Hope

First Week of Advent
Friday December 6, 2013

Read: Psalm 30:19-26 

Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’—Isaiah 30:20-21 

Two years older than I am, my sister may have been my first “teacher”. From the date she started first grade, she would come home each day and we would play school.  She would teach me everything she learned that day. My first grade teacher was loving and kind. My fourth grade teacher told me that I could do and be anything I wanted to. In fifth and sixth grade I learned to love music even more than I already did. My seventh and eighth grade teacher grounded me in English. I obviously loved school and as far as I could tell had every reason to.

 You cannot imagine, or you might, how very sad it made me when I learned that the inner-city school near my church had an average grade point of a D and failed the universal evaluation. To reach that average a lot of those students had to be failing and few excelling. School and the opportunities it brought were some of the greatest sources of hope for me and most of my fellow students. It should be that for children today, but in too many cases, it is not. 

My church and the United Methodist church down the street surround this inner-city school with all kinds of support.  The United Methodist offer an after school music program and tutoring. Each Friday during the school year, we stuff the food back packs that are sent home with children identified as not having adequate food at home for the weekend, provide one-on-one tutoring at the school, keep them in school supplies, and purchase school uniforms on a referral basis. We are researching other ways that we can help.

 A quality education system is a necessary component of any government that claims to be of the people, by the people, and for the people.  While we need to do everything we can as congregations to support our schools, we probably more importantly need to work to assure that our government at all levels is doing its part also. If a school has an average grade point of a D, is it the students that are failing or is it the school? And if it is the school, are they receiving the funding and resources needed to assure that every student that crosses their entrance is thriving?

 Prayer: Rabboni, Teacher, thank you for training us in the way you would have us go and now show us how we can bring hope to the children of our state through their schools. Amen.

All scripture passages are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version.