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Teach Us Something New

“Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”   
~Isaiah 43:18-21

Think back for a moment on the teachers you have encountered in your lifetime. Were there teachers you still remember today as “good” teachers?  What do you think made them a good teacher? Were they an authority on an issue or topic? Did you find their teaching style engaging?

There are several people who come to mind for me in response to this question, and while some of them were professional educators, many were not. Upon reflection, the good teachers I met along the way share some characteristics in common. They each in their own way inspired me to seek out new knowledge and experiences that would broaden my mind and help me to grow. They were passionate about the subject at hand and committed to helping students learn in creative ways relevant to their style of learning.

I think it is common to mistake speaking with certainty as speaking with authority. Who can take seriously someone unless they “tell it like it is”? Defending any criticism by doubling-down on their position? Shutting down others who threaten their expertise? My own experience of this model of teaching is it has the potential to shut down the learning and shut out the receiving of new information.

Other teachers brought me valuable life lessons, some through example, and some through helping me to understand an issue better, and others by helping me to understand myself better. Most encouraged me to read as much as I can about a subject that sparked interest, including perspectives that challenge my own. I was encouraged to seek out knowledge, new experiences, talk to people from diverse backgrounds and learn something new from them. I think of good education as truth-seeking, and at the same time consider truth-seeking to be transformational, as it can take me to a place I have not been.

Jesus was a spiritual teacher who spoke to people “as one with authority,” surprising those gathered in Capernaum with this new information. Jesus taught the crowds in the synagogue something new, something that offered an opportunity for transformation.

Perhaps some of you have watched the series Greenleaf, on Netflix about a pastor who presides over a large charismatic Christian church in Tennessee. While not specifically Roman Catholic, the series provides a fascinating exploration of the Universal Christian church, and interestingly often leaves the most pressing questions unanswered. In episode eight of the fifth season, the pastor’s wife, also a preacher, spoke to the assembly about this newness, which she delivered with authority:

I want to talk about the new. I want us to think together about the new. I want us to dream together today about the new. Not what this church has ever been, but what has never been, what we can’t even imagine a church to be! Help us learn and love our past well enough to let go and move forward into the future. Who had ever heard of such a thing? You see, when God saved all the guilty people with the death of one innocent man, that was new. I stand here with no ideas, no plans, with my arms open and my heart and my mind open and I am saying ‘Make me something new!’ I am asking you, ‘show me forgiveness where there can be none, redemption when it’s far too late; the waters where the wells long ago ran dry; acceptance where there is hate. I want you to show me what I can’t explain, I want you to make me what I can’t become!’  (Abridged)

At the beginning of this reflection, I invited you to reflect on the good teachers you have met, and what it was about them that resonated with you. Now I invite you and I both to consider this:  When was the last time Jesus taught you something new?  Something you had not heard before, something that astonished you.  What was it?  When was the last time you felt yourself transform into a new way of being by listening to or reading scripture? 

My prayer for all of us today is that Jesus teaches us and guides us all in his truth. Make me new. Make us all something new.

~Trevor Droesbeck, Archdiocese of Moncton Office for Evangelization and Catechesis