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| Dale Seefeldt '64 (left) with Tim Eby-MacKenzie Dana Crider and Meg Mucklestone |
Quadrangle
Text: Psalm 139 - "Known"
Esteemed and.cherished members of the Class of 2008.and all of you gathered here to wish them well: it is a privilege to stand before you on the occasion of this Baccalaureate Service-an opportunity we take together to ask God's blessing as you reach a significant milestone in your education and commence with the next step in your careers.
After Brad Pitt-sorry, after Achilles-finishes sacking Troy, Aeneas, a Trojan ally whose father is a cousin of King Priam, is allowed to leave the smoldering ruins of the city because he is leading his young son and carrying his aged father Anchises on his shoulders. The marauding Greeks have finally had enough of killing and recognize the strength of character in noble Aeneas and allow him to leave. The Roman poet Vergil begins his epic poem the Aeneid at this point:
Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
Italiam fato profugus Laviniaque venit
litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto
vi superum, saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram,
multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem
inferretque deos Latio; genus unde
Albanique patres atque altae moenia Romae.
Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate,
And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate,
Expell'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore.
Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore,
[it actually says 'much tossed and buffeted about' here]
And [suffered] in the doubtful war, before he won
The Latian realm, and built the destin'd town;
His banish'd gods restor'd to rites divine,
And settled sure succession in his line,
From whence the race of Alban fathers come,
And the long glories [the high walls] of majestic Rome.
John Dryden
I'm grateful that you're not picking your way over the rubble of the School as you leave! In fact, I think you have every right to claim a substantial contribution to the aim at the end of our School Creed: "Thus, in all these ways, we will transmit this school greater, better, and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us." You have done this, and I thank you for all you have given.
But you may still feel a little like Aeneas. Perhaps it's the feeling that the bloodthirsty Greeks are finally about to let you go! Or that you're out of the smoke and down to the edge of the sea-and you can't see the other side. Or that "long labors" and the buffeting of the tossing sea lie ahead, before you reach a place where you can build anything solid. Or that glory and the majestic walls of a city yet to be built seem.like a distant dream.
But as you leave, I want to remind you that you are "known." In our school song we sing, "Woodstock, known over all the land." Cynics say, "It's not what you know, it's who you know!" A career guidance site for Berkeley University puts a twist on this and suggests, "It's not who you know, its how you get to know them!" and suggests attending the meetings of professional associations in your career field. And a blog by David Berkowitz commenting on the expanding phenomenon of social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook has another clever take-off: "It's not who you know, it's who you have an affinity for!"
David's song (Psalm 139) begins on a different note: "O LORD, you have searched me and you know me." This is what I mean when I say that you are "known."
James Bracher, a management consultant who runs the Bracher Center in Monterey, CA, describes a conversation he had while preparing to welcome a former US president as the guest speaker at a conference:
We were ready to host an important event and talk about leadership and responsibility with loyal clients and a person who had managed complex problems from the oval office.
It was 9:30 the evening before the conference was to begin. I was making a final trip to our local airport in Monterey, Calif. One more guest, traveling alone from Philadelphia, was to be escorted to his hotel. The pace was quick and adrenalin was keeping me going. What a thrill to bring special guests together with former President Gerald Ford! Knowing this arriving guest fairly well.I asked if he knew President Ford. He was silent. After what seemed an uncomfortable pause, the dignified executive said the following: "Jim, the question is not 'Do I know President Ford?' but, rather, 'Does President Ford know me?'"
He explained. Hundreds of millions of people know President Gerald Ford. But how many people would President Gerald Ford say that he knew? Unless someone knows you, then you probably don't really know them. From that insight about really knowing people emerged an effective method for evaluating the substance of many conversations. Is the person simply name-dropping when they announce who they know? Or do they reflect the legitimacy of their connectedness with another in that they are known to the person whose name has been mentioned? It is not who you know, but who knows you. The key is that God knows us and that we know God.
We must face the good news and bad news. The good news is that God knows us. The bad news is that God really does know us.
God knows our soul. God knows our intentions, motivations, anxieties, deepest hurts and most noble ambitions.
The first thing you note in David's song is the amazing intimacy in God's knowledge of every one of us. But that other theme drifts through this Psalm like a wisp of monsoon cloud-a nervousness, a discomfort. Do you really want someone else knowing what you're thinking?
I remember a science fiction story about two telepaths, people who have a special ability to read the thoughts of others. Each of them has felt isolated, alone, suffering under the burden of being aware of what everyone around thinks and feels. Each of them has often wondered why they're the only one who has this ability to see into the minds of people. Then each one's mind reaches out and recognizes the presence of another being, someone with the same gift. At first they are ecstatic (Finally! At last! There is someone else like me! We can communicate by thought!). After a few moments each realizes that the other can see into every corner of their mind, every dirty little secret-from childhood to now, nothing is hidden. Their joy at meeting another is overcome by horror and their minds scream out Go! Leave me alone!
The singer, David, doesn't end that way. He remembers that God created us and that we are "fearfully and wonderfully" made; He says that when we were in our mothers' wombs God's eyes saw our unformed bodies, he numbered all of our days before one of them came to be-and that's why He knows us so well. David describes God's thoughts as "precious" and says they outnumber the grains of sand (at this point Birbal would add, if you don't believe me, just count them!)-because God's thoughts are filled with the details of every single human being that He has created. And then David states very simply, "When I awake, I am still with you." God knows every human being-but he also knows me!
Thus David comes to a very different conclusion. The closing of his song echoes the beginning, but now he surrenders and opens himself to be known by God. Like Peter when Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, he bares his soul and asks for it all: Go ahead! Please do search me! Know everything! And if there's something wrong, lead me in the way "everlasting." The word "everlasting" reminds us that David is talking to God. His way is everlasting. Lead me there, says David.
The 13th century bhakti poet Raidasa expresses a similar intimacy with God and a similar desire to be influenced by him: (see the original Hindi below).
"Lord, you are fragrant sandalwood-and I am just water holding it-but the fragrance reaches to every part of the water. You are the lamp-and I am only the wick, but when these two are together they shed light day and night. You are the lustrous pearls, I am just the string inside them. You are the master, and I am the servant. Such is the devotion I, Raidasa, offer you."
You are "known." In his book Knowing God (which I heartily recommend), J.I. Packer has this comment:
This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort - the sort of comfort that energizes, be it said, not enervates - in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love, and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me.There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, He wants me as His friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given His Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose. (Packer).
As you move on toward distant dreams, embrace God's knowledge of you.welcome it...even ask Him to search inside you and test you, and if there's something wrong, show you His way.
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