On behalf of the Covenant-Point Lakeside Cooperative Parish, and Senior Pastor Tony Love, let me say we are so proud of you both and your accomplishments today. Our congregation has prayed for and supported you and this Troop, and we have been the grateful recipients of your Eagle Scout projects. I am excited that I get to play this particular role in this ceremony, that I get to charge you before you take your oath. I was thinking about this, and I thought it was strange that a non-eagle scout, indeed a non-scout would be asked to do this, to remind you of your obligations to God as you move forward. I’m in the theology business, so I can do some God-talk, but I am not a Scout. I have earned none of your badges and if asked, could probably not do one part of any of them. I tie a terrible knot….Except maybe God and Family, I think I could take that badge. And yet, I am asked to speak to you.
And then I realized, it sort of makes sense that a non-Scout would take this slot. Because when you are an Eagle Scout, you are accountable not just to Baden Powell and the Scouts, and the people who know the secret handshake, but you are also accountable to us non-Eagle Scouters. Who don’t know your inside jokes or the Scout Law. We are the people who will be your neighbors, friends and co-workers. We will be your employers and employees. I personally aspire to someday be a little old lady you will help across the street. You will date our daughters, your children will learn from you what it means to be a man and will grow up to carry on your legacy for good and for ill. There is a lot riding on this, and not just for the people in uniform today.
Jesus said, “To whom much is given, much is expected.” And we expect a lot from you, who have gotten this far in part because of the sacrifices of so many others. We expect you to do the right thing. We expect you to tell us the truth. We expect you to confess you’re wrong and when you hurt someone, to make it right. Jesus also said that whenever you serve those who are the “least of these” you are in fact serving Jesus. You are in fact serving God, when you visit the prisoner, feed the hungry, clothe the naked or visit the sick. So the question I have, as a pastor of the UMC and as a non-scout, looking at you who would be Eagles… My question is not how high you can soar but how low are you willing to swoop to serve others? Do you know how to be humble? Can you demonstrate your love of God by taking the lowest place, by washing feet, as our Lord has done? Can you love one another as God has loved you? Can you love the stranger and the even enemy? Yes, are you enough of an Eagle Scout even to do that? Can you love God with your whole heart mind and strength and the neighbor as yourself, even when the neighbor doesn’t look like you or talk like you and you don’t even think you like them very much?
Part of your promise you have made for years is to serve God and country. Even that badge I think I could earn today was God and family. And what I would point out is, God comes first. It is not Country and God or even Family and God. God must come first.
I would submit to you that what we, the non-scouts, value in you is not just that you keep promises or that you are loyal. It is possible to be loyal to a bad plan or to keep a promise to do something immoral. It’s not just that you are good leaders. It’s possible to be a great leader of a bad mission. What we value in you is that you are able to prayerfully and carefully make right choices, make promises to the right things and be loyal to the right things. We hope that you know how to make good moral judgments and we hope that you know how to be transparent when you fail. Yes, my dear elite Eagle Scouts, you must know how to fail well. And when you make mistakes and fail, we value that you are able to confess, repent and begin again.
Lastly, with all due respect to Baden-Powell, I would remind you that sometimes your duty to God and the fact that God must come first might get you into hot water with those in authority. I hope, Eagle Scouts, you will make us proud in that hour. It could be that you are called to civil disobedience. Sometimes being a good “citizen” means you land in a Birmingham Jail, like MLK did. He wasn’t a Scout, he was a preacher like me…but he knew in the end where his loyalties belonged and what it meant to serve God and his country.
Today is about celebration, but my task is to charge you, to remind you that being an Eagle Scout means you are accountable: to the scouting community, to us non-scouts, and of course, ultimately accountable to our unruly, loving, merciful, notoriously unmanageable God. This God can do some amazing things for God’s kingdom with folks with your training. I hope you are willing to serve God, and to serve God well.
As a representative of Covenant Point-Lakeside Cooperative Parish, I pray God’s blessing upon you and I remind you that the Church stands with you, to be a place where you can always find a reminder of who you are, whom you belong to, and what you were made for.
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