The Leeks of Egypt

by Dan Snyder, Headmaster

Listening to students complain about reading old books reminds me of reading about the Israelites complaining about manna. Old books, like manna, are greeted with the somewhat disdainful question “what is this?” and instead of being treated like the divine provision they are, are often set aside to meditate on the long lost “leeks of Egypt” such as social media and popular video snippets. Like manna, the old books are a dispensation from the Father of Lights, they are a sustainment and also a formative conditioning. They produce a habit. That habit is the enforcement of reliance and a discipline of the affections. 

“You are to honor your Father and Mother.” The fourth commandment as illuminated in Luther’s Large Catechism instructs us to patiently honor our parents, and officials especially including teachers as gifts given to us for our benefit. We may be part of a lost generation, taught to disdain our parents as “oppressors,” to disregard the books of the past as the product of “racists” or, in the days when I was taught to rebel against my elders, as “imperialists.”  We are prone to imagine the fleshpots of Egypt and progressive fantasy, when what is needed is a generational discipline, returning us to the veneration of our rightful heritage as represented in our fathers. 

Those who point to the easily seen flaws in the prior generations are akin to Ham, who seeing his father’s nakedness broadcast it to all who would hear, taking no pious action himself in humility and the spirit of receiving instruction. Ham also seemed to have easily forgotten the steadfast obedience of Noah and his preservation of what he had received, handing it on, actually carrying it across the raging destruction of his own epoch. Those who think that the old authorities should sit down and take their place behind the “oppressed” and “hidden” voices that have been apparently silenced by wicked fathers, are disobeying the fourth commandment, and are the opposite of classical educators. 

Raining down to our age like manna, the lessons and books of those who fathered us, the civilizations that gave rise to ours by warnings, admonitions and deep ethical introspection, the examples of the Hebrews, the questions of the Greeks, even to the piety and bravery of the settlers of our North American continent, these gifts preserved for our formation and edification are not to be despised. The leeks and fleshpots of other lands not our own, the idols of our lazy imaginations, are like all products of nostalgia: misremembered and fantastical. Remember that Eve, far from accepting her proper food, grasped for something flattering that she had been encouraged to imagine by an usurper – not a Father, but an ancient murderer.

Ultimately, the greatest “oppressor” of all is God the Father, who in the Logos, preserves for us all things leading to the Gospel, desiring for us to accept what he has preserved for our benefit.

Coming up at CAW

• Friday, April 4 – Track meet at Clearwater
• April 6, 3pm – Afternoon of Music and the Arts at CAW
• Thursday, April 10 – Track meet at Valley Center
• April 17-21 – No School, Easter Break
• Friday, April 25, 6pm – annual Phoenix Rising Benefit Gala
• Tuesday, April 29 – Track meet at East High
• Wednesday, April 30 – Field trip to Topeka to tour capital building