It is graduation season.  I’m never sure whether I prefer the term “graduation” or the term “commencement” to mark this occasion. In fact, it is both.

Graduation is the occasion for the conferral of academic degrees or diplomas.  High school graduates have completed a set of requirements demonstrating competency in meeting general education and specific requirements, have completed tests to establish their knowledge, and have usually competed with others for grade point average and class standing.  Graduation is the celebration of that achievement – and an achievement it is.

But graduation is also commencement, which is defined as beginning; a start; the act or process of being or being brought into existence.

Some graduates will leave home for college later this summer.  Some will not leave home right away.  Some will not further their formal education right away.  But when the next academic year starts, none of those who are graduating this year will be in a seat in a local high school.  And so for all of you; this is a beginning of something new and different.

There are moments throughout life when we stand at the intersection between the ending of what has been and the beginning of what will yet become.  High School graduation is one of those moments – and perhaps one of the most significant in life.

Our congregation celebrates the graduation of nine young people today.  Most of them have grown up in our midst; some of them were baptized right here in this very place, and vows were taken.  We promised to nurture them in the faith, and to be an example of a community that practiced forgiving and forgiveness.  We promised to teach them the faith.

And so somewhere along the way, the great stories of the bible have been heard.  This summer, we are revisiting many of those stories and the biblical characters that shape our understanding of God and God’s way of relating to the world and to us.  Today, we meet Abraham at what might be called a “commencement.” Abraham is about to commence a journey that becomes the foundation for three great world religions.  Eventually, Abraham’s story will make him the father of Judaism, and the ancestor of Jesus and of Mohammed.

When we meet him, Abraham is a migratory desert dweller, moving from time to time with his household to find fresh pasture and water for his animals and his family.  He is nomadic, and does not have a settled home.  He does not have to decide what to take with him and what to leave at home when he goes. His home goes where he goes.  But he has a locale, a place that is essentially his territory, his home.  And now God is inviting him to leave that place and go to a place where he has never before been.  God has a purpose for this invitation; God desires to establish a new kind of relationship with the world, and has determined that this should be done through relationship with a community of people.  Abraham appears be rather arbitrarily selected to be the first human in this relationship.  And so he becomes the archetype for those who would hear and follow God.  From Abraham, we learn something about who we are.

So, here are some “life lessons,” so to speak, that Abraham can teach all of us.  It is good to be reminded of these lessons at graduation/commencement time.

First, Abraham is hardly at the top of his class.  As the story unfolds, he will be revealed to be deceitful, and cunning.  He is far from perfect.  But that doesn’t stop him from being the person through whom God reveals the story of human life and relationship with God.

Lesson one:  It is futile to measure yourself against others.  There is no evidence that God loves us more or less because of what we do.  Abraham and most or the great characters in the biblical story were profoundly human, deeply flawed, regularly disobedient, frequent failures, and became the heroes of a great epic story from whom countless generations have derived meaning and purpose for life.  You never know what God might be doing with your mistakes, with your failures, or with your best effort.  Achievement is its own reward – and one to be enjoyed with gratitude for having been given the ability to achieve.  God desires each person to fulfill their own unique promise and potential.  Competitive evaluation can useful in helping us achieve our potential, but it is still a human fascination in which God appears to have little interest.

Second, Before Abraham is told where he is going, he is told what he is leaving.

Lesson two:  Pay attention to the work of leaving.  It is not necessary to be physically leaving home to know that a part of life that has been steady and secure and somewhat reliable is being left behind.  There is leaving going on.  It is leaving childhood.  It is leaving dependence for a new kind of independence.  It is leaving the structure of secondary education for the world of higher education or for the world of employment.  It is the beginning of leaving the parent/child dependent relationship.  It is leaving behind childhood.  Parents are often very aware that there is leaving going on, so there is probably some grieving to be done.  No one goes to a new place in their life without leaving the old one.  So don’t just go.  Pay attention to leaving.

When I went away to college at Ohio Northern, I did not pay attention to what I was leaving, especially to the comfort of a physically familiar place to which I might return.  While I was a college student, my parents moved.  The home I had known in high school literally disappeared.  I didn’t need it any more.  I had a new home.  But I should have paid better attention to leaving.

Third, God promises blessing to Abraham, so Abraham can be a blessing to others.

Lesson three:  Always pass on your blessings.  Be blessed to be a blessing.  Never let what you are doing with your life be just about you.  Always let it be about making the world and the lives of those around you better.  You have learned how to do that through your involvement in the church – maybe at work camp, maybe right here.  You are a blessing here and now.  Robby makes my life better every single Sunday.  I never see Robby without getting a smile, a greeting and a hug.  Be a blessing in all the places you are, and every place you get to go.

Fourth, Abraham went, and he took many things with him.

Lesson four:  Take the important stuff with you wherever you go.  Life isn’t really about stuff.  But carefully selected stuff can help us remember who we are.  I moved the first time when I was fifteen years old.  I have moved six times since then.  Each time I move, I have to decide what to take with me and what to leave behind.  I keep some things that I have acquired in each place I’ve been.  They remind me of the people I love, and who have loved me.  They remind me of life lessons and significant milestones.  And when I get to the new place, what makes it home to me is that it bears a few mementos from the previous parts of my journey.  But don’t just take stuff.  Take the important stuff.  And most of that isn’t stuff.  It’s memories.  It’s the gifts of courage, and character, and joy, and encouragement that the people in your life have given you.  Take the good stuff.  When its time to go, it’s a good time to leave the stuff you don’t need behind.  Leave hurt and sorrow and resentment and if you need a new beginning in any area of your life, this is a good time to sort out bad stuff – literally and emotionally – and take the good stuff with you.

Fifth, Abraham journeyed on by stages.

Lesson five:  Journey by stages.  Know that there will be stopping points along the way.  That there will be many leavings and arrivals; many beginnings and endings; many intermediate destinations.  More than one person has observed that life is like baseball.  In this way it is; we leave home in order to return home.  Between you and the safety of home plate, there’s a whole life.  It’s risky.  It can be scary.  It is exhilarating.  In between there are resting places, safe places.  Take time along the way to mark the journey.

Finallly – wherever Abraham went, he built an altar to the Lord.

Final lesson:  your life begins and ends in God.  Remember to worship at every stage of your journey.  There is no place that we leave, and no place that we go that God is not. Always remember who you are, and whose you are and from where you came.  You belong to God – however you understand that today – and you will believe that and not believe it, accept it and reject it, question it and examine it.  That’s okay.  God will still be God. And you will still belong to God.  Do not neglect your relationship with God at this stage of your journey.

As you learn to be whatever it is you plan to be, as you perhaps find whoever it is who will become our life partner, as you discover your independence, remember to nurture your faith.  All that you are about to fill your life with is wonderful.  But it is not all.

You will need, one long day into your journey, to know how to pray and worship and forgive and be forgiven in very grown up ways and for very grown up reasons.  Do not neglect your spiritual maturity and education.  Your soul needs to grow wise; and your soul needs a home in which to abide.

So go from high school.  Go to the life that God will show you.  Leave your childhood behind.  Take the treasures of your life:  the love of family, the blessing of friends, the accumulated learning of your education so far, and go.

Dr.  Seuss has rightly exclaimed:  “Oh, the places you’ll go.” Go with our blessing, our prayers, our congratulations.  Go with God’s abiding presence, sustaining love and faithful creativity.