A Special Guest Message from Pastor Rippy:

To reflect on the beginning of the school year 

Ephesians6:4 & John 6:60-69 2025

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen! 

            Hear the word of our Lord through the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians the fourth chapter: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but raise them in the instruction and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4)

Hear also to the words of our Lord in St. John’s Gospel the 6th chapter:

66 “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This is the Word of the Lord.

Samual Taylor Coleridge, the famous poet, was once talking with a man who told him that he did not believe in giving little children any religious instruction whatsoever. His theory was that the child’s mind should not be prejudiced in any direction, so that after the child grew up, he would be able to choose his religious opinions for himself. Coleridge said nothing, but after a while he asked his visitor if he would like to see his garden. The man said he would be delighted, so Coleridge took him out into the garden, where only weeds were growing. The man took one look at the garden and said, “Hah, this isn’t a garden! There’s nothing but weeds here!”

            “Well, you see,” answered Coleridge. “I did not wish to infringe upon the liberty of the garden in any way. I was just giving the garden a chance to express itself and to choose its own production, and amazingly this was the result.”

This anecdote emphasizes the necessity and importance of Christian education. For indeed, the teaching of the Christian faith is vital for the life of our children. There is nothing more important in this world than salvation and nothing more important for our children than that they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.

Now the first question we might ask about Christian education is, “Who is to teach the Christian faith?” Deuteronomy 6:6-9 makes it clear that parents have the ultimate responsibility to make sure their children are fed the Words of Life. “‘And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 "You shall teach them diligently to your children…” (ESV). Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6 KJV), and Ephesians 6 says, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but raise them in the instruction and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4 ESV)

It is clear from the Word of the Lord that the first duty of parents, there number one responsibility, starting with the father according to St. Paul, is to teach their children the commands and doctrines of God that their children may know God in Christ Jesus and come to Him for life and salvation. Parents are the first and best teachers, and God wants them to take that job seriously.

The next in line as teacher of the faith is your Pastor. While parents have the ultimate responsibility to teach their children, the Pastor is the primary teacher in the church. He has what we refer to as doctrinal oversight. St. Paul wrote in Titus 1:9, “[An overseer] must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” To the pastor is given the office of overseer. It is the pastor’s responsibility to oversee what is being taught in the church and make sure it’s all in conformity with scripture. If false teaching is taught in a church or a church school, or the church Sunday school or even a church Bible study that pastor is not teaching, it is the pastor who will ultimately be called to account on judgment day for he is responsible for the doctrines taught at his church. It is his job to make sure everything in the church conforms to the Word of the Lord.

Now, under the oversight of the pastor comes all the other teachers of the church. This would include Sunday School teachers, Bible Study leaders and Weekday school teachers and helpers like you. All of these are basically helpers of the Pastor. They help the pastor teach a number of children and adults he would not normally be able to teach due to time and the laws of physics. Thus, you teachers and workers at this school are very important to the education of our children. You are given a most important responsibility, to teach the Word of life without error to the best of your ability. Of course, we know that we are not perfect. We know that we cannot teach even the Word of life without sin; however, as Jesus reminds us in the Gospel of St. Matthew, we also know know and believe that with man this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

The next question we might ask is, “What should we teach our children?” Our Lord answered this question in today’s Gospel when He said, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63). Later, when asked by Jesus whether they also would leave Him, Simon Peter responded for the Apostles: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 "Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

This is what teaching the Christian faith is all about- the words of eternal life. Ultimately what we teach in Church, in Sunday School or here at Zion Lutheran School is not merely interesting information or stories, but they are words of eternal life: words of Law and Gospel- words of justice and mercy- words of sin and forgiveness. Words and doctrines which point us to the sure and certain knowledge that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. That is the purpose of our School. If we do everything else well, if we train honest, civic minded patriots, if we train up the best scholars in the land, if we train the greatest artists who have ever lived, and do not teach the full counsel of God then we have failed our children, our church, and our country.

Finally we ask, “Where then do we draw our strength as parents, pastors and teachers, to teach such an important thing as the Holy Word of God?” For whether you are a parent, a pastor, or a Sunday School teacher, teaching the faith is a hard job. In today’s Gospel lesson we see the reaction of Christ’s own disciples to His teaching that He was the very bread from heaven which came down for the life of the world, “Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?" … and from that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” (John 6:60-66).

Did you catch that? Many of those who had followed Jesus were offended by His teaching and walked away- no more to walk with the Savior of the World who has the words of eternal life. This was after the feeding of the 5,000 which, the Bible says, did not include the women and children. In that single day of teaching, it is estimated that Jesus lost as many as 10,000 followers! By the standards of our world, on that day, Jesus was an absolute failure. BUT, He did not compromise the Word of the Lord even when He knew that many would walk away.

And if Jesus lost thousands of followers in 1 day, what chance do you think you’ll have of having a 100% conversion rate? There will always be some who, in spite of our best efforts, simply do not believe. According to the Gospel, God knows who they are, but we do not. “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father,” Jesus said. This is a great comfort to parents and teachers, for ultimately it is not within our power or ability to make disciples or to teach anything of the Christian church to anyone. It is solely the power and right of the Holy Spirit. We are but the conduits of that powerful Word which does the teaching. This relieves us of worrying about the results of our teaching, for all we can do is be faithful in learning and teaching the Word of God in its purity. If we have done this, without compromise, then we have done all that the Lord has asked of us. The results are completely up to Him. And while it can be terribly sad and frustrating when one of our students walks away from the Lord, we must remember that “No one can come to the father unless He has drawn them.” Or, as we confess through Luther’s Small Catechism, "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith" (Small Catechism, Third Article of the Creed). This is the comfort and privilege of our office as teachers. To us has been given powerful words of life, which we are to give to our children and our students and our flocks.

Never has there been such a need for good, strong Christian men and women, in our businesses, our police forces, our hospitals, our fire departments, our military and our government: Christians who know God’s word and will seek God’s will as opposed to their own; Christians who know the difference between justice and mercy and know when to apply each; Christians who love Jesus Christ with all of their hearts, souls, and minds; Christians who can make a positive influence on our world. 

Today we celebrate the beginning of another school year here at Zion Lutheran School. Today we strike a blow to all that the devil would desire to take from us. Today we stand in defiance of those who desire our destruction. They may attack our integrity, they may call us names, they may even try to limit our freedoms, but they can never take away our faith in Christ. And they cannot stop us from passing on this comfort to our children. Teaching the Words of Eternal life is vital for changing our world. Our children need you. Our church needs you, and our nation needs you.

Let us then fall on the grace and mercy of God our Savior calling upon Him to guide us as we teach others and to forgive us when we sin. God, in Christ Jesus, is our wisdom and our strength to do that which He has promised, and our God is there for us, to guide and forgive as He has promised. Let us rejoice this day in the gift of God’s Word which we are privileged to teach. Amen!

And now may the peace that passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting, Amen!