Dear graduates of Trinity-St. Paul Lutheran School,
Today we turn you loose from our instruction, but not from our hearts or from our prayers.
Today we celebrate that even though it seems only yesterday you were the kindergartner graduates– today you are young adults, full of promise.
We’ve watch you grow over the years, and you’ve never failed to astonish and amaze us (and truthfully, sometimes to aggravate us) as we were privileged to discover the unique person that God has made each one of you to be.
And if there is one thing that you carry with you from your years at Trinity-St. Paul I hope it is this: that you realize that in God’s great plan, he only made one of each of you. You are unique and unrepeatable and you are precious to God and only you will fulfill His purposes in this generation. There will not be another. If you fail in that, it will be an undying sorrow for the world – for it will have missed out the unique gift which God had for it in you, and
in you alone.
So I urge each of one of you this day to take to heart the words of St. Paul that we heard in our reading: “Be careful, then, how you live. Don’t be unwise, but wise. And make the most of your opportunities because these are evil days. So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord wants”
Live carefully, because time is precious and fleeting – as those of us who are older can testify. You know that God has a plan for all people to share in the life that is in His Son, and so don’t be foolish and waste your opportunities, but be wise and use then, understanding what the Lord wants – for all people to come to know Him and His love and to share in His life forever. You are witnesses to that great plan – and may not forget it wherever you go and whatever you do.
And what is the will of the Lord for you? What is His dream? His plan? His purpose for you and your life? Listen:
“Don’t get drunk on wine, which means wild living. But be filled with the Spirit!”
There it is. God’s will for you is a life filled to overflowing with His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not sent to make you into little clones, everybody like everybody else. That’s not the way of the Holy Spirit at all!
The way of the Holy Spirit is to confirm and strengthen each of you to be the unique person that God created you to be and that He has redeemed you to be by Jesus’ cross and resurrection victory.
And what is the mark of the Holy Spirit upon your lives? That your hearts are filled with singing the Lord’s praises and that thanksgiving to God wells up in your life and that you are so trusting of God’s care for you, that in humbleness you submit to others. You know you don’t have to look out for yourself, you have a heavenly Father who looks out for you.
A life filled with the Spirit of God. A heart on fire with God’s praises. A mouth overflowing with thankfulness to God for his gifts. A humble and kind demeanor toward others. That is His vision for you! It is a vision that He will bring to completion as you live constantly at the receiving end of His means of grace.
As you come often to His table, as often as His Word finds a home in you, as often as you gather in prayer with His church and live as a resurrection people with “alleluia” the song of praise in your heart, rejoicing because your sins have been forgiven and the power of your
death destroyed - you will be set free from all fear and all guilt. And so God will give you the grace to grow fully into the unique and wonderful individuals He created you to be. And that’s how He will use you in His great plan to bring all people to know and worship Him, to find life itself in Him and in Him alone.
Dear graduates, may the Spirit truly fill your lives to overflowing – and know that we, your parents and family, your teachers and friends, stand breathlessly by, astonished at the persons you have become, and eagerly waiting to see the fullness of what you yet will be. You go forth with our love and our prayers, but most of all, you go forth with God’s blessing on you, each a unique, unrepeatable, and fabulous creation of God.
Amen.
