CCLS Sunday - One Teacher

When I switched to Lutheran High I wondered what God had in store for me. All I knew was that I wanted to play basketball and this gave me a shot.  I also knew that since I was headed in the direction to become a pastor, this gave me a good base to study God’s Word in school.  I brought my 4.0 into a school with much more challenging teachers.  I quickly learned that my usual techniques for getting good grades weren’t going to work here.  One particular teacher gave me C’s in his class.  I hated getting C’s, so to remedy this, I took a ton of notes in his class in order to better prep for tests, but it was still extremely hard.

            My relationship with him took a new dimension when I started playing basketball.  Having him as my coach made this my favorite year.  I played JV and was one of our main shooters.  He knew he could count on me to shoot the ball for him.  Even though I felt that I was a mediocre student in his class, I believed that I excelled for him on the basketball court.  It was a unique balance of Law and Gospel.  I never felt like he looked down on me, and at the end of high school, I knew that my grades did not separate me from who I was as a Christian.

            He always walked around the classroom with chalk in his pocket.  He would take it out and shake it in his hand.  He’d sometimes pull up his pants and we could see his penny loafers and his white socks.  He almost always wore khakis, not dress pants.  He taught history and religion, and was one of the most challenging teachers I have ever had.   After I got to college I told him that I never felt like I made good enough grades in his class.  But I let him know that he had prepared me well for college, which made many of my student days easier.  I’m not sure if he knew how to take that, but for me it was one of the highest compliments I could pay him.  School was challenging for me at times, but his tough requirements made higher education a lot easier.

The biggest lesson I learned from him was never in any classroom or on any basketball court.  The biggest lesson I learned from him was how he acted as a Christian man.  His sons went to college with me, and during that period of time, his wife left him.  I won’t discuss the particulars because they don’t matter.  We are all flawed people, and whenever two broken people marry (and we are all broken people), there are always sins to be dealt with.  I heard story after story about how he was struggling; I heard him confess his flaws, but most of all, I heard that he loved his wife and wanted her back.  He waited years for her to return.  He never ever wanted to get a divorce.  He fought the battle to keep her.  You see, he became not just a teacher of history, or religion; he taught me a life lesson about how to be a Christian man.  He taught me that Christian men repent because we are all sinners; that Christian men stay faithful to their wives even in the most intense and extreme situations; that Christian men honor their promises and commitments made at the altar.

            I know my teacher learned all of this from the greatest teacher of all, Jesus. This weekend we take time to celebrate our association school, and be thankful to God that He has blessed us with faithful Christian teachers who share their God-given gifts with us.  These teachers can make a lifetime impact, because they are not just teaching subjects in a class; they are teaching the living words of Jesus.  They are also setting examples that our kids need, because this world is full of people who teach us all kinds of other things, like giving up on marriage, or lying, or whatever else.  But Christian teachers set examples that will stick with our kids forever.  I pray that we celebrate that this Sunday.  But most importantly, we will celebrate the greatest teacher who ever lived, and that is our Risen Jesus.