SETTING THE CONTEXT

This Scripture is found towards the end of John's gospel. Jesus has entered Jerusalem for the last time. He is beginning the "final thesis" of his life, teaching through words and deeds. Immediately following this passage Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. It is like Jesus is repeating the message we heard last weekend in the Transfiguration passage, "listen to me."

Read John 12:44-50

Since the birth of the church there have been good teachers who have and continue to work to pass on the life lessons of Christ. Paul speaks of his teaching ministry, his motivation and his message.

Read Colossians 1:25-29

THE SERMON

We value learning. As a society we have made the commitment to provide free public education for all children for twelve years. And we in fact find it so important that we require children to be in school until they are at least 16 years old. We are not the only society with these priorities. While we were in Africa, we heard and saw the importance of education to them. Here were people barely feeding themselves paying for their children to go to school. They had to buy school uniforms so they'd save up to buy a uniform that would fit the middle child and the older ones would have it a little tight and the younger ones would have it loose. Many believe that education is what is going to make Africa strong and prosperous. We put a lot of stock into academics which is a good idea, but what about learning non-academic lessons? We need teachers who will help us learn those life lessons that will help our lives to be meaningful and fulfilling. We need teachers who help us to live with the hard questions and circumstances that come up in life. I wonder how many of us have intentionally set out to learn those lessons. I know I get so caught up in the day in and day out business of life that I don't take much time for that kind of learning until something stops me and gets my attention on such matters.

Mitch Albom, a sports writer in Detroit, had a teacher in college that he really liked. They were very close but after graduation he got caught up in the business of life and never went back to see his former professor, that is until something jolted him out of the distractions and caught his attention. While doing five things at once, he was channel surfing when he caught the following Nightline segment about his beloved professor.

SHOW Tuesdays with Morrie DVD 1Teacher CLIP Nightline clip^[i]

That clip compelled Mitch to go see his professor, Morrie. It was uncomfortable for Mitch, sometimes it was even painful to watch his friend slowly dying before his eyes, but there was something more important than the discomfort and pain, just as there was something more important to Morrie than the discomfort and pain. Mitch said and I quote "My days were full, yet I remained, much of the time, unsatisfied."^[ii] He knew something was lacking and he needed a good teacher to help him identify what it was. In Mitch's third visit with Morrie, he asked him if he had any regrets. Morrie answered, "Mitch, the culture doesn't encourage you to think about such things until you're about to die. We're so wrapped up with egotistical things, career, family, having enough money, meeting the mortgage, getting a new car, fixing the radiator when it breaks - we're involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going. So we don't get into the habit of standing back and looking at our lives and asking 'Is this all there is? Is this all I want? Is something missing?" Morrie paused, 'you need someone to probe you in that direction. It won't just happen automatically." Mitch said "I knew what he was saying. We all need teachers in our lives."^[iii] He finally realized he wanted more out of life and sought it by finding a good teacher.

SHOW 2Teacher CLIP Topics

Those are important topics that help us in the living of life fully. It could be funny if it weren't so sad how many times fear and pretending keep us from learning and living those lessons. God gave us the gift of a good teacher to lead us or when needed, prod us in the direction of life as it was meant to be lived. As scholar Marcus Borg says, "Jesus is, for us as Christians, the decisive revelation of what a life full of God looks like."^[iv] We come up short of that standard again and again but Jesus assures us that his purpose is not to judge us, giving us progress reports and failing grades, but to save us. He comes to help us and the world to live fully in God today and into eternity. He takes those topics of love, suffering, power, forgiveness, healing, transformation and he teaches us about the mind of God related to those topics and he teaches us how to apply that to our human lives. Now that is not saying we get it in one lesson or even two. I'm sure we could all agree that we learn, practice, fail, learn some more, practice more, get comfortable, need to be challenged, learn, grow and we follow this process again and again. This is why the cycle of the church year is so important. Through the celebration of the different seasons and holidays we hear the story of Jesus again and again. Those lessons become new as we hear them in different circumstances as Jesus challenges us and prods us to move in new directions.

A Churchgoer wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them so I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all." This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. !t went on for weeks until someone
wrote this clincher: "I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"^[v] The Apostle Paul recognized the importance of this work of sharing Christ's message which is why in his words, "I toil and struggle with all the energy that Christ powerfully inspires within me." We have a great teacher for these important life lessons and we can point others to this great teacher for a good teacher is a valuable gift as Oprah Winfrey tells us.

SHOW 2a Teacher OPRAH CLIP

Lent is a good time to ask ourselves the deep questions, "Is this how I want to live my life? Is something missing?" We are going to intentionally seek out some good teachers to help us with some of these lessons about living. We're going to invite Mitch and Morrie, Jesus and his followers to prod us as we talk about priorities, forgiveness, aging, values, death and love. We have been given the gift of a very good teacher, let's listen to him. Amen.

Sermon delived by Rev. Nancy Cushman on February 25, 2007.