Commencement
The book of Acts begins by saying that Jesus presented himself alive to his disciples multiple times throughout the forty days following his resurrection, “speaking to them about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). This is what he had been doing for thee years prior to his crucifixion as well. The Gospel writers summarized his teaching with this one sentence, “the kingdom of God is at hand,” and nearly every parable began, “the kingdom of heaven is like.” Only in Acts chapter 1 the training was over and Jesus was about to ascend into heaven in a ceremony we call “The Ascension.” He had a parting address for them, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit didn’t need to give them any new information, they had Jesus’ words, but Jesus did promise that the Holy Spirit would remind them of his words. As Jesus said, he will “bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). He also gave them boldness to commence this expansive new mission.
Commencement, it is a word that we use to describe many ceremonies this time of year, graduation ceremonies. These are rights of passage for students who have ended their educational degrees. Every student at graduation is focused on what they have just completed and every commencement speaker is attempting to shift their focus to what they are just beginning.
What Jesus asked his disciples to commence was totally new. They were to begin crossing boundaries that Jesus had never asked them to cross in ministry before. Earlier in the Gospels he had told them, “Go nowhere among the gentles . . . rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mathew 10:6). Jesus had often taken them across the boarder into Samaria, to Tyre and Sidon, to the Decapolis, and to more places like these in gentile territory, but the disciples had never ventured there on their own for Jesus sake. Now Jesus was leaving and he was sending them to welcome all people, of every race, of every ethnicity, of every nation, to “recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven”
(Matthew 8:11).
We know it well, “God so loved the world, that he sent his only son” (John 3:16). We know it well but have we commenced the kind of boarder crossing, barrier dismantling, welcoming ministry of hospitality that Jesus sent us on the moment he left? Or are we still waiting for some kind of graduation to take place first?
This graduation season, Jesus will be our commencement speaker, to remind us that our graduation has already taken place. He has ascended. His Spirit has come. It is time for us to commence, that is to get started, with his mission that reaches to the ends of the earth. It is also time for us to welcome those from the ends of the earth as they come here, move here, immigrate here, even take up residence right next door. That can be as simple as taking a walk out to the garden behind Holy Cross to visit with our gardeners and learn a little something about gardening from them, and perhaps sowing some gospel seeds while you are at it.
In Jesus,
Pastor Mike
For the last four years Holy Cross has sent five hundred dollars of mission money each year to support a college student in Rwanda named Emmanuel through a Christian leadership organization called These Numbers Have Faces, www.thesenumbers.org. Emmanuel just graduated this Spring. Congratulations Emmanuel, we are excited about what this commencement means for your life in Christ!