The Blessing of Backpacks

My Childhood Lunch Box
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7). 

 Schools open next Tuesday!  Teachers are getting ready this week for students.  Parents and students have one last week of summer schedule and a holiday weekend.  Stores are ready and waiting for you.  Your church is, too!  I invite our students and teachers to bring your backpacks to worship at the Pine Island Presbyterian Church on Sunday, September 9th.  Together, we will mark this new beginning with a prayer.

 When I was a student, on the first day of school my parents lined my brothers, sister and me up outside our home and took a photo.  We didn't have backpacks then.  We just carried our books and tablet.  We did carry our lunch to school in a lunch box.  We were anxious about who we would meet;  if we would make a friend;  if our friends made earlier would be there; to hear the stories of their summer adventures;  whether any bullies would harass us;  whether our teachers would be nice or difficult.  It was a scary time and things going on in the world crept into the school.  We were taught to duck and cover.  A fallout shelter sign was placed by the school basement steps.  We had occasional arguments on the playground and sometimes a wrestling tussle, but we and our parents never worried about gun violence and school shootings as experienced in America's schools these past years. 

 Sending one's children off to school into this scary world takes on a whole new meaning these days. An underlying anxiety has crept into our lives, making it harder for parents to send their children off into the world, trusting others to care for them.  Anxiety is a fear that does not go away, but just sits there day in and day out.  That is not healthy.  We think schools should be for learning not fear. Learning, however, is about new experiences, risking an adventure, trusting yourself, and others.

 The Book of Proverbs is a textbook of wisdom in the Bible.  It states in the prologue, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7).  My daughter dislikes that phrase, because she was raised to know God as loving and gracious, not threatening punishment and fear.  Another way of understanding the Hebrew concept of fear is reverence for God and standing in awe of God, the creator of this awe inspiring world.  Knowing and revering God, living in relationship with God does not protect a believer from harm.  The Book of Job corrects that notion.  Bad things sometimes do happen to good people.  Blameless Jesus' suffering on the cross also corrects that notion.   Rather, Jesus' life and death showed us what God's love looks like.  In Job's story and in the gospel story of Jesus, love, trust and integrity triumph in the end.  God has a way of overcoming evil with good. 

 Reverence for God in worship together in community transforms our fear, relieves persistent anxiety, gives us courage to stand up for ourselves and for others who may be targeted for abuse or who need a friend.  In worship, we learn what God is doing in the world to make it more blessed for all, and sends us out into the world to join God on those adventures.  

 Backpacks and lunch boxes are symbols of venturing from home into the world.  So come and bring your kids, your grandkids and their backpacks on Sunday, September 9th along with your fears and anxieties.  We'll gather and face our fears together.  Because we have adventures to engage and places to explore with our awesome, loving God who sends us out into the world to love our neighbors.



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