What’s a Baccalaureate?

By Neil Earle

A Baccalaureate is a religious address given to an academic assembly with a spiritually-related theme. It is not the same as commencement speech but is closely related.

On May 18 this year I was invited by the Glendora Ministerial Association to deliver the Baccalaureate address at Glendora High School and a fine event it was.

My wife, Susan, and I were among about 500 guests, parents, band members, orchestra players and school choirs gathered at Glendora High School’s Event Center in the eastern part of the city. Ironically it was not far from where our local congregation met for 29 years at Glendora Masonic Hall.

Glendora High School is a fairly sprawling campus with a student enrollment of about 2400 and is a three-time Distinguished California School winner. At least one of our church teens, Nicholas Brewster, attends there.

A Proud Tradition

Glendora seems to take pride on the Scottish background of many of the city’s founders and the May 19 activities began with a full-fledged Scottish pipe band marching in after the school orchestra had nicely warmed us up with a Prelude. The pipers were quite authentic in their costumes and the smart procession into the main building. We sang a hymn, “Be Thou My Vision” and heard the Riyal Stewart Singers and then greeted by the school’s principal, Mr. Paul Lopez who was very warm and welcoming and calm throughout, bespeaking, I thought, a school under good order.

In fact from my prelim visit I was impressed with the efficiency and the friendliness of all the staff people.

Bible Readings

There were two student addresses given and two scripture readings. The student speakers were very popular with the youthful audience and when I rose to speak on “Time and Chance” I reflected humorously on how I could never top Shady (shad-i) Silliman and Heather Turner.

Amanda Collett read the 2 Timothy 2:2-7 text for me which speaks about the soldier, the famer and the athlete and how they have to work hard and sacrifice incessantly to achieve their goals. Especially the athlete, I said, which comes from the Greek word St. Paul used there “athleo”, meaning to contend in the games.

Time and Chance

I spoke on Ecclesiastes 9:11 which allowed me to introduce the theme of athletics into the official address.

“Sports,” I told the audience. “often functions as a source of living parables in our and to our culture. They make things stand out on the Jumbotron of the popular culture.” I mentioned the recently retired Mariano Rivera (pictured, above left) formerly of the New York Yankees being reported on now after his retirement as a very devout Christian.

But the text I had asked Daniel Weber to read said that “the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle always to the strong, but Time and Chance happens to all.”

“It’s those things that come at you from left field, that’s the stuff that can really throw you off in life. So be ready for them. Success isn’t a straight line objective towards your goal. There are detours and setbacks because of the way life is, the sheer cussedness that gets in the way of our striving.”

Since the Stanley Cup playoffs were raging I mentioned the greatest ever LA King, Wayne Gretzky (pictured, right), and how he had been traded some 4-5 times. “That always makes me think,” I told the audiences, “If such things can happen the Great One we can be sure things such as time and chance will try to deflect us as well.”

America on His Knuckles

I then cited the example of my good friend and Olympic coach Harry Sneider (pictured, left) who had just died that week. Harry had been told his leg must be amputated back in Germany about 1948 when his family was trying to escape Latvia and head for “the wonderful Americans.” But his mother prayed and he was able to function even though he had a battle with osteomylitis all his life. “He could only jump three inches so he decided to become a weight lifter. When his family finally made it to the United States Harry became a champion weight lifter pumping 451 pounds at age 63 in the Pasadena Senior Olympics.”

Along the way Coach Sneider trained 20 Olympians in 9 events at the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles. But one of Harry's proudest accomplishments was helping train the great Bob Wieland for his 3 years and eight month walk across America on his knuckles.

Bob Wieland (pictured, right) had been a medic in Vietnam. While carrying a fellow soldier to safety he stepped on a land mine and had both legs blown off. He was left for dead, only the hand twitching in his body bag convinced a medic he was still alive. Bob trained with weights vociferously till he could lift a record 303 pounds for his division and ended up helping with endurance training for the Green Bay Packers.

When Harry met Bob they devised a way to train Bob in another challenge. Across America on his bare hands. Wow! When President Reagan presented Bob with a well-deserved certificate in the oval office, apparently President broke down and cried like baby when he saw what Bob had done.

Why Not Us?

Time and chance. Broken leg at age 7. Being traded. Having your legs blown off. These things that come in from left field must not stop us on our goal to whatever it is we have determined will represent success. The race may not always go to the swift but if we turn that principle around then maybe it will go to the strivers, the more determined but maybe unlikely successes such as us. Then we can success in spite of what comes at us from left field.

The students seemed to get it. The applause was generous and the principal and his staff gathered appreciatively around me and my fellow-pastors, Karen and Doug, at the end. All in all, a very memorable day.

And that’s a Baccalaureate.