A Graduation Invitation
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8
Graduate Sunday
05-04-2008 Sam Jones Memorial United Methodist Church

PP1 KNOW THE PLANS I HAVE FOR YOU MASTER SLIDE

PP2 ECCLESIASTES 3: 1

Introduction

PP3 OH, THE PLACES YOU WILL GO

Congratulations! Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

Oh, the Places You’ll Go was one of the last books written by Ted Geisel under the pseudonym of Dr. Seuss. The book was published in 1990 just a year before the author’s death. The story describes the adventures awaiting a young person venturing out into the world. It became an instant classic, and many of our seniors here today will no doubt receive it as a graduation gift.
However, the story is for children of all ages. The book reminds us that life is a journey with milestones that mark the way. We should take great care in the paths that we choose. In The Lord of the Rings, Bilbo Baggins warns Frodo: “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step on to the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.” So today we come to ask the question: How is God with us on the journey in every age and stage of life?

I. Milestones

PP4 ROMAN MILESTONE

The Roman Empire was noted for its accomplishments in construction. Latin engineers designed and built amphitheaters, aqueducts, and roads that still exist today. The main Roman roads were engineering masterpieces. The roads were marked in 1000 pace sections called “milia passuum” from which we get the English term “mile.” These milestones served as markers to gauge progress along the way.

PP5 BABY’S FIRSTS

We note and mark the milestones along life’s journey. They are easily recognizable and memorable. We celebrate life’s “firsts” as red letter days in our lives. Parents keep “Baby Books” that commemorate a child’s first word, step, birthday, Christmas, school day, and lost tooth. We vividly recall these inaugural moments of life as times of joy and celebration.
On Graduation Sunday, we recognize another such milestone in our young people’s lives. In the next few weeks, they will graduate from high school, college, and beyond. We celebrate with them these great accomplishments in their lives.
For the parents of our high school seniors, the past eighteen years have flown by. The babies we held in our arms and rocked to sleep are now graduating from high school and stand on the verge of adulthood. I recall older persons counseling me when our children were young, “Enjoy them while you can—they grow up before you know it.” I found this difficult to believe in the midst of two a.m. feedings, colic, earaches, and spit-up. Yet their words turned out to be prophetic. And now I find myself saying to young parents, “Enjoy them while you can—they grow up before you know it.”
On the other hand, I recall a more experienced parent who had been there, done that, and had the scars to prove it. She told me, “God has a way of preparing parents for the empty nest syndrome—it’s called adolescence!”
Children go through these predictable ages and stages of life. We recognize and celebrate the “firsts.” Yet we also realize that each transition marks a “last.” Milestones are both beginnings and endings. Wise parents would have it no other way. Yet the gain is shadowed by a sense of loss and the joy accompanied with a bit of grief.

Someone recommended to us a book by Karen Kingsbury entitled Let Me Hold You Longer. Parents, if you’re looking for a good cry, this is the book for you! It recognizes children’s first and lasts. The author writes: “I look ahead and dream of days that haven’t come to pass. But as I do, I sometimes miss today’s sweet, precious lasts.”

First and lasts—perhaps the best part of milestones such as today is that they give us the opportunity to recall the past and anticipate the future. By definition, they define the ending of one stage and the beginning of another.
Milestones can also mark crisis times in life. Crisis normally carries with it a negative connotation, but crises can be good or bad; however, crisis times always signify change. We tend to become “frozen” into one form. During crisis times, however, our lives thaw and then refreeze. We have the opportunity to assume new shapes and forms. Milestones can mark times of transition and change.
God is with us in the milestone and crisis moments of life. The Holy Spirit calls us to assess our lives and anticipate the future. We are given the opportunity to rededicate our lives as Christian disciples.

II. Journey

PP6 ROAD

Memory is such a strange thing. We tend to remember the milestones of life, but we forget much of the events in between. Some studies suggest that adrenaline is the “glue” of long-term memory. Unforgettable events are accompanied by a release of adrenaline that helps the memory “stick” in our minds. This is why we seldom remember the ordinary, humdrum events of life. BUT if you think about it, most of life is lived BETWEEN the milestones in the here and now.
I suppose it is human nature to constantly be looking forwards or backwards towards milestones rather than focusing upon the moment. Young people tend to look to the future: they anticipate turning 13, 15, 16, 18, or 21. They look forward to graduating from high school and college, landing a job, getting married, and having children.
Older people, on the other hand, tend to look backwards into the past. We recall when we were in our teens, twenties, and thirties—and given the chance, would do it all over again—with the stipulation that we could know THEN what we know NOW. I’m not sure where the tipping point occurs from looking forward to looking back, but most of us will experience it at some point in our lives.
But here is the danger of living for the future or in the past—you miss the present. Tomorrow’s anticipation and yesterday’s nostalgia borrow from today with no promise of repayment. We can misspend the present by getting lost in the past or living for the future. The only time we have to live is here and now. The only time we have to love is here and now. The only time we have to serve God is here and now.

PP7 ECCLESIASTES 3: 1

The Scripture lesson today comes from Ecclesiastes 3. It is a familiar passage describing the ages and stages of life. Those of a “certain age” will recall that it was put to song by “The Byrds” in 1965 with the title, “Turn, Turn, Turn.” The Old Testament book is traditionally associated with King Solomon who was renowned for his wisdom. The author introduces the section by writing: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”
When we are tempted to look backwards or forwards, consider this: we are in the time and place that God intended us to be. This is God’s time and God’s place for our lives. Every season of life is a gift from God. If this is the case—and I believe it is—then we are pressed to answer to critical questions:


Where is Christ in our lives and world?
What is the Holy Spirit calling us to do?


In a book on church growth, Ken Callahan wrote that the critical question each church must answer is whether its best days are in the past or the future. I think this is a question each individual must also ask and answer.
Life begins with limitless potential. If you could graph life, then two lines diverge at birth into ever widening arcs. At some point in midlife, however, the future’s possibilities begin to narrow. The lines finally meet again at the point of death when all potential dies. However, the Christian faith believes that death is simply another stage of life which opens life back up to endless possibilities. If you can imagine the shape formed by these intersecting lines, then they providentially form the Christian sign of the fish.

PP8 FISH

For the Christian, our best day is always today, and then it only gets even better! Remember the old advertisements (for Loving Care) that declared, “You’re not getting older, you’re getting better?” In the Christian faith, this is always true. And we are invited to cherish and employ EVERY age and stage of life for God.

III. Graduation

PP9 KNOW THE PLANS I HAVE FOR YOU MASTER SLIDE

On Graduate Sunday, our youth help us to recognize an important truth—life is a journey with milestones that mark the way; but most of life is lived between the milestones. And God is with us every step of the way.
When we look at the graduates’ photographs, we see promise incarnate. These young men and women represent our past, present, and future. They possess the potential to change the world with the gifts God has given them.
Today is very personal for me. First and foremost, our daughter is among those that we recognize today as high school graduates. She is an extraordinary young woman in a group of extraordinary youth. When we moved to Cartersville in 2000, this group was entering fifth grade. We have witnessed their struggles, failures, and triumphs in middle and high school.
This was the first class that participated in the year long confirmation experience called PUMP (Programs for United Methodist Preteens). I vividly recall that first year Rosie, Merry, Martha, and I spent with those sixth graders. It is a miracle that some of them survived! And now these youth are preparing for the next stage of life. Commencement marks the start of something new.

I have already begun to receive graduation invitations in the mail. I’m SURE it is not the case today, but when I was a teenager, we used graduation invitations as a not-so-subtle request for a gift! The only problem was that most of my invitations went out to older family members who had no clue what an 18 year old boy might like. I received more than my fair share of handkerchiefs, gift books, pen and pencil sets, and ties.
However, I have a special gift for our graduates that I KNOW they will appreciate: advice! Now I realize that graduates seldom listen to anything you tell them. For those who are a bit older, how many of us remember who our commencement speakers were at our various graduation ceremonies? And even if you remember WHO spoke, do you remember WHAT they said?!?

There is a popular email that claims to be the graduation speech given by noted author, Kurt Vonnegut, to the 1997 MIT class. The “speech” was actually a column written by Mary Schmich, a writer for the Chicago Tribune. The article begins:

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’97: Wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now. (The article dispensed some gems of wisdom and the concluded with the statement:) But trust me on the sunscreen!

Human advice is often suspect. However, here is God’s graduation advice for children of all ages:

 Cherish your past—your family, friends, and church give you roots that provide faith. Celebrate your triumphs and forget your failures. Ask God forgiveness for those things you said and did that you shouldn’t, and those things you didn’t say and do that you should have. But don’t live in the past or play the losing game of what might have been. And don’t blame the past for who you are today—God gives us the power to be something more than our yesterdays.

 Anticipate the future—if we truly believe what we believe and practice what we profess, then the future is so bright that we have to wear shades. Regardless of whether you are 8, 18, or 88, your best days are ahead of you. God holds all of our tomorrows firmly in his hands.

 Live in the present—yesterday is the past and tomorrow is the future, today is a gift and that’s why it is called the present. Here and now is the time to love and serve God and others. You cannot undo the past or live in the future—this is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Conclusion

PP10 CAP AND GOWN BLANK SLIDE

Life is a journey with milestones along the way; but most of life is lived between the milestones. God is with us in every age and stage of life—now and forever.

Oh, the Places You’ll Go concludes with these lines:

And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)
KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!
So . . . Be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
Or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,
You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting. So . . . get on your way!

And I conclude with these two blessings for all of God’s children:

 Vaya con dios Go with God.
 Goodbye God be with ye.

PP11 KNOW THE PLANS I HAVE FOR YOU MASTER SLIDE