Being Thankful for Teachers

I am often reminded of the gifts I have been given--gifts both large and small. Today I think in particular of two of my seminary professors. One of them, Bill Holladay, taught Old Testament. He is still active at the age of about 90, although he has retired from teaching. I am reminded of him whenever a text from the Book of Jeremiah appears in the Revised Common Lectionary. Jeremiah was his specialty.

While I was in seminary (1980-86) Prof. Holladay was writing what is now considered the definitive commentary on the Book of Jeremiah. It was at a time when home computers were in their early stage of development. Laptops didn’t exist at that time. I don’t remember what he had for a computer, but I remember him telling our Old Testament class how his son had developed a word processing program that allowed him to type in Hebrew. That may not sound like much of an accomplishment, but Hebrew is written right to left, and computers compose left to right. I believe the message of hope in Jeremiah was what attracted him to this particular book in the first place. Writing a commentary on a book of the Bible can take decades, and I know he worked on it for many years. I have a set of the two volume work, and I use them whenever I preach on a text from Jeremiah.

I also have thought lately of another seminary professor, George Peck. A native of Australia, he was the dean and later the president at Andover Newton, and taught theology. He was a missionary in India for many years. He was a proponent of the theology of Karl Barth, a German theologian who dared to stand up to the Nazi regime in the years previous to World War II. Barth eventually moved to Switzerland to escape the Nazi government, and spent the rest of his life there. During his career he wrote a multi-volume work entitled “Church Dogmatics.” I have recently completed my collection of all fourteen volumes, and have started reading. It will probably take a few years but it will be worth it. It’s like being in school again.

George died very suddenly only a few years after I graduated from seminary. He was only 60 years old as I recall. For years my daughter has remembered his fondness for small children, since he didn’t have grandchildren of his own. I remember more than once seeing him carrying around a small child of one of the students at the Christmas party that he and his wife always held in the President’s house.

I often think of the debt I owe to many people who were my teachers. We all have had important teachers in our lives, whether they were teachers in public school, Sunday School, sports coaches, family members or neighbors. It is a good thing to express gratitude for our teachers. I can’t contact George because he is no longer with us, but I have gotten Bill’s address from Andover Newton and plan to write him a note of thanks. He taught many students over the years, and I doubt he will remember me, but I am sure he will appreciate my taking the time to thank him for his work that still has value and that lives on in his writings.