Baccalaureate Sermon

May 2008

Pastor Scott Maxwell-Doherty


Making disciples is no small task.

As much as we would like to think it was an easy task for Jesus, it was not. He spent the better part of three years trying to shape and mold a set of hand picked individuals into people that would share the love of God with others and through them the world. It cost Jesus his life to make this a reality.

The business of making disciples is no easy task.

Making disciples is about the business of establishing a relationship and then being so captured by that relationship that you want to tell the world.

It is at the heart of what we do here at CLU.

This diverse scholarly community, dedicated to excellence, rooted in the Lutheran tradition of Christian faith, is a University that encourages critical inquiry into matters of faith and reason, equally so, whose mission it is to educate leaders .

Not just any leaders, but leaders who will serve a global society.

This is a University whose stated mission it is to produce persons who are strong in character and judgment, confident in their identity and call from God, committed to service and justice.

No doubt you'll hear the mission statement of this University repeated several times today. It will be nicely said, but honestly, what does it mean? It is a worthy question.

I think it means that we have been called by God to wonder, and not aimlessly so, but rather spiritually, purposefully, intelligently, ethically, and passionately.

And the outcome?

After two, three, four, maybe even 5 years of being here at CLU, the basic outcome hoped for...is that you would be transformed, changed.

Your studies at CLU ought to have challenged you down to your very core. Your presuppositions upended. Your values microscopically reviewed. Your faith deepened, questioned, and furthered, beyond any denominational allegiance. Your time here is intended to alter your future.

It is what we do as a University called by God as we search for truth.

Called by God in searching for truth means that you didn't take business classes from Chuck Maxey, Kapp Johnson, Jamshid Damooie where you were taught to behave unethical.

Julia Fogg, Jarvis Streeter, Guy Erwin, and Michael Brint, did not allow you to construct a half-baked premise, elaborate on it, and turn it in for a passing grade.

Jonathan Cordero did not teach you that multi-tasking in class was appropriate, not there, not anywhere. In his classes it was all about focusing your time and engaging in the moment.

Sitting in on Paul Hanson's classes regarding the influence of the Musilm world view makes one realize how much we have in common with others of different faiths, regardless of your political perspective.

You cannot take classes from Kecia Davis and Michaela Reeves without sitting down, buckling up under extreme expectations, where you receive information fast and furious as if someone turned on a four inch hose.

You see, these are thoughtful faculty; passionate people; intense people; people with a sacred calling, who are called to this University to move you into the endless imagination of God and become disciples with the highest principles, honored values, whose perspectives are filled to overflowing with deep integrity.

They do not take their roles lightly, trusting you to do no less.

Making disciples is not an easy task; it is about the business of establishing a relationship and then being so captured by that relationship that you want to tell the world about what you have experienced, struggled through, and learned.

Today we are surrounded by disciple makers.

In one way making disciples is about listening.

Parents you have listened, Christ like, to your sons and daughters as they have shared hopes and dreams, relationships found and lost, and their stories of quirky roommates who pile laundry knee deep...who sort it biblically, clean and unclean; or non-biblically, "yes, this smells clean enough to wear it to the cafe."

You — who have endured traumatic moments in your child's lives and are thanking God that this day has arrived because somewhere deep in the silent places of your heart you harbored a fear that this day might never come and somehow God has graced your student with the perseverance to make it to this point.

Parents you have listened with the grace of God, and in so doing, have done your part in making disciples.

Making disciples is also the desire and responsibility of Faculty and Staff. These are the people who have worked with you graduates in class, with a Spirit filled grace as they have read and re-read your papers searching for the point you thought you were making, and then have spent a considerable amount of time helping you re-articulate your thoughts.

This Faculty and Staff have listened long to your pains and woes, lame excuses and delights, to your frustrations and forgetfulness, and within all of that carry a deep sense of satisfaction that you are becoming what God is continually creating.

This Faculty and Staff have done their part in making disciples walking alongside of you — shepherd like-raising up global leaders, thoughtfully informed.

Finally, Graduates, this is your day — the day where there will be great "name calling," for today you will be called "graduate" and tomorrow the alumni and development offices will call you "donor."

Graduates, it is your turn.

Your turn to shape a righteous answer to the question of global conflict and why is it that we still learn war and cannot practice enough peace?

It is time for you to discover and act on a plan where the hungry will no longer yearn to be fed, the wounded will no longer ache for quality health care, and where divisions and tensions around race and gender will be swiftly and permanently erased.

It is your turn to acknowledge that regardless of the major printed on your diploma, regardless of what MasterCard tells you, this kind of education centered in the heart of God is priceless.

It is your turn, disciple like to lead us, so lead.

Lead us as you hear the clear and unrelenting call of God, lead us, disciple like, into the unfolding future that is God's.

Where God calls out to you saying...

Work for peace, act justly, walk humbly, serve those in need, love God, and love yourself, be the courage others are seeking, put evil in its place, be the image of Christ.

Go with God's grace and be at peace in the presence of God.

Amen

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