Monday, March 5, 2018

Why Study History in our Christian school?

Witnessing a history lesson in one of our classrooms, I heard a student remark to a neighbour with disgust about how one group of people treated another long ago. “Did they forget they were actual people too?” was the wondering thought, guided by added clarity of a few centuries of distance from the immediate situation.

The harsh reality was meeting our students that people struggle to move away from being cold and indifferent towards those they don’t immediately know or appreciate, to ignore the injustice done to those we think deserve it, and to only surround ourselves with like-minded people.

But Jesus asks for something different. We need to see our fellow image-bearers as unique, worthy,
and deliberately created human beings. Jesus wants us to show hospitality in the sense of seeing others as he sees them; people who are dearly loved and worth him dying for. Jesus recognizes that this task is too much for our heart of stone, which is why he is giving us a new “heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26)  in the same way the Israelites needed a new identity after being scattered because of their disobedience. We can love, because Jesus’ love frees us to do so.

Love everyone. Though the task looms large, He who promised is faithful! This counter-cultural way of looking at community reminds us of being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” that Paul describes in Romans 12. We pray that our daily work with our students, your children, will have lasting impact and be a significant force in shaping the adults they will be one day. We know they are “works in progress.” How exciting to think of who they are and will become for God’s kingdom!

May God bless our living and learning by faith in the next months of term three. SJ

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