BUILT ON THE ROCK
2016-2017 SCHOOL YEAR
As we go into the 2016-2017 school year, we do so with the theme
“Built on the Rock.” I would encourage you to include this theme in what you
are doing in your classrooms. Here are some thoughts to go with this theme.
I.
Matthew 16:18b
“…on this rock I will build my church.”
Jesus says this to Peter after the confession of faith that Peter
makes. Jesus asks, “Who do the people say that I am?” After many false starts
and wrong answers, Jesus asks, “But you, who do you say I am?” This is the
question that is put to us as teachers in a Lutheran School. Who do you say
that Jesus is? Your answer will be reflected in the way you approach your
children, your teaching, your classroom, and your life.
Peter says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This
is the solid confession that Peter makes, not by his own power but as he is
guided by the Holy Spirit. He has come to this through the teaching/words of
Jesus. Only as the Spirit guides him can he make this confession. This is
important for us to remember as well. This is why we keep the Word of God front
and center in all that we do in our classrooms. It will help the children to
make this confession of faith.
It is to this that Jesus responds with our theme verse: “Upon this
rock (this confession of faith, this Word) I will build my church.” Christ
builds His church upon the very confession of faith that focuses on Him, His
life, death and resurrection. This is to be what we are teaching our children –
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. That gives us the Rock upon which we
build.
II.
1 Corinthians
10:4b “…the Rock is Christ.”
Psalm 18:2 “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my
deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the
horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
What we see here is the emphasis on who this Rock, this Confession,
is – Jesus Christ. To make any other confession is to lead the children astray,
a chasing after wind (as the writer of Ecclesiastes would remind us).
As we teach in our classrooms (not just in religion), we are to be
setting the foundation for our children, the foundation on the confession that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. In science, He
created the heavens and the earth (the Son was present and active at the 7 day
creation – see John 1). As we talk about the surety of math (2+2=4 always!), we
show that created the laws of this world upon which all things are founded
(gravity, math, etc.).
III.
Matthew 7:24-27
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise
man who built his house on a rock. And the rain fell, the floods came, and the
winds blew and beat on that house but it did not fall, because it had been
founded on the rock.
And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them
will be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rains fell,
and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it
fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Jesus is telling this towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount.
He has been speaking to the folks about their lives, how they should live, in
whom they should live, etc. Here, He shows the foundation that is needed in
this life. We build upon the Rock, Jesus Christ. Our spiritual lives are
reflected in our classrooms. As teachers, we need to be building the foundation
of our lives upon the Rock, the Word made flesh. We do that as we attend
worship weekly and also attend Bible study. Like the children we teach, we need
to build upon the Rock, so that our foundation is firm.
Our children will face many storms in their lives. Some have
already faced some serious ones (health issues of self or family members,
divorce, moving to a new community, changing schools) just as each of us have
faced many storms. The rains comes and the winds blow, Satan works against us,
perhaps more than he does against our students, for if he can cause our house
to collapse, then it will lead to the collapse of many other houses of faith.
It is important for each of us to be fed from Word and Sacrament on a weekly
basis. And then we can emphasize to our children that they need to be fed from
Word weekly, living in the Sacrament of their Baptism on a daily basis.
IV.
1 Peter 2:4-5
“As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God
chosen and precious, and you yourselves like living stones are being built up
in a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
As Peter is writing to Christians, he is talking about how, when
they have been built on the Rock (he knows firsthand what this foundation is,
having been with Jesus, encouraged by Jesus, forgiven by Jesus, accepted by
Jesus and commissioned by Jesus) then they become a part of the house of God.
Each one is a spiritual stone laid on the foundation of Christ Jesus. As
teachers, we are helping our children to grow in faith in Jesus Christ,
becoming those living stones in the house of God. As you teach your children,
you are one of those upon which the children will be built, one of the
spiritual stones upon which they are laid.
V.
Ephesians
2:19-23 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow
citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the
cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a
holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling
place for God by the Spirit.”
Here Paul brings together all that is important in the household of
faith. He takes what Peter says about being living stones and shows how we are
built up, a house that is never finished until the Lord returns. You, as
teachers, are continuing this building. Our school is a place in which, little
by little, though the Means of Grace, we also are taking part in the building
of this house of faith. Each one of our children are at different levels in
their lives of faith. The Spirit is using us to help them to grow in faith in
Christ Jesus. Like you, their teacher, their lives are spiritual sacrifices to
God (see Romans 12:1 “I appeal to you brothers, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.)
This takes us back to our theme “Built on the Rock.” Our lives, the
lives of our families, and the lives of the children and their families, are to
be “built on the rock.” The Rock is Christ Jesus. We are built through Word and
Sacrament. We emphasize this each day in our classrooms. And we will be
emphasizing this weekly in our chapel services.
Built on the Rock the Church shall stand / Even when steeples are
falling.
Crumbled have spires in every land; / Bells still are chiming and
calling.
Calling the young and old to rest, / But above all the souls
distressed,
Longing for rest everlasting.
We are God’s house of living stones, / Built for His own
habitation.
He through baptismal grace us owns / Heirs of His wondrous salvation.
Were we but two His name to tell, / Yet He would deign with us to
dwell
With all His grace and His favor.
(Lutheran Service Book, #645 vs. 1, 3)
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