KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 28 May
That 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?
