2012 Cascade High School Baccalaureate Address

May 20, 2012 – Turner Christian Church

When I was approached to speak at this year’s Baccalaureate service, my first reaction was: “Wow, what an honor!” My second reaction was: “What the heck is a baccalaureate?” 

So I did what all good seekers of knowledge do…what no doubt, I’m sure most of you have done to have gotten to this point in your academic career… I turned to Wikipedia.

It was there that I discovered that Baccalaureate addresses can range in length from under half an hour to as long as four hours.

·      Are you kidding me? If I keep you stuffed inside this church for more than 30 minutes, you might bring back the ancient practice of stoning.

·      If I learned anything from my two years of living in Oregon, it’s that when the sun is shining, you have to take advantage of it.  So I promise not to be on the longer end of that spectrum.

But as I continued to read, the pressure of just what this occasion represents began to mount. I began to get really nervous.

·      I thought: “This is a big occasion…what should I say? Or maybe more importantly, what shouldn’t I say?”

·      My testosterone left me for a minute as I even wondered “What should I wear?” Luckily, I have a wife to help me with that last one.

But all the pressure subsided when I came upon this little nugget of history:

Wikipedia states: “The baccalaureate service is believed to have originated at the University of Oxford in 1432 when each bachelor [that’s you] was required to deliver a sermon in Latin as part of his or her final academic requirements. “

·      How’s that for pressure? In the original setup, you would be the ones standing up here, preaching in Latin! And if you didn’t do so hot, you didn’t get a diploma. Anybody vote to bring that practice back? That’s rough.

I guess I feel pressured because it’s generally supposed that the person you come and hear speak at this kind of gathering has something to say – some lofty wisdom to pass on or a big idea to share.

I know of all kinds of things I could say, but probably shouldn’t…

A recent Wall Street Journal article was entitled “10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won’t Tell You.” Among the words of wisdom rarely shared at graduation ceremonies was…

A.     Don’t try to be great; just don’t make the world worse…

B.     Marry Someone Smarter than You…

AND

C.     Time spent in fraternity basements is time well spent

I’m afraid what I have to share today might fall into that “things most commencement speakers won’t tell you”  category. 

Your life doesn’t belong to you.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says  ¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

Paul’s argument for why the people of Corinth shouldn’t engage in sexual sin is because their bodies don’t belong only to them – they also belong to God. They were not born and designed for absolute independence…they were created dependent on God…a God who loves them so much that He would rescue them from their failures at the price of giving up His own beloved Son…

You are not your own…you were bought at a price.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:15 that Jesus “died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

As you head off to college, or into the workforce, and are asking yourself: “What should I study? What should I major in?” Or “What should I do? What kind of job field should I get into?” Who should I marry? What kind of activities should I be involved in? – REMEMBER, you are not your own; you belong to God.

To borrow some terminology from sports – you are not an unrestricted “free agent” on the open market.  Those who have chosen to follow Christ have joine God’s team. That’s one thing that our baptism signifies – it’s a symbol of our dying to self and our living in Christ.

·      That’s why in a lot of traditions, last names are not used in baptism ceremonies – at your baptism, you are given a new a new identity.  It’s like when being the moment in the NFL draft where the player takes the stage and puts on his new team’s hat and jersey.

·      God has drafted you.  You are no longer a free agent, you belong to the family of God. You bear His name now.

In the book The Me I want To Be, pastor John Ortberg writes: “Your life is not your project; your life is God’s project…Only God knows what your full potential is, and God is more concerned with you reaching that potential than you are, and God is guiding that process all the time.”

Your life is not your project; your life is God’s project.

On the one hand, there’s tremendous challenge in that statement:

If my life is God’s project, that means that I can’t just do whatever I want, whatever makes me happy.  There is too much at stake for that…

a.     If my life is God’s project, I’ll have to constantly discern whether or not I’m making God-honoring choices with how I spent my time and the dreams I choose to chase.

b.     I’ll have to make sure my friendships and dating relationships ultimately bring me closer to Him rather pushing me away.

c.      I should choose a college, a field of study, or a profession – not based on whether it makes me rich, gives me power in the world, or makes my parents happy --  but based on God’s dream for my life and His world.

d.     If my life is God’s project, and not just my own.... that means that not only will I make choices and conduct my life in a way that demonstrates my love for Him – but I’ll also conduct my life in a way that shows love for my neighbor… for God’s plan always includes blessing the rest of the world.

In God’s dream for your life, your success is always a “so that” kind of deal.  God blesses you “so that” you can bless others. God comforts you “so that” you will comfort others. God brings success in your life “so that” you can cultivate success in others.

·       Ironically, becoming all that you can be will never happen if you spend your whole life focused on yourself. You have been given life so that you can give life to others.

In a culture that is always pushing you to be self-sufficient, self-pleasing, and self-determining, living your life as God’s project can be quite challenging.

But on the other hand, there is some great comfort in realizing that my life is not my own project, but God’s.

If my life is God’s project, that means that I’m not the only one pulling the weight of responsibility for where my life is headed. It means that the Creator of the universe has a vested interested in how my life turns out….and as long as we’re open to His influence, He’ll stop at nothing to help us reach our full potential in His kingdom.

That should give us all a big sight of relief.  The pressure "to make something of myself" is not entirely on my shoulders. I’m not the only one steering this ship.

Ortberg writes: “Only God knows what your full potential is, and God is more concerned with you reaching that potential than you are, and God is guiding that process all the time.”

So even in your worst moments…when you’re working a job that seems to be “getting you no where”...when you’ve changed your major 15 times and still aren’t sure what to do with your life….when you’ve hurt friends and even family members over the decision to follow God’s dream instead of theirs – God is with you. God is for you. You were bought at too high a price for God to give up on you.

The truth is, who you are at 18 is not who you will be when you are 22, 32, or 62. Career plans constantly shift, friend circles grow and shrink, commitments change, and beliefs reform.

But you will always belong to God.

Ephesians 2:10 reminds us that we are God’s handiwork, created to do things that He has prepared ahead of time for us to do.

So live accordingly.

Pursue God’s dream more than your own and you’ll end up finding both.

Indiana Wesleyan Enshrines Kirk Cameron as "World Changer"

Kirk Cameron has been selected by Indiana Wesleyan as the 2012 inductee to The Society of World Changers.

I think my Alma mater has lost it.

"Mr. Cameron is blessed with a God-given charisma," said Dr. Keith Newman, IWU Executive Vice President. "That word, charisma, actually means 'gift of grace' in Greek. Mr. Cameron's ability to connect with total strangers is a priceless gift for a Christian seeking to acquaint people with God's grace."

Seriously? Have they ever watched how Cameron goes about introducing people to this gift of "grace?" It's not exactly...how should I say it... graceful.

Did those responsible for this decision (which no doubt was made prior to Mr. Cameron's much bally-hooed interview with Piers Morgan) ask for any feedback from the faculty of the Religion or Science Departments at IWU? Knowing man of them personally, I can't imagine that they would have endorsed the idea. Not only is the man more well-known for his recent turn to fundamentalism than his acting career, but his naive Creationist apologetics have largely been dismissed by Christian and atheists scientists alike. The late Robert Briner, whose book sparked the idea to create The Society of World Changers, must be rolling over in his grave.

There is a petition making the rounds. As of this writing, it had been signed by 265 concerned alumni, faculty, pastors, and friends of IWU. Late to the game, I was number 155:

Baby Diet for Daddy

The last two years have not been kind to me in the weight department. I finished up my masters degree in 2010, which meant long hours of sitting on my butt in front of a computer or reading a book. In 2011, I neglected my own health on several levels while dealing with the death of my parents.

But it's a new year, and there's a reason to smile again...

My wife and I are expecting our first child in July! The loss of both of my parents, especially the sudden cardiac-related death of my dad, has me on high alert. I want to be healthy. I want to live as long as possible to experience the joys of being a father, and someday, a grandfather. I want to be around long enough to grow old and wrinkly with the love of my life. This renewed sense of my own mortality is one of the primary things pushing me to lose weight, get fit, and stay healthy.

So my wife and I have entered into a little competition of sorts. I'm to shed a pound for every one she gains during the next 6 months of pregnancy. The total should be somewhere between 25-30 pounds, putting me at a goal weight around 165-170. I haven't weighed 170 pounds or less since around my sophomore year of high school. Add to it the fact that my wife is eating ice cream for two every night, and you see what a struggle this might be.

Pray for me. :)

 

For those interested, I'm heavily leaning on livestrong.com "MyPlate" feature to track calories and exercise. Unlike many diet plans such as Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers, it's completely free (at least the basic versions are, which is good enough to get the job done). I've got it set to lose about a pound and a half a week, and so far, I'm ahead of the curve.

Praying With A Covered Head

We gathered outside the dining hall around noon, the smell of fresh baked pizza overwhelming our minds and stomachs. There are a lot of things that make a summer youth camp a "good" camp, but certainly high on the list is whether or not the food is edible. This year, the food is exceptional! Never in my life had I been to a camp where the volunteer kitchen staff turned out so much food from scratch. Add to that the fact that it's pizza day, and every 13 year old boy is going nuts (including the 13-year old boy inside this 27 year old man). But before we could head in to devour the teen delicacy, a prayer was needed. And it was my turn to utter the blessing into the megaphone.

All it took were the magic words "Let us pray," and the ball caps disappeared.

It was an odd thing to watch, three little words stimulating such a Pavlovian response from the male campers. Hats with the familiar green "O" on the front, a few well-worn Beaver caps, and even a Cubs lid -- all were quickly removed for prayer. The expectation had been set and the teens were following through. Those who didn't got a little reinforcement for their lack of conditioning -- "Take your hats off boys. We're prayin'."

There was only one problem: my hat didn't budge, something that was noticed and later brought to my attention by more than one of the campers. Mike, the youth pastor, the lead prayer, had disrespected God by forgetting (maybe even refusing?) to remove his Ohio State cap. The boys wanted to know why. My answer at the time wasn't complete or memorable, but it was a question a long time in the making. It's probably better I didn't fully answer their question -- some questions are best turned back to the questioner -- and it wasn't the time or the place to make a fuss.

So why didn't I remove my hat? There's an obscure passage in 1 Corinthians 11:4-7 that is often cited as Scriptural support for the practice. Paul says that a man who prays or prophesies with his "head covered" dishonors his "head." But if we're going to take this verse and apply it to the wearing of hats, then we should really instruct all of our boys to take off their caps and pass it to the girls standing next to them, for the verse goes on to say that if a woman prays or prophesies with her head uncovered, she dishonors her head. So to recap, from a literal reading of 1 Corinthians, we should instruct all men to never wear hats, and all women to always wear hats. Because Paul also instructs us to "pray without ceasing." You never know when God might catch us with our hat on.

Bible quotations aside, the ritual of removing our hats when we pray is more likely tied to cultural customs of showing respect. We're told to remove our hats when we enter a building, when we eat at the dinner table, and when we stand during the National Anthem. All of these are American customs of showing respect. In that line of thought, I completely understand why we would tell our men to remove their caps when praying -- "You're talking to God son, show some respect!" (Of course, this still doesn't address why we don't tell women the same thing, but that's for another blog)

But I fear the meaning gets lost in translation. And more than teaching our teens how to show respect, I fear that we are using the resources of Christianity for socialization more than theologization. This happens whenever and wherever Christianity is used, either consciously or unconsciously, as a tool to advance socially acceptable behavior, regardless how or if the behavior ties in to the story of Christ or the ethic of loving God and neighbor. In this approach, Jesus is not the end, but a means to an end, a means to raising up the next generation of "good little boys and girls." This happens in youth ministries when we allow our mission to be subtly defined as "keeping kids out of trouble," which to the parents is often interpreted as "helping me keep my boy from drinking and my little girl from getting pregnant."  Keeping kids out of trouble is a worthwhile pursuit, but it's not the pursuit. There were a lot of "respectful" people who wanted nothing to do with Jesus. There still are.

We often fall prey to a cultured understanding of Christianity, an understanding that welcomes Christianity as a nice addition to the hopes and goals of the education system, the health professionals, and the local law enforcement. But what if God wants to do more in someone's life than transform them into a respectful, conservative, law-abiding citizen? What if He wants to completely revolutionize the way they see the world, and that revolution will at times contradict and prod the cultural understandings of "niceness?"

Jesus didn't call a bunch of men to follow Him so he could turn them into upstanding 1st century Palestinian citizens. I wonder how long it was until the disciples realized they should put on a kippah in Jesus' presence. In Judaism, putting on a head covering is a sign of respect. Confused? Me too.

Joe Nelms: The NASCAR Pastor

  ...in Jesus' name, boogity boogity boogity,  Amen!


 And with that phrase, the legacy of Darrell Waltrip found it's way into Pastor Joe Nelms' prayer. 

But not before Dodge, Toyota, Ford, Sunoco, or Goodyear. In a ripoff of Talladega Nights, the Baptist pastor thanked God for those major NASCAR sponsors earlier in his invocation, right alongside his "smokin' hot wife" Lisa and his two children Eli and Emma ("the Little E's).  


Reactions to the Ricky Bobby imitation have varied. Many Christians were delighted just to see a believer portrayed in a positive light for a change. More than a few youtube videos have labeled Nelm's words "The Best Prayer Ever." But others found the prayer to be over-the-top, or worst yet, blasphemous. GetReligion columnist Sarah Pulliam Bailey finds it quite humorous that people seem to be struggling identifying pastors as people who can have fun. Maybe she's right -- maybe it's high time that pastors take a joke and learn to tell a few in the process. But I'm not so sure Joe Nelms intended to tell a joke. Was this an invocation, or a standup routine? Your reaction to the prayer is largely dependent on your answer to that question, and whether or not you judge Nelms motives to be gospel-centered. (Of course, we don't have access to his motives, so anything we muster is just a subjective guess.)


To be honest, I'm just confused.


Why exactly do we pray before NASCAR events (or before any sporting event for that matter?) What is the purpose of having an invocation on raceday? And what does such a prayer hope to accomplish?


It seems as if Pastor Joe Nelm's aim was to use his invocation as an opportunity to show the world, as Bailey put it, that pastors (and by extension, Christians) can have "a little fun." By channeling a popular Will Ferrell movie and displaying his vast knowledge of racing sponsors and vendors, the Tennessean pastor legitimizes Christians as people who aren't afraid to laugh and enjoy a good race. And after all, as Nelms quoted, the Bible does in fact say to "give thanks in all things," though I've always thought the "things" the writer was referring to there were circumstances, not stuff or activities. 


But rather than legitimizing pastors to the surrounding culture, I fear that acts like praying at NASCAR events show pastors to be more irrelevant than ever. As Eugene Peterson writes: 

"One of the indiginities to which pastors are routinely subjected to is to be approached, as a group of people are gathering for a meeting or a meal, with the request, 'Reverend, get things started for us with a little prayer will ya?' It would be wonderful if we would counter by bellowing William McNamara's fantasized response: 'I will not! There are no little prayers!'...By uttering a prayer to 'get things started' we legitimize and bless a thin and callow secularism -- everyone is now free to go his or her own way without thinking about God any more." (Peterson, Working the Angles, 46-47)

How can the Church be taken seriously when we use invocations -- the act of "calling on" God -- for the purpose of kicking off a fun event in good spirits? 


When asked to give an invocation in this manner, be it praying at a race or at the election of a public official, I'm afraid we are accepting a post-Christian culture's understanding of the work of the pastor. Which is tempting, because we pastors want to be liked, we want to be "relevant," we want to be seen as socially adept. But being a chaplain to the culture leaves little room for being a prophet or a revolutionary agent in the Kingdom of God. "It's hard to maintain a self-concept as a revolutionary when everyone treats us with the same affability they give the grocer" (Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor, 30) In my opinion, Pastor Nelms falls into the trap and gives in to the demand to sprinkle a little holy water on the culture's good intentions. 


To me, the fact that the NASCAR prayer has been considered as one of "the best prayers ever" just goes to show that most of us Christians have really no idea what we are doing or Who we are invoking when we pray. And I fear that our accommodation to the culture is actually having the opposite effect we had hoped for -- rather than showing that we "belong", we are proving we shouldn't be taken all that seriously. Do we have any idea the dynamite we are playing with?

"On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does not one believe a word of it?...It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets." (Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk, 52)

Of course, there are many more questions to ask and issues to ponder with Nelms' prayer. Should prayer be advertisement? CNN reports that though an endorsement deal wasn't his aim, the pastor isn't opposed to it.  And how much did the press coverage and notoriety he received from a similar prayer he gave at a race in April effect his approach to this prayer? Was this sincere, or a youtube stunt? Though we may never know the answers to these questions, the fact that we are even asking them shows what has become of prayer --and the pastor--in the 21st century.