Many teenagers around the country are in the process of graduating from high school right about now.  They’ve come to the end of a relatively lengthy process involving, for most of them, some thirteen years of their lives, approximately 117 months, a little over 2,340 days, about 16,300 hours devoted to learning what it means to be human and socially productive. For many of them, it seems like it has taken forever to reach this goal.  And now at long last, graduation day!  They’ve taken their final tests, written their last term papers, and turned in their last homework assignments.  Their teachers have finished with them.  Now what?  What happens now?

    What happens now is, they get their next life assignment.  For some of them, more schooling, yet more advanced instruction is in order.  For others, getting right to the task of vocational enterprise is their road. Either way, they all have a task to do based on what they’ve learned.  What hasn’t happened is they haven’t achieved the summer break that lasts forever.  There remain expectations for them: to use the skills they’ve been given and honed to recreate the world around them, hopefully for the better.

    It’s the same thing with Jesus’ disciples today as it ever was: his twelve-member class of students took their final tests (the crucifixion and resurrection), received their final instruction (at Jesus’ ascension) and graduated (became empowered by the Holy Spirit).  But there was no “eternal summer break” for them either.  Some were encouraged to go on to graduate school by St. Paul while others were commissioned by Jesus to hit the road to begin their vocation.  The point is the same as it is today: graduation—be it from high school or a confirmation service in the church—doesn’t really signal an ending but a new beginning in a lifelong process of learning and doing.  The simple word for that is “discipleship.” Just like we don’t accept our teenage graduates lounging around in lawn chairs for the rest of their lives, Jesus doesn’t accept us just keeping pew cushions warm either.

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning

until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over the course of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This’, he said, ‘is what you have heard from me;

for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’

 

Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,

and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,

and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things.

And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them.

While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.

And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy;

and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

 

I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, and for this reason

I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him,

so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,

and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.

God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,

far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.

And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church,

which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.