President’s Baccalaureate Address 2012

Good morning!

Seniors and graduate students, family members and friends, faculty members and colleagues, this is the day for which we have toiled. This is the time that we have longed for and imagined together when the work seemed so hard and the end seemed so far away. This is the moment for which we have hoped and prayed. This rite of passage has officially begun.

For those of you who began here as freshmen four years ago, does this morning remind you of Convocation, when we gathered here on the first day of classes? I remember that day distinctly, because it was also my very first day of classes at Valparaiso University. It was very hot and humid and the Chapel was filled to capacity. Everyone wanted to meet and greet the new students, see and hear the new president, and celebrate the University’s 150th anniversary.

On that day, I spoke about beginnings and callings, using these words:

We begin. We begin again.

You and I have been called to be here… We wanted to be at Valparaiso University. Valpo chose us and we accepted the call to come.

Now, students, the years have passed and you are ready to pursue your next calling, ready to lead lives of purpose and significance, ready to begin again.

And what a fitting way to begin. In this place. The Chapel of the Resurrection. A place built as a monument to the promise of new life, new beginnings, new hope. A place of worship. A place of prayer.

Maybe you are Lutheran and this Chapel has been a regular part of your Valpo week. Maybe you are Christian, but not Lutheran, worshiping or attending events here sporadically. Maybe your faith tradition is not Christian, or you have no faith tradition. Maybe you lost your faith, or your belief in any organized religion. And maybe you do not believe in the concept of God.

Regardless of your beliefs, your presence here today is symbolic in several ways. It is symbolic of our collective acknowledgement that, in moments like these, we ought to stand before the presence of our Creator, a force much greater than any one of us, a force which we cannot fully know nor comprehend.

For Christians, this gathering is symbolic of a return to our baptism and a rededication of our lives and our futures in service to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our presence here today is also symbolic of Valparaiso University’s commitment to faith and learning as a University under the Cross, to be that nexus where Athens and Jerusalem meet, to prepare graduates who will lead and serve in church and society.

Today is symbolic of our shared understanding that at these most important transitional moments in life, it is fitting that we should gather together, sing songs of faith and praise and thanksgiving, and gather together in prayer.

Today is also a day where advice and wisdom are liberally dispensed. Everyone, it seems, has advice for you, students, from the commencement speaker to your little sister, the neighbor down the street, even the pizza delivery guy. All the collected wisdom, the accumulated experience of humanity, all those things people have always wanted to say to you, the sentiments we have longed to express to one… Everyone gathered feels compelled to offer their best advice, share their most profound insight, say that one thing that they have longed to tell you, release all the feelings bottled up inside. Can’t you just feel the pressure to get it all just right? It is palpable!

Why? Because all of these advice-givers, these dear friends, family members, and acquaintances love you. They care for you. They worry about you. They pray for you.

And for you, soon-to-be graduates, this is a lot to absorb. You haven’t gotten enough sleep this week, what with finals and then senior week celebrations well into the early morning hours. You still have packing to do in your room or apartment. Cars to load. Lists of things to accomplish. And then, there are all the uncertainties of the next step you will take in life – your first “real” job, graduate school, travel to an exotic place, getting engaged or married, entering military service, working a temporary summer job, moving back home, or moving to a new place. You have a lot on your minds. Not the least of which is the insatiable craving for a few precious hours of sleep.

With that in mind, I will keep my advice simple this morning. Actually, it is not my advice. It is the apostle Paul’s advice from the fifth chapter of First Thessalonians:

“16 Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Rejoice Always

First, Paul commands us to rejoice. And to rejoice in all things and at all times. Not just when life makes us happy or things are going our way. But always. The early Christians took this commandment so seriously, that instead of greeting one another on the street with “hello” or “how ya doin” or “wassup,” they said “rejoice!” “Rejoice!” “Rejoice!”

Rejoice always. Wake up each morning with joy in your heart. Take delight in each task set before you, no matter how challenging, for even in hard work there is cause to rejoice.

Rejoice always. Take heart during times of great sorrow, challenge, and adversity, for it is precisely in these times when God comes to you to carry the load, when joy is drawn up from deep within like refreshing water from a bottomless well.

Rejoice always. Share your joy with everyone around you, day and night. Dwelling on the negative, complaining, spreading bitterness and hate will only take joy away from those who surround you. But in rejoicing and sharing your joy with others, you will only add to the joy within them.

Rejoice always. For you are a child of God. God is merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. And that is cause for rejoicing.

Pray Without Ceasing

Second, Paul commands us to pray without ceasing.

This day, you are surrounded by ceaseless prayers. The prayers of those gathered here who have taught you, who have served as mentors and role models for you. The prayers of those who have supported your education in some way, from those who cooked and served your meals, to those who cleaned the places where you lived, or kept the sidewalks cleared. The prayers of those who recruited you here, those that helped you figure out how to pay for college, those who answered the host of questions that you raised during your time here. Those who coached you, or conducted you, or advised you.

They are the prayers of the alumni and friends of this University. People whom you have never met, yet who have an abiding care and concern for this University and for each of you as well as those who teach and serve you in this place.

And, of course, they are the prayers of those who brought you into this world. The prayers of those who raised you. It was Abraham Lincoln who said, “All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother. I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.” And so too, for you, prayers that began when you formed in your mother’s womb cling to you, and shape you, and follow you to this day and from this day as you now journey into the future.

And what are those prayers?

They are the prayers of today’s Gospel reading. The prayers of Jesus for his disciples. That you come to know God’s Word, and that, by knowing God’s Word, that God’s Truth will be revealed to you. That you believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord. That your lives be sanctified, set apart from the world, not corrupted by it. That you be protected from evil. That while you may be in the world, you be not of the world.

They are the prayers of the psalmist, who sings of the righteous, of those who do not follow those who have evil in their hearts, those do not walk in the footsteps of those who engage in destructive and defiling behavior, those who do not join with those who mock or deride others who may seek to live lives of virtue or who choose to worship and love God.

They are the prayers that the conclusion of your living in this world not yield emptiness and meaninglessness, like the husk that is left after the wheat has been threshed, but that your living be like a tree by the riverbank, nourished with clear and abundant water, prospering in years of drought and plenty, bearing good fruit in due season.

They are prayers that you will never know and prayers that you are meant to hear. They are a litany of ceaseless prayers that lead you and follow you, surround you and cling to you. They are the prayers that brought you to this day.

And now, as you prepare to live in and engage with the world, will you join the litany of praise, lift up your own prayers and petitions for loved ones and strangers, join the eternal chorus of those who seek the God’s guidance and wisdom in all things? Will you, with the dawning and setting of each sun, seek to know God’s Word and pursue Truth as a prayerful expression of your faith and trust in Jesus Christ? Will you live your life as though you, in your waking and sleeping, eating and drinking, living and dying, were a ceaseless prayer to God and an instrument of God’s will and God’s peace on this earth?

In Everything Give Thanks

Which leads me to Paul’s last piece of advice, “In everything give thanks.” Living life in a state of thanksgiving and gratitude, regardless of what may come your way, is part of making one’s life a ceaseless prayer to God.

Thank you, God, for the gift of this new day. Thank you for the love of my friends and family members. Thank you, God, for these years that I have spent at Valparaiso University, for what I have learned and experienced here, for the confidence I have gained here. Thank you for my professors and for providing them with the gift of and passion for teaching and mentoring.

Thank you, God, not just for those things that bring me joy and happiness, but thank you, especially, for the adversity in my life, and for the sorrow, and for the pain, that I might know you more deeply, that I might give myself over to you, and come to understand that in times of deep trouble and abject despair, you are there. You breathe new life into me, open up possibilities and grant wisdom that I could not have realized on my own.

Thank you, God, for the promise that, no matter what happens to me, no matter what stupid, thoughtless thing I do, that you will never, never, ever leave me or forsake me. Thank you, God, for your willingness to forgive me, for your boundless mercy, your limitless grace. Thank you for the gift of your Son, who took upon his shoulders the burden of the sin and death of this world, who died from that burden, so that we might have hope of salvation and eternity with you.

Thank you, God, that I am not an accident of chemistry and biology and physics, sitting meaninglessly on this sphere of rock and water hurtling through time and space with no purpose, but that I am a part of your infinite mystery, a piece of your magnificent and imperceptible design, and that you have a plan for me if I but listen for your guiding voice, allow you to dwell in my heart, and believe.

By giving thanks to God in every thing, every time, every situation, our spirits are united with God and we can, indeed, be in a state of wonder, a state of ceaseless prayer with our Creator and our Lord. The poet, John Milton, framed it this way, “ Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”

This is God’s Will for You in Christ Jesus

Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks.

Paul also reminds us that this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. This is God’s will, God’s intention, God’s plan for you.

Even as you pack your boxes, load up your cars, and head into the future on paths unknown. Even as you circulate your resumes, and make your lists, and plan your plans for what you intend to do with your lives. Remember this:

God has plans for you. God’s plans are waiting for you to discover. And you will discover them in rejoicing, your will discover them in living with a grateful spirit, you will discover them prayer.

The last words I leave you are from the prophet Jeremiah (29: 11-14):

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the LORD.

Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks. For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Advice to live by. Thanks be to God!

Mark A. Heckler, May 20, 2012