Well, here we stand at
the end, and as most of us have learned here at Prov over the past few years,
there is a specific way to end our times of worship together:
“Go
in Peace to Love and Serve the Lord. Thanks be to God, Hallelujah!”
With these words we have
ended our times of worship here at Prov over these last number of years. And as
much as Providence has been a fact of our daily lives for the duration of our
time here, life at Providence has been one giant act of worship as we have
learned, grown, and served in a plethora of ways. As this year has been drawing
to a close the question that has been burning on my mind, as I’m sure it has
been on many of yours, has been, “soooo what now? Where do we go from here?”
There
have been a couple mottos that have terrified me and encouraged me throughout
my time at Prov. The first is the official school motto, “Knowledge and Character
for Leadership and Service”. This always kind of scared me, “Do they expect me
to actually serve and lead at some point? Don’t they know what kind of person I
am?” The second motto is similar, and it is carved above the doors to the
school, “Enter to Learn, go forth to Teach” which always made think, “oh no, I
better make sure I actually learn something here if they expect me to teach
somebody someday”.
Fortunately, these mottos also carried with them the
promise that somehow, we would “Learn”, that we would receive “Knowledge and
Character” – in short, we wouldn’t be left up the Rat River without a paddle.
So, where do we go from here? Presumably we’ve learned
something, received some knowledge, and had our characters shaped by our
various triumphs, trials, and tribulations at this institution, and now it is
time to Teach, now it is time to Lead and Serve. The sending that we have heard
time and time again at our worship services over the years begins to make
sense. In the midst of the confusion and mystery of transition, we are
empowered to go forth in the peace of Christ to love him and serve him in
whatever shape that ends up taking. Really, the only response appropriate to
such a promise is an exclamation of praise and thus we say, “Thanks be to God,
Hallelujah.”
Now, one last time,
please join me in the sending;
“Go
in Peace to Love and Serve the Lord. Thanks be to God, Hallelujah!”
