For the High School Class of 2017

Psalm 139

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

On the last page of my senior yearbook (South Knox High School, Class of 1978) was a black and white photo of a person pushing a broom across the auditorium stage.  Below were these words by William Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts.” 

We are in that time of year, when many of our young people will walk across a stage, making their official exit from high school or college, and make their entrance into a new, unknown, but hope-filled, phase of their life.  The roles they have played in school will be exchanged for new ones as they enter into their future.

Shakespeare’s quote has stayed with me all these years.  However, it was only in recent times that I actually learned the rest of the speech from his play, “As You Like It.” 

  “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school.

And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress’ eyebrow.

Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon’s mouth.

And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lin’d, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part.

The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound.

Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion; Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”

Shakespeare seems to nail life’s many different stages in a person’s life.  Which stage have you entered or are about to exit in your life?

Reading Shakespeare’s words got me thinking about all the exits, entrances and roles I have made and played since I graduated from high school.  There are many:  college, student teaching, seminary, first pastorate, marriage, divorce, new pastorate, new relationship, new marriage, moving to Wisconsin, death of parents, birth of a son, moving to a new community, teaching, and becoming your pastor, and a parent of a rising senior!   

When you look back on your own life, what exits and entrances have you made over your years?  Which ones were expected, planned for, and which ones surprised you in ways you would never have dreamed of making?  What life lessons have you learned by your entrances, exits and roles?   

Think about that for a moment, and let me share a few lessons others learned over their lifetimes.

Robert Fulghum reminded us that the most important things he learned about living life were not taught him on the mountain top of graduation, but in Kindergarten:  “Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life – Learn some and think some And draw and paint and sing and dance And play and work everyday some. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, Watch out for traffic, Hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder.”

The poet, Mary Oliver, offers these words:  “Instructions for living a life.  Pay attention.  Be astonished.  Tell about it.”

Mr. Rogers shares these words: “…stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.”

And there are these words from Dr. Leah Flack, an assistant professor of Marquette University’s College of Arts and Science: “Don’t stop learning. By continuing to cultivate your imagination, your mind, and your heart, you will be ready for the journey on the path you think you want to take right now….”

Pay Attention!  Be Astonished!  Love Deeply!  Don’t stop learning!  All I can say is “Amen!”  Don’t stop learning throughout your life, because we are, as Christ’s followers, throughout our lives, trying to learn more fully how to love God and others as Jesus did.

So here we are this morning, Pentecost and Graduation Sunday, still hoping to learn something about what it means to live faithfully in life and our relationship with God and all our neighbors throughout the world. 

Pentecost is the day we tell the story of Jesus exiting the earthy stage and the Holy Spirit entering it.   It is the story of us becoming more fully the physical body of Christ on earth, as Jesus breathes the Spirit of God’s love into us, his disciples, sending us out into the larger world stage in which we all live in the global community.  Pentecost reminds us that God’s Word knows no boundaries nor is confined to anyone people or nation.  It speaks multiple languages.

Yes, it is a scary world out there. We may want to lock the doors, and stay holed up inside ourselves, hidden behind walls, just as the disciples tried to do.  Jesus would not let them.  Jesus knew it was scary out there, remember what he had just gone through in his own life.   Yet he lived out in the world, relating to all who he encountered, friend, follower, and enemy with forgiveness not revenge, compassion not resentment, peace not violence, love not hatred.   

In his exiting the world stage, Jesus showed us how to live as God created us to live and love one another, and not just the people we like, but those people who are difficult to love.  “Love one another as I have loved you,” Jesus says. 

It is the new commandment he leaves his disciples with as he is about to exit the stage, and then, for a brief moment, he re-enters in the role of the “Resurrection and the Life”, breathing the breath of God’s Spirit into them and into us, so we can be prepared to take on the many, various, and diverse roles we will each play through our lives.

And some of the roles we are called by God to play:  “Children of God, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Stewards of God’s Earth, Sharers of God’s abundant resources, Healers of Every ill, Agents of Reconciliation, Repairers of the Breach, Peacemakers, Forgiver of Sins, Providers of Sanctuary, Lovers, the Hands, Feet, Eyes of Jesus, the living Body of Christ on Earth, the Light for all the World!” 

In a few hours, seniors will make their final entrance to the schools they have attended, walk across the stage, receive their diploma, and make their grand exit out into life. 

As for us, we made our entrance this morning, took our places here, in what Soren Kierkegaard called the “Theatre of Worship”.  This “Theatre of Worship” is where we are the actors and God is the audience.  In a few moments, we will make our exit, back out into the larger world around us, entering and exiting the many stages we find ourselves on, playing the various and diverse roles we take on each day, living out our lives before the One who takes great pleasure in watching us live in relationship to one another throughout the world.

As we do, and have done many times before, and will, we pray, do many more times in the future before we enter the final stage, we need to ask ourselves, how will we play those roles differently because of Jesus?

Haunted By My Past: “I Was A High School Bully”

Rev. Scott Marrese-Wheeler
March 13, 2016

Isaiah 43:16-21
“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”

It was a tough week for Wisconsin Supreme Court appointee and candidate, Rebecca Bradley.

It was revealed this past week, that back in the early 1990’s, Rebecca Bradley wrote several scathing opinion pieces for the Marquette University student newspaper, saying she had “no sympathy for AIDS patients because they had effectively chosen to kill themselves.” She had other choice words drug addicts and any American who voted for Bill Clinton in the 1992 Presidential election, calling them “evil”. Her week did not get any better, when it was also revealed that she had an extramarital affair.

When confronted with her public opinion pieces, she declined to be interviewed, but did apologize in a written statement, saying: “I am horribly embarrassed, and those words in no way reflect the person that I am today.”

I thought about her past words and her recent apology when I read the words of the Prophet Isaiah – “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”

A friend of mine shared the article about Rebecca Bradley on Facebook. Another person, who was upset with his doing so, said: “A person can change!”

So let me ask, “Can we as individuals change, leaving our past in the past, and move into a new place in life? Or does the past, remembered or forgotten, still define who we are?”

The Apostle Paul might say, “Yes, we can.” Paul, as you might remember, is the author of many of the Epistles in the New Testament. He is also a major player in expanding the early Christian Church, especially among the Gentiles.

Over the past weeks, we have remembered Paul’s words to the Corinthians, noting his more “excellent way” to live together as one in Christ.

Last Sunday, we heard Paul remind the Corinthians, that “In Christ, the old is dead and gone, all people are made a new creation.” But is the “old” really “dead and gone” in our lives or are we forever haunted by our past relationships and actions?

Before he was Paul, you might remember he was called, Saul, a Jewish Rabbi, a strict legal justice of the Jewish courts, whose job was to persecute and have killed, followers of Jesus.

Listen to these words that are used to describe Saul: “With Old Testament imagery for anger–snorting through distended nostrils…Luke builds up the picture of Saul as a rampaging wild beast in his hateful opposition to the disciples of the Lord.” (Bible Gateway)

Can someone like Saul change his worldview, seeing those he disdained, persecuted and killed, as Christ’s “new creation”? Of course we know Saul can. Saul has a conversion on the Syrian road to Damascus. In an encounter with the Risen Christ, “whole spiritual world will be turned upside down…” (Bible Gateway)

Saul, who takes on a new name, becomes Paul the Apostle. He himself is a “new creation in Christ”.

In his letters to the early churches, he has a lot of explaining to do. He doesn’t just say he was embarrassed and no longer holds to that particular view of others. Throughout his writings, he tells of his conversion experience in Christ, acknowledges his transgressions, pens powerful words of healing and hope in Christ, and most importantly, to build the trust of those he once persecuted and had killed, he interacts with them, visiting their small communities. Both his actions and words reflect his new life Christ.

Can a person change, leaving their past behind them, and seeing people they once slandered, persecuted, spoke ill of, hated, in a new way?

There is a great scene in the movie – “The Shawshank Redemption”.  Morgan Freeman plays a man, “Red”, who is serving a life sentence for a crime he committed when he was a young man. Throughout the movie, as the years go by, he is brought before the parole board and asked if he is “rehabilitated?”  For years, he answers with words he knows they want to hear. Each time he is denied parole. Finally, now an old man, he finds himself once again before the Parole Board.

When asked if he felt “rehabilitated”, and ready to rejoin society, Red answers: “Rehabilitated? Well, now let me see. You know, I don’t have any idea what that means… I know what you think it means, sonny. To me, it’s just a made up word. A politician’s word, so young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie, and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?…There’s not a day goes by I don’t feel regret. Not because I’m in here, because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try to talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can’t. That kid’s long gone, and this old man is all that’s left. I got to live with that….”

It is a powerful scene, but seriously, it is just a script written for a movie. Can a person really let go of who they were in the past, and see things in a new way? If we so, what experiences or people changed us?

And if we have changed, how do we respond when those things from our past are remembered, often at the worst moment, confronting us, and dragging us back, while continuing to define our future?

Let me open up my personal closet, and bring out something I wish I didn’t have to remember, and actually have tried to forget, but feel I want to share with you.

I was a bully. I did and said some very mean things to a classmate when I was in high school. Her name is Aline. Today, she is a registered nurse, an educator and a professional church musician. I remember her being smart, funny, and attractive. Unfortunately, I also remember a name several of my friends and I use to call her, and it was not an affectionate one. It was a cruel name, one we used to make fun of her on a daily basis.

Each day during lunch, my friends and I would sit on the steps near the water fountain Each day, Aline would walk by on her way to the lunchroom. Each time we would tease her, calling her by our “special” name for her. She hated it and reacted to it, yelling at us to stop. We didn’t stop. We pushed things even further and had tee-shirts made that said “We Hate (Insert Cruel Name Here)”  We thought we were being so “cool” wearing those shirts. Little did I know the negative impact our name calling was having on her.

A few years ago, when I signed up for Facebook, I started sending “Friend” requests to my high school classmates. I sent one to Aline. She responded, wondering why I would want to be her “Friend” after all the pain I had caused her in high school. She told me about the lingering effects my “name-calling” had on her life. How she had considered leaving our school, had struggled with depression, and contemplated suicide, because our cruelty. At the end of her very pointed note, she asked me to consider how I would feel if I had a daughter who was treated the way my friends and I had treated her?

It would be too easy to beg her forgiveness saying, I was just a teenager who did not know how much power there is in a name, especially in a name used to tease a young high school girl. Maybe I thought of my actions as just harmless teasing, but they were not. They had caused her great pain.

Here is the thing, after she shared her pain and anger with me, about my past words and behavior, I apologized, telling her I would never want my son or any person to experience or inflict the kind of emotional pain on others by our words, especially the names we used to taunt and harass her.

I told her about how over the years, I had become an advocate for students and other people, who like her, had experienced such horrible treatment by others. How I had become an advisor for our schools Gay-Straight Alliance. How I had worked in my ministry, counseling people just like her, helping them to heal from their past. I felt I was being honest and sincere, when I told her I was sorry and that I had “changed”.

Her response cut me to the quick. She told me that she believed I had not changed and that people could never change.

“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old….” How could I forget my past, now that I knew she would always painfully cling to her memory of me, my words and actions based on how they had shaped her school days and her life?

Can we, as God’s people, individually or collectively, change our worldview, forgiving our past, repenting of our words and actions, and move into a new future or are we to ever remember the past, letting our past lives, mistakes, action, words – continue to define us as we move forward in life?

I hope, I have changed. I hope Rebecca Bradley has also changed. I hope we all have forgiven our former selves, letting go of the old, and allowing ourselves to be raised into the new life in Christ. I hope this is so. But ultimately, God only knows.

“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”