Do you remember your graduation? It was likely an exciting yet scary time of moving into the unknown. A wilderness space of promise and perplexation. My 5^th grade child will soon graduate, and they wonder what middle school will be like. Maybe you remember graduating university or grad school and wondering if you’d be able to land a job in the career you studied for. Or perhaps you already had a job lined up when you graduated, but you wondered what it would be like to actually live into that vocation—after all, internships and practicums under mentors only go so far. Perhaps at your graduation, as you faced the edge of the cliff of the wilderness, you wondered, will I fly, or will I fall?

I imagine the disciples felt similar when they gathered one last time on a mountain to be sent out into the world by Jesus (Matthew 28:16-20). At this point, their three-year training with Jesus was complete. The time had come for them to be sent out to make a difference. Yet they are not sent alone. At the end of his commencement speech, Jesus assures them, “And know that I am with you always, even until the end of the world!”

What does it mean for the Spirit of Christ to be with us as we move into the unfamiliar spaces of our own lives? How does the awareness of Christ’s with-ness embolden us for risk taking action as a church? Join us this Sunday as we conclude our series, Lessons from the Wilderness and continue to move forward with one another. See you on FB Live!

-Rev. Paul Ortiz