How Would You Answer This Question?

 The Late Show on CBS had its last episode on Thursday night.  The show had been started in 1993 when David Letterman didn't get the Tonight Show gig after hosting Late Night on NBC for years.  Letterman took his show to CBS and hosted it until eleven years ago when Stephen Colbert became the second and last host of the program.  The program was cancelled and there are a few, possibly concurrent, things that brought about the end of the show.  I don't have any care to write about that here.

However, a popular segment on Colbert's iteration of the program was the Colbert Questionnaire.  This bit came about after Stephen enjoyed the answer he received from Keanu Reaves when he asked him, "What happens when you die?" Colbert decided he should ask more people this question and so he designed the questionnaire around it.  

On the penultimate episode of the show Stephen took his own questionnaire answering questions from a variety of celebrities.  Many of the answers were insightful and cute, but his answer of "What happens when you die?" caught my attention.

Stephen is reportedly, as reported by himself, friends and priests, a devout Catholic.  Because of that fact his answer surprised me.  Take a listen to it below:

It caught my attention because it is neither Catholic nor any kind of orthodox Christian.  The answer given would fit very well in the New Age, Gnostic or "spiritual but not religious" camps.

To be fair to Stephen, I have not heard a single answer to the Colbert Questionnaire that would fit an orthodox Christian view.  That, in part, was why I was interested to hear him answer.  I thought, even if he included purgatory (a belief held only by Catholics), that it would be refreshing to hear a Christian answer.

Let me assure you this: My point in writing this is not that I was disappointed that Colbert didn't give a better answer.

I write this to remind Christians that to be a Christian is to believe Christian beliefs.  There is more to being a Christian than just ascribing to set of beliefs, but to be Christian is to believe as a Christian.  To find a basic understanding of Christian beliefs we can look to the creeds.

The Nicene Creed states "I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and to life in the world to come."

The Apostles Creed states "I believe in... the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting."

The Athanasian Creed says "At his coming all people will arise bodily and give an accounting of their deeds."

The Westminster Shorter Catechism says this in Question 37 "Q: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death? A: The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, still being united to Christ, do rest in their graves til the resurrection."

The New City Catechism says this in Question 28 "Q: What happens after death to those not united to Christ by faith? A: They will be cast out from the presence of God, into hell, to be justly punished, forever.

And to add a Biblical citation to the creeds as to what happens when specifically the Christian dies "We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord."

My point in reacting to what Stephen Colbert said is not to attack Stephen.  My point is to remind Christians that a MAJOR part of being a Christian is believing the Christian faith that has been handed down to us for 2,000 years.  You aren't a Christian because your parents were.  You aren't a Christian because you go to church.  One of the fundamental parts of being a Christian is actually believing what Christ teaches us through the Bible.

I encourage you to look at the creeds again if you don't regularly recite them in service, and if you do recite them regularly, I would have you really engage your mind with what you are saying.  I ask you to read your Bible and believe it.  I recommend you work through a catechism with yourself and with your family.  I remind you that to be a Christian is to believe what Christians believe.  So, take the time to re-school and remind yourself today.

 

An Address to Greenview's Graduates

 On Friday I was given the honor to speak at the Greenview graduation ceremony.  I want to share my address to the graduates here:

Thank you, Mr. Little for inviting me to speak today. Thank you to superintendent David Hill, principal John Hubbard, Mr. Little, Mrs. Williams, Ms. Hanson, the family and friends, and most of all you graduates: Connor, Kendra, Jackson, AJ, Halle, John, Allie, Malachi, Jaiden, Carly and the family of Danny for letting me have the time to speak to you today.

I'm not a Greenview grad and I'm not a Waverly-Shell Rock graduate, but I'm very glad to be here today at Greenview's commencement.

I've lived in Waverly since 2005 and like many people in town I didn't know much about Greenview not that long ago.  It was through the experiences of a couple of young men that I got to get a better grasp of what Greenview is and what makes it such a special and important institution.

First young man is our foster-son Jamari.

Due to issues outside of his control Jamari was behind schedule with his schooling.  He knew if he stayed on the traditional school path at Waverly-Shell Rock graduation was going to be a long way in the future.  He wasn't sure if he wanted to wait that long to begin his adult life.  Thankfully Principal Weber set up a meeting with us and Jamari and told us about Greenview.  I watched his eyes brighten as he realized he had a path to graduation that wasn't going to take until he was twenty.  Then he and I met with Mr. Little who helped him see how he could attack each subject and go as fast as he could.  Mr. Weber and Mr. Little gave Jamari a vision of how to achieve his goal and he chased it down and graduated far faster that I thought he could.

I was so proud being in this room and watching him graduate.  My wife and I were so pumped to throw him a graduation party to celebrate what he'd done.

The second young man is Danny Kruger.

I enjoyed talking with his mom Jessica and hearing how Greenview had reinvigorated him.  The different style of education had allowed him to set goals and go get them.  He was on track to graduate before he was tragically taken from us and I am so proud to be here to see his family accept his honorary degree today.

So again, I feel honored and privileged to be with you today.  I'm humbled to have been given a chance to address the graduates in this room that chased down one of their goals and got it.

What can I say to you here today?  What do I have to offer you?

Who has had a great impact on you?

Close your eyes and picture them.  Seriously, everyone do this now.  Close your eyes and picture them and silently say thank you to them.  If they're here today go and hug them later when you get the chance.

I'll give you a few seconds to do this.

Maybe it was, but I'm going to guess that the person you pictured wasn't a celebrity, an athlete, a singer, a billionaire, an influencer, a politician or anyone well known outside of this community.

At these types of ceremonies we get told to go and change the world.  To go and become somebody.

I want to issue a call to extraordinary ordinariness.

The older I get the more I see the world is most beautified and enhanced by the extraordinary ordinary people around us.  I find each year that trustworthiness, faithfulness, honesty, kindness, and a strong work ethic are much more wonderful than IQ, vertical leap, online reach and net worth.

In 2015 columnist David Brooks said, "It occurred to me that there are two sets of virtues, the resume virtues and the eulogy virtues.  The resume virtues are the skills you bring to the marketplace.  The eulogy virtues are the ones that are talked about at your funeral... whether you were kind, brave, honest or faithful.  Were you capable of deep love?

We all know that the eulogy virtues are more important than the resume ones, but our culture and educational systems spend more time teaching the skills and strategies you need for career success than the qualities you need to radiate that sort of inner light."

At Greenview you've sharpened your resume virtues, you've studied and developed skills that will help you have career success in whatever it is you want to do to earn a living.  But there is so much more to life than earning a living.

I charge you graduates to develop your eulogy virtues.  I encourage you to think about how you would want people to talk about you at your funeral and then strive to live that way today.  Remember, you write your own eulogy with your actions each day.

I charge you to be the kind of men and women that people will close their eyes and think about when asked who has had an impact on them. I implore you to be the extraordinary ordinary people with that inner light that make our world a better place to live in.  I task you with being the best friends, parents, aunts and uncles, neighbors, siblings, grandparents and citizens.

I charge you with this because I know the world desperately needs it and that you can do it.  You've all had a vision of a goal and you've all chased it down, as evidenced by your presence here today.  I know you can do it because you are a Greenview graduate.