it was motivated purely by economic considerations.
Karl Marx was profoundly embittered when he was let down by a leader, by a hero who was revealed to be a hypocrite. Karl Marx turned this one experience into a global axiom against the Christian Church. He learned his lesson well.
***
If you ever thought about the power you have with your children, listen to what Anna Quindlen wrote in Living Out Loud (Random House, 1988):
At two o'clock in the morning, I am awakened by the appearance of a person no taller than a fire hydrant, only his black eyes visible over the horizon of the mattress. "What do you want?" I whispered. "Nothing," he whispered back.
What can have awoken my younger son and brought him down from the third floor to stand here in his blue pajamas, watching me until I stirred? It usually boils down to some small thing: a glass of water, a night light, a token rearrangement of the blanket. I always suspect that, if he could put it into words, the explanation would be something else entirely: reassurance that he is not alone in a darkened world, that nothing horrible is going to happen before daybreak, that someday he will sleep the sure, steady, deep sleep that his elder brother sleeps in the twin bed next to his own. His search for reassurance leads him to our bedroom that night where two terribly fallible people toss and turn but who still are the closest thing he knows to God.
This is what no one warns you about, when you decide to have children. There is so much written about the cost and the changes in your way of life, but no one ever tells you that what they are going to hand you in the hospital is power, whether you want it or not.
***
Many years ago at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, a young sociology professor assigned his class to a city slum to interview 200 boys. "On the basis of your finds, predict their future," he said.
Shocked at what they found in the slums, the students estimated that 90 per cent of the boys interviewed would some day serve time in prison.
Twenty-five years passed. The same professor asked another class to try to locate the survivors of the 200 boys and compare what had happened. Of 180 of the original boys located, only four had ever been in jail.
Why had the predictions not turned out? A common denominator was sought in their lives, some value or influence that may have marked the difference. Through more interviews, it was found that over 100 of the men remembered having the same high school teacher, a Miss O'Rourke, who had been a tremendous influence on them at the time.
After a long search, Sheila O'Rourke, then 70 years old, was found in a nursing home in Memphis. When asked for her explanation, she was puzzled. "All I can say," she concluded, "is that I loved every one of them."
***
Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again.... And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are?
We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move.
You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel?
You must work -- we must all work -- to make the world worthy of its children.
-- Pablo Casals
***
Did you know what was the first food ever consumed, and the first liquid ever poured out, on the surface of the moon? It was communion bread and wine.
Buzz Aldrin -- who along with fellow Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong were the first men on the moon -- was a Presbyterian elder. Before the mission began, his pastor, Dean Woodruff, had given him a tiny home communion kit, with a silver chalice and wine vial about the size of the tip of his finger.
During the morning he radioed, "Houston, this is Eagle. This is the LM pilot speaking. I would like to request a few moments of silence. I would like to invite each person listening in, whoever or wherever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the last few hours, and to give thanks in his own individual way."
"In the radio blackout," he wrote later, "I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, 'I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit.' I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the last minute Deke Slayton had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas. I agreed reluctantly... Eagle's metal body creaked. I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements."
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz_Aldrin#
http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/communion.html
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call to Worship
Leader: Before we got up this morning and decided to come to church,
People: God was waiting for us, to welcome us with grace.
Leader: When we are unsure of what to do,
when we falter before the next step,
People: we come to listen to God's voice,
to learn from the One who teaches us all we ever need to know.
Leader: When we are surrounded by cruelty and injustice,
when our fears cripple our souls,
People: God delivers us with steadfast love;
we are set free to be God's sons and daughters.
Prayer of the Day (and Our Lord's Prayer)
Rock of Ages:
when we are afraid and can only whisper our fear,
you bend over to listen to us.
When everyone acts as if they can't remember our name,
you know us as your Beloved.
When we cannot seem to tell others all that you have done for us,
you put the Word into our mouths.
And we tremble with praise.
Word of the Lord:
when others would weigh us down with shame and guilt,
you set us free with your joy.
when we are bent over by our doubts and questions,
you reach out to touch us with your hope and grace.
And we tremble with praise.
Refuge of Wisdom:
when we wander from one crippling spirit to the next,
yet once more, you lead us into hope.
When our fears shake us to the core,
yet once more, you touch us with your serenity.
When we cannot stand up and see our way,
yet once more, you take us by the hand to lead us home.
And we tremble with praise.
God in Community, Holy in One,
we tremble with praise and joy as we pray as Jesus has taught us,
Our Father . . .
Call to Reconciliation
When we were children, we learned not to touch hot things so we would not be burned.
If only avoiding sin were that easy!
But sin seems so comfortable, so easy, so harmless that we cannot stop ourselves
from reaching out to touch it over and over again.
Let us confess our sins to the One who chooses to forgive us and love us unconditionally.
(Unison) Prayer of Confession
Yet once more, we come to you with our prayers, Holy God.
Our crippling spirits keep us from following you.
Our grudges weigh us down until we cannot walk straight in your way.
Our anger becomes a fire which scorches our friends and loved ones.
Our fears blind us to the goodness in those we believe to be different.
Forgive us, God our Rock, and set us free from our wrongdoings and failures.
From the day of our birth, we have known your love, grace, and hope.
So may we offer you our joyful thanks, as Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior,
reaches out to touch us with your healing forgiveness.
(silence is kept)
Assurance of Pardon
Leader: God chooses not to turn a deaf ear to us, but to listen to our prayers.
God chooses not to shame us, but to save us.
People: This is indeed good news for us!
We are set free to drink deeply from the waters of life.
Thanks be to God! Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Standing on Two Feet
Purpose: To help children understand why religious education is essential to true life.
Material: No special material is needed.
Scriptural Background: "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good" (Psalm 14:1).
I would like each one of you to stand up this morning. Now, stand on just one foot -- and as soon as you lose your balance and have to touch the floor with the other foot, sit down. Some people find that they can stand on one foot for a long time, but such people usually have to concentrate on what they are doing to maintain their balance.
Now, everybody stand on two feet again. Which way is easier? Of course, it is much easier for us to stand or move about when we use both feet. Our feet give us a special stability in life when we use them properly.
This is also true in regard to the things we learn in life. All of you are (or will be) expected to go to school during the week. There are basic things that you must learn to be able to function properly in life as you grow up. But that education is just part of what you need. It is like standing on one foot.
In the church, we believe that in order to be a complete person you also need to learn the things that are offered to you on Sunday in the church school program. This is like the second foot that enables you to stand or move about through life.
So I hope you will remember how important it is to get a complete education. Your Sunday education is just as important as your weekday education. I hope you will pay attention both here in church and at school, so that you can learn all the important things you need for life.
(from Open My Eyes, by Kenneth A. Mortonson, CSS Publishing Co., 1996)
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, August 26, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
