:
“Yes, an academy.”
“I see, and what are the educational goals of this academy?”
“Oh, just establish the New Jerusalem, and, uh, to last forever.”
That’s a bold vision!
So the question I want to ask you to consider today is this: Can anything
last forever? Did they picture 137 years ago that you would be sitting here
today? A lot has changed since then. Their idea that campus social life should
be distinctly spiritual, different from anything else you might experience “out
there” – that idea would be foreign to you today. Your idea that there’s value in
studying side-by-side with people of differing faith backgrounds, in learning
from a variety of perspectives – that idea might baffle them. A lot has changed.
And so here you sit today. Some of you may be thinking about the game
later. Maybe some of you are nervous about your date for the dance. Some of
you are probably preoccupied with your weekend work schedule. Is this the
vision those men and women held 137 years ago? Can anything last forever?
I think on some level, we can probably identify with that passionate desire
for things to last forever. Maybe you’ve made new friends in the last few weeks
or over the last year. Friends you’ve stayed up late into the night with, talking
about everything, friends you would already do anything for. When we make
friends like that, we want it to last forever.
Maybe you hope to set a record on the athletic field or court that will
never be broken at this school. Or maybe for you, it’s wanting to write a song
that everyone will remember and still talk about years from now. I think we
understand the passion to leave a lasting mark.
And so I want to draw your attention for just a moment to this stone. [Part
of a pillar in the cathedral.] One hundred years ago, workmen carved this rock
out of the hillside, stone masons crafted it, gave it the elegant contours – the
curves and edges – you see. For most of us in this room, this one stone alone
would be a lifetime’s achievement, a master work – let alone the more ornately
carved stone throughout the rest of the cathedral. The hands that held the
chisel which shaped this stone are long dead; we have no record of his name.
But the work he’s left behind will stand for a long, long time. But can anything
last forever?
The truth is, in a few years, the sports records you set today will probably
be mostly forgotten. As you grow up, most of your friendships will change
and move away. Generations down the road, this school will likely no longer
exist. And one day, far in the future, even this granite stone – which took so
much care and artistry – even this stone is going to crumble to dust. How can
anything really last?
The Psalm I read earlier tells us that God commands His covenant forever.
(Psalm 111:9)
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