KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 28 May
admin | 1 June 2018That you may know
“How can these things be?” Nicodemus’ question to Jesus is our question too, a question that goes to our lives as students and teachers in this School. In the face of the wonders of learning we might ask with a kind of wonder, “how can these things be?” It might be quantum mechanics, calculus, a sonnet of John Donne, an event in history, a moment of athletic excellence, a quality of character on parade in cadets or on the stage, a lesson read in Chapel, a rare but quiet moment in the stillness of a sunset. All things that might, just might, awaken wonder in us. But do they always?
The story of Nicodemus read in Chapel this week along with a story about the power of forgiveness all speak to this time of endings as we approach the end of the School year. Nicodemus journeys to Jesus by night and is perplexed by Jesus’s words, especially the idea that “you must be born again.” Is that to be understood literally, he wonders? That is the context of his question, “how can these things be?” It brings out an integral feature of education. We learn, I hope, to think not simply literally but metaphorically, to think more intellectually, we might say.
We use the metaphor of life and education as a journey. But what kind of journey? That is the question before us at this time of endings. What has been the nature of your journey throughout this past year? Nicodemus, it seems, comes to learn something from Jesus, “a man come from God,” he says. He wants to learn, we might say. He is committed to the journey of learning. Can that be said of you as you come to the end of the year?
The passage from John’s Gospel ends with a reference from the Book of Numbers. Jesus says, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” The lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness refers to the stories of the People of Israel journeying in the wilderness. It was meant to be a time of learning, learning what it means to be the People of God, learning what it means to be defined by the Law given by God through Moses. In that journey, the People of Israel are provided with all that they need. Delivered by God from slavery in Egypt they are sustained by God, “a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of light by night” and fed in their wilderness wanderings “manna from on high.” They are provided for by God. And their response?
The Book of Numbers might better be called the book of murmuring, a murmuring against Moses and God. But I like the Yiddish word even better, Kvetching – a kind of complaining while being provided for, a kind of complaining which is about never being satisfied. The People of Israel kvetched! They complained about the journey.
There are tough lessons in life. God in response to their kvetching sends down fiery serpents whose bite kills those who are bitten. That’ll teach you! Well, maybe. Do we always learn even from the consequences of our actions? The People of Israel cry out to Moses to intercede for them to save them from the fiery serpents. God tells Moses to make a bronze serpent – the image of the fiery serpent – and to set it upon a pole before the People of Israel. In looking upon the bronze serpent raised up before them they are healed. In other words, the sin of their kvetching is made visible to them. They look and are saved. They look and learn. The journey of complaining becomes once again a journey of learning.
Ideally we should be like Nicodemus seeking to know and confronting the surprising things that awaken wonder. For the journey is really life-long. The story of Nicodemus is about the necessity of thinking upward, thinking into the mystery of God. The story is read on Trinity Sunday in the celebration of the mystery of God in himself, a mystery which cannot be reduced to our agendas and thinking. We are to think upward. That is the meaning of “being born anew.”
That can only happen, though, because there are things that are knowable, things that are to be known. This is part of the point of the Gospel story of Jesus’ healing the man “sick of the palsy” who was brought to him by his friends. His first words are about the forgiveness of sins indicating that the real healing of our humanity is not just about the concerns of the body but the soul. This awakens criticism in the hearts of some of those who were present who thought that this is blasphemy, for God alone can forgive sins. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, says “that you may know”. Know what? Know what God seeks for our humanity – our wholeness – as found in him. That you may know about God’s forgiveness of our sins, he not only upholds the words of forgiveness but heals the man’s physical infirmity. It awakens wonder.
The journey is about the wonder of learning. The year runs out in forgiveness, too. We face ourselves in all of our shortcomings and failings but confront something more. It is the greater good for our humanity that God wants us to know. Repentance and forgiveness are a constant feature of our Chapel services and they belong to what God wants for us to know. Such things are meant to awaken wonder in us. It is the wonder of learning right to the end!
(Rev’d) David Curry
Chaplain, English & ToK teacher
Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy