the great commission - seniors' night vespers 2018

Our liturgy tonight is so all encompassing.  Whoever created this ritual tonight made it sure that he misses nothing.  Our theme is from psalm 136 for his love endures forever.  Our gospel however is from Matthew 28 go therefore and make disciples of all nations.  And our ritual recalls the command of Jesus in Matthew 5 to become salt and light for the world.  This is a preacher’s nightmare and at the same time the congregation’s confusion. Gin-ubos ya gid ang tanan, wala ya gid ginbinlan para sa next year nga graduation.

I would like to presume that this passage in the gospel was chosen by whoever made this rite because of the command go.  Go, lakat, guwa ka na, tapos ka na.  However, the word go in this passage is not a command.  It is a commissioning.  What is the difference?

Commission comes from two words, the words cum and missio.  Missio means to be sent along, to be sent with a purpose. And cum means, with.  It means you are not alone, you are not without provisions, you are not without the facility to accomplish what you are sent for. That is why one is commissioned  - to be sent along with.

When you are commanded to go you are on your own – you can obey or you disobey, you can succeed or you can fail.  You are on your own.  Whether you have the capacity or not does not matter.  The point is you are commanded to go and therefore you must obey.

Tonight, however you are being commissioned and not just simply commanded. Because you have already been equipped, you have been prepared and made ready, you are empowered and have been given whatever is necessary in order for you to accomplish whatever purpose you are sent for.  

The salt and the light in our ritual reminds you that wherever your journey leads you, you have a purpose, a mission greater than yourself.  It means that whatever you do is not just for yourself or for you own good.  As I often say look into your why. Why are you doing what you do?   Is it just for yourself?  Is it just for your family?  Is it also for your country?  Is it also for the church?  Why are you taking up that course, for what is it?  Why did you decide to become a teacher?  Look into the your why and see if your purpose is greater than yourself. Only then can you become salt that gives savor to the world, and light that little by little banish the darkness of life.

And lastly in the gospel of the great commission Jesus promises that “I am always with you even to the end to time.”  You are never alone.  Jesus promises his presence – he will be with you, he will accompany you, he will strengthen and console you from this day until the end of the world.

Tonight, I would like to thank you for allowing me to journey with you.  It was not a smooth ride.  We as a class and myself as an animator and probably as rector have been denied the privilege of a happy ending, when our journey of 8, 6, 5 and 2 years would have been well even if it just ended well.  But it did not.  Life is best viewed from hindsight.  Probably in time we will come to know why.  Your class after all is mysterion meaning something that can only be revealed in God, not by God but in God, that is when we begin to see things through Gods powerful and effective presence in our lives.  Your class is Genesis, you have always been the beginning of something new and the beginning of something new that placed chaos in order is the presence of God hovering over the waters.

His love endures forever, it shall never leave us.