Calvary Lutheran graduates ready to face the ‘wilderness’

The 26 young adults who graduated Saturday morning from Calvary Lutheran High School share a love, Natalie Sommerer told them.

Sommerer, one of the class’ co-valedictorians, said during the graduation ceremony that the class “exemplifies the word ‘love’ — in our love for God, our community, our Calvary family and each other.”

The love, she said, is possible because of the love God demonstrated by sending his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. God’s love makes the Calvary family possible, she added.

Sommerer said the love all the students share is eventually going to spill out into the rest of the world.

“I cannot wait for that,” she said.

In his sermon, Vicar Steve Rosner pointed out that the morning’s three readings emphasized that Jesus Christ is the rock upon which the students’ faith must stand.

In Mathew 16:13-19, Rosner said, Jesus talks about a rock — not some random rock or the rock Rosner brought to the ceremony to make a point — but “a very specific one.”

“Jesus comes full circle today when he tells us that he is the rock of our salvation. And he is the rock upon which our faith is built,” Rosner said. “Jesus says, ‘On this rock, on me, I will build my church.’

“The church is built on the rock of Christ.”

He urged them to stand on the rock.

The graduates will go out into a wilderness, he warned — a wilderness of sin, false gods and false faith — a wilderness of rocks on which many people stand.

“Many will tempt you to replace Christ with other gods,” Rosner said. “Gods of this world. Gods that will lead you into false hopes and false beliefs. Gods of doubt. Gods of self-service and selfish pleasure. Gods that tempt you to lead selfish lifestyles, tempting you to believe that you deserve to have these pleasures in this life.”

Jesus has overcome the devil for the graduates. Rosner passed out stones to the students. On the stones, he had placed stickers to remind them that Christ is the rock on which they must stand.

As the graduates go into the world, they are going to look around and realize it’s a wilderness out there — without God, a wilderness of temptation and parched souls.

“What do you do? You stand on the rock of your salvation,” he said. Twenty-one of the graduates intend to go to college. Four are going directly into the workforce. One is joining the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

Elizabeth Lieb, the other co-valedictorian, said the bright-eyed graduates would set out to change the world. But could they?

“You won’t. Not really. You can’t really change the world,” Lieb said. “You don’t need to, because it’s already done. The world wasn’t changed by you. It was changed for you by Jesus and God’s love.”