Mark’s gospel speaks to Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary graduates

LOUISVILLE — On Saturday during commencement, the Rev. CeCe Armstrong told the 23 graduates of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary they can look at Mark’s gospel as they take on their new roles in ministry — even as they take a minute to beam and say, “Ooh child — we made it!”

Watch the seminary’s 171^st commencement here.

The Co-Moderator of the 226^th General Assembly focused her commencement address, titled “The Plight of the Graduate,” on Mark 8:27-9:1.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to take your seminary experience and let it inform us about this scripture,” she said. “Jesus is a man of action, y’all, and where he is, things happen. Jesus heals, feeds, fasts, and then he heals again and feeds some more. Jesus is working like no other doing all the things, and everyone can see him doing it.”

Seminary students are similarly situated, according to Armstrong. “While you were studying, you were healing your embedded theology. You were feeding the congregations and the people you know this newfound information that you learned — because you learned some stuff. I know you did. You were fasting in hopes that God would show you something new or different about yourselves. You were feeding off the talents and gifts of the great professors here.”

“You were healing your own notion as to how you would be used by God,” she said. “You worked hard during your days here, and I can tell because your smile is bigger.”

“In a sense, you were attempting to show your worth and make sure people know how smart you are, pulling out all the gifts and talents you’ve got to share and showing all just how God is using you to fulfill God’s mission.”

“Isn’t that what Jesus did?” she asked. “Wasn’t Jesus showing everybody and proving to them and others that God had called him and these are the talents he possessed?”

She likened graduation to the moment Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say I am?”

“Like good friends, everyone chimed in with shouts of accolades: ‘Some say you’re John the Baptist. Some say you’re Elijah. Some say you’re like the prophets.’ Don’t we do that in the church or here while in seminary?” she asked. “Just as Peter tells Jesus, ‘You are the Messiah,’ we wait to hear what our closest friends will say about us. I believe Jesus was receiving the same type of affirmation.”

“It’s not like Jesus didn’t know that about himself already,” she said. “But his closest buddies assisted him with this affirmation at his graduation. That’s what all these people are here to do,” she said, spreading her arms wide at those in attendance, “to affirm that you’re doing a good job. Keep doing the work that you’re doing, and don’t let anybody stop you. You are amazing. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. God loves you.”

It’s after Jesus’ “graduation” that he begins his plight, Armstrong said. Look at the language he uses, she suggested. “The text indicates that Jesus begins to teach. Jesus indicates that he must suffer, that he will be rejected, that he will be killed, and after three days, he rises,” she said. “In this teaching moment, Jesus reveals the plight of the graduate.”

As graduates “of this place, you too must teach others on your journey,” she said. “What you learned here should not stay here. … It’s in the Great Commission that Jesus says go, teaching others everything that I have commanded you.”

“Be obedient, students! Tell someone about your studies while you were here in seminary. If you don’t teach the folks how to be in the church, they won’t know how to be church.” That drew applause from those gathered in Caldwell Chapel.

Jesus indicated it was necessary that he suffer, and “I suggest that you are going to suffer as well,” Armstrong told the graduates. “When you leave this place, your hallelujah moments at graduation may be followed by hardships and heartaches. You might not get a church right away. You might not be sent to the place you want to go.”

There are both “new challenges and unwritten rules,” she said. “There are opportunities for advancement and opportunities for embarrassment. I don’t know that there is or will ever be an easy-to-use, reliable resource that offers seminarians the tools and information needed to achieve success during this transition.”

“It’s best you know that now before you go out there and face it for the first time.”

Mark notes Jesus’ declaration that he’ll be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes. “There will be some folks that just don’t like you with your educated self,” Armstrong told the graduates. “You went to seminary and what good are you? Be careful! When you leave here, they aren’t going to like you. They’ll tell you, ‘I’ve been here a long time, sweetie.’ Just to be honest: none of them are going to be interested in your transcript” or “your extensive vocabulary. Those folks who said, ‘I support you, baby’ are the same ones who will now dislike your existence.”

“So, my dear graduates, you’re probably wondering: where’s all the pomp and circumstance in all that? As it stands, it’s not the end of the story. It is the rest of the story that we celebrate today, the part of the story in which all can participate,” Armstrong said. What does Jesus’ rising mean “for all the folks who cannot steal away and study theology like y’all did?”

All kinds of degree possibilities present themselves: an AS degree, “because you’ll be able to acknowledge the scriptures.” A BA degree, “as you learn to believe always in the risen Messiah.” “Or, if you want, you can get your BS degree, since you can boast about our Savior. You can even become a CPA,” she said, a Christian prepared for the adversary.

Additional graduate studies are also available, she said, including the THD awarded for “an encounter and a relationship with Christ” where “we experience thanksgiving, hope and devotion.”

“My graduates, my future colleagues in ministry: teach, prepare to suffer, know that you will be rejected, but do what God has called you to do for such a time as this. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, may it be so,” she said.

Graduates were then awarded their diplomas and recessed together with faculty members to “Be Thou My Vision.”