CAMDEN — In a processional that makes a community smile large with pride, graduating seniors of the Camden Hills Regional High School Class of 2013 marched through town Monday afternoon, June 3, continuing a tradition that marks a week of pageantry, pomp and circumstance.

The annual baccalaureate takes place every June, on the Monday preceding the Friday night graduation, which will take place at Camden Hills Regional High School June 8. As the students march through town — leaving the Camden-Rockport Middle School, walking down Mechanic Street, to Tannery Lane, out onto Main Street and up Elm to the First Congregational Church — Camden police halt traffic along the busy Route 1 and the sidewalks fill with cheering friends, family and stray public who find themselves in the midst of a short, yet heartfelt, community celebration.

Bagpiper Tom Seymour lead the procession with his bagpipes, and the students, in their black gowns and mortarboards, followed behind. With grins and outfitted with every type of footwear, from sandals to heels and sneakers to cowboy boots, they strode toward the church, where they filled the front pews.

The baccalaureate, a tradition originating in the Middle Ages, is a worship service honoring education and learning. For Camden Hills, the tradition has continued for decades, and is multi-denominational, with clergy representing the Chestnut Street Baptist, St. Thomas' Episcopal, First Universalist and Congregational churches, and the Adas Yoshuron Synagogue.

"On behalf of the Camden Clergy Association, it is our pleasure to welcome you to baccalaureate," said First Congregational Church Reverend Kevin Pleas. "I've had experience in a number of communities as a minister and this is the only one that does this for its graduating students. Stopping traffic and allowing our students to make their way through the streets is the way our towns and religious communities honor the graduates."

His words were delivered to a congregation that filled the church, its windows open to the warm June afternoon. After a bell chime, a call to prayer and a response reading that led with a thanks to learning, family, friends, and special teachers, for for talents and for hopes and dreams, the congregation recited together: "For all of the people we have known throughout our school years, for all that we learn in and out of school, for all of those who touch our lives in the future, we give thanks. As we enter a world filled with challenge and diversity, may we be tolerant and accepting of others. For the diversity which makes us one, we praise the Maker of this wonderful universe."

The school's Women's Choir sang "I wish you peace," followed by Hebrew Bible and New Testament readings. The congregation sang "Amazing Grace, and the Chamber Singers sang "Elijah Rock."

Daphne Lehava Stern delivered the following thoughts to the Class of 2013:


"SHIVUY MISHKAL  (n)  balance        (Camden Baccalaureate 2013)   D. Stern

"Life is balance, not just one thing over another.  It is all things in cooperation, working together.

"I work on a hospice team with many disciplines weighing in, solving problems and assisting the dying person to live their life to the fullest.

"It is in that balance of disciplines that we achieve success through pain management, symptom control, psych/social issues, socialization, spiritual and personal care, for the family as well as the patient.

"In our own lives we might try to pay as much attention to our professional, personal, social, and spiritual needs.  If the balance of everything that affects us is there, we are stronger and more able to meet the incredible challenges in front of us.

"Please don’t ignore your less obvious needs and recognize that you are a holistic being, intricate, complex and deserving of careful thought.

"If the balance is there you will have much to give to your family, friends, neighbors and to the world!!

"BE WHO YOU ARE, AND MAY YOU BE BLESSED IN ALL THAT YOU ARE."

And, Reverend Adam Kohlstrom, of the Chestnut Street Baptist Church delivered his words:

"About a month ago I read a news story online that was titled: NH Man Loses Life Savings On Carnival Game

"The story unfolded at a carnival in Manchester, N.H., where this last April, a 30-year-old man by the name of Henry Gribbohm was hoping to win an Xbox Kinect by playing the Tubs of Fun game where contestants toss balls into a tub.

"However, to say that Gribbohm was not very successful would be an understatement. Gribbohm claims he had spent his entire life savings, $2,600, playing that carnival game.

He invested his life savings in the game and all he had to show for it at the end of the day, was a stuffed banana with dreadlocks.

"That is a stupid thing to invest your life savings on.

But graduates, you stand in danger of making just as stupid a decision, because you will find that it is just as easy to invest your whole life and have nothing of real worth to show for it at the end of the day

"It is difficult to know what in this life IS of lasting value versus what will turn out in the end to be just a banana with dreadlocks

"In fact, our country's current economic crisis is in part because of this very difficulty

"A few years ago, an interesting phrase made its way into our vocabulary: TOXIC ASSETS

"LOANS had been considered ASSETS.

"Somebody owed the bank money on their house and it was expected they would pay it back with interest. So that loan was considered an asset to the bank.

"However, when people were unable to pay back these loans and the houses that secured the loans had decreased in value, those loans, once thought ASSETS, actually became LIABILITIES.

"What was once thought valuable was revealed to be worthless.

"Thus the phrase toxic assets entered our vocabulary.

"And friends, I don't know about you, but I don't want to invest my life in toxic assets.

"I don't want to come to the end of my days only to find that I have wasted my life on things that seemed so valuable but in the end all I'm left with is a banana with dreadlocks

"WHAT will YOU invest your life in?

"Jesus asked this same question.

"Jesus was a master at asking questions.

"He asked more than 300 questions recorded in the four gospels.

"And one of those questions, repeated in three of the gospel accounts, cuts right to our heart.

"Jesus asked: What good is it to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul?

"Friends, it is possible to gain this whole world, to be successful in the eyes of many, and yet, at the end of the day still have nothing of real lasting value to show.

"One pastor reframed the sentiment this way: 'Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter!' (Francis Chan)

"Graduates, you, with YOUR education and your potential, now have the ability to go into this world and to be successful.

"but what happens if you are 'successful' only to find that you succeeded at that which does not really matter?

"Hey congratulations, you were successful, you spent your entire life savings and you won an Xbox Kinect.'

"Is THAT success?

"Was THAT worth spending your life savings on?

"What IS worth spending your LIFE for?

"When Jesus asks: What good is it to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul?

"He is issuing us a challenge: don't waste your life.

WHe calls us to challenge all of our assumptions about what is really important

"What IS success?

"What IS of lasting value?

"Society will tell you

- to be successful is to gain the whole world

- to achieve the American Dream

- "He who dies with the most toys wins"

- the power, the wealth, the honor, the pleasure

- THESE are things worth spending your whole life for

But are they?

- Is that success?

- or are these only Toxic Assets?

Years ago, after making the movie Fight Club, Brad Pitt was interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine

"He talked both about the message of that movie and his own discontent with the American Dream.

"Pitt said: The emphasis now is on success and personal gain. I'm sitting in it, and I'm telling you, that's not it. I'm the guy who's got everything. I know. But I'm telling you, once you've got everything, then you're just left with yourself. I've said it before and I'll say it again: it doesn't help you sleep any better, and you don't wake up any better because of it.

"Friends, IF gaining the whole world doesn't help you sleep any better, and you don't wake up any better because of it.

- is it worth spending your life for?

- can it truly be considered success?

Jesus defined success differently from the way the world does

Along with His question about gaining the world, he made this statement: 'If you would come after me, you must deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me.'

When Jesus said, take up your cross - His disciples knew that he was talking about a call to suffer and to die

Society says that success is found in upward mobility: running after power, wealth, honor, pleasure – trying to gain the whole world

- But Jesus says, I'm calling you to follow me in the OPPOSITE direction - instead of gaining the whole world –take up your cross and deny yourself

Die to yourself

Deny your inherent human self-promotion

- deny your selfish ambition

- deny the lust after power, wealth, fame, pleasure – which are always about ME – MY gain, MY honor, MY pleasure - me, me, me

Deny gaining the whole world

- and instead, invest your life fully and willingly in service and in sacrifice to something that matters

- to something that will last

- to something of real and eternal worth

And friends, WHAT is of real and eternal value

- WHAT is worth investing your life in?

- WHAT is worth laying down your life for?

Well, it will not be discovered in a college classroom or a boardroom

- it cannot be found in a textbook or financial report

- it will not be uncovered by personal experiences or public opinion poll

What is of real and eternal value – worth investing our entire lives for – can ONLY be found in the words of the God who created and loves you

Because ONLY the God who made you can tell you WHY you were made

- only the one who created all things can reveal to you WHAT is of true and lasting value

- only the one gave life to all can tell you just HOW that life might be fully lived

So graduates, if you wish to ensure your life is spent on something of real and eternal value

- no matter where your journey takes you

- never lose touch with your faith community

- never stop listening to the wisdom of ancient words ever true

- never stop seeking after the God who created you and loves you

For I believe Jesus meant what He said: don't waste your life selfishly gaining the whole world for yourself

- instead He invites us today: deny yourself, follow me, and find true life

Because graduates: IF you come to the end of your days only to find that you wasted your life investing in toxic assets that looked so valuable but in the end were actually worthless

- or IF you find that that you were successful, but in things that didn't really matter

THEN with those revelations, even the banana with dreadlocks will probably not cheer you up

So graduates. Don't forget the God who created and who loves you. And don't waste your life.