What would you say if I pointed out the similarities between the group of men I talked about last time and the middle school kids I taught for 24 years?
Comparing guys recovering from addiction and middle school kids? I promise, I’m not joking or being sarcastic.
I loved working with middle school kids. It took me a while to figure out the best approach, but even as I fumbled and made mistakes, I realized they had a great deal to teach me.
Schools aren’t immune from the human tendency to divide the world into us and them. Looking back, I realize how much teacher behavior was about controlling students. It was teacher versus student.
Over the years, my middle school kids taught me they weren’t the enemy. In fact, they wanted the same thing everyone else wants.
Instead of being controlled, they wanted to be seen, heard, taken seriously. Just like you and me and pretty much everyone else.
They wanted community.
Do you see the similarities between my experiences with these two apparently different groups?
In both cases, it started as me and them. It was my job to change them, to make a difference.
The magic happened in both cases when it became about us, about a community working together. Hopefully they learned from me – I KNOW I learned from them.
Jesus could have appeared on a throne surrounded by an army. Instead, he showed up as one of us. He hung out with the uneducated, the poor, the sick– all the outcasts who were “others” in his culture – especially the religious culture.
He stated clearly – if we want to find him, that’s where we ought to go.
As hard as we try, you and I are prone to otherize people – us and them.
I too frequently forget – Jesus is always one of them.