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Good morning. Yesterday was judgment day for teenagers. The GCSE results came out and now everyone knows how they did, and so do their parents and teachers. GCSEs are the first truly public test of young potential. It’s the first time young people sit exams as numbers and not names, the first time they are marked and graded by people they will never meet, who don’t know their individual quirks and don’t already have a view of how good or bad they are at things. Today of course some will be mightily relieved; others, disappointed. Testing is a fact of life. As adults we are always applying for things, whether it is credit or a job or a competition. Working life involves learning all the time, with the inevitable checks, appraisals and reviews. So these public exams are a real rite of passage. They attempt to measure aptitude - innate ability - but also learned skills, how far we are able to improve the talents we have. In a subtle way they also prise out our motivation and stickability – and so give an indication of character. There are two concepts derived from the Bible that I find helpful here. The first is that of vocation, or calling. What do I learn from my results about my particular gifts? Because it is by exercising those gifts that I am most likely to ne happy. To pursue what you are good at, to do what you love, is like responding to call, whether you see it as call from within yourself or a call from God. But the results are not just about me. The exam tests what I might mean for other people too. The Biblical idea that illuminates all this is that of society as a kind of living organism. St Paul compared the Christian Church to a human Body – an idea he developed from Greek philosophy. All the different limbs and parts need to work together to enable the whole to function. Everyone has a role. So the exam results can begin to indicate to me what I can offer to help society flourish. Yesterday was a door opening onto adulthood. The classes, the revision, the anticipation, the response to the results are all part of the test and in that sense the final grade is not the final grade. A website designed for those who got their results yesterday encourages even those who have done disastrously not to give up; at least they tried, at least they know what they can’t do well, which is the first step to discovering what they can. My school refused to let me take what was then O level Maths because it was thought I would disgrace the institution – and I suppose that was a clear enough indication that I should not go for a career in accountancy. I didn’t. Whatever the results the final meaning should be that everyone matters.