John 20:19-31
Sent
April 15, 2012 James
Sledge
I’ve long been a Doonesbury fan, and I recall a Sunday
comic from many years ago marking college graduation. It took place at Walden College and featured
Zonker, that perpetual slacker. In this
strip Zonker stumbles across an unnamed student leaning against a wall with a
forlorn look on his face. Zonker asks
what the problem is, and the student offers how he can’t understand what
happened. “It must have been some sort
of scheduling mix up, some confusion about my hours,” he says. “You don’t mean…” Zonker begins, only to be
interrupted as the student says, “Yes, I’m afraid it’s true. I graduated.”
Most of us have known a few professional
students. Some of us may even have been
one. For such folks there is always
another major, another degree, more grad school. With true professional students, they are
never quite ready to go out into the world.
There is always a bit more preparation to do.
On my first Sunday as pastor here
at Falls Church, we are celebrating what sometimes has the feel of a
graduation. Members of the confirmation
class will publicly profess their faith, responding to God’s love that claimed
them in baptism. I suppose it is okay to
think of this as a kind of graduation, at least in the sense that they now move
on to something new, to a deeper calling, to a fuller life of
discipleship. But in practice,
confirmation has often served as a kind of graduation from church.