Name Above All Names

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth

Philippians 2:9-10

Three weeks ago, the faculty and staff gathered for it’s annual kick-off to the upcoming school year. This morning always comes with such mixed emotions and it is only appropriate that we start each school year in this way; reuniting with former colleagues and being introduced to new.

Personally, I appreciate the time we spend worshipping together which calms my mind and heart while listening to the words of our speaker.  EC Parent and Board Member Pastor Jeremy Mulder of Restore Church left me with words too important to ignore. I had spent the summer thinking about the obvious aspects of our spiritual theme “Name Above all Names” and how that would fit into the year ahead, but I had neglected to focus on the connection between Jesus as the person of central importance and the result of everyone acknowledging the lordship of Christ due to our unity in Him.

Jeremy pointed out that Philippians 2 reminds us that to be united in Christ means that we would truly reflect that unity with Christ and with the Spirit and that must be done through this community we call “Eastern Christian.” How can you reflect unity this year? If we are like minded, value others more than ourselves and can look to the interests of others (verses 2-4), then it will be apparent to others that we are united with Christ and will reflect the way Christ lived.

Jeremy challenged us with the following thoughts to carry us into the school year:

“If we are making our theme, “Name above all Names”, then we must also commit to making Eastern Christian the type of community that lives the way he lived. I believe that if we do not fight for community in our classrooms and among our peers and our colleagues, it will not be long before it is done for good. We cannot assume community. We must work for it and fight for it. We must be active in putting others preferences ahead of our own. Because as the world around us continues to forget what unity looks like and what community looks like, it will become increasingly tempting for us to forget that as well.”

“Every class, every subject, ever lesson, there is something there that tells us something about God and who He is. It reminds us of Christ’s lordship. We as an institution are not just teaching students to be good at math or good at reading or to simply understand literature or science. We aren’t just teaching our kids to know the right answers or to pass the tests. With every lesson we are instilling in them an understanding of how Jesus is the Lord over the subject we are studying to that when they really understand it they don’t just understand the subject, but they understand what the subjects tells us about our Lord. That is what we are doing.

We’re raising God-glorifying mathematicians.

God-glorifying authors.

God-glorifying soldiers.

God-glorifying business women.

God-glorifying politicians.

God-glorifying electricians and tradesmen and computer programmers and scientists and whatever else we area teaching them because, I believe…..You are God-glorifying teachers.”

This is our charge as the community of Eastern Christian. To proclaim that Jesus is the name above all names so that every tongue will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord. We have a big task ahead of us as we jump into this new school year, but with the grace of God we will build each other up and encourage one another to proclaim God’s name so loudly everyone will be knocking at our doors!