Senior Pastor
Trinity Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, Ga.
Presbyterian College’s Class of 2024 was encouraged with words from a pop song written before they were born – and uplifted by words that are eternal.
In her 2024 Baccalaureate address, the Rev. Rebekah Close LeMon, senior pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, Ga., opened with a few verses from Bobby McFerrin’s 1988 hit song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”
“I know we do not follow the gospel of Bobby McFerrin, although that happy-go-lucky spirit from 1988 seems lovely in the world at this moment,” LeMon said. “But I hope that singing that brilliant lyric and that catchy tune together will help us remember the gospel we do follow.”
In the two lessons from the Bible that were read during the service – Psalm 1:1-4 and Luke 12:22-34 – LeMon said there is one ancient prayer on what leads to happiness and an old lesson on worry that Jesus taught his followers.
“Class of 2024, it’s not lost on anyone in this room that you have persevered through some of the most worrying times of recent memory,” she said. “Your high school graduations were disrupted with it. You had to share some major life moments with safe separation and across distance. You were the first class that had to navigate college in the Zoom-o-sphere.
“You became adults as the world seethed with racial injustice and violence, as pandemic became not just a spelling bee word, but an era. You’ve seen some of our most trusted national institutions tested. You’ve lived through years when worry spread its wings and enfolded most of the world, and you are a class that will go into your next chapter with technology changing at a dizzying speed.”
LeMon said author and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation addresses the impact technology has on mental health and social connections.
“Not too many years ago, we talked on phones attached to walls by springy twisted cords,” LeMon said. “Do you all have any idea what I’m talking about? You can Google this and see an image. Fast forward just a few years and we are dependent on technology for the basics of life.
And even the smallest children have in their backpacks the spectrum of the world’s communications and information. Haidt writes about what that does to us, to our brains and our bodies and our hearts. It means that sometimes people who used to look to each other for guidance and relationship and accountability can now avoid all that messiness if we want to.”
But LeMon said the Class of 2024 and its peers can be a bridge to something more hopeful.
“You are graduating into that world,” she said. “You are not those little kids whose brains are being rewired by ubiquitous technology and you are not your parents and grandparents who probably ask your help with how to change the settings on their phone and download an app. You know how to use all that technology but you have also experienced the power of community in an isolating time.”
Today’s college graduates have learned to be resilient, LeMon said. They are equipped to lift up human relationships and love in defiance of everyone and everything that tells them they are no longer needed.
“You all chose to come here,” she said. “You chose a college whose motto is ‘While We Live, We Serve.’ That is counter-cultural and powerful. That is not the world’s default anymore. You all are walking headlong into the face of a worried world but you have everything you need to model relationship where the trend is isolation, resilience where the norm is fear, connection where the default is technology, and love where the messaging we get is all division, all the time. You all are going to show the world true happiness when everything tells us to worry.”
But worry is nothing new to the world, LeMon said. In the passage from Luke, Jesus talks to his disciples about being worried.
“These were people who were so moved by a message of love that they risked everything to follow Jesus,” she said. “They left their job, they left their families, to follow a Lord who was counter-cultural. Everything Jesus taught flew in the face of the culture and authorities of his time.
“He wanted to welcome people others kept out. He wanted to break down systems that oppressed. He wanted to replace hate and violence with justice and peace and the disciples were willing to take on that life but still they were worried.”
Christ’s followers wondered if they were equipped to be his disciples – sharing the same concerns as his followers today.
“How could they follow that gospel?” LeMon asked. “Would they have enough? And the big question in an uncertain world is, would they be okay? As a parent of teenagers myself, not too far from the town where you are now, I wonder this same thing. In an uncertain, fast-changing world, will brave, young disciples, smart and resilient and persistent kids be okay? Our Lord says, yes. God sees you. God knows you. You might be worried sometimes and the world is worrisome for sure but God will care for you.”
Jesus told his disciples to consider the creatures he cares and provides for – the birds and flowers that are fed and nurtured.
“Think about the ravens and the lilies or pick the bird and flower of your choice,” LeMon said. “They have no college degrees. They have no earning potential whatsoever and the Lord cares for them and feeds them and protects them.
“Your worry is understandable, says our Lord. But in the face of worry, remember the assurance that God has you. God will provide what you need so you don’t have to waste your good and valuable energy on worry. Jesus said, can any of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? If then you’re not able to do so, the small thing is that.”
Or, as McFerrin sung, “In every life, we have some trouble. But when you worry, you make it double.”
For people of faith, not worrying does not mean the world’s troubles are forgotten. Instead, it means remembering that God provides and not living in fear. In God’s eyes, being happy means acknowledging God’s love and sharing it with others.
“Trusting that we’re loved lets us stop spending our time on worry so we can serve,” LeMon said. “That, my friends, is the definition of happiness.”
LeMon said Psalm 1 reminds people of faith that happiness is for those who do not follow the wicked or “sit in the seat of scoffers.”
“You notice that not one of those verses mentions how somebody feels,” she said. “They are all about what we do. We show mercy. We make peace. We don’t fall into the temptation of our culture of scoffing and contempt. This word ‘happy’ could also be translated as blessed, or content, or even righteous. So happy is not a passing feeling, it’s a contented life that comes from loving others.”
LeMon said the psalm uses the image of a tree that is always fed because it is planted right next to the water. In an uncertain world, she added, that is how to be happy.
“As you all go into your new chapter Class of 2024, may you be rooted in God’s instruction, in God’s holy word,” she said. “May you stay planted in it so you are guided and fed. May you withstand the voices of scoffers, the technology that isolates, the messages that tell you you have to do anything alone. When the worrisome world enfolds you, may you be refreshed by the reminder of God’s love.”
As part of PC’s Baccalaureate service tradition, the college and First Presbyterian Church of Clinton co-presents the annual Martha Ann Green Service to Church and College Award in memory of the late alumna and staff member known and treasured for her service to PC and the church.
Danny Cook ’79 of Clinton recently retired after 42 years of service in the banking industry and is a longtime member of First Presbyterian, where he serves as a deacon, ruling elder, treasurer, and youth advisor. A member of Clinton City Council, Cook will continue to serve as director of the Garnet and Blue Collective and as an adjunct professor in the Economics and Business Administration Department.
Cook and his wife, Hunt ’78, are the parents of four adult sons and have eight grandchildren.
