Mrs. Debra Lange celebrated twenty five years of teaching on
October 23, 2016 at St. John’s Lutheran Church, New Minden, Illinois. All of
those years have been at Trinity-Saint John Lutheran School in Nashville,
Illinois. I was her student in fourth grade for the 1995-1996 school year and
was asked to come back and preach for the occasion. My goal with this sermon
was not to make it about Mrs. Lange, but about Jesus and why Christian education
is so important. Mrs. Lange’s service has been a good example to explain this.
In the name of Jesus, who made all
things and will complete all things, dear fellow redeemed, especially you, Deb,
I’m sorry,
there’s a nine year old screaming inside of me who still has to call you Mrs.
Lange. Today he’s going to win a lot.
Without
thinking of it, we probably use something that we learned from each of our
elementary school teachers each day. Fourth grade is kind of a sweet spot. On
the one hand, you’ve got kids who are still at least a little interested in school.
On the other hand you’ve got kids who have learned enough to start asking some
really interesting questions.
You learn a lot
in fourth grade. It’s one of the first times you really start taking a look at
history. You’ve moved beyond just writing sentences. For us it was the first
time we started putting sentences together into paragraphs for essays. I
remember that paragraphs had to be at least four sentences long and have an
introduction sentence. It’s an important step—the move from grammar to logic. I
know I use that skill several times a week. To this day, as I’m writing
sermons, I still sometimes look at paragraphs and wonder if they would pass
muster for Mrs. Lange.
For all of this
and so much more, we thank God for you. That’s what Paul says as he begins his
letter to the church at Philippi. As we walk through this text together, we’ll
see that we thank God for you for many of the same reasons that Paul thanked
God for his friends at Philippi.
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,
always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because
of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” (Philippians
1:3-5)
Teaching
in a Lutheran School is all about partnership in the Gospel. We heard in
Deuteronomy[1]
that it is parent’s responsibility to teach their children the faith. Do it
when you get up in the morning, when you lie down at night, when you’re driving
down the road, and when you’re sitting at the dinner table. Make it a part of
you and your home. Kids will consider what you teach them (or don’t teach them)
by word and example to be true.
If it is the
parent’s job to teach the faith, why do we have Lutheran Schools? We do it
because the church, parents, and teachers have something in common. The thing we
have in common is very simple. We want people to have faith in Jesus. We know
that faith comes by hearing His word. We know that He doesn’t want a day to go
by when we don’t have the Holy Spirit using His Word to work on our lives. We
just heard[2]
that Jesus invites even babies to come and be with Him. So, the church is comes
along side families and multiply the work that parents are doing.
Paul touches on
why this is so important in the next verse:
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a
good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
(Philippians 1:6)
God
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has sent us the Holy Spirit so that we
received faith, either in the water of Holy Baptism or by hearing the word when
we were older. Either way, it was all God’s action. He sent Jesus to live for
you. He sent Jesus to die for you. He raised Jesus from the dead for you. He
started working on us. Faith is the good work God began in us.
God
is going bring our faith to completion when Jesus comes again. That’s “the day
of Jesus Christ”. When Jesus comes again faith will no longer be necessary.
Instead of believing without seeing, we will both see and believe. Faith will
be brought to completion when all of God’s promises are fulfilled when Jesus
changes our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body, as Paul would say a few
chapters later.
All
through this life, God helps us along. We are baptized. We hear His Word. We
receive the Lord’s Supper. We receive encouragement from fellow Christians.
Mrs. Lange, for all of us, you have helped us learn God’s Word. You have
encouraged us as a sister in Christ.
For most of us
you weren’t the first to tell us about Jesus. For most of us you weren’t the
last to tell us about Jesus. God has already started working in us and He is
far from complete by the time we’re in fourth grade. But we thank you for your
work in our life of faith.
As Paul
continues, he tells us the main reason why you have been such a help to so
many:
“It is right for me to feel this way about
you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of
grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the
gospel.” (Philippians 1:7)
We are
“partakers with you of grace”. You were able to tell us about God’s love
because you’ve known that it is true for yourself. Since you have known this in
your own life, you are able to share it with others. Let me explain how this
works.
Fourth graders
have to deal with sin. I’m sure this is something you deal with just about
every day. Two boys start squabbling. It quickly turns from shouts, to shoves,
to blows. Two girls exclude another girl from their games and then their
friendship. Who’s there to stop it, but Mrs. Lange? The beauty of working in a
Christian school is that you not only stop the fight, but you care that the
kids involved forgive each other.
It’s a good
thing we learn this in grade school because we haven’t changed much. As adults
we still shout at people and exclude them from our friendships. But this isn’t
the playground at TSJ anymore. We don’t have a teacher to stop our fights and
heal our friendships. We need to, with the help of the Holy Spirit, do that
without a teacher prompting us.
You
are able to help kids with this because you know that you are a sinner. It’s a
good thing you’re not perfect, otherwise you would be no help to kids at all
when they mess up. But as a fellow sinner, you can share God’s grace with them
as someone who has received God’s grace. Grace is more meaningful that way.
Fourth
graders deal with the effects of sin. I’m sure this is something you have to
deal with more than you would like. How many kids have come into your class
with families and lives broken by divorce? How many kids have dealt with awful
diseases and injuries? How many kids have already lost hope? These are fourth
graders. They haven’t even been on this planet for a decade! They shouldn’t go
through these things. Such is life in a sinful world.
You
are able to help kids with this because you’ve have your own difficult moments
in life.[3] You
know that Jesus has been there for you. He has comforted you with His love. He
has been present with you as you went from doctor to doctor, from one test to
another and in and out of surgery. He has neither left you nor forsaken you.
Deb, I know that the trials you have been through have been a blessing to us
because you know that Jesus carries you through.
Fourth
graders deal with death. When I first found out about today, I thought of my
memories from fourth grade. Wednesday, February 29, 1996 we were pulled out of
school and drove straight to Ft. Wayne, Indiana where Grandpa Mueller was in
the hospital. He would die two days later—the first time in my life anyone I
had really known died.
We
missed something like a week of school. But I’m glad I was where I was. Grandpa
certainly had faith in Jesus and so did I. Had I not been in a Lutheran school,
that faith would still have been strengthened in church, Sunday school, and in our
family devotions. But, looking back, I’m so glad that my parents, my church,
and my teacher had me in a place where I was hearing about Jesus every day in
religion class and doing memory work.
You’d
be surprised, but last year when I was going into surgery for cancer, the words
that came to my mind as I went into the operating room to give me comfort where
words that I had for memory work for the first time in fourth grade:
I believe that Jesus Christ, true God,
begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin
Mary, is MY Lord. Who has redeemed ME, a lost and condemned person, purchased
and won ME from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; now with
gold or silver, but with HIS holy precious blood and with HIS innocent
suffering and death, that I may be HIS own and live under Him in His kingdom
and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as
He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity, This is most
certainly true.
So,
kids out there today, that’s why we have you learn memory work. Mrs. Lange has several
students, who are already there with the Lord. What they learned from her
strengthened their faith and now God has taken them to Himself.
Paul
continues:
“For
God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 1:8)
I don’t know if
anyone yearning to go back to fourth grade. Yes, things were simpler then. The
biggest thing you had to worry about was the spelling test at the end of the
week or maybe some multiplication tables. Fourth grade might not be so bad but
who wants to go through middle school, high school, and college again?
Paul is writing
this as a pastor. One of the biggest difference between being a pastor and
teacher is the length of time you’re called to serve someone. For as pastor,
it’s from the time you take the call to the time you accept another call. For a
teacher, your call to that group of students mostly happens over the course of
one school year. You receive them from one teacher and you get to hand them off
to another teacher.
But just
because the time is shorter, doesn’t mean your work is less important. Consider
this, if the school year is about 180 days, then at six hours a day, you have
about 1,080 hours with these kids. Do you know how long it takes to spend 1,080
hours in church? That’s going to church every Sunday for twenty years.
So, if kids are
in church every Sunday, by the time they finish fourth grade, they have spent half
as much time in church on Sunday morning as they have in the class room in just
that one year of school. That’s probably going to be more contact time with
you, then with their pastor. A lot of pastors don’t stay for twenty years--Dad. For a
lot of your kids they will have more time with you then they ever will have
with any one pastor. That’s quite an impact you’re able to make and have made
on us.
And
so Paul concludes:
“And
it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all
discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and
blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that
comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians
1:9-11)
Mrs. Lange, our
prayer is the same for you. May your love for your kids and for Jesus abound
more and more. May your knowledge of Christ overflow so that you and your
students stand together, forgiven and blameless when Jesus comes again. May
everything that happens in your classroom and in all our classrooms be to the
glory and praise of God.
For twenty-five
years you’ve been there for us—giving us Jesus every day. We give thanks for
your work among us not just because you’re a great teacher, but because you
show us the greatest teacher, Jesus. In His name, Amen.
[1]
The Old Testament reading was Deuteronomy 6:4-9 “You shall teach them [these
commands] diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in
your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you
rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as
frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your
house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)
[2]
The Gospel reading and text for the children’s sermon was Luke 18:15-17. “Now
they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the
disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, ‘Let
the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the
kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of
God like a child shall not enter it.’”
[3]
Mrs. Lange was born with a heart condition and has been blessed to serve in
spite of it.
