Being a Master Teacher
David Orendorff · Mark 8:27-38 · September 17, 2006
Jesus was a master teacher. He taught with authority because he taught with his life. As you know we too, all of us all of the time, teach with our lives.
We teach by relationship; the relationship may be a marriage, a friendship, a work acquaintance or even a person in the grocery line. By the way we live our lives, how we conduct ourselves, the words we say and don't say, we are constantly teaching the world around us and what we teach matters, for ill or for good.
I went surfing for information on the internet about being a master teacher. I found a useful article by G. Edwin Lint, a retired teacher, principal and district administrator.1 G. Edwin Lent's writings, including “You Can Be a Teacher, Too,” can be found at www.opendoor.com/Higher.Ground/gelchg.html
Dr. Lint broke the whole thing down into four “C”s: Compassion, Communication, Content, and Control. The four Cs are an easy way for me to remember and so I share them with you.
Compassion - If I want to be a master teacher then I must focus and care about each individual student. As a teacher, the growth of the student is my mission. In order for this to happen I need to develop rapport with the students and be empathetic to their cares.
Communication - The student's learning must be more important than my teaching. I have to want to hear more than I want to speak. The student's excitement and achievement must be the source of my satisfaction.
Content - I need to know my material and the subject I teach. If it is faith I teach then it is faith I must study and practice. Master teachers are always vigilant for ideas, materials and experiences that would stimulate learning. They especially watch others as a source of wisdom.
Control - In a world always threatening to go out of control, it is important for the teacher to maintain appropriate order. Discipline that suits the students safety and learning are important in every classroom, but must be tempered with a concern for the individual student. Hence our Safe Sanctuary policy.
Edwin Lint and others say that the best way to become a master teacher, to learn the four C's, is to work with and learn from a master teacher. A first year teacher learns to teach the fastest and best when working with an experienced teacher. We have come to call it mentoring.
Using Edward Lint's scheme, I want to start with content.
If we and our lives are to have a teaching word for the weary, then we must learn the content of our lives from Jesus. We are surrounded by God's teaching. The stones cry of love. The mountains reach with the stars to heaven in praise of their maker. The flowers of spring time and summer, the seeds of fall and winter, all teach God's word. The child at birth, the old mother at death, each is a teacher, each speaks of God.
"Then Jesus began to teach them that the son of man” ... and by son of man I believe he means himself and all children of humanity ... “that the son of man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes.” We are made to suffer and will be rejected by those most powerful over our lives, the Pinochets, the ones doing us violence for their gain, the impatient shopper ...”and be killed.” Death is what we all hold in common. We will be killed by some power greater than ourselves, be it disease, unemployment, divorce or violence ... “and be killed” but this is not the end of us. ... “and after three days rise again.” Suffering, rejection, and even death are not the end of us, of our love for the earth or for each other. It may take a few days or even years, but our rising is for ever. ”And after three days rise again.” He said all this quite openly.” It is no secret, this teaching of God. It is not a thing that only the blood sworn member with the secret handshake can know. It is open for all who will learn. And so learning, teach ...”He said all this quite openly.”2 Mark 8:31-32a
Jesus, as he revealed God, taught his students that God is the creator of life and so knows life better than anyone of us. God is the liver of life, in Jesus and in us, and so speaks first hand of truth and wisdom. God is the very spirit of why we are alive and so is our constant companion for this great school. And in God life never ends.
In order to become a master teacher of the faith, I must be a master student of Jesus. Now for some teaching examples:
I was in the grocery store, waiting to check out and a man in front of me was obviously impatient. He was shifting his weight back and forth, he was making hurry up grunts, he was irritable and demanding in demeanor. He was teaching us lessons I have been guilty of teaching.
The woman in front of him, sensing his mood, turned to him and said, "Would you like to go in front of me, you seem to be in a hurry?" He said, "I am in a hurry, my child is ill and I need to get home quickly. Thank you." Two lessons were learned; one from the woman who addressed a rude man with compassion and a second about how quickly I can come to false and judgmental thoughts. Had I spent more time with Jesus I might have been a better student in the grocery line.
The second example comes from Chile and demonstrates that the power of our teaching is in its compassion, its Jesus like way, and not in guns or secret police.
In the 1970s and '80s Chile had two teachers. In 1970 Chile elected the Socialist Dr. Salvador Allende Gossens as its President. In September of 1973 General August Pinochet Ugarte with the assistance of our nation, led a military junta that overthrew Allende and his government.
General Pinochet controlled Chile with the teaching tools of oppression and terror. Those who resisted or spoke against his iron rule were arrested or kidnapped, tortured and murdered. A few returned, some bodies have been found, most are still missing Those taken became known as "los desaparecidos - the disappeared."
Chile's second teacher was the mothers of those who had disappeared. The mothers had no army and no guns. They were not rich, powerful or well educated. They were just mothers whose children, fathers, husbands, beloved, were missing. The tool of their teaching was a traditional courting dance called the Gueca. The mothers would go into the streets of Chile, and dance the Gueca with pictures of their disappeared as partners. In the streets they danced with the picture of their missing beloved. They taught the world as suffering servants.
In 1988 Pinochet called for an election he was confident he would win. But Chile had learned to dance the Gueca with los desaparecidos and Pinochet was rejected. The mothers of the disappeared taught a lesson more powerful, more lasting and more real than Pinochet and all his terror.
We don't have to live as oppressed to make a difference with our teaching. I celebrate the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta because she taught well with her life. By her care for the dying she taught the world about the power and importance of compassion for the impoverished and dying. But we don't have to be a Mother Teresa to teach well. We need only be ourselves, learning and taking lessons from Jesus.
The anniversary of September 11 has just passed. We have learned much in the last five years. And the world has learned much about us from how we have responded. Our response is our teaching of national values and what we teach matters. I am concerned, along with Colin Powell, that we are not teaching what we had hoped to teach. I think we have much to learn from Jesus about fighting terrorism.
The world is watching us and learning from each of us to sing its freedom, or not; to laugh its joy, or not; and to dance to the music of compassion and justice, or not.
Do you want to be a master teacher with your life? Then be a master student of the dreams by which God awakens you. Learn from the earth, her creatures, her weathers, her beauty, her people and her harshness. Learn from Jesus to trust God for life, for suffering, for death and for life again. Learn from each other. Be students of God.
We are all of us teachers all of the time. What we teach matters for the destruction or healing of the world. Our master teacher is Jesus. May we learn our lessons well so that we teach with the grace we have been given.
Shalom and Amen.