This coming Sunday is Graduate Sunday, and it has become an
important day in the life of our church.
It does not matter whether you have a child graduating or whether you
even know the graduates. Graduate Sunday
has become for our church one of those moments of passage. The same individuals that we carried up and
down the aisles when they were infants as we dedicated them to the Lord will
now walk down the same aisles as emerging adults. The same children and youth that stood in the
baptismal waters as they proclaimed publically their faith, will now go with
the challenge of proclaiming their faith in some situations that it is hard to
be faithful to Christ.
These young adults need our prayer, our support and love
just as much now, maybe more, than they did when they were dedicated and
baptized. So, this week we will gather
to remember the vows we made as a church and the vows they made to us and to
Christ and again we will ask for God’s blessing for the future.
One of my friends, Mark Winfield of Wilshire Baptist Church
in Dallas, wrote in a recent article these thoughts about Graduate Day and I
wanted to share a few excerpts with you.
Mark Writes:
When a 17- or 18-year-old graduates from high
school and heads off to the independence of college life, the tables turn in a
way that never can be undone. All we have invested in these children; all the
nurture they’ve received from Sunday school teachers, youth workers, family and
friends is about to be put to the test. We need a way of blessing these almost-adults
as they prepare to fly out of the congregation’s nest.
One of the benefits of
staying in a single congregation a long time is watching the same kids push
through each of these steps. Most of the youth we blessed in worship today I’ve
known since they were preschoolers. I saw them dedicated to the Lord by their
families. I heard their confessions of faith in the waters of baptism. I’ve
worked alongside them on mission trips and worshiped with them at camp.
On this day, as they
prepare to turn one of the most significant corners of life’s journey, I want
them to know that their church believes in them. And I want the church to be
reminded that we’ve accomplished something important as a village of faith.
So here’s my prayer for our high school seniors this year.
Maybe it will be your prayer as well:
“Lord, hear now our
words of blessing over these whom we love, just as you have loved them from the
womb of creation. Bless their parents, their brothers and sisters, their
grandparents and friends. Bless each graduate at this precipice of destiny.
Fill each with unusual wisdom and grace to face the world with confidence and
compassion because you, the Lord of All, live within them. May your Holy Spirit
empower each one, as they prepare to step away from this sacred community of
faith, to live for you and your kingdom and to never, never, never forget that
they have met you here and that this is one place that will always be a safe
harbor regardless of what life brings.”
That last bit is where I get emotional, because one of the burdens of staying in one congregation a long time is knowing that not every kid who heads off to college makes great choices. Some will major in partying more than academics. Some will make disastrous life choices. Some never will darken the door of a church again.
The role of the church, though, is to offer a safe and steady harbor or, as the old Motel 6 ads used to say, “leave the light on for you.” If we’ve done our job as a community of faith, our students graduate from high school with eternal truths embedded in their spirits and hearts that always know the way home. That’s worth getting a little teary about.
Amen, Mark! Amen.
- Dr. Jeff Roberts
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