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Commencing

May and June produce a wild array of sounds associated with springtime. Splattering rain on pavements and puddles, crackling lightning, and the incessant sizzling drone of millions of insects (I’m writing this just as the friendly invasion of the 17-year cicadas gets underway, which will only add to the insects’ symphonic world in late spring in the Chicagoland region).

But I can assure you from personal experience that a portion of the music of spring is a lyrical sigh of gratitude (as well as relief) which can be heard over many of the weekends of May and early June. It’s the sounds which you may hear when a student (especially one from your family) graduates from school.

For my family particularly, I’m interested in the commencement exercises in schools of higher education. I was one of those parents who participated in that huge sigh of gratitude. Our oldest, Kurtis, was among the ranks of those commencing as he prepares to teach music and be a band director. As the drums roll, it occurred In the year of our Lord, Sunday, May Thirteen, Two Thousand and Seven (did you hear a collective sigh?).

A week later, within the halls of the congregation I attend, the Rite of Confirmation was underway. I couldn’t help but notice some similarities between confirmation and university commencement exercises. Both ceremonies often take place in May. The grads / confirmands both wear robes. The speeches / sermons and music are addressed directly to the students. The auditoriums / football stadiums / sanctuaries are packed with members of one’s family and extended family. Each student is recognized by name. Those honored often receive some sort of gift from parents and friends (i.e., letters of support and appreciation from the congregation, flowers, a special dinner, etc.).

It should come as no surprise that the two kinds of ceremonies bear similarities. This is how our culture (including our religious culture) formally handles this vital milestone of marking the end of one level of formal education and the beginning of something new.

The pages of Scripture contain many stories of beginnings, endings, and new beginnings: the creation and the end of human history; the movement of Abraham from Ur to a land “flowing with milk and honey”; the new heart prophesized by Jeremiah; the new songs psalmists encourage us to sing; the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. And more.

Paul’s Farewell
Turning to the Book of Acts, Luke includes one story where Paul takes out a bit of time from his passionate push to share the gospel. With some of the flavor of a commencement, he shares a formal goodbye with the elders / over-seers of the Ephesian church. You can read about it in Acts 20:17-38.

It’s a speech. In fact, it’s the only speech which Luke records of an address by Paul to a Christian audience in the whole of Acts.

Through this speech, Luke is telling us that Paul’s ministry is about to undergo a change of course. Up until now, as Paul has established new congregations, he has spent much personal time instructing leaders and new Christians. In fact, he tells the Ephesian elders that he has striven to be comprehensive in his instruction for their sakes. “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God” (20:27, emphasis added).

(The story of the young man Eutychus in Troas who fell asleep and toppled out of a window — all because Paul kept speaking before his audience into the wee hours of the night — only underscores this apostle’s penchant for thoroughness. See 20:7-12.)

So Paul knows that he has done all that he can do, and it’s time to move on. His face has shifted toward Jerusalem, “not knowing what will happen to me there” (20:22), but also realizing that this is what God wants him to do, even though it may mean clashes with authorities and possibly prison time.

Some commentators connect Paul’s words to the elders at Ephesus, as well as the final chapters of Acts, to Paul’s words to Roman Christians near the end of his letter. In Romans 15:22-33 Paul has a vision of taking that same message which he proclaimed and taught at Ephesus and scores of other communities to places which had yet to hear of the good news. He knows it is time to get to Rome (perhaps as a hub for launching new mission enterprises). His thoughts are on initiating an outreach to Spain. He says he wants to proclaim Christ in places where people have not yet heard of Christ’s good news. He wasn’t interested in building on others’ work (15:20-21).

But the route to Rome and, eventually, Spain, still must go through Jerusalem. The Christians in Macedonia and Achaia raised money for the impoverished church in Jerusalem and Paul was the courier (15:26-29).

Turning back to Acts, Paul eventually does make it to Rome, though not as a freeman. Nevertheless, even under house arrest, his teaching and preaching continues.

The Acts text underscores the fact that Paul is not the only one facing a new beginning. The Ephesian elders are as well. Their apostle is leaving and will never come their way again. They too are facing a new beginning of ministry, this time without Paul. Paul is convinced that they have everything which they need, so he says (as paraphrased), “Now it’s up to you” (The Message: The New Testament in Contemporary English, Eugene H. Peterson [NavPress: Colorado Springs, CO, 1993], p. 284).

William A. Decker is editor of Lutheran Partners magazine, Chicago, Illinois.