Turning The World Upside Down

I was blessed with the opportunity to take over our Parish's Monday night 8th Grade religious ed class. The regular teacher had to bow out for the rest of the year. This was suppose to be my year off after teaching for six straight. But I couldn't sit by and have the class fold. So here we are learning about social justice and sin.

Anyone who knows me, knows I'm an unconventional teacher. Never on topic, but I'm trying with this class.

We do the cup song at the start of every class. To instill practice. They are getting better... I'm proud of them.

The students pay a fee to attend: One flip top off a soda can. To instill practicing small acts of kindness. We donate them to the Ronald MacDonald House in Springfield MA.

They have homework: Be kind at home. And be prepared to talk about it in class.

No books. I'm the only one reading in class. Class material and the second reading from the previous Sunday. No talking while I'm reading. It's a respect thing.

And we write letters to the parishioners to be published in the weekly bulletin. Much like the apostles... We tell them about what we are learning.

We watch YouTube videos huddled around my phone. Always standing room only.

There is usually candy, and we play musical chairs to Christian Rock: Chris Tomlin and finally football style huddle up for final prayer.

This past week we talked about why the high priests would feel threatened by Jesus and his teachings. I said, Jesus was taking the Jewish law and religion to a new level. He was viewed as a different type of prophet or rabbi. Testing their rules and giving them new ones based in love. He was showing them a whole new way to learn about and live their faith. The priests felt their hold in the people was slipping. They wondered who is this Jesus?

And here comes the kicker: One student said, it's just like how you teach this class. Wow... Imagine that. From a student I had no intention of teaching, except for this opportunity. Amazing. We only have three more classes. I will miss them.