Graduation seems to be the main order of business this June. With ten high school seniors and a few college grads thrown in for good measure there are a lot of beginnings and endings taking place in our congregation. This senior class has been very special in the life of the congregation. Singing with Holy Ruckus, building homes in Mexico, bringing a vibrant Gospel message with lifesingers and just being there and adding a whole lot to the life of the congregation. We wish all of the graduates the very best and pray that God be with them and bless their new endeavors.

Graduations are just that, an ending and a beginning, school may be out but the rest of your life is just beginning. The new beginning may be college, a job or something else entirely but education is not an end in itself, it is preparation for life. In our senior class we have potential lawyers, doctors, Marines and teachers. There is tremendous potential for life and good at graduation, but none of it will come to fruition without more work and preparation. School is preparation for life, but you still have to live it. High School for a lot of people is just a transfer from one level of preparation to another. Others, however, move directly into the mainstream of life. Take our potential Marine for example. There is more training but it is job specific and quick. Within a few months he may be in harms way depending on that training and the men and women around him to safeguard his very life. Life after high school takes on a whole new level of seriousness and difficulty. And how you prepare, the effort you put into it may mean the difference between life and death. It is serious stuff and how we prepare and what we do makes a difference to a lot of people. Learning and preparation never stop. Every demanding profession requires continuing education to keep us sharp and aware to advances in our particular field. You may graduate but learning is life long.

Preparation is important in our faith life as well. Saint Peter is pretty blunt about it.
Prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. (1 Peter 1:13)

According to Peter Christian discipleship is supposed to be the same kind of preparation for life and action as school. And like school sooner or later the rubber meets the road and it is no longer practice. At that point lives truly do depend on the depth of your preparation. Too often we believe that the purpose of Christian discipleship is totally personal. Nothing could be further from the truth. Like any kind of training or education the purpose is to prepare us to do a job. Law school prepares you to be a lawyer, med school prepares you to be a doctor, boot camp prepares you to be a soldier, just what does Christian discipleship prepare us for?
Paul answers that in Second Corinthians."In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself., Not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."
(Corinthians 5:19-20)
We are preparing to speak for God, as ambassadors to reconcile the world to God. It is important work and it is given to all of us alike and like any other kind of service we might do we need apply ourselves and stay sharp.

Preparation is critical in anything that we do, in our faith or our job. It is important to realize though that preparation is a prelude in to action. Any kind of learning needs to be applied. Jesus was a great teacher and he taught the word of God to his disciples and the people throughout Israel. He too was very clear, true discipleship is a balance between preparation and action. Like he said to his disciples "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it" (Luke 8:21) In life and in faith we truly graduate when we take what we have learned and act on it.

Pastor Jim Bliss
June 2005