I attended a high school graduation last night.  As a pastor, I usually attend at least one every year to watch our teens graduate.  I confess I find such ceremonies to be bittersweet.

They are sweet indeed as we celebrate their accomplishment.  They have learned and grown much over their years in school.  Many have achieved much in their pursuit of education.  Further, this ceremony marks the edge of adulthood in our culture.  A new stage in their life is beginning.  This is worth celebrating.  This is sweet indeed.

And yet I find it very bitter too.  In the midst of all the celebration, there is no mention of God.  There is no acknowledgement that God gave these graduates life, that he gave them the abilities, the brains, the gifts to achieve all that they have accomplished.  There is a gaping hole in the ceremony where God should be. 

This gaping hole is particularly evident in the speeches given.  It is customary to give advice for life in these speeches, but without God, the advice misses the central aspect of what life is all about.  Yes, I heard good things like the need for sacrifice, the recognition that we are not perfect, and the call to respect each other and work hard.  And yet in at least two of the speeches there was the spoken assumption of a rugged individualism where each person is to walk to the beat of their own drum, and the main point of life is simply to do whatever makes the individual happy.  Jettison the truth that life is all about God, and all we are left with is the idolatry that life is all about me.  It becomes a pagan ceremony, celebrating the idol of self. 

Of course this godless ceremony is not necessarily the fault of the speakers.  While some speakers may endorse a worldview without God and encourage the idea that life is all about me, others may be Christians caught in a ceremony that seeks to exclude everything Christian.  Our community school has a Baccalaureate Service for anyone who wants to attend that addresses the Christian dimension, so that the Commencement Program can be completely secular.  But by splitting the two, it makes the latter hollow indeed.  And we are left with some good advice that misses the best advice, alongside the idea that life is all about me instead of God.  This is bitter indeed.