St. Andrew’s Pictou, June 27, 2004 Baccalaureate Service; 7 Grade 12 students receive Bibles.

 

Freedom’s Secret

 

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14 Graduation Exercise

Galatians 5:1, 13-25 Valedictory Address

Luke 9:51-62 Life’s Rejections and Choices

 

All of the transitions of life that we human beings experience are marked by one, single, uniting, ever-present characteristic of human life.

 

Whether it is graduation, marriage, baptism, or even death, the experience that we all have in common is that we have to leave what we are dependant on, and then, in the next stage of our lives, we need something else to assist us with the new realty we face:

-when we are baptized as infants, we have to leave the peace, harmony and security of the womb and we face the world dependant on all kinds of people in all kinds of new situations,

-in marriage the relationship with our parents is “traded in” for a new relationship with our marriage partner. Mommy and daddy are no longer there in the same way any more. (If they are, of course, the couple may find that four or six people are hard to manage as a marriage team.)

-in death it goes without saying that when someone you love dies, that there is a great transition in how you live your life, now that person is no longer there.

-with graduation, there is the assumption of a new level of maturity: new awareness, new responsibility, new relationships, and new financial and emotional costs to be carried. There is the assumption that the graduate is taking tangible moves to be free and self-sufficient. Mom and Dad, and others help, with the idea that the graduate is moving towards freedom and self-sufficiency. Parents like that idea and are willing to help, cajole, guide, push and maybe even shove their beloved out of the nest so that they may have some well-deserved down time.

 

The object is of course: to be a free person.

 

People like parents, friends, and others like the great mythologist Joseph Campbell, offer advice. Campbell says to the graduates: “Follow your bliss.” Just three words, but they are of huge importance. How I would interpret what Campbell says is for me to say, that you have to follow the gifts that God has encoded in your DNA.

 

You and I absolutely have to follow our calling. To be free, we have to follow our calling. We will be very unhappy if we don’t and life is a one way ticket and we might as well choose our destination.

 

I was astounded when I began to prepare for today’s service and found that the scriptures seemed to be chosen for the occasion we celebrate today.

 

2 Kings seemed like a kind of graduation exercise: the young prophet Elisha finally graduates; he is taking over the job of leading the people from the older prophet Elijah who we meet in his final hours.

 

Psalm 77 seems like a description of the spiritual life and connection with God that we all need to help us on our life’s journey.

 

The reading from Galatians seemed like a kind of Baccalaureate address: The apostle Paul is calling the Galatians to grasp the new found freedom offered in Christ. Some of you may not think that freedom is something that is hard to grasp, but moving away from your parents becomes a real job when as an adult you now have to parent yourself.

 

Then the reading from Luke has Jesus dealing with personal rejection and life’s choices.

 

Think about it for a minute:

-we are Christians,

-this is a Christian Church,

-we teach and follow the teachings of Jesus, but… today’s reading has Jesus preparing to go into a town and they don’t want him there!!

 

Here we have this great guy, Jesus: the Son of God, Saviour of the world, the prince of peace. He heals people and can even change water into wine. (I’ll bet he would have even been welcome at “the break out party” this past week!)

 

But this particular town in Samaria didn’t want him!!

 

His followers were in a snit. They were really put out that this town didn’t want them. They were angry and they wanted to vent their anger.

 

They said to Jesus, “Lord do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

 

That would have been a nice pyrotechnic scene wouldn’t it? Fire coming down out of the sky and vapourizing the town; must like one of George Bush’s missile defense systems: zapping the bad guy. Sort of an Old Testament kind of idea: judgment and death.

 

The text says that Jesus “turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.”

 

What happened here? How did Jesus take the town’s rejection?

 

He didn’t take it personally!!

 

Jesus Christ chose not to be hurt by another person’s (the whole town’s) rejection.

 

Jesus Christ, the son of God, and Saviour of the world was rejected and he just moved on to the next town!

 

What do we do when we get rejected?

 

What do we do when we don’t get the job, the guy or the girl?

 

There must be something wrong with me! I want to crawl into a corner and die. How can I live without…

 

The text says, “Then they went on to another village.”

 

Jesus is telling us to let it go, don’t take it personally and move on!

 

Jesus is telling us how to handle rejection and I can totally assure all of you graduates that you will face rejection. But, just like Jesus did, I am suggesting that you don’t take it personally.

 

You won’t take rejection personally, if you are free and you will be free if you know that the important people love you. If you know that the God of that Bible you have been given today loves you and who in your family love you, then it does not matter who rejects you, because they were wrong.

 

The Samaritan village that rejected Jesus is left out of that book you were given today because they rejected him.

 

The blind man, the tax collector, the woman caught in adultery, the lepers, and criminals that met Jesus are in that book. They were not left out because they didn’t reject Jesus.

 

If someone rejects you, LEAVE THEM OUT OF YOUR BOOK OF LIFE!

 

…and move on… to the next town, to the next person.

 

Freedom’s secret is not to be free of responsibility.

Freedom’ secret is not to be 18 or 21 or 31.

Freedom’s secret is not to have million’s of dollars. (Did you see that woman from New Waterford who won ten  million had a heart attack from the stress of all of the people wanting her money? Winning 10 million has been a tyranny for her; an oppressor.)

Freedom’s secret is not defined by “doing whatever you want.”

 

Freedom’s Secret is believing in the God who believes in you and in believing in the people who truly believe in you.

 

Don’t believe those who tell you that they have no religion because the word religion means “that which is of utmost importance.” So, everybody is religious. Everybody has things, people or ideas that they hold to be “of utmost importance.”

 

I have seen a man withdrawing from heroin religion and it is not pretty.

I have seen lives destroyed by self-hatred, alcohol, cocaine and people caught in the crossfire of abuse.

 

I have been in the intensive care units where people are sick and dying, the mental wards, the emergency departments, the police stations, the jails, detox, half way houses, and the funeral homes.

 

But I have also had the pleasure of sitting in kitchens with those who gave me a cup of tea and only wanted my love and a prayer.

 

These are they who believe in that God of love and life described in that Book you received today.

 

My prayer for you is that you get to know that God and receive that love, so that you will be able to deal with all of the rejections and pain that life has to offer, because you will be free knowing that Jesus who loves and saves.

 

AMEN               Rev. Alan Stewart