It's graduation time again. Colleges and High Schools have been holding ceremonies and handing out diploma's by the gross since May. A Degree, or Diploma says a person has completed something, is prepared for something, and ready to embark on whatever is next. What is next varies, but the moment is meant to be full of hope and expectation.
Christians receive a degree in a sense by being baptized. We are marked and sent forth to do the work God has given us to do: 'What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.' Micah 6:8
We are called to be Christ's ministers, God's envoys, the Holy Spirit's companions in all things we do. During Easter season we weekly rehearsed out baptismal vows. It is up to us to put them into action, to live up to them.
Unlike leaving school, however, we never leave the Church. Commencing means to get on with it, living as Jesus lived, being the people God intends us to be, walking in His holy ways. We are called to do what is honorable and right, and to the acts of kindness and charity that mercy demands. And we are called to keep our perspective that only God is God.
