School lunch-Luke 14:1, 7-14
Pastor Lisa began the sermon by having us think about the different cliques we experienced in school. The congregation named many different groups. We were asked to think about how it was not considered okay to go from group to group...to hang out with those from another group. Rules of the gang, so to speak. How Jesus broke the rules.
It reminded me of how I used to look for someone lonely to sit with at lunch. I didn't really have one group that I ate with consistently. I felt good when my assistant principal, who used to attend my high school, asked me, "Lee Anne, who did you hang out with at Dorman?" Other than my best friend, David Clayton, I was unable to answer. I was friends with many different people from different groups: the chorus group, the drama group, friends in the band, and friends on the football team and cheerleading squad.
When I was teaching at Roebuck Elementary School, I insisted on sitting with my students instead of at the teacher table. I got interesting looks but eventually other teachers started doing it too. I used to make appointments with my students. I would tell them that I had two sides...so two students got to eat with me each day. I sought to "bring out" the shy children. I fondly remember some of the students giving me their chocolate milk. We had a lot of great conversations at the table, me and my second graders. I remember Christopher Bobo and his peanut butter and marshmallow cream sandwiches. I remember Christie Levereaux and her mother who shared recipes with me then hired me to keep the girls for two summers. I still remember them ALL. That was the year I had Hannah Sobeski and the girls that created a poetry club and published a book. How sweet and how special.
I really do not have a problem with crossing "group" barriers. I am always looking for outcasts. At my school now, I appeal to parents that don't quite fit the "Pine Street" mold to come be MY volunteers. I don't fit the mold and I don't want to. I do not have anything to prove to anyone and do not need to "identify" with a social group to be successful or happy. That is not how I measure success. I am about my Father's business. That is, being a LIGHT and being SALT in the world around me. Crossing barriers is my challenge. Making a difference in the lives of those around me-that is what is important to me and it doesn't matter what "group" they belong to. I am happy when I work with students and someone asks me, "Don't you know who their father is?" I usually don't...not their earthly father. I don't care about the who's who of Spartanburg. I just care about that student and what they need at the time.
In my sermon notes, I listed current groups that seem to exist in our world:
the
Christian vs. the worldly,
the poor vs. the snobby,
the rednecks vs. the elite,
the custodians vs. the faculty.
It has always bothered me as long as I have been at Pine Street that the custodians were not included in the faculty celebrations. When our former principal was there, the custodians did not eat with us. They ate in the back corner of the SAME room we were in. Veneal and I made it known to the PTO and Sunshine Club that we wanted them included. We have come a long way. The celebrations at school are more integrated but those that are hosted at parent's homes off campus are still faculty only. The "staff" still has their own Christmas party where they are served left-overs from the faculty shin dig the day before. Now, granted, they are beautiful and delicious left-overs with lots of fresh delights added to them, still.....
We've made progress but it is still not EQUAL. I know that it would mean the faculty giving up the posh parties, but I am not so sure it wouldn't be for the better. This Friday, I am "busting barriers" again by organizing a reception JUST for the custodial staff tomorrow as their leader, Cecil Turley, leaves us to go to another job!
I think I was always destined to seek out those who are left out. I remember having dreams when I was a young adult that a black person came to my church. (At the time, it was Roebuck Baptist Church where I grew up and like most Southern Baptist churches in the mid-eighties, we had no black members.) In that dream, I was the only person who greeted the black person and sat with them. I have dreamed variations of that dream most of my life.
To me this "barrier busting" is just what I am called to do as a follower of Christ. It is my mission as it was His. So it is a no brainer. My life verse Matthew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify in your Father which is in Heaven." Find somebody, anybody at Dorman High School...it's in their yearbook right beside my name.
