AtomWe Wish You More Than Luck
Matthew 28:16-20
Next weekend is graduation, you know…and it’s a big year at my house as my daughter, Kelsey, will be crossing the stage with her classmates. In fact, as we prepare for Kelsey’s graduation I find myself being a bit nostalgic. It is now almost 35 years since my own graduation from High School. Imagine that. There are lots of things I have forgotten about that day, but one thing have not forgotten is that our commencement speaker for graduation was Miss Minnesota. Can you imagine that coup for a little town in Northern Minnesota, population 400 with a graduating class of 46? We were mighty honored! To tell you the truth, I don’t remember a thing she said. I do remember how she looked, though, which was mighty good to an 18 year-old guy. But she probably told us “good luck,” because that’s what most speakers do. And I’m not so sure that’s a good thing.
In the book, Catcher in the Rye, a classic novel that some of you read this year, Holden Caulfield, the leading character is also finishing school. But he isn’t graduating. He is being expelled. One of his teachers asks him about his future: “Do you feel absolutely no concern for your future, boy?” “Oh, I feel some concern for my future, all right…Sure I do.” But then Holden thought about it for a moment. “But not too much, I guess…” “You will,” his teacher said, “You will, boy…when it’s too late.”
“I didn’t like hearing him say that,” Holden says to his readers. “It made me sound dead or something. It was very depressing.” So, I called back to him, “I guess I will then.”
If the truth be told, even though Holden appeared to not care much about the future, he no doubt cared a good deal. He no doubt wondered as we all do, “What am I going to be? What am I going to do?” Because when he heard the teacher call out one more time, Holden wrote, “I’m pretty sure he yelled ‘good luck’ at me. I hope not. I hope to heck not! I’d never yell ‘good luck’ to anybody. It sounds terrible when you think about it.”
And you know…it does, when you think about it. Kind of like life is just a big lottery and the only way you’re going to make it, is if you’re “lucky.”
Well, I don’t happen to believe that. In fact, I don’t tell anyone “good luck” anymore because I believe that the Lord God also has something to say to our future that’s a lot better than “good luck.”
So how about those questions of the future: “What am I going to be?” “What am I going to do?” That first one is an intriguing one: “What am I going to be?” It’s an important question. In fact it’s a question that some of us are still asking 35 years later – or maybe as we approach retirement, a question we are asking again. “What am I going to be now?” But the Lord God has a question that has to be answered before all the other questions. And that question is, “Who am I?” Rather than “what am I going to be?” we start in the church with, “Who am I?” Or, rather, from the Christian perspective, “Whose am I? To whom do I belong?” The Bible is pretty clear about that. It tells us that we belong to God. Trinity Sunday is all about that. You have a Creator who gave you life. You have a Savior who died and rose for you. You have the very Spirit of the living God in you. Some 17 or 18 years ago for most of you, in the midst of family and friends gathered around a baptismal font, the church kept the command of Jesus. You were baptized in the name of this God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and God spoke and said, “In the washing of this water, I claim this one as mine. This one is my child now.”
And that same word was spoken again on your confirmation day, as a further reminder of whose you are. Barely two years ago, we prayed these words over each of you (read prayer, starting with “gracious Lord”)…
This is “who” you are…this is “whose” you are.
What are you going to be? You will be who you are. You will be God’s child…a daughter or son of God. You will be a person gifted with…read it again here…”wisdom, understanding, council, might, knowledge, fear of the Lord and joy.”
I want you to remember that today…whether you are one of our graduates, or not…and I can’t tell you how many 40-year-olds have been asking these same questions in my presence lately…I want you to remember that God has an intention as to what we shall be when we leave the place of worship and head out into the world. That is that we will be who we are. We will be God’s person, gifted by God, living and serving in God’s world. God has plans and hopes for us. God goes with us. And I hope you hear that as much more hopeful than a wish for “good luck.” When someone asks you, or when you ask yourself, “What am I going to be?” I hope your answer – at least in your own mind – will be, “I am and I will be God’s child, a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
So, have settled that, now, “What will you do?” It’s another important question. What will I do with my life? I just happen to believe that the answer to that question flows directly from your answer to the first question. “Whose am I?” “I am God’s!” What will I do?” I will do what God would have me do.” Sounds so simple until we try to figure it out.
(Reminds me of the old story of the young lad who grew up on the farm…was praying about what God would have him do…saw GPC in the clouds…interpreted it as “Go Preach Christ.” Went to seminary…things didn’t go so well…professor called him in…he told his story. Professor said, “I’ve been praying too, and I have come to believe that GPC meant “Go Plant Corn!”)
How do you know? What guidance does God give? Well, on the one hand I can point you to the same kinds of things that a career counselor might…and that is, as a child of God, gifted with many different abilities and interests, you should pray (well, a counselor might not tell you that), and then, using the good mind that God has given you,
1) Consider your interests and hobbies
2) Consider the courses in which you made the best grades
3) Talk to your school counselor or someone who knows your abilities, even after graduation.
4) Read up on the kinds of qualifications needed for the kind of work you are interested in.
Now, as I said, any counselor could have told you these things, but I, as your pastor, have to encourage you to consider one more thing. That is this: As a Christian, your primary calling in life is to be of service…to your God and to your world and to the people in that world. Even as Jesus said to the first disciples in our reading today, “Go and be me to the world.” And be assured that it is in finding a way to serve, in finding a way to use the skills you possess or will develop, that you will find true success and happiness.
I say this because you will probably receive plenty of advice on being “successful” and happy and I dare say that most of it will have to do with getting a job and making money and buying the things that you need or want. There is no doubt in my mind that you will want to earn money…nothing wrong with that…you will need to provide for your needs and for others in your life. But be careful that you do not choose what you will do based upon how you can make the most money the most quickly. Be careful that you do not choose to make what you want to earn or own the goal of your life. You will out on those things that are truly valuable.
Again last summer we heard one of those tragic stories of a father who was supposed to drop his son off at day care on the way to work and forgot…and left the child in the car seat, in the car, all day. After work he found his child, still in the car seat, but no longer living. How horrible. As a parent it still makes me shudder. How could such a thing happen? Could it happen to me? I tried to imagine how. I thought of how often these days, we work not only at our work place, but also on the way to work, in the car. Cell phones have made this far more prevalent, even though it is unsafe. And how easy it is to take a call in the car and to get all wrapped up in it, in a project, and to be so absorbed by it that you drive up to work, park the car, and walk in, still talking on the phone, not thinking to look in the back seat where your precious child sleeps.
Of course this is a graphic illustration of a more universal temptation, and that is to let our work, or our hobbies, or our pursuit of advancement distract us from relationships and family and even spiritual matters so that one day we wake up to the fact that some important part of our life – our marriage, our child, or even our faith – is gone. Remember, Jesus once said, “A person’s life does not consist in the abundance of their possessions.” How true! Yet every day we are overwhelmed with messages that would have us believe otherwise.
Rudyard Kipling, famous author, was once addressing a graduating class in Canada, and in his speech he cautioned the class: “Don’t put too much emphasis on fame and fortune. Some day you will meet someone who has none of these things and you will know how poor you really are.”
Or, as someone has pointed out, you will discover that money will buy,
• A bed but not sleep
• Books, but not brains
• Finery, but not beauty
• A house, but not a home
• Medicine, but not health
• Amusement, but not happiness.
What will I do with my life? Jesus knew about material needs…he knew about the importance of food and clothing and shelter…but he also knew how wrapped up we could get in these things…so wrapped up that we would miss out on the fullness of life. “Seek first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness,” says Jesus, “And all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matt. 6:33)
All this does not mean, friends, that we are all called to be missionaries or pastors or church workers…far from it. What it means is that whatever our skills, whatever our interests, whatever we discover our abilities to be, we are called to use them to serve God and others. I know of one very successful executive officer of a corporation who uses their abilities in finance and their connections with the powers that be to serve the needs of disabled youth in their community. It is but one example.
There is no one right thing to “do for God.” There are many right things – as many as the differences among us. But all of us, who are baptized into Christ are called to serve. Again, the Church does not bid you “Good luck in whatever you do,” but rather says, “Whatever you do, do in service of your Lord.”
“What am I going to be? What am I going to do?” I really haven’t given you any new answers. I have only tried to remind you of what is important as Christians moving into the future. What are you going to be? You are going to be God’s person! What are you going to do? Because you are God’s person, you are going to serve God and serve others.”
I have to believe friends that the word the Church offers you, the word that your Lord offers you is far more hopeful than “good luck.” It is “go with God,” and even better, it is “God goes with you!” Let’s pray…
“Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrod, through perils yet unknown. Give us faith to go out in good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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