Scriptures:    Psalms 95:  1-7

                   Philippians 4: 4-6

 

Moments like this make me almost burst with gratitude. 

 

I want to walk into the rows of faculty members and throw my arms out and say, “Did you hear what these students said about you? I am so grateful you chose to teach at this place.” 

 

I want to walk out into the mall and run up to Carl Strike and Dave Good and their crews say “Thank you! This campus is beautiful because of the ways you love it and take care of it.”

 

We all have so much for which to be grateful today...

• senior choir members who sing like angels. (Note that I didn’t say they act like angels!)

• our campus pastor, Sonia Smith, and all those involved with campus ministry

• an organ given to us by graduates Miriam and Bill Cable more than 40 years ago, played beautifully today by Rob Gratz

 

We’re grateful for...

• our graduates who’ve worked very hard to become Manchester alums. In fact, they will actually be alums in about four hours!

• the families and friends of our graduates who have sacrificed so their students could graduate today. They have many reasons to be grateful, not the least of which they will receive no more bills from Manchester College.

 

Gratitude is in the air. 

 

Poet e.e. cummings’ words capture its fullness: “I thank You God for this most amazing day; for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes.”

 

The Christian scriptures are filled with prayers and stories of gratitude. Jesus’ life overflowed with deep thanks. He gave thanks when he fed the loaves and fishes to the multitudes (Matthew 14:36 and John 6:11). He thanked God for hearing his prayers when he raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:41). His prayer at his last Passover meal was one of thanks even in the face of impending death (Matthew 26:27). 

 

Life gives choices about our attitudes. Hope or despair? A glass half full or half empty?  Suspicion or trust? Each moment we choose to feel short-changed or appreciative. Angry or grateful.

 

I encourage you to choose gratitude, and here is why.  

 

Some people live their lives being frustrated that other people have more than they do – better cars, better clothes, better health, better grades, better jobs, more money. They wish their families had great vacations like their friends. They complain because others get more credit than they do. They feel short-changed. This kind of dissatisfaction with our lives denies God’s goodness. Most of us have already received God’s gifts of shelter, food, families, knowledge, opportunities, choices. These are the important things, and we have them. 

 

So, does a spirit of gratitude mean life is always cheerful and happy? When I was 20 and a sophomore here, my mother died of cancer. I was the oldest of four daughters, and my youngest sister was just 13. We were not ready to lose our mother. But our family, our friends, and our church helped us accept that loss as well as the sudden death of my sister, Sonia, in a car accident when she was returning to Manchester during her sophomore year, just four years later. It took years to heal and to be able to smile and laugh about the wonderful mother and sister we’d had for too short a time. 

 

I remember the day, however, when a woman said to my sister and me: “Your family is so happy. You are really lucky.” I was stunned. How can we be the luckiest of families when a third of us died way too young? Were we happy? Yes, most of the time. But that didn’t mean we hadn’t experienced grief. Deep gratitude can emerge from the deepest pain. Deep gratitude is not denial of the ugliness and sadness of life – it is the embracing of the pain and saying “thanks” anyway. Gratitude helps us gain courage. It reminds us that God is with us always. The spirit of gratitude that sometimes gives the appearance of joy is often borne in the depths of grief and despair.

 

Our graduates have had some moments of anguish. They have taken exams when they weren‘t quite prepared (some of them just several days ago). They have struggled to pay the bills. Some of them didn’t make the cut for choir or the play or the team. They have broken off deep friendships, sometimes engagements to be married. They have gotten the flu the year when their rooms were farthest down the hall from the restrooms. They have had dark moments when they were not sure they could make it. But they did.

 

Today, it is clear that our graduates thank you, their families, faculty and staff. You have helped make it possible for them to sit here today. You parents and grandparents have taught by setting high expectations and holding your kids to those expectations. You have sometimes taught by saying “yes” and other times by saying “no” ... “and I mean NO.” You have taught well. Faculty and staff members have also stretched the minds of these graduates. They expected a lot, and today’s graduates rose to those high expectations. 

 

Gratitude, however, doesn’t end with the good feelings of celebration. Genuine gratitude makes us want to return the kindnesses and challenges that have been given to us.  Gratitude makes us want to pass on the gifts that have been given to us. Our donors tell me regularly that they want to donate their money so that the College can support current students the way it supported them. They received scholarships, so they give money so that new students can receive scholarships. I hope you will do this, too.

 

This giving back is very important for those who want to live principled lives. Gratitude teaches us to acknowledge the goodness and love of God. It expresses our hope in the future. Listen to the words of Marcus Annaeus Seneca, a Roman rhetorician: “We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits or our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.” We do have an obligation, a responsibility, to take care of all that’s been given us and to give back because we have been given much.

 

Several of our faculty members recall specific moments when teachers touched their lives. Dr. Jerry Sweeten, who teaches biology, distinctly remembers a telephone call one afternoon in the spring of 1989 from his college mentor Dr. Bill Eberly. They had kept in touch periodically over the years, but not on a regular basis. Dr. Sweeten tells this story:  “He gave me a piece of advice that changed my life forever. He said, ‘Jerry, I think it is time for you to go back to school and work on a Ph.D.’ Never in my wildest ... dreams did I ever consider this as an option! ... I was traumatized, energized, challenged, and exhausted, but five years and one semester after starting the program, I graduated with a Ph.D. in stream ecology. ... I am eternally grateful to Bill Eberly for his ...  steadfast confidence.” Dr. Sweeten gives back what Dr. Eberly gave to him by working alongside his students on their research in the Eel River, what students know as the Kenapocomoco. This year, his students presented their research on small mouth bass and won “best paper” awards at two academic conferences.

 

Dr. Mary Lahman, associate professor of communication studies, says Paul Keller taught her by standing by his deadlines, even after her attempts to persuade him to give her more time ended in her tears. He was kind, but firm. Dr. Lahman recalls that he quietly “’told me to apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair and bring him what I had by 5 p.m.’” When she thanked Paul Keller years later for being such a fine mentor, he replied, “Did you ever think, Mary, that it was something in you that attracted me to you as a student?” She uses his thoughtful response in her research on mentoring to this day, realizing that mentors often work with students as a way to give back, or pass on what they received.

 

Many people don’t realize the French Professor Janina Traxler was an undergraduate mathematics major. She remembers her math Professor James Rowe who, in her words “...  taught me how to think, especially but not exclusively in mathematical ways ... He made theorems into stories which included such characters as Winnie the Pooh.  During my junior year, I took Linear Algebra II during January  ... with four other math majors (I was the only who was not a straight-A math student). I was intimidated out of my shoes. Jim typically came into class, wrote a theorem on the board, and sent us all to the board to work ... .there [was] absolutely no place to hide. You can either fail  ... publicly, or you can reach down deep inside your mathematical soul and put together a proof that works. On one unforgettable day in geometry class, he spent the entire period carefully walking us through a proof, asking us at each point if we agreed with the rationale. As we dutifully said yes every time, he continued. By the end of the proof, we all had to admit that he had gotten us to agree to an absurdity – that all triangles are similar (in the mathematical sense). Every day of his class was a lesson in how to think.”

 

As you know, teachers are not just the people who stand at the front of the class. Listen to these words from Professor Marcia Benjamin, whose doctors predicted a life expectancy for her of eight years when she was born over 50 years ago. Dr. Benjamin reflects: “I cannot mention influential teachers without mentioning my parents. My mom and dad are not teachers professionally but in every sense of the word, they have taught me most of what I know. My dad modeled a work ethic that I aspire to every day and a sense of loyalty and dedication to family and friends that is enviable. He celebrated his 85th birthday recently and he still exercises for an hour each day, plays 36 holes of great golf every day the sun shines, and helped my mom raise two good kids – three if you count me. 

 

“From my mom I learned the rewards of kindness to all living things, the finely tuned art of coping and how to be gracious and give to others even when life is falling apart all around you. I never heard my parents whine about having not one but two of their three children with cystic fibrosis. We were taught to live every day fully, not just in spite of our disease, but I came to think it was because of it. CF is no gift, believe me. Cystic fibrosis could have consumed us, but it didn't and it doesn't today. I have lived one of the longest lives of any cystic fibrosis patient in the United States. And I could say that's due to the great medical care of my health care team. But I think it's because of two excellent teachers of how to be curious, work hard, and be the best person you possible can every day: my mother and my father.” Those of you graduates who have studied with Dr. Benjamin know that she passes these lessons on to you.

 

Today we are grateful for learners and those who taught them. Seniors, we are very glad you shared part of your life with us. Along with our graduates, we celebrate the parents and others who have supported them. Like Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin, they have taught you to be curious, work hard, and be the best person you can be every single day.

 

A grateful heart gives meaning to the past, present and future. A grateful heart affirms that God is good. Gratitude opens our eyes to the gifts others have shared with us and opens a door for us to give back those rich gifts to others who need them.

 

So, on this day of gratitude for education, families, teachers, we are thankful.

 

“I thank You God for this most amazing day; for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes.”