Connecting The Dots

Connecting The Dots

(Matthew 7:21-29)

The month of May is the traditional time for graduation in this country.  Not only for those graduating from high school in the South, like our daughter Sarah who graduated from Parkview a week and a half ago; but also for those graduating from colleges and universities, as well as graduate and professional schools.  And graduations, as you know, require commencement speakers who, while typically not compensated financially (at least that’s what they tell us), normally receive, at minimum, an honorary doctorate plus expenses.  All in all, nice work, if you can get it.

Now, of course, we’ve just completed a month of graduations at institutions of higher learning across the country, and so, out of curiosity, I went online to see exactly who these commencement speakers were this year.  As a group, not surprisingly, politicians were quite popular again, especially on their home turf.  For instance, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin was the commencement speaker at Agnes Scott College; Congressman Charles Rangel of New York spoke at Bard College; and Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania delivered the commencement address at Susquehanna University where our future son-in-law, Josiah Ramsey, graduated this spring with both my daughter Kristyn and my wife Jeanette in attendance.

Journalists and media celebrities were also popular, including: Nancy Grace, Brian Williams, Cokie Roberts, Carl Bernstein, Chris Matthews, Tavis Smiley, and of course Oprah Winfrey.

Presidents, both former and the current office-holder, are always

a good choice.  Former presidents, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, each spoke at commencements this spring; Bush at Bryant University and Clinton at UCLA.  And President George W. Bush actually double-dipped this year, speaking at both Furman University and also the United States Air Force Academy.

Continuing in that same vein, lawyers and judges are another popular choice.  Among this year’s speakers were Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and current justice Clarence Thomas.

You also had some actors (Matthew Modine, Jessica Lange, Chuck Norris, and Cicely Tyson), and even a couple of comedians (Bill Cosby and Robert Klein).

The real surprise for me, however, was the number of commencement speakers with ties to major league baseball.  Why?  I have no idea.  But I counted no fewer than six, including baseball commissioner Bud Selig, former Dodger’s manager Tommy Lasorda, Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr. and also three broadcasters: Joe Buck, Vin Scully, and Joe Garagiola.  I can’t help but imagining that their speeches started out with something like, “Dear Graduates of 2008… life is like a game of baseball.”

Now some choices were obvious, like Cardinal Theodore McCarrick speaking at Notre Dame, or football great Dan Marino addressing graduates at his alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh.  Others must have been interesting, like having both James Carville and his wife Mary Matalin at Tulane.

But some were, at best, curious, and, at worst, simply bizarre.  William Gates Sr., for instance, the father of Microsoft founder and “gazillionaire” Bill Gates, was this year’s speaker at Whitman College.  What was the title of his speech? “How to raise a son who dropped out of college before graduating and became the world’s richest man?”

Then there was Bill Nye, the “science guy” of public broadcasting fame.  He spoke this year at both Harvey Mudd College (wherever that is!) and also the prestigious Johns Hopkins.  But what did he do for the graduates?  Some science experiments?

Finally, the speaker this spring at the Law School of Northwestern University in Chicago, which I’m sure – absolutely positive – could have had its pick of well-respected jurists, or famous attorneys?  They, instead, chose tabloid talk show host Jerry Springer!  Now I know why he probably accepted their invitation.  I bet he was there to recruit future legal representation for all the law suits he must face on his show every year.  But why did they pick him?  (I read that the students actually petitioned to stop him, but were overruled.)

And what is it exactly that these commencement speakers actually talk about?  As you might imagine, these famous and highly successful individuals are undoubtedly invited for the simple reason, and with the sincere hope I’m sure, that they might share some “pearls of wisdom” or “kernels of great truth” with the graduates; important, timely, and down-to-earth advice for those entering the so-called “real world.”

So, I also took a moment to read some of the more memorable commencement speeches of the recent past.  Widely circulating on the Internet, for example, is a commencement address attributed to Kurt Vonnegut supposedly delivered to the graduates of MIT back in 1997.  Certainly a writer of his stature would have something profound to say, you would think…  It begins, however, “Ladies and gentleman of the Class of ’97:  Wear sunscreen.  If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.  The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…”

Now, as it turns out, Kurt Vonnegut did not address the MIT graduates back in 1997, nor did he even write this speech.  It turns out that it was actually just a newspaper column written that spring by Chicago Tribune writer Mary Schmich.  As is often the case, the attachment of a famous name fueled the piece’s popularity, especially giving it a “life of its own” on the Internet.

Interestingly enough, though, Ted Turner did say something very similar while addressing Georgia State’s graduates three years earlier.  Turner, then facing a skin cancer operation, told them: “The one piece of advice I can give you is put on some sunscreen and wear a hat.”

Good, practical advice?  Without a doubt.  But profound?  Hardly.

I also came across the commencement address delivered by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, Russell Baker, which he gave to the 1995 graduating class at Connecticut College in New Haven.  After a few introductory remarks he said, “All right, let’s plunge right ahead into the dull part.  That’s the part where the commencement speaker tells the graduates to go forth into the world, then gives them advice on what to do when they get out there.  This is a ridiculous waste of time.  The graduates never take the advice, as I have learned from long experience.  The best advice I can give anybody about going out into the world is this:  Don’t do it.  I have been out there.  It is a mess.”

Since, as he noted, graduates never take his advice, Baker went on to say: “So I will not waste my breath today pleading with you not to go forth.  Instead I limit myself to a simple plea:  When you get out there in the world, try not to make it any worse than it already is…”  And then he offered his list of “10 things to help you avoid making the world worse than it already is” which I will spare you this morning.  But suffice it to say, they were not very profound either, nor especially practical.

Finally, there was the talk given by Apple Computer founder and CEO, Steve Jobs, delivered at Stanford University in 2005.  It’s actually quite good.  You can find both the text of his speech as well as the You Tube video online.  Like fellow computer mogul and rival, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs also did not finish college.  In his address at Stanford, in fact, he began by saying, “I never graduated from college.  Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.”

And then, in a speech that I found to be both very down-to-earth and humble as well, Jobs goes on to say something very profound, I think.  At the end of one of the three stories from his life that he chose to share with the graduates that day, he observed: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.  You have to trust in something…”

The story from his life that Steve Jobs was referring to here was how he had dropped out of Reed College after only six months, but then hung around for another year-and-a-half “dropping in” on classes that interested him, including a calligraphy class.  At the time, studying calligraphy did not appear to have any practical application in his life.  But ten years later, when they were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to him.  So they created that first computer with beautiful typography and multiple typefaces and proportionally spaced fonts.  And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s quite likely that no computer would have had them otherwise.

In other words, if he had never dropped out, he never would have dropped in to that calligraphy class.  And if he had never dropped in to that calligraphy class, today personal computers might not have the beautiful typography that they do.  Of course, as he notes, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when he was in college.  But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.  That is, it only made sense, and you could only see the connections, after the fact.

So, keeping this in mind, let’s finally turn now to this morning’s gospel reading.  The verses we listened to represent the final, concluding section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which runs from the beginning of chapter five through the end of chapter seven in Matthew’s Gospel.  The Sermon on the Mount, of course, is a compilation of some of Jesus’ core teachings; in particular, a collection of sayings and illustrations to help his followers understand the practical applications, and implications, of the Christian life.

Among the more memorable sections in the Sermon on the Mount are the Beatitudes; the relationship of Jesus’ message to the Jewish law; teachings in everyday piety, including the Lord’s Prayer and sayings about earthly treasures; and finally some illustrations of the practical aspects of Jesus’ message, including the Golden Rule.

But now we’re at the end of Jesus’ course on Christian living, so to speak.  And, before us, we have some parting words of advice.  In a way, if the Sermon on the Mount can be seen as a course of study for Jesus’ disciples or students, then perhaps today’s lesson can be viewed as his “commencement address” to them.

Now in the Gospel of John, of course, we actually have Jesus’ “farewell discourse,” given on Maundy Thursday before going out to the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples, which is, in fact, a full-blown speech.  The other three gospels, however, do not really have anything comparable.  Although, as I say, today’s reading (apart from its being rather short in length) does have the “feel” of a commencement address to it.

And interestingly enough, it actually begins with a bit of a warning.  Having taken the time to patiently walk his disciples through the expectations of the Christian life, the “do’s” and “don’ts” if you will, Jesus’ parting words offer a piece of practical, down-to-earth advice.  Now don’t forget, he says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”  Jesus immediately goes on to add, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?”

Notice the difference here between the two verses; subtle perhaps, but a difference nonetheless.  Look at your bulletins.  Notice two words: “does,” as in “does the will of my Father,” and, then later, “do,” as in “did we not… do many deeds of power in your name.  You see, it’s the difference between a continuous or repeated action, implied by the word “does,” on the one hand, and isolated deeds that occurred sometime in the past, implied by the word “do,” on the other.

Or as Brian Stoffregen writes, “This suggests that the ‘doing’ is more a way of life rather than an isolated deed.  The ‘isolated deed’… is when those seeking to enter the kingdom of heaven tell the Lord about the many deeds of power they had done. They look back to what they had done sometime in the past (prophesied, cast out demons, did powerful deeds).”  Instead, writes Stoffregen, “All of us need to look at what we are doing now; not (at) what we might have done…”

Having established, then, that true discipleship is really about a “way of life,” and not just a collection or a series of good deeds or powerful actions, Jesus goes on to illustrate and reinforce his point with the parable of the wise and foolish builders.

Everyone who not only hears his words and teachings, but actually goes out and acts on them is like the wise man, said Jesus, “who built his house on rock.”  And everyone who hears these words and teachings, but fails to act on them will be like the foolish man who built his house on sand.  In each case, the rains fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on their homes.  That is, the storms of life, the problems and challenges and difficulties of life came to both men equally.

But in the case of the wise builder, despite these storms, the house did not fall because, since it was built on rock and it had a solid foundation.  In the case of the foolish builder, however, his house fell and was swept away because there was no strong foundation.

I remember back when we were having our house built up in Pennsylvania.  Our sub-division was located on the side of a hill that had once been a pasture and, underneath the topsoil, it was nothing but solid rock.  The builder, in fact, actually had to blast into the hillside in order to break up that rock to be able to dig the basements and put in the foundations.

And, because we were on the side of a hill, this meant (for those

on our side of the street, at least) that there was a little bit of a downward slope between the street and the house.  It didn’t matter to us, but neighbors several doors down, however, wanted their front yard to be level with the street.  So rather than putting the foundation right on top of the rock, they instead had the builder bring in truckloads of earth to raise the level of the foundation to the necessary height.  However, this also meant that the foundation was no longer sitting right on top of that rocky hillside, but now was sitting on all those truckloads of dirt.  And you can probably guess what happened next.  As the ground that the house was built on began to shift and settle over time, it put all kinds of pressure and stress on the foundation, and then severe cracks began to appear and groundwater began to leak into the basement.

Whereas our foundation, sitting right on top of all that rock, never budged, and our basement stayed dry as a bone.  The houses were almost identical; same builder, same construction, even the same model, I think.  The one and only difference between them… was the foundation they were built on.

The lesson, then, is clear.  All these teachings that Jesus has just shared with his followers – Discipleship 101, if you will – are not simply a collection of things “to do,” or “not-to-do” in isolation.  Rather, if taken together and if one strives to accomplish them day by day, they were intended by Jesus to form the very foundation of the Christian life.  In the end, we are only saved by God’s grace, it’s true.  But the one who accepts that gift of grace, as well as the gift of the Holy Spirit working in his or her life, and who then follows these teachings, will discover the kind of rewarding and fulfilling life – in the here and now – that God hopes and intends for all of us; the so-called “abundant life,” that Jesus refers to in the Gospel of John.

Jesus’ followers have now completed the education contained in the Sermon on the Mount.  Today is graduation day.  And before he sends them out into the world, Jesus offered them this final bit of advice.

And here’s the thing (as well as the relevance of that commencement address given by Steve Jobs I spoke of earlier): You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. In other words, all the teachings and practical advice that Jesus gives us in his Sermon on the Mount don’t always seem to be directly connected to each other, or to form a coherent whole.  In some ways, the materials in these three chapters of Matthew feel, at times, like they’re dis-connected and random, kind of “all over the place.”

It will only be later, at the end of our lives, as we prepare – by God’s grace – to move on to the next life, that we’ll actually be able to look back, and connect the dots, and say, “Oh, now I see, now I get it.”  That’s why it was so important to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to follow the commandments, to love my neighbor and forgive my enemy, to pray and give alms and not worry about life, to avoid judging others, and to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Now it all finally makes some sense, we’ll say.  Now all the random dots are finally connected.

In the meantime, however – as we live day by day in the present – all we can do is simply trust in Jesus, and trust in the teachings of his Sermon on the Mount…

The story is told of a wealthy man who laid a set of blueprints in front of his top assistant and told him, “I’m leaving on an extended trip, and I want you to build a house for me on that location above the lake I showed you recently.  I’ll be gone about ten months.  Here are the plans, and the specs, and the funds to cover the cost.  Have it finished by the time I return.  And I’ll see you then”

Well, despite years of faithful service, this longtime employee immediately saw an opportunity to feather his own nest, so to speak.  So he hired a crooked contractor, employed unskilled labor whenever possible, and put cheap, inferior materials into the building.  When it was finished, it was magnificent looking, but it was really a poorly constructed, flimsy shell.

When the man returned from his trip, he went out with his assistant to see this beautiful new home overlooking the lake.  And the man said to his assistant, “What do you think of it?”  And his employee replied, “I think it’s wonderful.”

“I’m glad you like it,” said the wealthy man.  “You see, I’m retiring from business soon, and I won’t need your services much longer.  But I wanted to reward you for all your faithful years in my employment.  So this house is my gift to you.”

Well… in the very same way, the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount are not about the things we do for God…  They’re really all about the blessings we receive from God when we build our lives on his strong foundation.

Amen