Commissioning Service for Asbury University Student Teachers 2022

05.03.2022 (end of semester)

Roots to Fruit

This Commissioning service is an act of sending you all off together in mission. Many of you will be headed to the work field. Some of you may be making plans for further education. There may be a few who are rethinking your future path. This is a transitional moment, as one phase of your work comes to a close and other doors begin to open.

As you go, the Great Commission from Jesus remains the same. We make disciples wherever we are, whatever we find ourselves doing. In John 15, Jesus gives us a picture of how to do this.

Read John 15:1-17

John 15:1–17 NRSV

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Roots

Jesus gives us an image of a vine with a mission: to bear fruit and reproduce. A healthy vine starts with good roots in good soil. It is the solid ground beneath your feet that allows you to reach and stand, and to crawl, walk, and eventually run. Without something to stand on, you are at the mercy of whatever winds or waves toss you from one place to the next.

In these transitional times it is important to remember your roots and to use them to grow from. The world will try to move you from that solid foundation you have in Christ, but you cannot grow for long without that foundation to stand upon.

Jesus Himself, through the power of the Holy Spirit is the vine that lifts us up from our relationship with God and sends us out into the world. He is the example and the power to live out our mission. Through our baptism, we are adopted and grafted into relationship with God through Christ. We are the branches that Christ sends out of Himself to bear fruit for Him.

Fruit

The fruit we bear takes energy and effort, but once it grows it begins to plant seeds everywhere we go. Nothing about this process is automatic. The work God has ahead of you is going to take work. Jesus taught that the strength for that work also comes from Him. His love, flowing from the Heavenly Father to and through us is the lifeblood and strength and power to go, grow, and reproduce as God has created us to do. Through that continual influx of love, the sinful life we put away in our baptism stays away and we grow into new life, guided by that love of Christ.

CTA

So, as we gather today to remember, to celebrate, and to share that love that Christ gave us, take heart and let Christ lead you to and through the work God has ahead of you in this next part of your life with Jesus.

Lord we confess that we have not followed your commandment to love each other as you have loved us. We come to you today in celebration of our accomplishments and the humble realization of how far we have yet to go. We give you thanks that you made a way for us to enter and grow in your kingdom, long before we did a single good thing. You created us and while we were yet sinners, you loved us.

We remember the night in which Jesus was betrayed. He gathered His disciples together, took bread, gave thanks to God, broke it, gave it to His disciples and said, “Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

After the supper He took the cup, gave thanks to God, and shared it with His disciples saying, “Drink from this all of you, this is my blood which is poured out for the new covenant, for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Lord, pour out your Spirit on these gifts of bread and juice. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ so that we might be remade into the Body of Christ, redeemed by His blood, sent in ministry to all the world.

I invite you today to take a stone as a remembrance that you were called into new life through your baptism, grafted into Christ, and that Christ provides our strength through His own Body and Blood, shared with us today, so that we can take the love of Christ to the world.