This past Thursday, I had the joy and honor of attending the Stoughton High School graduation….

June is the month for “Dads and Grads.” That’s what the advertisers tell us. We are urged to take them out for a “bloomin’ onion” at Outback Steakhouse on their special day. Buy them an Ionic breeze air purifier from the Sharper Image, a chronograph watch from Gucci, a high-def TV from Best Buy, an XM Satellite radio from Circuit City, an Apple iPod from Target… well, you get the idea. And we comply.

The people who should know tell us that during June, spending on gadgets such as small appliances, video games, sporting goods, and tools increases by a whopping 50%, while sales of flowers drop after hitting a high in May because of Mother’s Day.

And so, in keeping with the time of year, I would like to direct my message this morning to all “dads and grads.” And lest you think that means you can take a little nap for the next 15 minutes, don’t tune out just yet, because each one you falls into one, if not both, of these categories.

Today’s Old Testament lesson features Abraham whose name means “Father of a multitude of nations.” Indeed, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are referred to as the “Abrahamic traditions,” for they all point back to Abraham, who was the first convert to the one God we all worship today.

In the lesson from Genesis, the angel of God appears to Abraham as one of three men who visit his tent by the oaks of Mamre. Hospitable as always, but not yet knowing that one of his visitors is actually the angel of God, Abraham gives them water for refreshment and food to eat. As they sit outside in the cool of the late afternoon, the guests tell Abraham, who is 99 years old, that he will soon be the father of a child.

This is not the first encounter between God and Abraham. When Abraham was a mere 75 years old, God told him to “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” And Abraham and his wife Sarah went out in faith, leaving everything and everyone they knew on the basis of God’s promise alone.

God’s voice was the only map they had, and they learned to answer it and live by it. They learned to recognize the tug of God’s call inside of them when it came, as if God held the end of a delicate thread stitched lightly through their hearts, and they learned to follow its lead without asking – indeed, without even having to know – the where or the what or the why.

Abraham believed God even when he did not know where he was heading, how he was going to get there, or how long the journey would take. Abraham did not know where he was going, but he knew that God would be with him, and that made all the difference.

This theme of being sent out is echoed in this morning’s Gospel passage. We read that Jesus called “his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity. The names of the twelve apostles are these….”

Something happens between these two verses, something important, but it goes by so fast you may not even have noticed it. Let me read it again – Jesus called “his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity. The names of the twelve apostles are these….”

In the first sentence, the twelve are "disciples." Then, suddenly, they're "apostles."

Even if you caught the change, you may not have paid much attention: "disciples," "apostles" -- what's the difference? They're just interchangeable names for the same dozen guys, right? Well, not exactly.

The transition from disciples to apostle is similar to the transition made by new graduates. The past few weeks, the papers have been full of news about graduation ceremonies, celebrity commencement speakers, honorary degree recipients, and pictures of young people tossing caps into the air to celebrate their change in status.

One minute they’re students, still in training, still learning the ropes and the rules. And the next moment, they’re shifting tassels from one side to the other, holding diplomas, and grinning for pictures with proud moms and dads. I saw a lot of that last Thursday!

In a split second, it seems, they’re somebody else, something else. They're no longer "disciples." Do know what the word “disciple” means? It comes from the Latin word to teach. Disciples are students who learn the disciplines of their craft or trade or profession. But upon graduation, these “disciples” become "apostles" -- people being "sent out" into the world to do what they've been "discipled" to do. That is what "apostle" means in Greek: someone who is "sent out."

Leading up to this morning’s passage from Matthew, Jesus has been traveling around, healing, preaching and teaching, and the crowds have been building. More and more people keep coming, with their pain and their need and their troubles. Jesus describes them as "harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." As he looks upon them, he can see the great need -- far more than he alone can reach. And so it is time to add some helpers -- "to send out laborers into the Lord's harvest..."

This passage from Matthew marks the moment when Jesus decides that his twelve closest followers know enough and are formed and shaped and changed enough to be sent out to share his mission and ministry with him. The “disciples” graduate, becoming apostles. But unlike our contemporary graduates, the disciples’ transition to apostlehood doesn’t come after they have accumulated the required number of credit hours and passed the exams and handed in the final papers. It’s more a matter of Jesus deciding that he's taught them about all he can, at least for the moment. And, perhaps more importantly, he knows that the world needs their ministry now.

And so he sends them out with these instructions:
"As you go, proclaim the good news, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons...Do not worry how you are to speak or what you are to say…for it is not you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you" [Matthew 10:7-8a, 19-20].

And off they go, to do work in Christ’s name. Do they do it perfectly? Not at all. The gospels and the book of Acts tell us over and over again of the ways they miss the mark or drop the ball. They can’t understand the parables, they don’t know what he means when Jesus predicts his own death, they sleep through his last agonized hours, and then desert him. And then when he appears to them as the Risen Christ, they barely recognize him.

And yet -- and yet.... Without the twelve, the Gospel would have long ago been forgotten. Because of them, there exists around the world today a Church which witnesses to the Good News of God in Christ. We are here today because the twelve – imperfect as they were -- answered the challenge and call of Jesus; and then, after learning and listening as Jesus’ disciples, they went out as apostles to spread Jesus’ mission and ministry.

They may not have been eager to leave the comfort of that close circle of friends; they may not have been eager to go out into a world where they would need to be as "wise as serpents" and as "innocent as doves." They probably would have been content simply to gather safely around Jesus, shutting out the rest of the world. But Jesus saw that world, grieving and wounded; he knew its suffering and felt it in his own bones, in his own heart. And so he sent out his first apostles to be God’s messengers, to heal the sick, to bring reconciliation and love.

And he sends us out to do the same.

Jesus calls each of us and we answer “yes” at our baptism. Whether it is our parents who take the vows for us when we are young children that we then affirm at confirmation, or it is we ourselves who take the vows as an adult being baptized, we have promised to “further Christ’s mission in all the world.” Jesus calls us as his disciples and sends us out into the world to be his apostles. See, I told each one of you was a “grad”!

As Christians, we are sent – indeed, we are commanded -- to go out to heal, teach, and proclaim the good news. That’s what the church is to be about. The church is to be about movement, it’s not static, it’s not about staying within these walls, it’s not to be a “let-others-come-to-us” kind of spirituality, but rather the church is about going out into the world that God loves so well, to share what has been given to us by God with those who have not yet heard God speaking to them, or felt the touch of God’s love upon their lives.

How do we know this is what the church is to be about? All we have to do is look at Jesus and what he was about; Matthew reminds us once again that Jesus didn’t sit still but traveled about, healing and teaching, and when he saw the hunger and need and confusion of “the crowds,” he felt profound compassion. Jesus both moved and was moved. And we too are to see the need of the world, its hungers and confusion, and like the apostles, we too are called to respond with tender care and compassion. Compassion – did you know the word means “shared suffering” (as an English major in college, I specialized in word origins – you can probably tell.)?

Like the first apostles we might prefer simply to shut out the rest of the world. And like the first apostles, we won't be perfect. We can’t follow Jesus without risking and we can’t risk without failing sometimes. So, yeah, we'll make mistakes, we’ll miss opportunities, go back on our word, perhaps even betray our Lord. But Christ is endlessly forgiving. And he will keep sending us back out into the world, in his name. The first apostles, the fathers and forebears of our faith, turned this world upside down, in the name of God and by the Holy Spirit. And we can too.

And so, go out from this church into the world you live in. Share Christ’s love. Tell of God’s grace. Don't worry about how you'll do it. The Holy Spirit will provide the words and the ways. You need only to open yourselves up to being conduits of God’s abundant and unconditional love and a means for people to connect to Christ.

And so, in this season of “Dads and Grads,” Happy Graduation to each one of you! May God bless you as you go out into the world as apostles in Christ’s name. Amen.

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