Student/Teacher Conference

"Student/Teacher Conference"
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

The first nine weeks are almost up at school.  That means parent/teacher conferences.  That means report cards.  When my kids were growing up in Nebraska, the parent/teacher conferences were in the gym.  Tables were set up all around the gym, with one of the teachers at each table.  There were no appointments.  We parents just showed up during one of the four hour blocks of time of the conferences.  Then we'd line up waiting for whatever teacher we needed to talk to.

The busiest teachers--the teachers with the longest lines of parents--were the math and science teachers.  There were virtually no lines, and no waiting, at the PE teacher's table.  I'd always go there just to make the PE teachers feel important.

When I'd visit the tables of my son Ryan's teachers they all said the same thing.  "I'm really concerned about Ryan," they'd say, all serious.
"Why is that?" I'd always ask.
"He never takes any notes while I'm lecturing," they'd say.  Especially the science teacher--this would frustrate him the most.
Then I'd ask, "What's Ryan's grade in the class."
The teacher would kind of squirm and say, "An A."
"So, what's the problem?" I'd ask.
"He should be taking notes like the rest of the students," the teacher would say, frustrated that Ryan didn't fit the mold.
"I'll talk to him," I'd say, lying.  I wasn't going to talk to Ryan, a straight A student, who had a memory and a brain like a sponge that was never squeezed out.  Everything that went in, stayed in, with my son's brain.  And the thing I marveled at was that he knew how to retrieve all that stuff that was in there.  My brain was more like teflon--anything the teachers threw at me just slid right off.

What if there were parent/teacher conferences for all Christians?  Church member/pastor conferences?  One-by-one you'd come into my office, sit down on my couch.  I'd rustle through some papers, and say, "Hmmmmm. You haven't been taking notes during sermons, have you?"

Or maybe disciple/Jesus conferences.  Yeah.

Or, another option would be to let one of the people of the Bible be your teacher--Paul, for example.  We could let one of his letters be your guide for your conference.  Let's try that.  We'll use 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 be the teacher for our conference.

Let's say three of the classes are the Faith, Hope, and Love classes.  The purpose of the classes is in verse 3:  We continually call to mind, before our God and Father, how your faith has shown itself in action, your love in labor, and your hope of our Lord Jesus Christ in perseverance (REB).

This kind of faith that you are being graded on isn't a faith in some thing, like in a chair that when you sit in it, it won't collapse.  It isn't faith in an idea or concept, like democracy.  It's faith in some one:  Jesus Christ, and God the Father.

This kind of faith in God is a faith that causes you to act.  So, in a sense, what you are being graded on is not just your faith--what you see in God--but more in your actions:  what you do once you see.

Several years ago, Florence Chadwick, after successfully swimming the English Channel, became the first woman to try to swim the 21 miles from Catalina Island to the California coast.  Thousands watched her all-night struggle through icy water, schools of sharks, and blinding fog.  Only a mile from shore, however, she had to be pulled from the water, exhausted, chilled, and defeated.

In evaluating her two experiences, Florence remembered that in her English Channel swim, at the moment when she felt she could go no further, her father sighted land.  That was inspiration enough to help her make it.  But in her unsuccessful swim from Catalina, fog had obscured the land ahead.  Even when she was told land was only a mile away, she didn't believe because she couldn't see it.  What she lacked was faith, not ability.

Two months later, with renewed faith, she turned her defeat into success and became the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel despite the fog.

Once you see, hopefully you're ready to act.  Because if you want a good grade in this class at your disciple/Jesus conference, your faith-seeing has to result in faith-action.  Notice that the New Testament book is called The Acts of the Apostles, not The Plans and Objectives of the Apostles.  Faith is never passive.  It demands a response.  It asks for a mission.  It demonstrates the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

In the musical, "The Music Man," the professor tried to get Marion the librarian to go out with him.  He asked her to meet him at the footbridge across the stream running through the park.  She wanted to, but she refused.  She said, "Please, some other time.  Maybe tomorrow."  The professor persisted, yet she continued to put off their meeting.  Finally, in exasperation, he said, "Pile up enough tomorrows and you'll find that you've collected nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays."

How many "empty yesterdays"--days in which faith never became action--are you going to hear about in your disciple/Jesus conference?

The next class you are being graded on is whether your love is being shown in labor.  Let's look at these two words separately and then put them together.

Love is easy.  It's the word, in Greek, agape, that you may have heard many times before.  It's the kind of loving in spite of what you get in return.  It's the kind of love that loves the unlovely and unloveable.  It's the kind of love that is an intense and passionate caring for all people.  It's the kind of love that doesn't give up.  It's the kind of love with which Jesus loved.

Labor, in the Greek language, is the word kopos.  This word literally is descriptive of the weariness that comes from being in a battle, or from taking a beating.  This kind of laboring means to be totally worn out, from fighting a constant battle.

So, now, put the two words together as Paul has to the Thessalonians: "...your love in labor..."  This is what we are being graded on, in our disciple/Jesus conference.  I'm here to tell you, this is tough.  It is a labor, using the full meaning of this word, to love and go on loving despite what you get in return.  That is like taking a beating, and constantly setting yourself up for a beating.  It's a labor to love the unloveable.  It's a labor to not give up loving.  That kind of loving is a labor that can easily wear you out.  Total exhaustion.  It makes me envious of the Thessalonians because Paul says, in this student/teacher conference letter, that they are doing really well in this regard.  I droop my head and sag my shoulders wondering how I measure up to that standard.

Here's a good description of loving in labor:
People are unreasonable, ignorant and self-centered: love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives: do good anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow: be good anyway.
Honesty will get you nowhere--it will make you vulnerable: be honest anyway.
People favor underdogs, but they follow the top dogs: fight for some underdogs anyway.
What you spend days building may be destroyed overnight: build it anyway.
People really need help but they attack you if you try to help them: help anyway.
Give the world your best and you get kicked in the mouth: give the world your best anyway.

What does your report card say about the labor of your loving?

And the last thing we have to talk about with Christ at our Jesus/disciple conference is "...your hope of our Lord Jesus Christ in perseverance."   Notice it says "your hope of our Lord Jesus Christ".  This is what keeps hope from being mere wishing.  Wishes come and go.  Wishes are pursued but given up on.  Wishes are born out of our fickle desires.

Christian hope has to do with Christ.  Our hope as Christians is grounded in a person--Jesus Christ--and thereby becomes something outside of us, bigger than us.  That's how hope is turned into perseverance--we're not in control of it, Christ is.

The word Paul used for perseverance is not just having patience, either.  A teacher asked a second grade boy, "Why are you sticking your stomach out?"
"The principal told me to," the little guy replied.  "This morning I told him I had a stomach ache.  He told me to stick it out until noon and then I could go home."

The word Paul used for perseverance is more a courageous endurance.  It literally means to stay behind in order to stand firm.  It's a form of successful resistance.  And that resistance is not for reward or acclaim, but from the inner strength of love and faith.

In his book, Tortured For Christ, author Richard Wurmbrand tells stories of this kind of resistant perseverance.  One story happened in a Chinese Communist prison.  On pain of being severely beaten, preaching to other prisoners was forbidden.  Wurmbrund wrote:
A number of us decided to pay the price for the privilege, so we accepted their terms.  It was a deal; we preached and they beat us.  We were happy preaching; they were happy beating us; so everyone was happy.  The following scene took place more times than I can remember.  A brother was preaching to the other prisoners, when the guards suddenly burst in, surprising him halfway through a phrase.  They hauled him down the corridor to their 'beating room.'  After what seemed an endless beating, they brought him back and threw him bruised and bloody on the prison floor.  Slowly, he picked his battered body up, painfully straightened his clothing, and said, "Now brethren, where did I leave off when I was interrupted?  He continued his gospel message.

I know that's a stark and awful example of this kind of perseverance.  But when I read stories like this it makes me think, What do I have to do to persevere in my Christian faith.  Nothing like this.  So why am I so worried about my level of resistance?

Our hope as Christians is about getting through present afflictions with courage and strength, because of our relationship with Christ.  Our hope in Christ is what creates our perseverance, for whatever we face, in the here and now.  That is what we are being graded on.


The Jesus/Disciple conference is over for now.  You're walking away from the table.  How did you do?   If not so well, there is still time for improvement before the next round of conferences in the Spring.