I had the privilege to give the commencement address to one of our booming LCMS high schools here in South County, California: Crean Lutheran High School. I made several faith and culture observations at the commencement on Thursday, May 30, 2024. Here is the manuscript:
Commencement Address for the 2024 Graduands of
Crean Lutheran High School (LCMS), Irvine, CA
Thursday
of the Week of Holy Trinity, May 30, 2024
Esteemed
members of the Crean Lutheran High School board of directors, Executive
Director Beavers, Principal Moyer, dedicated and gifted faculty and staff,
blessed families and close friends of the graduands, and of course, to the
graduands: congratulations and all praise and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ
for this auspicious occasion. Amen.
In
the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Psalm
118:24: “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad
in it.”
Our
lives are racing. There are real studies which hypothesize that time is
accelerating. We are frenzied and the roller coaster is not slowing down. Life
is going by at Mach 9. The sense of time passing, and life passing, makes us
want to grab all we can as fast as we can. We are like someone in a hot dog
eating contest, trying to eat as many hotdogs as we can as fast as we can to
win the prize. We embrace carpe diem and all that.
Making
the most of the present of course makes sense. After all the wheelhouse of the
Enemy is the past and the future, not the present where we find Jesus in the
here and now.
Only
the unwise live in the past, not holding to what Jesus has done with our past
failures, the great causes for our shame, our guilt and self-blame. The devil
wants us to live in the past so that the present will not see Christ but be
swallowed by defeat even before we get out of the starting blocks.
The
Enemy also wants us to live in the future, the great location of the occult.
The dark arts that specialize in – again – taking us out of today, so that you
will be so busy planning for, anticipating, and looking into tomorrow that you
will not see the golden blessings in front of you today.
God
wants us to live in the now, because the now is all we really have. It is in
time the best time, because in a sense, it is the only real time.
This
doesn’t mean that there are not exceptions to the rule: in wisdom we look to
the past to be reminded that we have been claimed by God, that He has made us
to be His own and He will never break His promise; and in wisdom we look to the
future because Christ will come in glory, and He has promised to prepare us to
be able to look up to see our salvation drawing near, but outside of these
great promises, the past is indeed just that, and the future is not for us to
look into.
Instead,
we have today, the time that Jesus emphasized as He taught in the Sermon on the
Mount, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be
anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew
6:34) Someone might ask if these words of the Lord are not also raising anxiety
since He said that we will have trouble today.
But
taken in context, that is not a bad thing, because such wisdom means that you
are ready for the trouble. You are ready to call on the Name of the Lord Jesus
Christ today and experience – once again – His mighty deliverance.
Marcus
Aurelius, the wise Roman emperor, wrote in Meditations: “Begin each day
by telling yourself: ‘Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude,
insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the
offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil … [but] none of those things can
injure me, for nobody can implicate me in what is degrading.” (45)
We
are ready for what the day brings because we can do all things through Christ
who strengthens us (Phil 4:13) and because we know that no matter what the day
brings – even if it is expressly evil confronting us – God will work good for
me as I love God (Romans 8:28) and hold to Jesus. Therefore, today is
the day of refinement. Today is the day to be stronger. Today is
the day of victory with Christ.
But
the Psalmist is speaking more than just about time which is itself created. Before
verse 24 of Psalm 118, we see that the Psalmist has an eternal perspective,
where there is no time. Verse 1 of Psalm 118: “his steadfast love endures
forever!” Verse 2: “His steadfast love endures forever.” Verse 3: “His
steadfast love endures forever.” Verse 4: “His steadfast love endures forever.”
The Psalmist goes beyond past, present, and future. He is preoccupied with
“forever.”
And
this is exactly what our world dear graduands does not want you to think about
as you go forth into the plans the Lord has for you. You don’t have to be
rushed. You don’t have to be in a hurry. Because in Christ you have eternity.
When the fastest human being who ever ran went into his sprint, he never ran at
100%, but at about 80% he started, and in a relaxed state, he was able to cover
more ground faster than anyone else (Usain Bolt). The world, however, wants you
to try to move so quickly that you will neglect what is most important. But
there is no hurry graduands because the Lord has given you eternity.
To
complement the Psalmist’s preference for eternity over time past, present, and
future, he writes at verse 17: “I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount
the deeds of the Lord.”
This
almost seems to counter a great segment of conventional wisdom. The great
Seneca wrote, “Every day, therefore, should be regulated as if it were the one
that brings up the rear, the one that rounds out and completes our lives.” (Letters,
58) It is akin to the famous idea, “Live each day as if it were your last.”
If you do, then Seneca adds this delightful insight, “If God adds the morrow we
should accept it joyfully. The man who looks for the morrow without worrying
over it knows a peaceful independence and a happiness beyond all others.
Whoever has said ‘I have lived’ receives a windfall every day he gets up in the
morning.” (Letters, 59)
Fair
enough, but he probably did not go far enough. Luther goes further:
[When
the Psalmist says at Psalm 118:17: “I shall not die, but I shall live…” God is
enabling us to say] “Though I die, I die not. Though I suffer, I suffer not.
Though I fall. I am not down. Though I am disgraced, I am not dishonored.” (AE
14, 86) That is, God has done something else about the “day” that is today that
human reason cannot grasp. But we can grasp through the Holy Spirit.
The
Lord gives us amazing help, says Luther. “The dying live; the suffering
rejoice; the fallen rise; the disgraced are honored. It is as Christ says, ‘He
who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live’ (John 11:25).” (AE 14,
86)
There
must be more to Psalm 118:24: On this day graduands, this day, and if we
are alive tomorrow, we may say again, on this day: “This is the DAY
that the LORD has made.” What is the “day”? The day is Christ. Jesus says
in John 8:12: “I am the light of the world.”
St.
Peter wrote, “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you
will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the
day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” (2 Peter 1:19) And who is
the Morning Star? Revelation 22:16b: “I am the root and the descendent of
David, the bright morning star.”
If
you know Christ as your “Day”/your “Morning Star”/your LORD today, then you
will always, always, always…no matter what is going on in this world, have
cause to rejoice and to be glad in your Day who is Christ who does not count
your life by hours, or days, or months, or years, but by eternity.
This
truth graduands we need for our future leaders to have.
Too
many of our leaders today are living for the money, the power, the success --
all the dressed-up forms of addiction -- that are here today and gone tomorrow.
Who will live for what endures? Who will lead in such a way that will truly
help our nation and world? Who will have the temerity to look at the false gods
of the age in the face and say, “I will not bow down to you, because your
promises are lies that fade into oblivion.”
What
leaders will live with the power of conscience and conviction that they are
immortal souls with God on their side, who will not flinch to do good and bring
about the best for our culture to know God again? Who will stand up for the
unborn, the newly born, the aged, those with special needs, the homeless, and
the despairing? Who will be able to give their lives away, precisely because
they are certain that their lives in Christ will never fade?
Today,
we need leaders who speak to matters of gender, tomorrow we will need leaders
who will speak to matters of technology merging with humanity on a scale we
have never imagined. What of the ethics of these things? Netflix just released
a movie Atlas and the protagonist has a conversation with advanced super
AI. She is human and she claims that she is real. The AI says it is real. She
says she has feelings. The AI says it has feelings. She says she is self-conscious
with a real identity. The AI says it is self-conscious with a real identity.
She says, “But you were programmed.” The AI comes back and says, “So were you,
programmed by DNA.” And that is where the dialog stops in the movie. It should
have continued, because we can easily identify the programmers of AI, but as
for our “Programmer,” He is God. Our internal information points to Him.
Who
will speak this way to a world that is ready to bow its head to the next tower
of Babel?
I
will tell you who. Those who will not live for themselves, but who will live
for others (just like Jesus) who have it figured out that on account of Christ,
they don’t ever have to be worried about running out of life.
Who
will serve a culture that is already marked by depression and anxiety, when
jobs that provide a sense of meaning and purpose are replaced by robots?
Who
will serve a culture that is ready to bow down to the gods of this age to tell
them that the Living God has never changed?
I
pray that it will be all of you, graduands. Every single one of you regardless
of the field you enter.
I
pray that you will know that you:
1.
Are not trapped
in the past of regrets, shame, or guilt.
2.
Are not trapped
in the future full of worry and anxiety.
3.
See today as the
day when Christ comes to you to strengthen you.
4.
To see that the
Best “Day,” the eternal Day Jesus, has given you life that is full of eternal
time and energy. No entropy here.
5.
And then to take
this gift, and turn around and serve this culture, nation, and world with a
grace, and a power and liberality of giving that the world has never seen…so that
you all will become the new “greatest generation.”
Yes,
Jesus said at John 8:12 (as I already mentioned) about Himself, “I am the light
of the world,” and then He said also at Matthew 5:14: “YOU are the light of the
world.” Go forth graduands and shine with the light of Christ and know a life –
indeed an eternal life – that is better than any other life you could possibly
live.
Psalm
118:24: “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad
in it.”
