“But Jesus answered,
"You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I
am to drink?" They said to him, "We are able." St. Matthew 20:22
In the
Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
You know, this really isn’t all
about you. This grand succession of
banquets, awards ceremonies, sunshiny photo-ops, and sentimental speeches, all
the parties, everything festooned in orange and black—it’s not really all about
you. It is of course, largely about
you. You have worked very hard, and
achieved a great deal, and there is much to celebrate as you are commenced,
launched out into the big world beyond these quiet hills.
But this is about the rest of us as
well, your parents and teachers, your friends who have watched you grow up into
such intelligent, strong, and capable men and women. If you haven’t recognized this yet, you will
after that tenth awkward photo with your strange aunt Sue, and seventh time
your rather formidable social studies teacher gets teary-eyed. And let’s not even think about your mother’s
emotional state next Sunday afternoon.
We all admire you tremendously, you
see, and we are so excited to have played some part in helping you grow up into
what you have begun. You are our
greatest export, CCS class of 2015, the gift we share to bless the rest of the
world. And we are sure that you are
destined to make us proud.
You can be sure that James and John
understood that it wasn’t really all about them, that day their rather
overbearing mother hustled them up to Jesus in the lesson that Rebecca just
read for us. Jesus had been announcing
the arrival of God’s new kingdom, and if a kingdom was to be, their mother was
sure she knew who should have the seats of honor. From all we read of James and John elsewhere
in the Gospels, she had every reason to be proud of her sons. They seemed to have been the golden boys of the
early disciples, full of energy and enthusiasm, ready with a quick answer and
full of wisdom beyond their years. They
called James and John “Boanerges,” the
“sons of thunder,” and I expect there was a colorful story behind that
nickname, as there usually is.
Jesus asked them if they were ready
for the challenge, if they could accept the dangers and sacrifices that
following God’s mission would require.
“Can you drink from my cup?” He asks them. “Can you share in my baptism?” Will you embrace the world’s hostility and
push on in the face of great odds, so God’s will can be accomplished?
“We are able,” they answer quickly. And I think Jesus must have smiled. So much potential, such great
earnestness. It’s people like this who
change the world, and Jesus comes pretty close to acknowledging that in His
response to them. Because they would
share in His total dedication, and they would suffer as He would suffer. James was the first of the apostles to be
martyred for His faith, and John became the author of several of the New
Testament’s most profound and beautiful texts.
They were able, full of knowledge, burning with love, strengthened and
enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Though Jesus
couldn’t promise them the seats their mother demanded, there have been few
people in the long history of the Church who were closer to Him and more
dedicated to His mission than James and John, who said “we are able.”
We are so proud of you because we know that you,
too, are able. Your teachers and coaches
speak with conviction about your successes in so many different areas. You are academic achievers and sports stars,
accomplished musicians and talented leaders.
Your teachers also speak of you as an unusually likeable and outgoing
class. You are a group of people who
have shared together in so many things, learning to celebrate one another’s
successes, and offer encouragement freely.
The year-end prizes have been well-distributed among you, because you
have made each other stronger.
When I
met with your class officers, they spoke of the strength of your friendships
with each other. Even as your studies
and activities have taken you in different directions, you have remained
close. And as you have experienced tragedy
and profound disappointment, you have supported one another, developing what
one of you called “big hearts.” Our Old
Testament lesson speaks of the value of faithful friendship, a rare treasure in
life. The past eighteen years, for many
of you, have been about learning to be good friends to each other
This is one of the great gifts of small towns
and small schools, that you must build strong relationships across the kinds of
social barriers that divide people in larger places. You can’t just be friends with your own tribe
here, where the football players are needed for the dance line in the musical,
and the homecoming queen might well be a calculus whiz. You have learned here to value the gifts of
others, and to make room for challenging ideas.
And this will serve you very well in the world beyond these rolling
hills, which increasingly values the kind of collaborative approach that you
have learned here. As a society, we are
gradually learning that corporations and nations don’t build lasting success by
only training people to claw to the top of the heap. Lasting accomplishment comes when we build
each other up, and give ourselves away to make one another stronger.
It’s not all about you, after all. That’s also part of what Jesus is saying in
His final words to His disciples on the subject of leadership. The kind of life that God blesses and
sustains is a life of service, a life laid down for the sake of others. It’s not about accumulating honors, wealth or
power. Instead, it’s about finding your
own way to respond in gratitude to God’s blessings and to realize your greatest
potential by bringing peace and joy to others.
You are able, that is certain. And
we will be excited to learn more, in the days to come, about just how you will
make us all proud.
In the
Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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