INI LES Graduation Service May 21, 2009
Sermon preached by Pastor ... at Cross of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), 9931 Foley Blvd. NW, Coon Rapids, MN 55433. Please share this with someone else after you have finished. Thank you!
1 Corinthians 1:20-25, Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ—especially our 2009 Cross of Christ Lutheran School graduates:
With the advent of cell phones, e-mail and text messaging, very few people write letters anymore. All we ever receive in our mailbox at home is junk mail, bills, some birthday and Christmas cards, and every now and then an appeal for money from a charity or a school. If you were graduating from our school thirty years ago—in 1979 rather than 2009—you would probably have received a letter or two from some relatives or close family friends. “Dear Sally…Dear Jack,” the letter could have started. “We’re so proud of you and so thankful that you’ve been able to graduate from a Lutheran school! You don’t know how you’ve been blessed!”
Our books of the New Testament also started out as letters to individuals or to different Christian congregations within the Roman Empire. Back then letters were called “epistles.” God the Holy Spirit used the apostles to share God’s Word in this way. Two of these letters were hand delivered to the Christian church in the city of Corinth, which was located in our modern day country of Greece. In the first couple of verses of 1 Corinthians, we’re told who wrote the letter and to whom it was addressed: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God…to the church of God in Corinth…” 1 Cor. 1:1,2. Paul began with a greeting as well as a prayer of thanks for the spiritual gifts the Corinthians had received. He reminded them that our faithful Savior would keep them strong until the Last Day.
But then Paul started to write about different problems that were affecting their church in Corinth. He wanted to show the believers there what God’s will was and how they could live a God-pleasing church-life as well as godly personal lives. Paul began by addressing the problem of divisions in the Corinthian church. They were plagued with cliques—a little group here, and a little group there, and they were always in competition with one another. Some schools are that way, and you’ll notice it especially when you get to high school. There are all sorts of little groups of friends who are constantly trying to be more important than the others. But the Corinthian Christians were also divided into little groups or cliques because there was false teaching going on. Some of them had beliefs that were actually contrary to God’s Word.
Now one of the reasons the Corinthians were divided in these ways was because they had a wrong conception of the Christian gospel. They misunderstood the good news of our Savior. Remember these people lived in ancient Greece, and ancient Greece was noted for its great thinkers and philosophers. Maybe you’ve heard of names like Socrates, Plato or Aristotle. The Corinthian believers stood in awe of such great worldly thinkers. They idolized people who could give tremendous speeches and make complicated arguments in a debate. So when the apostle Paul and his coworkers came to Corinth and taught the people about the Son of God dying on the cross to pay for the sins of the world, many of the Corinthians thought this message was just plain foolishness. So Paul had to send a letter to this church and remind them that the wisdom of this world is ultimately meaningless because it can never come to a true understanding about God.
Now just as Paul prayed for the Corinthians, your pastors, your teachers, your parents, your relatives and other members of Cross of Christ pray for you, our graduates. We thank God for the education he has given to you over the past several years here in our school. More importantly, however, we thank God for the Christian education and training you have received from God’s Word, the Holy Scriptures. We also thank him for the spiritual understanding he has blessed you with.
As you leave the rather sheltered life you have lived here within the walls of Cross of Christ Lutheran School, and as you get out into the world and rub shoulders more with people who don’t have the same beliefs and values that you do, you’ll learn rather quickly that people are overly impressed with the wisdom of this world. If you go on to attend public high school or beyond that you go on to a public or even a private university or college, you’ll have teachers and professors who have earned some very prestigious degrees from some big universities. When you step into a high school science lab or classroom, you’re going to be overwhelmed with all the technology. You’ll be using lab equipment you may not have realized even existed, and you’ll stand in awe over all the latest computer gadgets like smart-boards and other things like that.
But you’ll also be faced with a great deal of temptation. There will be the very strong temptation to forsake and even despise what you have learned here at Cross of Christ Lutheran School. Why? Because we’re not that impressive when it comes to the things of this world.
What you really need to remember when you leave here is this: People cannot find the true meaning of life in technology or scientific discovery. Smart-boards, the latest lab equipment and the most updated computers can’t really teach us who we are, what we’re here for and where we’re going. God shows us what is truly important and he answers the deep questions of life in his Word. And the central message of God’s Word is the good news that Jesus was crucified on the cross to pay for our sins and to reconcile us to himself.
To the unbelieving world around us this gospel is ridiculous. It’s absolute foolishness. But over the years you’ve spent here at Cross of Christ Lutheran School, the time you’ve spent in your parents’ and grandparents’ laps when you were little learning about Jesus, from the lessons you’ve had in Sunday school, you know that this message of Jesus is our gateway to heaven. You’ve learned that the good news of Jesus is what gives meaning for life. You know who you are, what you’re here for and where you’re going! And if you’ll be attending West Lutheran High School in the fall, you will continue to learn all the things you need to in order to get along in this world and this life. But more importantly, you will continue to grow in your knowledge of God’s Word. And even if you go on to a public high school, you can continue to grow in God’s Word here at Cross of Christ on Sunday mornings in our teen Bible class. I want to encourage all of you to come to our teen Bible class, starting in September.
Over the years I have known some who have graduated from Lutheran elementary schools—both here and elsewhere—who have been totally overtaken by the wisdom of this perishing world. As a result, they have ended up despising the Christian education they received through the eighth grade. Sadly, they have turned their backs on Jesus and his Word. But as we just heard, the wisdom of this world cannot answer the deep questions of life.
As you leave school here, you’re going to be learning things elsewhere that will help you get along in this world. But don’t lose sight of the fact that this life is really only for a moment. We have eternity waiting for us. God’s wisdom that you have learned here prepares you for eternity. So I want you to answer this question in your own mind. You don’t have to answer out-loud: Which wisdom is really the most important? The wisdom of this world? Or God’s wisdom, that he gives us in the Bible and that’s focused on Christ?
The unbelieving world around us may think that what we have here is foolishness. Let’s remember, however, that the wisdom we have learned here from God’s Word makes us “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus,” 2 Timothy 3:15. What you have been given here at Cross of Christ Lutheran School from your dedicated teachers is the greatest treasure anyone could ever be blessed with!
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
