14th Sunday after Pentecost (Matthew 20:1-16)  9/18/2011

Welcome back from summer. You might say to yourself that I am a week late, as last week was Welcome Back Sunday, but this week is the start of Sunday School and our Sunday morning forums – so the school bell rings for the first time this week and I hope that you will join us as we learn and grow together each week. The start of the school year reminds me of the importance that the school year seems to have on each of us, even if we are no longer full-time students we are all affected in some way or have vivid memories of our school days.

A vivid school memory of mine is my first day of Navy Nuclear Power School. On that first day, after being welcomed and filling out some paperwork, everyone was provided with a test that we were assured had no meaning and no impact on our academic records…although the rumor was that the test determined where each person was to be seated in the classroom, with the smart folks in the back of the room and the low-scoring students sitting in the front. As we received our seat assignments the next day I think the rumors might have been true, as I saw many of the smartest kids in the class sitting behind me as I looked out from my second row seat. The opening week of school was a sign of things to come, as my front-of-the-room friends and I studied for many, many hours during the next several months while my back-of-the-room classmates had more leisure time on their hands. By the end of the program we were ranked according to our grade averages and one’s rank order determined the selection order in which you could pick your next school location: either Idaho, NY or CT. As a young man engaged to a woman living in CT, I was filled with nervous anxiety as I waited for my turn. I might have even grumbled as I watched my classmates who did not study as hard as I did select their locations before me. I remember thinking, “I studied as hard as I possibly could for 6 months; shouldn’t that count for something?” Continue reading →