2008 Graduate Address
"Marking the New Beginning"

Presented by Mary Kategile
2008 Master of Arts in Theological Studies Degree Recipient

Today we are MARKING THE NEW BEGINNING.

My fellow senior class and I wish to thank God almighty who has brought us this far. Some of us it has taken us two, three, five or more years in our studies, but by God’s providence here we are graduating together. Praise be to God almighty. Amen!!!

I would like to express my gratitude to the leadership of this institution, to our dear Professors for their tremendous work they have done.  To the members of staff for their care and love, to our fellow students, and each and everyone who is here today and those who are not here, for your support and encouragement during our studies.

When we started our studies some of us had different experiences due to our unusual circumstances, I remember my coming here was like leaping to the unknown, as my one of my friends said the other day, “it was like jumping off the cliff”, so often I doubted my call, and asked myself why in the world did I come here! Oh Lord is this your call? And other questions in that line. Somehow this day seemed to be far away, I never thought it will come. I even thought that our Lord Jesus will return and find me still studying. But the grace of God continued to cover our paths and we came to experience the presence of God throughout our studies up to this day.

Today we are marking the new beginning, for those of us who are graduating we are looking forward to have new places to live; to have a new position; to have a whole house for yourself; to finally get a real job; to be able put our creativity into action; to put into practice what we have been leaning all these years. In other words we are moving from theory to practical, from dreams to reality.

It is a new beginning to those who will remain here as well, because soon it is going to be a new semester, some new students, new plans and new challenges in each ones ministry, according to your call. Not only those in seminary but also to all others who are present today, because you know where you are in your spiritual journey. It is going to be a new beginning as you reflect on what God has called you serve in your life and when you reflect on the presence of God and when you decide to rededicate to God be an instrument of God’s mission then it becomes a new beginning.

Moses marked the new beginning when he was called by God to go and liberate the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. Their liberation was impossible from human point of view. When Moses was called he was called by his name and he responded “Here I am,” that means he was open to hear and obey God. When Moses saw the burning bush God told him to take off his shoes because the place was holy. It was a holy ground because of the presence of God. Taking off his sandals was a sign on humility and a sign of reverence.

God called Moses with two special reasons, one; God had heard the cry of the people of Israel and was concerned with their suffering and pain. The second reason is that God announced the decision to bring deliverance to those people. It was the special intervention of the Most High God on the suffering of humanity. Therefore, God called Moses to be an instrument in that divine intervention on humanity.

Each one of us has a call from God to a particular vocation, learning from the call of Moses we realize that God does not call perfect people, because Moses could not speak or do everything by himself that is why he had helpers Miriam and Aaron. That is none of us can say I can work alone or I am not fit to be an instrument in God’s intervention. That calls us to work in solidarity with others.

As we step out of here today we are going to step on the holy ground, I call it holy ground because, our human intellect will be challenged, our faith will be challenged and our knowledge will be challenged. We are stepping out where the whole Church International is being challenged by what is happening day by day. One of the challenges According to Tom W. Sine, is a hunger for spirituality. But frankly, there is little interest in what most of our evangelical churches are offering.” Another challenge that I see is our youth, It seems that they are not interested by what is going on in our churches. Probably it has something to do with what we hold as our values, our youth seem to embrace well the culture of consumerism and individualism. That brings a question what is the future of the church? In that challenge as I see it we need to have new mission strategies, this involves not only clergy or experts but rather all us as we seek to reclaim salvation for our household at a broader sense. The world we live in is full of injustice, people are dying every day from incurable diseases such as HIV/AIDS; malaria;  people are dying from hunger, people are suffering from depression, many people are living is despair, there is all kinds of discrimination, there is extreme poverty, there are people who need to hear the good of hope, people need to find the purpose of their lives; and to be honest we cannot claim to have all the answers for all that. We are stepping on the holy ground because we going to come face to face with the reality of life, and then you think what would Jesus do? Because when our, intellect,  knowledge and faith become challenged only then; we can pray for the power from above to help us take action in resolving those issues.

Today God is calling you and I for two reasons; One reason is clear, our God have heard the cry of people in this world who we are going to serve. Two God is ready to intervene in their situations, therefore, God is calling you and I to be instruments in this divine intervention. Just as it was with Moses; Our aim is not to change the whole world but rather to work with one person at time.

Therefore, this world becomes a holy ground because only then we realize that we cannot do it all by our human intellect, knowledge, or power.  We need to power of the Holy Spirit to me able to come up with new mission strategies for our youth as well as for all challenges we are facing and we are going to face in the future. We need to realize that it is the presence of God only through our Lord Jesus Christ that can make the difference and bring hope to the hopeless, bring joy to sorrowful people, and you and I from this day we commit to be instrument in this ministry among God’s people. Let us commit to God to be instruments of hope; instruments of love; instruments of peace; instruments of justice; and messengers of good news of our Lord Jesus Christ in this world.

May God bless you all and Peace be with you all.

Mary Kategile