First of all, let me congratulate all 21 of you on your impending graduation from Tri-County High School. This is one of the most important events in your young lives, one filled with a lot of emotions not only for you but for your parents and other family members. Along with your families, I have watched you grow and change over the years, and I think we would all agree that you are a fine group of young people. We have watched you face challenges from time to time. We have seen you excel at various things, the latest being Tanner’s qualifying to attend the state golf meet. But it is just the latest. We have all been pleased when a picture of one or two of you appeared in the local paper as all conference selections, or the sports editor of the Grand Forks Herald wrote about Jarad’s baseball pitching prowess or the list of those on the honor roll came out in print.
Most of you have gone through all 12 grades here at Tri-County School in Karlstad. A few of you joined this class at one point or another. But now, together, you have come to the end. It’s won’t be long now before your pictures as the class of 2012 are added to the row of class pictures that starts down by the library and ends out by the south entrance. It is amazing how fast time goes by. Those of us who are a bit older feel that even more than you do. I remember when my own three children’s class pictures were at the end of the row, but now they are way behind the last 7 classes. It won’t be long now, before people will look up at those pictures and talk about how much you have changed, or how much you haven’t, as the case may be. Nothing stays the same. Time flies by. Transitions must be made.
That’s what I have been led to talk about this year at graduation. I suppose it is not just because you all are facing the biggest transition of your 18 or so years. It’s partly because I am getting older just like your parents and grandparents. I am shocked to think I officiated at wedding ceremonies for some of your parents: Karissa, Beau, and Nick. They were hardly any older then than you are now. Well, maybe a few years. No child brides there. I have preached at six of these baccalaureate sermons in Karlstad, and when I was looking through my file I discovered that in the very year that most of you were born I was standing right here preaching to a batch of graduates at baccalaureate at the end of May. My life hasn’t changed that much these last 18 years.
In some ways that makes me the least likely person to talk to you tonight about transitions. I am not much for change. But there are times when we have no choice but to make a change, and graduation week is one of those times. It may have struck you already that life is changing for you, but if it hasn’t, when next fall rolls around and you are no longer getting on a bus for school at Tri-County it surely will. From now on, if you visit these halls, you will have to check in at the office as a visitor. That’s a change.
As you move on from your education in this school, the faculty, staff, and your families all hope that you are well equipped to deal with the new circumstances and the new challenges you will be facing. You will have to adapt if you are to be successful in the next stage of your life. Some of the skills that have served you well in this little school in this remote corner of Minnesota will not serve you so well in the larger world where you are going. Other experiences here will help you a great deal. Many of the things you take for granted you will no longer be able to take for granted. You will need to adapt simply because you are becoming a young adult, let alone because many of you will be at another school or a new place of employment next fall.
We all have to adapt and change as time moves on. I don’t know if you are aware of it, but every fall a group of professors at Beloit College in Wisconsin puts out what it calls “a mindset list.” It is distributed among older college professors to help them understand the world from which their new freshmen college students emerged. In other words, to help my age group understand your age group. I know about it only from stories on the news – I still watch TV news, how old fashioned is that? They have not come out with their list of “things old people need to remember” about your group, the graduates of 2012, but here are a few things about last year’s class: [select a few to read]
1. There has always been an Internet ramp onto the information highway.
2. Ferris Bueller and Sloane Peterson could be their parents.
3. States and Velcro parents have always been requiring that they wear their bike helmets.
4. The only significant labor disputes in their lifetimes have been in major league sports.
5. There have nearly always been at least two women on the Supreme Court, and women have always commanded U.S. Navy ships.
6. They “swipe” cards, not merchandise.
7. As they’ve grown up on websites and cell phones, adult experts have constantly fretted about their alleged deficits of empathy and concentration.
8. Their school’s “blackboards” have always been getting smarter.
9. “Don’t touch that dial!”….what dial?
10. American tax forms have always been available in Spanish.
11. More Americans have always traveled to Latin America than to Europe.
12. Amazon has never been just a river in South America.
Sometimes when I read that list I think it is not just to help older teachers understand incoming college freshmen as much as to make some of us feel quite old. You have had a different high school experience than your parents. And you will face different challenges in the future.
Adaptability is something you will need. You might think that when it comes to your religious faith, you need to be firm and constant and unchanging. But this is not always the case. Let us think about the way that the first great evangelist for Christ carried out his ministry, St. Paul. As he moved from one place to another, he learned to adapt to the place where he was living at the time and change his tactics. In 1st Corinthians 9:19-23 he explained how he was able to adapt to new situations, and why he did it. St. Paul wrote:
For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.
Now, I hope you don’t think that he was merely a chameleon, changing to fit into whatever culture he happened to be in. Paul’s ability to change as he moved from town to town and as he moved forward in years did not mean that he would accept anything and everything that he encountered along the way. In his day there was a saying, “when in Rome, do as the Romans do” which meant that a person should adapt to everything in their new environment. Paul did not do that. But he did know when to adapt and when not to adapt. He knew how to fit in with the people and yet held himself accountable to a higher standard that never changed.
Let me give you a modern day example. Last summer I read the book “Through My Eyes” by Tim Tebow, the football quarterback, who is famous for beginning the “tebowing craze” of a few years ago. When my wife told me that biographies by sports figures were always in demand at the library, I donated my copy to the Tri-County library. She told me recently that it has been out in circulation most of the time this last year. Tim Tebow was born in the Philippines to missionary parents but raised in central Florida. He was home schooled but played football for a public school. All his life he had to adapt to different situations. He won the Heisman Trophy in 2007 and played for championship University of Florida teams in 2006 and 2008. He was drafted by the Denver Broncos and bought a place in Colorado to anchor himself in the Rocky Mountains. Then last year he was traded to the New York Jets and declared how much he loved New York. Change and challenges have been constant in his life, including his mild dyslexia, but his love of the Lord and his faith in Jesus Christ have not wavered. Nor has his rather exemplary personal conduct. If you have read his book you may remember how disgusted he was with a few team mates in college who partied too much on weekends or got themselves suspended for bad conduct. Tebow has remained a Christian example in a world filled with temptations to do otherwise as he moved from one football team to another.
As much as the world around us may change and we have to adapt to changing circumstances and situations, there is a God who is unchanging through it all. This is something I want to make very clear to you. In Hebrews 13:8 it says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Jesus, who loves the sinner, who says “come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” who comforts the downtrodden, and who promised the thief on the cross “today you will be with me in Paradise” has not changed his mind about you. No matter what changes you face in life, you can count on him, and you should be loyal to him.
I have always liked what it says in Psalm 139, and I would like to share it with you as you move on from Tri-County High School. Psalm 139 says about God:
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
And finally, as you transition out of high school into the next chapter of your life, I would like to quote for you a hymn that is often sung in my church at times of transition. It was written by John Ylvisaker back in 1985 when my denomination was facing a big change in the form a merger. It is written as the voice of Jesus speaking to a person, maybe someone who is facing a big change in their personal life. Think of Jesus speaking to you as you listen to the words. He is the one constant in this ever changing world.
I was there to hear your borning cry,
I'll be there when you are old.
I rejoiced the day you were baptized,
to see your life unfold.
I was there when you were but a child,
with a faith to suit you well;
In a blaze of light you wandered off
to find where demons dwell."
"When you heard the wonder of the Word
I was there to cheer you on;
You were raised to praise the living Lord,
to whom you now belong.
If you find someone to share your time
and you join your hearts as one,
I'll be there to make your verses rhyme
from dusk 'till rising sun.
In the middle ages of your life,
not too old, no longer young,
I'll be there to guide you through the night,
complete what I've begun.
When the evening gently closes in,
and you shut your weary eyes,
I'll be there as I have always been
with just one more surprise.
I was there to hear your borning cry,
I'll be there when you are old.
I rejoiced the day you were baptized,
to see your life unfold. AMEN.
THE BENEDICTION:
As you go on your way, may God go with you.
May He go before you to show you the way.
May He go behind you to encourage you,
beside you to befriend you,
above you to watch over,
within you to give you peace.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (set to music by John Ylvisaker)
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