So…now what?
Hope College Baccalaureate 2012
May 6, 2012
Matthew 6:24-33
Rev. Dr. Trygve David Johnson
Let us pray: Speak Lord…for your servants are listening. Amen
To give my thoughts a context…I’d like begin by reading an excerpt from a letter I received
from my friend Karis. For you parents, Karis is an old friend of mine from the University of
St. Andrews, and she now serves as Dean of the Chapel at Despondent University in upstate Washington, in WantMore County. We share a faithful correspondence through letters.
Occasionally she writes something that I like to share because I think it relevant for us at
Hope. So if you’ll indulge me, let me read a few paragraphs from her most recent letter, as it
was the inspirational backdrop for my sermon.
I. A Letter From Despondent U
(Post-marked) March 29, 2012
Dear Trygve,
It’s graduation day at Despondent University. It’s typical Northwest atmosphere. The
clouds hang low, and a slow drizzle threatens at any moment. Yet, despite the concrete sky,
there is an atmosphere of celebration. The campus is trim. Flowers are in full bloom.
Everywhere you look, families move slowly across the grounds in tribal packs, stopping in
front of buildings and symbols for final photos with friends, which no doubt will soon be
uploaded for relatives and friends to admire on Facebook.
I love graduation day, and all it represents. It is a day that celebrates the culmination of hard
work, sacrifice, and years of hopeful planning. That is why pomp and circumstance always
feel so fitting. The formality honors the accomplishment with an appropriate sense of
gravity. I love to see our faculty dressed in their gowns and hoods of color: crimson, black,
purple, white, blue, maroon. When we are all together seated on a stage we look like a
human box of Crayola crayons.
I love to see the parents. Instead of colorful gowns, they come clothed in various shades of
pride (and rightfully so). You can see how much it means to them, to see their daughter,
their son, finish this race. On some mothers I can see, just around the edges, a little smile of
relief, as if saying “Wow…I can’t believe it…Johnny actually made it!”; on some fathers, I also
observe a hint of anxiety, just around the edges of their eyes, as it dawns on them…
“Huh…Johnny’s coming home again!”
Above all, what I love most about graduation day is the chance to see the students gathered
one final time. Each, in their own way, gowned with excitement, if not a little fatigue, as
they anticipate walking across a stage to receive a hard-earned degree of accomplishment
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that will launch them into their undefined future. To see them, it is difficult not to feel a
vicarious sense of joy and pride.
This day makes me wistful. It signifies another cycle of convocation to commencement.
With it the passing of another class of students. The campus is never quite the same without
them. Of course, there is always next August, with a new cycle of freshmen. But this
class…this group of students… will never be gathered here again in this same way. Each
class is unique and leaves its mark on a campus. And certainly the class of 2012 has left its
mark here. As they go, I will miss them. And to see them go, well, it makes me a little sad.
Is not the best part of our calling that these men and woman become a part of our lives and
we become part of theirs for a season? But, like all things, there is a time for every season,
and this one is not meant to last. College is merely a nest, where they are here only till they
are strong enough to fly away to embrace the enduring responsibilities of adulthood. Even
though I hate to see them go, I love even more to see them fly…it is beautiful to see them
fly…
I wonder, however, what will they fly towards? What will they aspire to do? Who are they to
become? Did we prepare them well? Did we call them to pursue something true?
I was thinking about this after our commencement service a few hours ago, which was held
in Revelation Memorial Chapel. We hired one of those expensive celebrity personalities to
address the students for their final message. I had high hopes for the talk, until I read the
title in the bulletin: Be True to Yourself: A Guide to Personal Happiness .“Really?” I thought. At
about a 100 bucks a word, that’s what we want to say?
Honestly, I felt like I was trapped in a self-help seminar for 20 minutes. Our esteemed
speaker gave the standard advice of our cultural moment. “Class of 2012,” went the familiar
voice, “it’s time to head into the real world…it’s time to start your life. So let me give you
some advice…carpe diem…look inside yourself…follow your heart…obey your passions… dare
to dream and chart your own course...stay open-minded…always express your inner
spirit…carpe diem…and above all,” boomed the popular voice as it climbed to a crescendo,
“always…whatever you do…march to the beat of your own drum.”
I sat there thinking, huh? This is his advice to these students? I question its wisdom. I’ve
seen many of these students dance, especially the men, and their internal drummer is more
than a little offbeat! The speech just put me off.
After the service, I walked down to Life’s Hard Cafe (where the motto is Life’s Hard…have a
cup of coffee), where I found a quiet table, so that I could write this letter to you to help me
process my thoughts. Writing helps me process. So here are some of my reflections on
what troubled me about the speech.
I think the popular voice meant well, I honestly do, but ultimately this voice was
irresponsible. There is a difference between sincerity and competence, and what the world
needs right now re graduates who are willing to obey not the self, but callings that will
require knowledge and skills, and commitments that will demand that they lose themselves.
We need a generation that is not just sincere enough to talk about issues, but has the
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competence to solve problems. Problems that may require a lifetime to solve. In his speech,
there was no sense of a moral responsibility to anything, or anyone, outside of oneself. There
was no sense that our inner voice could ever misguide us. Never did the celebrity voice even
hint that our heart ever could be touched by what, in ages past, we called sin. If there is no
sin, there is no need of salvation, outside of what we can give ourselves. Which is why he
whispers…be true to yourself.
Of course, this speech is not a surprise. He was merely reciting obediently the creed of
excessive individualism: the self conditioned expression of personal autonomy that promises
limitless possibilities if obeyed. It is a confession, however, that cannot deliver on its
promises. The creed of excessive individualism promises fulfillment through selfenlightenment, but in the end, one is reduced to riding around the cul-de-sac of one’s own
personal experience. The problem is this cul-de-sac is too small. When this reduction
happens, we are simply thrown back on ourselves, imprisoned within the walls of our fitful
feelings, rather than freed to explore a more expansive and interesting world charged with
the grandeur of God. Those that recite the creed of excessive individualism in faith,
wittingly or unwittingly, coronate the self as the authority of one’s Kingdom, which means
that any thing that ever challenges the primary allegiance to oneself is to be viewed as a
threat that must be eliminated, overcome, or shamed into silence.
This is why I think the popular advice is wrong. Someone should say so. The last thing we
should be telling graduates before they launch into the “real world” is to embrace the
romantic ideals of adolescence, that are absent of commitment to anything or anyone
outside of themselves. The last thing the world needs is our best minds looking out for only
their own self-interest. Instead, we need a generation that is willing to devote itself to
disciplined tasks that seek to engage real problems. This will require nurturing a long
obedience, patient and disciplined, subverting the instincts of instant gratification. What is
needed now is a generation that invests in a future through savings, instead of mortgaging
itself through easy credit.
What should have been said today is that the greatest joys in life have their source in
callings that call one to make sacred commitments. Commitments ask that we put our own selfinterest aside for the welfare of another person, or a people, a community, a vocation, or an
institution. For it is in seeking these callings that true happiness is satisfied, as our souls are
expanded by commitments that pull us outside of ourselves.
When I read a biography of someone I truly admire, it’s rarely the things that they did for
themselves that compel my admiration. Rather, it’s the things they pursued that were
arduous, difficult, that courted sacrifice, and risked failure. It’s losing ourselves for a reality
larger than us that we admire most. When did it become morally acceptable to make the self
the sunnum bonum of life?
So…my old friend, if you get a chance to speak to your students one last time, will you
please say something of consequence? Offer them an alternative, an antidote, to the familiar
voice that whispers “be true to yourself.” Tell them that the purpose of life is to lose
yourself, in order to find your true self.
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Well, that’s all the news from Despondent U: where the campus is in bloom, the seniors are
beginning to fly, and the faculty and staff, at least the Dean of the Chapel, are ready for the
wide open country of summer.
Grace & Peace,
Karis
P.S. If Kristen has a girl, tell her Karis is a great name!
II. So…now what?
After reading this letter, I have been reflecting on what to say to you this morning. I have
been given the privilege (and it is a privilege) to say one last word from the Word before you
all fly away. What I want to say may sound contradictory to the advice dispensed by the
celebrity at Despondent University. In fact, it is exactly the opposite advice. The advice is
not original to me. I merely want to echo what we have already heard from Jesus this
morning.
Because what Jesus has to say to each of us speaks to the enduring question we all have to
answer with our lives.
What is this enduring question? Come back with me four years ago. It is the summer of
2008. Many of you were just graduated from high school. Can you see yourself? Do you
remember what life felt like to you? It was a summer that when asked the question,
“so…now what?” you had a clear answer: “I’m going to Hope College!” And you came and
you rooted yourself deep in the soil of Hope, only so that you might also grow taller in the
light from true light. Here you studied and worshiped; here you chose a major and pondered
the questions that have no easy answers; from here you traveled abroad, and you took on
internships; you served without asking anything in return. In this soil, you learned to think
critically, and here you wrestled with God in faith. Here you listened to others and here you
found your voice to speak. Over the past four years you endured. And in a matter of hours,
you will be graduates of Hope College!
But now…four years later…the question is put to you again: “so…now what? What are you
going to do now?” This is the enduring question. One asked at every crossroads. Which way
now? What path will you follow? What will you do now with this degree? Some of you have
decisive answers to the question. You know exactly what you are doing and where you are
going. Some of you, much to your parents’ concern, don’t. Whether you know what you
are doing next or not, however, the enduring question still begs an answer.
The reason the question is enduring is that it asks us to consider a deeper question. It’s a
question that asks not so much what you will do for a living as much as it asks who you will
be with your life. The answer to that is a consequence of making a commitment to who or
what you will serve. Who or what will command your best hope, your deepest desire, your
holy affections?
III. Seek the Kingdom
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“So…now what?” Whether you know what you are going to do after today or not, whether
you are going east or west, north or south, listen to Jesus. Jesus says…do not be anxious
about your life…do not worry about tomorrow…instead fly like the birds of the air…spin
beauty like the lilies of the field! How does one fly free? How do you grow beautiful? Jesus
says, wherever you go, whatever you do, seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all
these things shall be given to you.
This is Jesus’ answer to the enduring question. It is simple, but it is not easy. No matter
what you do for a living, no matter what road you take, or who you travel that road with,
whether you get married, or stay single, whether you work in the public or in the private
sector, whether you live in a house on a hill, or in a van down by the river…strive…
pursue…seek…first for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness!
Bend your will, not just to your own perspective, but towards a will whose perspective is
larger and more consequential than your own. Pursue a vision that will give your life a
steady direction and sustaining purpose. Strive to participate in a reality that will electrify
your life with a significance charged by God’s vision of reality.
Seek first the Kingdom of God is Jesus’ answer whispered into the ear of all who are ready to
commence into an undefined future. It is the answer that when heard evokes in us a depth
of feeling we have barely dared to acknowledge or hope existed. For Jesus’ words, if
pursued, have the concentrated power to drill down into the water table of our unnamed
longings, that when touched, cause the soul to tremble. The soul trembles because Jesus’
answer exposes us to a truth so consequential, that as Czeslaw Milosz suggests, it demands
we think on it “by day and by night, every day, for years, ever stronger and deeper.” 1
Its truth is so fundamental that to ignore it, is to put our soul in peril. The truth is not about
money. Nor is it about clothes. Nor is it about food. It’s not about what you will do with
your degree. It’s not about us at all. It’s more elemental. It is a truth about God.
A truth about what God has done, is doing, and is still yet to do! A truth that invites all who
hear Jesus not to do more, but to be more.
It is the truth that God’s Kingdom is at hand right now…
that if we seek this kingdom, make it our holy ambition,
its staggering promises will satisfy our deepest
longings…here…now… in the land of the living…
Our longings for daily provision,
for true intimacy, meaning, and joy,
for the healing touch of reconciliation,
and the overwhelming sense that we belong,
body and soul, to a reality larger than ourselves…
a reality we can experience today
…if…and only if, we seek first the Kingdom of God…
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Czeslaw Milosz, “Either/Or” in New and Collected Poems, 1931-2001 (New York: Ecco, 2003), 540.
(end)
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IV. How do we seek?
You may be asking how do we seek this Kingdom? How do we pursue such a holy
ambition? The answer is not in how, but in who. Listen again to Jesus’ answer: strive…seek…
first for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. Did you hear it? Seek his righteousness! There is a
direct convergence between the experience of Kingdom and the nature of the King. The
Kingdom is not so much a physical destination we set out to seek, as it is a shared faith in a
particular person we worship.
How do we seek the Kingdom of God? By keeping faith with the one who bids us to seek in
the first place. This kind of faith is not an algorithm, nor is it a mathematical proof; it
cannot be experienced by the isolation of logic, nor reduced to a propositional statement. It
is a faith that is reasonable, even as its source of revelation is beyond reason. This faith is a
calling to an active and daily trust not just in an ethic, nor in values that form our being, but
in a person whose being becomes the form of our value. Seek first the Kingdom of God is a call
to seek the person, Jesus the Christ!
The voice we hear bidding us seek first the Kingdom of God this morning is none other than the
living voice of the invisible God, the first born over all creation. For in him all things came into being,
things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers, all things came into being
through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together…In him the fullness of
God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile all things, on earth and in heaven,
by making peace through the blood of his cross. (Col. 1:15-20)
Jesus says seek first the gift of the Kingdom of God because he is the Kingdom.
Jesus bids us to seek another reality because he is the source of all reality.
The gift is never separated from the gift giver.
There is no circumference without a center.
There can be no Kingdom, without the King.
Jesus is not only the way, he is the destination!
The good news this morning is that we can seek the Kingdom of God,
because in Christ, God’s Kingdom has first sought us.
Though we turned our face away from the light,
in Christ, God’s eternal Son, God has turned his face toward us;
though we have all fled into the far country of darkness,
where faith in his Word is easily dismissed,
God’s Word refuses to dismiss us,
as he takes the time to put on flesh,
that he may rescue us from the darkness,
in order to draw us into a world made new,
where the voice of grace whispers at every crossroads.
This is a world charged with the grandeur of a glory
that comes through the scandal of a cross.
For on the cross Jesus is God’s everlasting yes,
that silences all our no’s.
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For the mystery of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection
is the key to seeking God’s Kingdom;
The key that unlocks us from the citadel of the self,
pushing us out of our presumed cul-de-sacs,
so that we might be launched into the expansive geography,
where the eternal Son has risen and never sets,
whose light is so brilliant it burns even our virtues away.
It is a Kingdom where our rights are exchanged for the King’s righteousness;
where his holiness is our pledge of allegiance,
where his justification defines all justice;
a kingdom where worship is the call
for all citizens to raise up arms
against all the powers and principalities
that seek to usurp this throne.
It is a kingdom where the streets have no name…
but where every street leads farther up and further
into the high country of the Trinity,
where the air is thin, but the Spirit is thick;
where all the creatures of our God,
lift up their voices to worship of a King,
whose reign of reconciliation
echoes down the canyon of time,
to reach everyone and everywhere,
at all times and in all places.
V. Conclusion
The question is before each of you…indeed each of us… “So…now what?” What will you
do now? Listen to Jesus’ answer. Now is the time to seek first the Kingdom of God and his
righteousness!
Groove this into your soul, like the best music pressed into fine vinyl. Play it again and again
when tempted to keep rhythm to the ego’s own beat. Let the righteousness of the King set
the rhythm of your life’s dance.
By the grace of God, make this your sacred commitment
– make this your your holy ambition.
If you do, you will always have the answer
to life’s enduring question,
no matter what crossroads you face.
I think Karis is right….
the secret to success is not about finding yourself,
it’s about losing your self…
losing yourself in a world where the grip of the King’s grace
will never lose you. Never. Amen.
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