Calvin Synod Herald, 2013 (114. évfolyam, 3-12. szám)
2013-05-01 / 5-6. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD 9 from his writings. Conjure your own memories? Your excellent teacher? One who knew a lot about the subject, about life, and who took an interest in you? All of our teachers were not necessarily in a classroom. Reflect with me on teaching: Teaching is hard work. Good teachers are likely to feel exhausted at the end of the day. Seeking to drag students from point A to point B requires a lot of pulling. Reflect with me a moment on how the Lord’s Spirit works with us. Often we’re slow learners.Sometimes we have short attention spans. And how soon we forget! So the Spirit has to do a lot of reviewing with us, line upon line, precept upon precept. Good teachers know their students by name and recognize their individual strengths and weaknesses, diligent or neglectful, bright or plodding, upbeat or moody, confident or low in selfesteem, insightful in one subject, uncertain in another. So the Lord is our Caring Teacher who knows whether we’ve been coddled or abused, whether we’re brilliant or slow, whether we’re on time or prone to procrastination, whether we’re an Oprah whose self-assurance fills the room or a Mollie or Mickey Milquetoast who scarcely get the daily act together. The Lord is my Tutor, not in it for prestige, money or power. Willing to stay after hours until I get the idea. Our mentor, like Anne Sullivan teaching Helen Keller in her blindness until a moment of insight occurs and the miracle of understanding breaks forth. That which I touch is called water! Viola! And thereafter the search for knowledge at the teacher’s feet knows no bounds. The good teacher is sacrificial. When a terrorist breaks in, the teacher’s first and last thought is for the safety of the students. The cross ever stands before us as the symbol of the sacrifice our Teacher made to rescue his students from the marauder. The question: Will we put ourselves at the disposal of the Teacher? Are we faithfully in school?Are we in earshot at all? Are we applying ourselves to the lessons assigned? So perhaps Psalm 23 might be paraphrased in this manner: The Lord is my Tutor. . . His Word comes to me, the light dawns .. . My Tutor sets me down for instruction, calls for my attention at noonday and in the night watch, claims my best scholarship. In the school of hard knocks, my Teacher remains faithful and available. I learn to trust my Tutor ’s voice. His Word is the GPS for my way, the laser beam for my path. Even when surrounded by troublesome people and harrowing circumstances, My Teacher provides encouragement to go on, touches my brow, eases the stress. Discipled to this Mentor, Ifind excitement— purpose for learning, aliveness in living. And when these student days are past my Tutor beckons me to a new course in a classroom prepared with me in mind. And you too! And you too! In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, world to its end. Amen. David B. Bowman Memorial Day A TIME TO REMEMBER Scripture: Joshua 4:4-4:7 Genesis 9:11-9:13 What do you think of when you think of Memorial Day - the beginning of summer vacation, barbecues in the back yard, family get-togethers? In most churches Memorial Day is ignored because it is not one of the holy days on the church calendar. But I believe that it would be good for us to consider what Memorial Day really represents, for its very name calls us to remember. The ability to remember is a wonderful gift God has given us. In a flash we can be a child again, skipping rocks across a pond, or walking in a meadow. Through memory we can fall in love, get married, and enjoy our children all over again. All this is possible through the blessing of memory. Some of our memories are happy as we recall wonderful experiences. But some are sad, and we may weep as we remember them. Memories are also very practical. If we couldn’t remember that a red light means “stop” we’d be in trouble. If you weren’t able to remember what day it is, or your anniversary or wife’s birthday - you’d be in big trouble. So memories are practical. The problem, though, is that sometimes memory fails us. Sometimes we forget. There are events that we should never forget. And Memorial Day commemorates some of them. This special day started near the end of the Civil War. And within a few years the practice of placing flowers on military graves had spread throughout both the north and south and was being called by almost everyone, “Decoration Day.” Then, after WW1 it became a national holiday dedicated to remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms that we enjoy. And it is also a day, upon which we remember our loved ones who have gone on before. But people tend to be forgetful, and we seem to need helps to jog our memories. In the Bible we find that God has given us many such reminders. After God destroyed the earth in a flood, He told Noah, “I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” (Genesis 9:11) Then God stated, “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, & it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” (Genesis 9:13) So every time we see a rainbow, it serves as a reminder of God’s promise. Another memorial was erected when Joshua led the people of Israel across the Jordan River. Remember, the water stopped flowing just as the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant stepped into the water at the river’s edge. Then they stood in the middle of the river until the people had crossed safely into the Promised Land. In Joshua 4:6-7 Joshua tells them, “In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord.
