Grace and Truth: A word from pastors

I was talking with an educator the other day who said something funny, and the phrase stuck with me. Though it was said as a joke, I wondered how serious the implications really were.

The educator said that he told his boss after being transferred to a different school, that he needed “hazard pay.” He talked about the serious situations of violence and unexplainable anger that fills the classroom and many children every day. He talked about how sad it is to try and help those who are so lost they are unable to accept or even reach out for help.

Hazard pay is a form of compensation granted to staff members who have been asked to report for work in duty stations where hazardous conditions prevail, such as war or active hostilities, and where the evacuation of families and nonessential staff has taken place. It is a term used in the military, yet it was being used to explain the current situation in a public school in the United States. In many schools in America, teachers, students and visitors put their lives at risk simply by showing up.

The more I pondered the phrase the more concerned I became. What is happening to our children, and how are we the church responding? Why is it so hard to admit that the educational system we have in place is not working? Administration, educators, parents, governmental policy and students all have to take some blame and need to look at how they are playing a part in this mess. Balancing budgets, bad union contracts, horrible governmental policy, poor parenting, apathetic students, while we the church are fully involved and sitting on the sideline. For every Christian fighting for change, working to save our children and schools and putting themselves in harm’s way, there are hundreds if not thousands more sitting back letting them take the blows.

“Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out himself to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12).

This passage speaks of the Messiah taking on the hard job of redemption of all humankind. The imagery of war and a warrior going into battle and being victorious because God has chosen him to free others can be used for people going into what has become daily warzones in our schools. The Messiah will not only go into dangerous situations but when victorious he will share the rewards with everyone. The Messiah’s “hazard pay” is the best God can offer. His reward will change all creation. The Messiah’s portion will be great, and he will share it with the strong.

To every educator, school staff person and student that continues to go into dangerous school settings with the desire to do what is right, they will be numbered as the strong. Jesus will share his reward with them.

“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father” (John 10:17-18).

But what about those of us (Christians) sitting on the sidelines? How can we assist our first responders? If every church chose one school in its community to support, how much different would our schools become. If we prayed for them daily, sent adults to patrol the neighborhoods as children walk to and from school and engaged the children with a smile and a simple hello, what would be the result?

We must no longer sit on the sidelines. We must assist our Lord and Savior by getting in the battle. We will receive “hazard pay”—not from any governmental agency but from the Creator himself.

Cyneatha Millsaps is pastor of Community Mennonite Church in Markham, Ill.