“Get a Life!” – Baccalaureate Sermon Part I
26 May 2002
This week, I summarize the
major points of last week’s Baccalaureate Sunday sermon, “Get A Life!” The text came from Deuteronomy 30:15-20. On the verge of the Promised Land, Moses
offers the people of Israel
a fundamental choice: blessings and curses, prosperity and destruction and life
and death. He challenges them to choose
the Lord and thereby choose life. High
school and collegiate graduates face a similar choice. Will they find the wherewithal to determine
the unique lives that God has graciously given them? Moreover, will they cultivate the confidence
to define and pursue their dreams and goals?
In accordance with Proverbs 3:5-8, as they choose to follow the Lord’s
guidance, they will find life.
I. The Creator’s Gift of a Unique Life
Science affirms our absolute
uniqueness as individuals. No one else
shares our DNA, fingerprints, hair or teeth.
Those distinctions represent the inimitable talents, gifts and passions
that God gives each of us. More
significantly, God privileges us with the possibility of becoming His chosen
vessels. He uses us to disclose the
secrets of science; depict the majesty of His imagination through music and
art, establish justice through the law, mentor a future generation through
teaching and education and meet the needs of suffering humankind through the
ministry of helps. Choosing life
requires finding the divine spark within us.
God has something specific for each of us to accomplish to His honor and
glory and in service to humankind. That
personal mission is the His gift of a unique life to us.
II. Abundant and Eternal Life in Christ
Howard Thurman taught that
leading a purposeful life eradicates the fear of death. In Christ, God gives us abundant and eternal
life, which begins the very instant, that we accept Jesus as our Lord and
Savior. Liberty
III. Love
Arguably, one is not alive
until one knows what it means to love and to be loved. Love is a triangle that includes God, self
and others. As one loves God and self,
then one can love others. In the
fullness of time, I hope the graduates find a lifelong companion who will
assist them in becoming the best child of God of which they are capable. Charles Dickens, in his classic novel, David
Copperfield, says, “There is not a disparity in marriage like unsuitability
of mind and purpose.” Hopefully, the
graduates will find a friend for the journey of life with whom they share the
same mind and purpose. Pulling together,
they can achieve collectively what would elude them individually.
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