Romans 5: 1-5 (Version: The Message)
1-2 By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.
3-5 There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!
On this important Education Sunday, where we honor and celebrate our graduates and our scholarship recipients, I want to ask you all a simple question, and I really want you to be honest. Raise your hand if you've ever been grounded. Okay… how many of you can raise a hand for a sibling or a friend who's been grounded? Okay… Maybe you’ve been put in just in a simple timeout when you've misbehaved when you were three or four?? There are always a few compliant people among us. But for those of us who have experienced being grounded or losing some privileges or even put in a time out in a chair for a few minutes, we ultimately understand what the purpose is even when it's happening. It's to improve our behavior; to help us understand and obey the rules; the differences between right and wrong; to learn a bunch of things like patience, being truthful, treating others fairly and kindly; or for me actually studying and doing homework.
Freshman year of high school for me was not my best showing. In my first marking period I got - not one…not two…not three… but four D’s! My parents were not too pleased, and I did not have any privileges for a month. No television, no telephone, no ‘stereo’, and I couldn't go out or do anything unless it was a church activity or playing field hockey. I have to say it wasn't my fault. No seriously, it was not my fault because I had been put into accelerated classes but I didn't have any study habits and I didn't have the support I needed at home to understand how to get my act together. I didn't know how to step up and rise to the occasion. Suffice to say it was not a happy time in the Van Zandt household.
But someone who learned of my plight, became my savior. I am not even sure how it happened but she put out her neck –to save me. Soon after my grounding began, I was called into the guidance counselor's office and Mrs. Zimmer sat me down and began to tell me all of what she knew about what had just gone on, about that lovely report card but also the grounding that I was under. She said she'd spoken to my mom and actually got me ungrounded with ALL of my privileges back because she knew that the route that my parents were taking was actually not going to help me improve. It wasn't going to help me do my schoolwork. In fact, it would likely make everything, including further isolation because I'm an only child.
They did change some of my classes and over time I was able to step up a bit and do a little bit better but I never really got the hang of it until I was well into my college years. That's a story for another day. Mrs. Zimmer put things right for me when my parents weren't able to see what I needed. Mrs. Zimmer gave me the confidence, the hope and the peace, and I knew she had my back 110%.
So let's go back to the exercise of raising hands. If you've been grounded, keep your hands up. Okay… if you know a friend or someone in your family who's been grounded put your hands up. Okay… everyone who has not raised their hand yet, raise your hands too… Let me tell you something, YOU ARE ALL GROUNDED! All of you! Everyone here is grounded. Everyone watching on zoom is grounded. Everyone who will watch this on YouTube sometime this week, you're all grounded too! Yes, we are all grounded… because we are grounded in the Grace of God. We are grounded in the grace and the mercy of God through our savior because of our savior Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ (the original Romans text in the NRSV says we are justified) which means that we are cleansed and we are redeemed. Even if we have bad report cards, we've been cleansed and saved.
God has rescued us through Jesus’ death and resurrection so that instead of being punished when we fall short, we are firmly positioned to be confident and to continue to explore life as a Christian. This is not something that we earn like our grades, but instead it’s a gift given to us so that when stumble but actually grow stronger, even in the midst of adversity and trouble.
For those of you going off to college or on to advanced degrees, you are going to experience a lot of things; you're going to have a lot of challenges; a lot of new experiences. You're going to meet a lot of new people and live in new places. It's going to be an adventure, but it's going to take some time for you to find your way, but you can be peaceful, you can be patient in the process, because you are already grounded. Because you're grounded you can explore all of these things wide open – in wide open spaces with confidence knowing that through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit God has got your back.
Right now I'm sure that you're very excited to graduate and move on to the next step and get into summer but as you get closer you're going to feel both excitement and some anxiety and some hesitation. That's natural, but you can breathe! You can breathe easy through all of it because you are grounded - you're already grounded in the best way possible. Thanks be to God. Amen.