I invite you to take a
journey with me this morning to the land of Israel – a land rich with history
that has been inhabited for thousands of years. As we stand in the countryside,
we see that the landscape is dotted with small, flat-topped hills. Each one is
silent evidence that a city once flourished at that location. We’re going to
explore the interior of one such hill, a large one that sits where two ancient
trade routes crossed. During the four thousand years of its existence, that
hill has watched civilizations rise and fall.
On the very top, a Roman
structure tells us that a garrison of troops was once quartered there. Its
remains are businesslike, constructed of sturdy masonry blocks, typical of
Roman efficiency. But its military days are long past. Beneath the Roman ruins
lies a city from the Iron Age, perhaps one from the glorious days of Solomon.
The city is well-planned, and its buildings are large for their day. In the far
corner of one such building, we find storage jars, still intact after almost
three thousand years. Someone was careful to make sure that provisions were
stored well. Deeper still is a layer that yields very little. We find only a
grinding stone, a small oven, some pottery fragments, and a circle of stones
that may have braced a tent support. Perhaps this was once the home of wandering
nomads like Abraham. By the time that we reach the lowest level, we have
travelled more than four thousand years into the past. We are all the way back
in the Bronze Age, before the technology needed to produce iron had been
discovered. But even here we find evidence of habitation! We uncover a massive
building, at least two stories tall, that might have been a palace or a temple.
Built of mud brick on a stone foundation, it was built to last for generations.
But now, that building lies
in ruins. All of it has been destroyed: intentionally leveled and then burned. The
building blocks of mud brick have been toppled from their foundations. They
rest at odd angles that no builder ever intended for them. Even the foundations
have been torn apart. The building stones that once were carefully arranged to
support the structure are now in disarray, scattered over the whole area like
huge grey marbles. Over in that corner, we find lumps of charcoal among the
foundation stones. Was it once furniture that was burned up in the destruction;
or maybe even wooden beams that formed the skeleton of the building? And over
here we uncover a bowl. Delicate and white with amber decoration, it was once a
thing of beauty; but now it lies shattered and useless. It’s a bit of a
surprise to find a disorganized ruin at the bottom of such a big hill! How can
a place that has been occupied for such a long time sit on a foundation like
this? And yet, here it is. This place that has lasted for over four thousand
years is built on ruins.
Nowadays, we don’t much build
on ruins. We aren’t like the people of ancient civilizations who rebuilt on the
foundation of what existed before them. We would much rather erase the remains
of the past. We might take a few mementoes, but then we get out the bulldozer
and tear everything down. We get rid of all the mess and smooth out the ground
so that we can build on a clean site. We like to think that we are getting rid
of all the old stuff and starting all over again from scratch. But we never
really start over again from scratch, do we? Our ruins may be physically gone,
but the past is always a part of us. We can demolish old buildings and cart
away the waste, but we can never get rid of the effect that the past has left
on us. It has been stamped on us like the imprint of a cookie cutter in a sheet
of dough. After all, we’ve experienced
the past. We’ve worked in it and played in it; we’ve laughed in it and cried in
it. For better or for worse, the past has made us who we are. We may get rid of
our ruins, but we can’t erase our experiences from our lives. That’s a good
thing to remember on this Sunday that we celebrate our graduates.
Now, graduates, I want to
talk to you for just a minute. You are making a new start in your life, in bigger
or smaller ways. You’re getting ready to go off to college; or you’re looking
for a job. (Maybe you’re doing both!) Pretty soon you’ll be participating in
new activities, and learning all kinds of new things! I’m willing to bet that
somewhere along the way, somebody will tell you that you’re starting all over
from scratch. But you’re not; not really. You’re carrying with you all the
experiences that you’ve ever had in your life – the bad ones as well as the
good ones. Whether you like it or not, that’s your foundation. And it can be a
good foundation if you build on it properly! But that’s the question, isn’t it?
How can you build on it properly?
Maybe we can start to answer
that question by taking another journey. This time, though, we’re not going to
Israel. We’re just going down the road. And we’re not going back into the past;
we’re travelling into the future. Let’s travel to a cornfield about three
months from now. I want you to imagine that you’re standing right in the middle
of that field of corn. Look around you. The cornstalks are tall and green, each
one bursting with fat ears of corn. As the wind blows through the field, the
leaves rustle like music. The sun is warm on your head, and the earth is moist
beneath your feet from a recent rain. The corn seeds that were planted in the
spring have had everything that they needed to grow into tall and productive
plants. They have been protected from weeds and insects and fertilized with
care. But how did that corn grow? Oh, sure, someone planted it and took good
care of it. But it grew all by itself. Well… it didn’t really grow all by itself. It grew with God’s help. We all know
that once we plant a seed, we can’t make it grow. Only God can do that. The
seeds sprout, and the seedlings break through the soil, the stalks grow tall,
and the ears appear without any action on our part! We can help the corn to
grow better; but we can’t make it
grow in the first place. That’s God’s business.
God builds on the foundations
of our lives in just the same way. God doesn’t tear us down and start all over
again. God uses what we have experienced as a foundation to build us into
strong buildings that can be used for all kinds of things! God slowly, carefully,
and lovingly adjusts us, one brick at a time – a wall here, a window there, and
maybe even a patio outside – so that our lives are well built. And that’s true
whether we’re recent graduates, middle-agers, or seasoned oldsters. Whether our
past lives have been easy or difficult, God builds on those foundations to help
make us better. Even if our lives have been a mess, God can build on that! But
just like the growing corn, it’s a slow process. God doesn’t have any deadlines
for finishing our lives! God never hangs a sign on us that says, “Completion
date is expected to be…” In fact, we’re never really finished, are we? God
takes all the time that he needs to build us into people who reflect the image
of Christ, and are a part of the Kingdom of God.
Parents, now I want to talk
to you for just a minute. In just a
little while, you’re going to let go of your graduate. Your job as a parent is
about to change. You’ve helped to build a foundation, and you’ve done your best
to make sure that it’s solid and strong. You’ve steered and guided and
admonished and cajoled and encouraged. Now it’s time to let God take over. Oh,
you’ll still be watching over that graduate as best you can! But the
construction is in God’s hands now. Don’t be impatient if you don’t see results
right away. Remember how slowly the corn grows? And the final product – what
your child grows up to be, the vocation that he or she chooses, and what his or
her life eventually produces – that’s up to God. And we know that God never
gives up on us, regardless of what happens to us during our lives.
So, rejoice, graduates!
You’re beginning a new chapter in your lives! Rejoice, parents! You’ve done a
good job, and now it’s time to celebrate that fact! And rejoice, everyone here
this morning! We’re all still under construction, building projects that God
has begun and will surely complete one day! What wonderful reasons to
celebrate!
No comments:
Post a Comment