ADVENT BLOG Named by God - RABBI/TEACHER”

“”But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all the students.”

(Matthew 23:8)

The secondary school I attended was first opened in 1971 and was a successor to the old High School.  It was a time of new beginnings - new uniform, new school badge and new motto.  The motto was simple and to the point, “Learn Young, Learn Fair” and came from an old phrase, “learn young, learn fair; learn auld, learn fair”.  I used to think that it made a lot of sense, but the older I get, I question the thinking behind it in that it suggests that there is a point in our lives when we stop learning.  It might be more difficult yet, should we stop learning at any point in life?  I would suggest that the answer is a great big no!  Every day should have the potential of being a “school day”.

We learn so much in different ways - from examples set through to lessons taught.  It is important that we listen, not just to what we want to hear, but what we need to hear when it comes to us in love and understanding.  We need to learn from experiences both good and bad, from each other and from our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus is that teacher, teaching both in his words and his actions which are married in a great lesson of faith and love as he brings us closer to an understanding of God and the nature of God.  He is the one who loves us from everlasting to everlasting.    He is the one who also teaches us, not only what faith can offer us, but what faith and following him requires of us as well - that mix of the comfort and challenge of the Gospel.

“Preach, use words if have to” is loosely attributed to St Francis of Assisi and tries to strike that balance between speaking and doing, remembering that the lessons we teach,  in word and action are not out of pride or even a sense that we know better.  Like Jesus, all that we seek to do should be out of love for God, for each other and for self that we might all become better people and make this world a better place for all.

What does it mean to sit at the feet of Jesus to listen to him and learn from him?  Is this a priority in your life, in your daily life?  What lessons can others learn from you about faith and the difference that it has made?

Speak, Lord, in the stillness

While I wait on Thee;

Hushed my heart to listen

In expectancy.

Fill me with the knowledge

Of Thy glorious will;

All Thine own good pleasure

In Thy child fulfill.

AMEN