Baccalaureate: The Spirit of Power

Sermon for the Gloucester City Junior-Senior High School Baccalaureate, 6/11/2010
Texts: 2Timothy 1:1-10

Congratulations to all of you on reaching this milestone in your lives, on achieving graduation out of our American system of mandatory public education!

Right now, you are standing at the threshold of a great transition in your life, one of the most important transitions in your life. Many changes are coming for you which will affect the entire course of your life. Many of these changes will be beyond your ability to control. And whenever any person stands at a crossroads such as this, then one must make a series of decisions about how to proceed forward into an unknown future.

But before we go any further, I have a question for you, and I want you to think about this for a minute: What is the most often repeated instruction given by God to the people in the Bible? Throughout the whole course of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, what do you think is the most common commandment that God gives to us human beings? One instruction that is repeated hundreds of times, in different contexts and in different ways, but always with the same implication.

Do you know what it is? The simple and clear commandment is this: Do not be afraid!

Do not be afraid! More often than anything else, when we read the Bible, we find God telling people over and over again not to be afraid!

Think about this. There is an important message here for us in this truth, because fear is one of the most debilitating forces in any human life.

At any moment when human beings are forced to change, and uncertain outcomes lie in waiting in the future, the most common human response is fear. Remember that you now stand at such a moment, and who knows but that events in your life might begin to move in directions that you never expected nor desired. It is quite likely that fear will begin to raise its ugly head.

And so let me call you again to pay heed to these words of holy scripture which we just heard read in our midst. St. Paul writes here to his disciple, his student, Timothy, whom he has appointed and set in place as the spiritual leader of the Christians in Ephesus. In a sense, Timothy has graduated out of Paul’s training, and now he has been sent forth to undertake a very important task. And Paul reminds him of this truth.

“God did not give us a spirit of timidity [or cowardice], but the Spirit of power and love and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).

You are graduating; you are being sent forth to undertake your important task in the world, and believe me, God is speaking these same words to you. Because God has called you, and me, all of us, to live each day in this Spirit of power, this Spirit of love, this Spirit of self-discipline, and NOT to be chained and shackled by the thorns of fear and anxiety which can so easily strangle the freedom of the human heart.

Here is another question: what do you think is the one fear which most commonly afflicts human beings? Do you know it? It is the fear of death.

I see it all the time. So many people are afraid to die. Well, tonight, I’m going to let you in on a little secret: you, my friends, are going to die one day.

Now, I know that might seem like a morbid thought at such a time of celebration, but I am convinced that it’s vitally important, and here’s why.

All of the saints, the wise men and women who have learned from Jesus how to live a full and abundant life, all of them teach that we cannot be free to fully live until we are at peace with our death. Once you are able to become free from this fear, then you can fully live. Then you can fully accomplish that purpose which God has placed before you.

To live with wisdom, then, is to neither seek after death foolishly, nor to be afraid of it.

But why is this important? What difference does this make for you right now? Because, my friends, you are beginning now to pursue your life task. You are beginning your journey of offering your unique gifts and talents to the world.

As you do this, please remember: any life task that you will pursue as you move forward from here is worthy of honor if it demands some self-sacrifice. It must require something deep and real from inside you. It must draw out from you the potential that lies deep within. Your task will be honorable and real if it costs you. And that can be a scary prospect.

Of course, I have been called to the task of serving as a Christian pastor, and it is my firm conviction that this task, this ministry of guiding others into a full and abundant life as a disciple of Jesus Christ – I believe that this is the life task that is the most honorable and admirable. And so I do hope and pray that some of you will seriously consider giving your life to this task, making a commitment to a career as a pastor in the church.

But whatever life task it is to which you are called, make sure that it is one which is worthy of honor, and that you fulfill your task with honor and intregity.

It seems like every week we hear reports of leaders – in politics, in the church, in sports, in the military, in the business world – who fail to walk with integrity. They fail in keeping the commitments that they have made. Most often, if you dig deep enough, you will see that fail because they are afraid. But you, my friends, you can do better. You can be better.

Your life will be measured by the commitments that you are able to make, and able to keep. As we all know: talk is cheap. Truth and integrity in action are what truly matters.

Listen again to these words from St. Paul: “That is why I am reminding you to fan into a flame the gift of God that you possess through the laying on of my hands” (2 Tim. 1:6).

God has given each of you a special gift, and right now you have the opportunity to fan that small spark of a gift into a blazing fire. It is your unique calling, your distinct identity, your individual gift to the world, given by God “according to God’s own purpose and by God’s own grace” (2 Tim. 1:9).

It’s not going to be easy for you; at least I hope not. It takes strength to know who you are, and to never allow the forces of fear to blow you off course, to push you away from your calling. It takes determination when obstacles and roadblocks are put before you. But have no fear. Those are given to test your resolve, to make you stronger and more dedicated than before.

I will not stand before you here and repeat the old mantra that “you can be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do.” Perhaps, and perhaps not. If only life were that simple. But what I will stand here to say, and say loudly, is that you can be yourself! You can be who God has made you to be. And THAT is enough, my friends. If you can do that with integrity, walking a path of honor and respect, than I am confident that you will lead a life worthy of the Lord who calls you.

After all, we only get one shot at this life, one go-around on this crazy ride of life. Make it count. Be who God has made you to be. Do not allow fear of failure, fear of the unknown, or even the fear of death, keep you from accomplishing the task that God has set before you. Live without fear, my friends, walk in the strength and power of the Lord. Amen.

Let us pray:

O God, our heavenly Father, you see your children here who have grown up in this unsteady and confusing world: Show them, Lord, that your ways give more life than the ways of this world, and that following you is far better than chasing after selfish goals. Set them free from the shackles of fear, and help them to accept their failures, not as a measure of their worth, but as opportunities for a new start. Give them strength always to maintain their trust in you, and to keep alive their joy in your creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.