Almost no one gets an education like this! No expense was spared: every course was taught by the most brilliant teachers; the curriculum was informed by the latest research and scholarship. Anyone this lucky should be ready to do something great. So who am I talking about? Any ideas?

I am actually thinking of a guy in the class of 1200 B.C.E., his name was Moses. This son of slaves was miraculously plucked from the Nile River and raised in the Pharaoh's court. His education was, shall we say, royal. Moses has to flee his privileged place after intervening on behalf of a fellow slave being beaten by an Egyptian taskmaster. Moses is incapable of standing by idly while his neighbor is bleeding. Without thinking of the consequences, without wondering, "should I get involved" Moses intervenes to save his kinsman.

Next in Midian on his flight from Egypt he sees a group of shepherdesses trying to water their flock but a group of shepherds kept driving the women away until Moses sees their predicament and intervenes.

God finds Moses wandering in the desert and from a burning bush calls him to a life of service. Out of that desert tumble weed, God called Moses to lead the Israelites from Egyptian slavery but Moses resists the call. I'm sure there were other Israelites who would have grabbed the opportunity in a minute. The glory, the power, a permanent place in history: Are you kidding, the other Israelites were probably waving their arms saying "me me me," but God wasn't interested. Moses got the call not because he submitted the best resume on the most expensive paper but because of his keen sense of morality. Moses is called to serve, but at first Moses wasn't sure about his calling.

And how about you, class of 2002, are you sure about your calling? Wait just a minute, you might be thinking, "I'm about to attend graduation not ordination." But a calling is not just what those in the ministry have, it is rather the heart of all purposeful life. Just as surely as God called to Moses and Miriam, to Jesus and to Mohamed, to Buddha and to Lao Tze, so too does God call to each member of this class of 2002.

You might know exactly what you will be doing next fall. Maybe you are headed to graduate school, maybe you will enter the job market or maybe you are going to spend some time working on projects like Teach for America or the Peace Corp. None of these is automatically the right or the wrong path-the question is what will you do on your chosen path. That is what I mean by the word calling. It is obvious how Teach for America and Peace Corp are choices born out of conscience and idealism but everything else is not selling out. Our world desperately needs each of you to choose the path of blessing. You needn't renounce all worldly possessions and pursuits to find this path.

Protestant theologian Frederick Buechner defines the call this way: "Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." A calling is not a job or an occupation. It is a vocation. It is not what you do for a living-it is your very life.

A few years back, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. thought he had found his calling as he started his career in the ministry. He was the son of a prominent Black minister in Atlanta, fresh out of seminary with a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Boston University. Reverend King had recently married Corretta Scott and had taken his first pulpit at the age of 26 in Montgomery, Alabama at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Dr. King was just getting into the routine of a busy pastor's life: sermons, counseling, and teaching. In the meantime, the Montgomery bus boycott needed a strong leader so the Reverend Ralph Abernathy approached Martin Luther King to see if he would take a leadership role. A few weeks earlier he had turned down the presidency of the local NAACP. King told Abernathy he was too swamped with work. The movement called to Martin Luther King and at first he answered, "find someone else." They were persistent and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. eventually said yes. Dr. King accepted his great calling and our world is a better place because he did.

Maybe the next Martin Luther King is sitting here in Bailey Hall, but my words are not meant just for him or her. Where ever we find ourselves, on Wall Street or Madison Avenue or even Main Street USA, we are all called to lives of sacred purpose.

Harvard's Robert D. Putnam has been studying how much Americans work on behalf of a greater communal good. In his recent article "Bowling Together," he updates his provocative book Bowling Alone by writing: "The closing decades of the twentieth century found Americans growing ever less connected with one another and with collective life. We voted less, gave less, trusted less, invested less time in public affairs, and engaged less with our friends, our neighbors and even our families. Our "we" shriveled." That is the bad news, but Putnam frames this moment in American history as one of great opportunity: "In the aftermath of September's tragedy, a window of opportunity has opened for a sort of civic renewal that occurs only once or twice a century...Americans who came of age just before and during World War II were enduringly molded by that crisis. All their lives, these Americans have voted more, joined more, given more." Will this class of 2002 go on to become the new "greatest generation?" It is way too early to say.

Twenty-five hundred years ago, Jeremiah warned his generation to stop ignoring their sacred calling:

Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,
and his upper rooms by injustice;
who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing,
and does not give him his wages;
who says, "I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,"
and cuts out windows for it,
paneling it with cedar,
and painting it with vermilion.
Do you think you are a king
because you compete in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
and do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him.
He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
and it was well.
Is not this to know me?
Says the Lord.

(Jeremiah 22:13-17)

Things must have been pretty bad in Jeremiah's day to have inspired his rousing words. But how are we doing? More than 100,000 American children woke up homeless this morning. Every 32 seconds, about the time it took for us say our opening prayer, an American child is born into poverty.

In the world's wealthiest nation, 12.1 million children - one out of every six children - live in poverty. Poor children are more likely to be hungry, live in unsafe or overcrowded housing, go to school tired, enter school behind their peers, and be at greater risk of abuse and neglect.

What would Jeremiah think about the international scene where ten million children still die every year from preventable diseases and 120 million are not in school. UNICEF estimates that 200,000 children from West and Central Africa are sold into slavery each year. According to the London-based Anti-slavery International, the world's oldest human rights organization, there are at least 27 million people living in slavery today.

Class of 2002, all those children are calling to you, they are calling to you to do something. They are saying to you don't forget about us as you face your bright tomorrow. There is nothing inherently wrong or right about going to work in one of the lucrative professions. Certainly there are fewer such positions than there were a few years ago, but landing such a plum job could surely lead a person to forget about his or her calling. There are many ways to help those who are suffering here and all over God's earth. One can give of one's time, or one's expertise or one's money.

But remember that giving is a learned behavior and it is not a required course. Not even here at Cornell. For too many of the recently successful, giving was not a part of their training. Not too long ago The New York Times reported that at an Ivy League party one recent graduate boasted he would own a fleet of personal airplanes by age 30. '' 'I don't just want wealth,' '' the young man said: '' 'I want plane wealth.' ''

A foundation study published two years ago found that among young people making $100,000 or more in the Silicon Valley, a third give away less than $1,000 annually. Would Jeremiah let these uncharitable entrepreneurs who are still using Clearasil off the hook? I have to believe that giving money away has always been counterintuitive. Giving away a part of what is ours has never been easy, but I can't help but feel it's gotten more difficult for many of us.

Recently I read that at Harry Winston, the high-end jewelers in Manhattan, a growing army of millionaires barely out of college are splurging on diamond engagement rings at $125,000 to $1 million each. God bless them that they can afford to shower their beloveds with such lavish gifts. I only pray that they don't think that generosity is defined by what a person is willing to spend on themselves.

There is another way to give very expensive rings. We learn it in the following Chasidic teaching: Reb Shmelke found himself with no money in his pocket to give to a beggar who had knocked on his door. So he went to his wife's drawer, took out a ring and gave it to the man.

When the rabbi's wife came home and discovered that the ring was gone, she began to cry. When Reb Shmelke explained what had happened, she demanded that he run after the pauper, as the ring was worth over fifty rubles. Running desperately, the rabbi managed to catch up with the beggar. He grabbed the man and said: "I've just discovered that the ring I gave you is worth more than fifty rubles. Don't let anyone trick you into accepting less.

Having a calling, isn't just giving a little charity at the end of every year, though it surely includes sharing our good fortune with others but it is also the way we choose to live. Having a calling is about not losing sight of the sacred while we are swamped with our every day lives. Following our calling at work doesn't mean playing softball instead of hardball. Many people in this room are about to play hardball at work each day--that's what you will be paid to do. Answering your higher calling at work doesn't mean losing a competitive edge, it doesn't mean you can never fire a person who isn't performing well, it doesn't mean taking all of the profits and handing them out to the poor. No matter where we work, it is also our job to care for god's less privileged children.

People say: business is business and religion is religion--but that is not the spiritual path. If you want to really know about a person's religion do business with them. You'll find out more about people by the way they conduct their business then by finding out how many times they attend services. The Talmud puts things in perspective: "When a person is brought before the Heavenly court, they first ask, "Were you honest in business"(Shabbat 33b).

A great obstacle to living a life of purpose, a life of compassion and integrity is the frantic pace of most of our lives. Back in 1971 at the Princeton Theological Seminary, two psychologists conducted a very provocative study. They asked a number of seminarians to walk over to another building on campus to give a short talk about their calling to the ministry. They asked another group of seminarians to go across campus to a different building to give a short talk about biblical texts that teach caring for others. To test the calling of these future religious leaders, the psychologists had planted an actor along the way, slumped over, coughing and groaning. They further complicated the experiment by telling some of the students that they were late for their speaking appointment, while others were told they had ample time. From all this they wanted to see exactly what determined whether the students would stop and respond to the man in need.

And what did they find? They found that, contrary to expectation, the content of the speech they were planning to give made no difference at all to the way they responded. What mattered most was whether the students were in a hurry. Of those who were told they were late, only 10% stopped to help, but of those told they were early, 60% stopped to help. In effect, those whose time was overly full didn't feel they had the space in their lives to add in another complication, they didn't feel they could afford to stop and help this stranger in need. Too many of us miss our calling because we are too busy rushing through life.

But remember having a calling isn't just about how we respond to the neediest members of society but also how we make time to care for our families. Class of 2002, most of you are sitting with your proud families this morning, they share in this day and many have sacrificed mightily so that you could reach this joyous day. They are important to you today but how about tomorrow?

"It was grandfather's birthday. He was 79. He got up early, shaved, showered, combined his hair, and put on his Sunday best so he would look nice when they came.

He skipped his daily walk to the cafˇ, where he had coffee with his cronies. He wanted to be home when they came.

He put his porch chair on the sidewalk so he could get a better view of the street when they came to help him celebrate his birthday.

At noon he got tired but decided to forgo his nap so he could be there when they came. Most of the rest of the afternoon he spent near the telephone so he could answer it when they called.

He has five married children, 13 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. One son and daughter live within ten miles of his place. They hadn't visited him for a long time. But today was his birthday and they were sure to come.

At supper time he left the cake untouched so they could cut it and have dessert with him.

After supper he sat on the porch, waiting.

At 8:30 he went to his room to prepare for bed. Before retiring, he left a note on the door, which read, "Be sure to wake me up when you come. It was grandfather's birthday. He was 79."

(Author Unknown)

What do you think his children and grandchildren were so busy doing? Unfortunately, you and I know all too well what they were so busy doing. Our families are also calling to us but so many of us are just too wrapped up in ourselves to hear them. Are we less likely than our grandparents to accept the necessity of familial and social obligations. It's too soon to say.

You have to have a strong sense of self to have made it to this graduation day at this prestigious university. But to truly succeed on the journey ahead you will need much more than a strong sense of self. You will need an encompassing sense of "We." The modern philosopher Emanuel Levinas taught that: "We come into the world already obligated by the mere gaze of the other, a gaze that demands from us a response." Class of 2002, if you open your eyes wide, you will see a world gazing your way. You can look the other way or you can be obligated to respond to the cries for help and concern that reach all the way to this idyllic campus in Ithaca.

Dear graduates, this is a day filled with promise and possibility. You deserve to bask in the accomplishment and triumph of this day, but not for long because each of you is called to leave this place.

Long ago in a place called Ur, a call went out to a man named Abraham.
God called to Abraham saying:

"Lech Lecha-Go Forth!"
"Go forth from your native land and
from your father's house to the land that I will show you."

(Genesis 12:1)

Abraham was being sent on a holy mission to an unknown destination. At first Abraham wasn't sure about his calling. I bet you Moses knew how Abraham felt and so did Martin Luther King.

A traditional Jewish commentator suggests that "Lech Lecha" means: "Go forth to find your authentic self, to learn who you are meant to be." Class of 2002, Lech Lecha-Go forth, find your authentic selves, learn who you are meant to be! And as you journey forth from this time and place know that God, and the world, have high hopes for you. Learning who you are meant to be is the same thing as finding your calling. Remember a calling is not a job or an occupation: It is a vocation. It is not what you do for a living-it is your very life.

Maybe you've found your calling but there is a good chance you haven't. And don't forget Martin Luther King who thought he had found his calling as a pastor of a neighborhood congregation. That was until his generation called him to change America for the better.

There is a voice calling to each member of this class of 2002. Maybe you hear that voice as the voice of God, or maybe you hear the voice of homeless children in New York City calling out to you not to forget them. Maybe your grandfather's voice will reach you as he wonders if you are coming. Or perhaps the voice you hear may be the "still small voice of conscience" heard deep within but no matter how you hear the call the key is not to ignore it.

It is time now to leave this place and go forth. And as you do, let the words of Genesis echo

always in your ear as they did in Abraham's.

"And you shall be a blessing."

No matter where you go and no matter what you do remember:

"And you shall be a blessing."