to return to your place in the text.To read endnotes, click on the the note number, then click on the
I appreciated what the President said to the graduates
Friday at Chelsea's commencement: "I ask you at the beginning to
indulge your folks if we seem a little sad or we act a little
weird. You see, today we are remembering your first day in
school, and all the triumphs and travails between then and
now...Though we have raised you for this moment of departure, and
we are very proud of you, part of us longs to hold you once more
as we did when you could barely walk..." He continued wistfully
remembering the evenings reading from Goodnight, Moon and Curious
George and wishing for a chance to go back to those days. I know
how he feels. I have only one more year before I send my son
off, and, to be painfully honest, I do NOT look forward to that.
Hillary Clinton wrote in her syndicated newspaper column
this week, "We find ourselves fighting back tears as we
contemplate what our days will be like when our daughter leaves
the nest to embark on a new stage of life." I know. Someone has
suggested that God made teenagers the way they are so we parents
won't mind so much when they leave. Well, for me anyway, it has
not worked out that way.
Away with the maudlin!!! Graduates, I trust you learned
your lessons well. In keeping with the spirit of the season just
completed, let me share some answers to test questions as
compiled for posterity by dedicated teachers to show off the
fruit of their labors. These fall under the general heading of
Kids Say the Darndest Things:(1)
The category is Science -
That's enough. For you who now have all those tests behind
you, we join you in a collective sigh of relief.
Of course, at this time, the expectation is that we should
pass on some words of wisdom. After all, graduation exercises
are called COMMENCEMENTS - beginnings. As you begin this next
stage of your life, you wonder what lies ahead. We who have
"Been there, Done that, Got the T-Shirt" are expected to offer
advice or encouragement to get you going. What should we say?
A good start might be that passage from our Epistle lesson:
"Finally, Beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing,
whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there
is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."
Excellent advice!
What the President had to say was also good (Chelsea is
reported to have instructed him to "Be wise...briefly"): "For
what it's worth, here's my advice," he said. "Dream big and
chase your dreams. You will have your failures, but you will
grow from every honest effort...Even if you don't get what you
think you want, amazing things will happen." No doubt.
There is one more piece of advice to share this morning
which comes right out of the Old Testament Lectionary reading.
To summarize those verses you heard a moment ago, the prophet
Samuel says, "BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR...YOU JUST MIGHT GET
IT!"
You remember what happened. The high muckety-mucks of the
nation came to Samuel with what was probably not an unreasonable
request. They wanted a change in the way they were being
governed. In years past, they had followed the lead of those
Judges whom God had appointed, of whom Samuel was held in highest
regard. But now, these "judgeships" were being passed from
father to son just as monarchies go from kings to princes. And,
as is often the case, the current crop of Israelite "judge-princes" was not the best. In fact, Samuel's own sons, Joel and
Abijah, judges in Beer-Sheba, fell into that category; under
their administration, "justice" was no justice at all - it was
for sale to the highest bidder. No wonder the people came with
their request. "Appoint for us...a king to govern us, like other
nations."
The Philistines may well have been the "other nations" in
the back of the elders' minds. The Philistines were Israel's
biggest enemy at this time, and they had a King. They lived on
the coast, and were successful traders, controlling the highway
between Egypt and the fertile crescent. They had a highly
organized military with iron weapons. In contrast, Israel was
poor, pretty disorganized--a loose confederation of tribes, and
still stuck in the bronze age. They had some iron agricultural
implements, but no iron weapons, and no blacksmiths. Could it be
that Israel, poor, rural, and technologically weak, was tired of
getting kicked around and wanted to emulate the rich, urban,
technologically advanced Philistines?(2) "Appoint for us...a king
to govern us, like other nations."
Samuel was not pleased. As might be expected, he was
personally insulted. His leadership was being called into
question. And, just as any other Dad, "You attack my kids, you
attack me!" But to the prophet's credit, his first response is
not to LASH OUT, but rather to LIFT UP...prayer.
The Lord's response is gentle. "They have not rejected you,
but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as
they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt
to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they
are doing to you." Then God says something interesting: "listen
to their voice; only--you shall solemnly warn them, and show them
the ways of the king who shall reign over them."
"Warn them." That IS one of the prophets' jobs. One writer
likens the prophet to the canary that miners take down in the
mine with them. A coal mine used to be one of the most
treacherous places you could go because poisonous gasses could
form and snuff out your life before you had any idea there was a
problem. So the miners would take a canary with them. The
canary is much more sensitive to the quality of air around it
than a human being. If it looked sick, drooped or fell dead, the
miners knew that they had to get to the surface...and NOW!
Prophets, both in ancient Israel and in the modern world, are
like canaries in that they have a heightened sensitivity to our
moral atmosphere. If there is poison in the air, the prophet
knows it. No one else may have seen anything wrong, but the
prophet has - thus, the warning to act before it is too late.(3)
So Samuel does. In spades! BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH
FOR...YOU JUST MIGHT GET IT! "These will be the ways of the king
who will reign over you:" You want a warrior king, one to lead
you in battle? OK. Guess who will be driving the king's
chariots and riding the king's horses into the fray. YOUR SONS!
Guess who gets to be the king's infantry. That's right, YOUR
SONS again! And, of course, the king, as Commander-in-Chief,
will need some subordinates - generals, colonels, captains,
lieutenants. Who are they? That's right, YOUR BOYS.
That is not all, of course. The king does not dirty his
hands. He will also need tenant farmers to plow his fields and
reap his harvest. He will need workers to manufacture his
weapons and rolling stock. Who will they be? Whom do you think?
Oh, and don't forget, a king lives like...well, a KING! How
does he manage? "He will take your daughters to be perfumers and
cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and
vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. He
will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give
it to his officers and his courtiers. He will take your male and
female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put
them to his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you
shall be his slaves." Still want a king?
We know what the people answered. "We are determined to
have a king over us, so that we also may be like other
nations..." Too bad.
Perhaps Israel's greatest mistake is captured in that one
clause: "...so that we also may be like other nations..." To
this point, Israel had been special...unique. And this had been
God's intention - Israel was NOT to be like the rest of the
nations; they were to be a light to them. Israel's security did
not reside in political stratagem or military might, but in
Yahweh, who embarrassed the powerful Egyptians at the Red Sea,
who provided and guided in the wilderness, who brought them
victorious into the Promised Land. They and they alone could
have shown the nations of the world that power comes from God and
God alone. But no. "Appoint for us a king." They opted for a
different sort of power. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR...YOU JUST
MIGHT GET IT!
Israel got their king. Down through the centuries that
followed, some of their monarchs were good, most were not. More
battles were lost than won. There was a period during which the
whole nation was carried off into exile. Finally, almost 2,000
years would go by without a homeland to call their own. Even to
this day, long after the departure of their last kings, Israel's
land is in dispute. They came to Samuel wanting new leadership,
a new form of government, a king...to be like everybody else. Uh
huh. What's that you say? Be careful what you wish for?
Having said all that, the question arises, "Where do this
year's graduates fit in all this?" Granted, not too many of them
are looking for a king, but LOTS are looking to "be like other
'nations'," to keep up with the proverbial Joneses, whoever they
might be. Word has it that the graduates of the 80's and 90's
have been heavily oriented toward the trappings of success -
jobs, homes, cars, THINGS. Not all graduates, of course, but
many, many, many. No question, those things are all within your
reach. We are living in an era of unprecedented prosperity.
But, for you graduates who have a special relationship with the
Lord (as the nation of Israel had), a relationship that has
taught you what is ultimately important (and conversely what is
NOT important) my advice is to be careful what you wish for. And
that applies not only to the class of 1997, but to any class to
have ever come through.
A while back Will Willimon, Dean of the Chapel over at Duke,
got a call from a parent, an upset, VERY upset parent.(4) "I hold
you personally responsible for this," he said.
"Me?" Will asked.
The father was hot, upset because his graduate school bound
daughter had just informed him that she was going to chuck it all
("throw it all away" was the way the father described it) and go
do mission work with the Presbyterians in Haiti. "Isn't that
absurd!" shouted the father. "A BS degree in mechanical
engineering from Duke and she's going to dig ditches in Haiti."
"Well, I doubt that she's received much training in the
Engineering Department here for that kind of work, but she's
probably a fast learner and will probably get the hang of
ditch-digging in a few months," Will said.
"Look," said the father, "this is no laughing matter. You
are completely irresponsible to have encouraged her to do this.
I hold you personally responsible," he said.
"Me? What have I done?"
"You, you ingratiated yourself with her, filled her head
with all that religion stuff. She likes you, that's why she's
doing this foolishness," he said.
"Now look, buster," Will said, struggling to keep his
ministerial composure. "Weren't you the one who had her
baptized?"
"Why, yes," he said.
"And then, didn't you read her Bible stories, take her to
Sunday School, let her go with the Presbyterian Youth Fellowship
to ski in Vail?"
"Well, yes, but.."
"Don't but me," Will said. "It's your fault that she
believed all that stuff, that she's gone and thrown it all away
on Jesus, not mine. You're the one who introduced her to Jesus,
not me."
"But all we ever wanted her to be was a Presbyterian," he
said, meekly.
"Sorry. You've messed up and made a disciple."
Be careful what you wish for, Mom, Dad...You just might get
it!
Graduation. For this year's class, both an end and a
beginning. An exciting time. Life is filled with possibility.
Just remember, BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR...YOU JUST MIGHT GET
IT!
Amen!
1. http://www.intermarket.net/laughweb/education/kids.say.the.darndest.things.html 2. Marvin Lindsay, via Ecunet, "Old Testament Notes for Next Sunday," #270, 6/3/97 3. Joe Nolan quoted by Tom Neufer Emswiler, "What Is A Prophet?", Sermon, via Internet,
Lectionary Homiletics, http://www.homiletics.com/TheMall/june97/060897l.html 4. William Willimon, Pulpit Resource, Sept 10, 1995
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