 And especially our dear graduates, we welcome you to the celebration of all that you have accomplished in your journey at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. Graduates, you have completed a challenging course of study. Your journey at AMBS during this unusual year has given you the challenge and the gift to learn how to think biblically, theologically, pastorally, as peace builders and how to adapt and improvise as leaders against a backdrop of a global upheaval. Our sacred text reminds us to mark the important events of our lives, to hold festivals of praise, to praise God because God's steadfast love is always at hand. So we give thanks to God today, dear graduates. We are thanking God for you today and for all that you have accomplished in your persistence and your hard work. We celebrate you for all the ways that each of you in your own way enriched this learning community at AMBS. And we celebrate in anticipation all the ways you all apply what you have learned here to bless the church and the world as witnesses to the redeeming love of God shown to us in Jesus. Let us pray. Oh God, creator, redeemer and sustainer. We thank you for this day. We come to you on this day that is a culmination of achievement and yet it is a day of commencement, the first day of living more deeply into a vocation, a way of living in the world, asking a particular question. How do we live in the world as God's people? As people who live by faith and in hope, who bear witness to your love, God and your grace, who live as witnesses to your peace and your justice. How do we call those around us to be tender to the inbreaking of God's spirit that brings healing, hope, renewal, joy and wholeness? Today as we pray, we do so with the awareness that our entire lives are before you, God. In this commencement, we acknowledge first of all that you are all that we have. You give us what we need and our lives are in your hands. Come be among us. Come gather us together by your spirit as we worship and celebrate all that you have empowered our graduates to accomplish and all that you will yet accomplish through them by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated. Our text today is from Acts 10, 1 through 17, B. This sets the stage for Peter's response to being summoned to meet with Cornelius. I will read verses 10 through 17 and then the story of Peter's vision verses nine through 17 will be read in English, Amharic and French. I will then close with verse 24 through 29. At Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all of his family were devout and God-fearing. He gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. One day at about three in the afternoon, he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God who came to him and said, Cornelius, Cornelius stared at him in fear. What is it, Lord? He asked. The angel answered, your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send me into Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. He is staying with Simon the Tanner whose house is by the sea. When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. He told him everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa. The following day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, get up, Peter, kill and eat. Surely not, Lord, Peter replied. I've never eaten anything impure or unclean. The voice spoke to him a second time. Do not call anything impure that God has made clean. This happened three times and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven. While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the man sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped at the gate. The man said he was on his way and was approaching Jaffa. Peter went up on the terrace of the house to pray. He was about noon. He was hungry and wanted something to eat. While the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. The man said he was hungry and wanted something to eat but he fell into the trance and went down to earth. He had all kinds of animals, quads, reptiles and birds. He heard a voice telling him, get up, Peter, kill these beasts and eat them. In the name of the Lord, replied Peter, I've never eaten anything impure or unclean. But the voice said again, what God declared impure is not up to you to consider it impure. Three times it was renewed and the ship disappeared into the sky. Peter was very perplexed and asked himself what this vision meant. During this time, the men, sent by Cornelius, were taught to know where Simon's house was and he presented himself at the gate. The following day he arrived at Ciceria. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up. Stand up, he said. I'm only a mortal myself. While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them, you are aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God, please say with me, but God, but God, has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising my objection. May I ask you sent for me the word of the Lord? I am delighted to introduce Pastor Sanitha Milsaps as our 2021 AMBS commencement speaker. Sanitha Milsaps is executive director of Mennonite Church, Mennonite Women USA and co-pastor of Prairie Street Mennonite Church in Elkhart. With deep roots in the south-central neighborhood of Elkhart, Sanitha chairs the board of directors of the renewed Tolson Center for Community Excellence. She earned a master of divinity from AMBS in 2008. Sanitha is a bridge builder and a peace builder in the Anabaptist community and in the city of Elkhart. Working with churches, conferences and women groups, nonprofits, city and neighborhood leaders to build relationships across diverse communities. In her works, Sanitha seeks to offer a unique perspective on theology, culture, race and class that is designed to challenge and foster open and honest discussion. It is my honor to welcome her to the podium today for all of these reasons. And one additional reason I'm pleased to introduce her is because she is my pastor. And I am so grateful to experience her visionary leadership every week. Please welcome pastor Sanitha Milseps as she brings our 2021 commencement address. The world is a changing fast. Assume nothing. Thank you, President Bolshard, Dean Lack and the entire AMBS family. Thank you for inviting me to speak at my alma mater. As soon as I got the invitation, my first thought was they must be desperate. COVID has changed their ability to go after the heavy hitters. So in my concern for you all, I say sure, I came to AMBS early 2000, in the early in the 2000s. The reason I came was so that I could debate the word of God. I had to do it better than the others. I needed to learn scripture and its meanings so I could prove that I was correct. I enrolled in the Masters of Christian Formation. I had no plans on becoming a pastor. I was simply trying to get ammunition for my mouth. I quickly learned that debating scripture is futile and without merit. For every scripture you use to prove your point, someone else will use that same scripture to prove theirs. I quickly realized that God had other plans for me, not to debate, but to God. Pastoring is the greatest job in the world. The reality that people will share their entire lives with you. People show their true selves with the hope that you will somehow connect them to God. It is a powerful call and one that, for all of us, you should not take lightly or ever for granted. It is a gift from God. However, it does not come without challenges. The people of God are some of the most difficult of humanity. The people of God often become self-righteous and in their quest to be like God and to look like Jesus, they turn to look more like the enemy. You will encounter the good and bad in everyone. You, like the Apostle Peter, will find yourself showing your good and bad as well. I got new nails stuck. I wanted to encourage you today to understand in this challenging world, not to take anything for granted, to assume nothing. Our scripture passage today shows us that it doesn't matter how great of a pastor or a leader you become, you can miss the mark. Although this passage is usually titled The Conversion of Cornelius, it is much more a conversion of Peter. That is in his attitude and his opinion towards the Gentiles. The Lord had prepared both sides. The Gentiles were ready. The Jewish leader, Christ's follower, is not. The Gentiles are eagerly awaiting the connection with other Christ's followers. The Christ's followers are not welcoming of the new guest. As you all enter into your new and emerging ministries, many alone the way, Christians will want you to do what they already know and what they already believe. They will want you to come and guide them to be their shepherd. But what they are really asking for is for you to follow. Deep inside their shepherd, deep inside their desire for a shepherd, is really just a figurehead to them to keep their traditions and rituals intact. These Christians are already so sure of what God is doing and what God requires. Just like Peter, they are unable to hear and see what God is doing in the world around them. My warning to you is to enter into your new call, not trying to be with the people of the church already know and believe, but enter into the world of Cornelius, looking for people eager to learn, live and worship. And as much time as you can, asking God to show you which way you should go. Ask God to connect you to others who are seeking God's face and hoping for the new world to come. Peter was so fixated on what he thought he knew that he could no longer see what was possible. Four-part harmony is great, but you may be called to gospel rec. That is going to be much harder for some of us than others. But for the younger, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ministers, we can't wait to see you in your new role for the new church. The world is in a horrible state. Twenty years ago, the church was focusing on our dwindling numbers. How many people had already left the church? People were saying, I'm spiritual, not religious. People were saying they were traumatized by the people of God, and they fled and vowed never to return. You are about to meet those new Gentiles, two generations of unchurched or barely church people. People God has been watching and preparing for the last 20 or 30 years. It is your job not to focus on the things of the past, the laws, the rules, the traditions, and unfortunately the music, but to focus on the people of God. Focus on their journey. Focus on how they are fearing in this dark space. Focus on their connection and desire to connect with God and others. Focus on love and grace and mercy found in Jesus Christ. When Peter reached the house of Pramilius, he was still cold and self-righteous in his approach. Even after the Spirit of the Lord had told him not to call anything unclean, the church today is stuck deciding who is clean and unclean. For the new leaders, please do not let the system's tradition and people cause you to miss the people of God. Some of you will be called to move the Old Guard along, holding their hands and helping them to see that God will not leave them or forsake them. Their salvation will not be in jeopardy, but simply that God is doing something new. And some of us just move a little too slow. Others will be called to start new ministries, to seek and save that which is lost. And still some of you will be asked to create worship spaces of welcome and praise while others will join the scholars and become the new authors of the next Testaments. God's work is not done. And you are part of the next wave of disciples, advocates, activists, coaches, shepherds, welcoming, advocating, standing up to the powers and providing spaces of grace and mercy. God wishes that none would be lost. God is preparing the hearts and minds of those living on the margins. It is your job to go to them with the message of love. For those that will be called to our current church, working with those that are settled in, often sure, your job is to disrupt, shake their foundations, invite them to seek God in new and often scary places. And if this all seems too much, I think the tunnel below this building is still operational. You can run now. After they sneak out, nobody will see you. But I warn you, though, like Jonah and his name, St. Peter, you will eventually do exactly what God has caused you to do. I pray the spirit of God over all of you. Amen. We are pleased this afternoon to present the 21 individuals who comprised the 2021 graduating class of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. Two candidates will receive the Graduate Certificate in Theological Studies in absentia. They are Denei King and Andrew L. Oliver. Two candidates will receive the Master of Arts in Christian Formation. Two candidates will receive the Master of Arts, Theology, and Peace Studies. Sixteen candidates will receive the Master of Divinity. Six candidates for the Master of Divinity are graduating in absentia. They are Prateek Bogg, Perry Alexander Feldman, Joshua David Janssen, Matthew Wayne Troyer Miller, Michael C. Unruh, and Amy Lynn Whitehead. Thank you, our soon-to-be graduates, for choosing AMBS as a place to learn and continue your preparation for ministry. Our community has been enriched, truly enriched by your presence among us. We send you forth with God's blessing and pray that God's spirit will empower you for the ministries to which you are being sent. At this time, I invite President David Bushart to join me at the podium to confer the degrees. 21 candidates have followed courses of study prescribed by the Faculty of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. By action of the faculty and the AMBS Board of Directors, they are hereby recommended for certificates and degrees as follows. Will the candidates for the Master of Arts in Christian Formation and the candidates for the Master of Arts, Theology, and Peace Studies please stand. Upon recommendation of the faculty and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary Board, I confer upon you the Master of Arts with all the rights, privileges, and obligations pertaining thereto, of which the diploma you will receive today shall be a written testimony. May you use these rights and privileges as befitting disciples of Jesus Christ, servants of God, and ministers of the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit. You may be seated. Will the candidates for the Master of Divinity degree please stand. Upon recommendation of the faculty and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary Board, I confer upon you the Master of Divinity with all the rights, privileges, and obligations pertaining thereto, of which the diploma you will receive today shall be a written testimony. May you use these rights and privileges as befitting disciples of Jesus Christ, servants of God, and ministers of the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit. You may be seated. At this time, the graduates will line up along the window and behind the faculty as we prepare to distribute diplomas. So I'll ask Endock to lead the way and begin the proceedings. I ask all of us here to hold our applause until all the graduates have returned to their seats. After that, we will stand and create an exuberant and joyous ruckus for all of our graduates. Endalkachu Daba Degafu. Amy Amanda Chup Krapzer. Salome Alderman. Henak T. McConan. Marcos Gabriel Acosta. Quinn Brannaghe. Tyler Brinkman. Meredith Catherine Caldwell. Rebecca M. Helmuth. Mary Ann Jacobs. Catherine G. Stoner. Luis Marcos Tapia Rubio. Henry Duvenel Unruh. And now, please join me in congratulating the graduates. Somehow I have to follow that. In 1524, Ursula Yoos was living in Strasbourg with her husband, Lina Hart, a butcher. She began to see visions, first of the glory of the Lord coming upon her and unfolding as a beautiful wreath above her. Other visions were of divine power and apocalyptic judgment, but also of seemingly more ordinary images such as young men playing music together. Now, when you think about it, in a world in which you would have everyday scenes of men giving themselves or being given over forcibly to work in warfare, that image of young men playing music may be extraordinary. In a vision that seems to expand on Revelation 22, Ursula saw a, and here I'm quoting, a pretty green tree which had many thousands of branches. A fountain sprung from the tree, but two men stopped it up with a pretty green sod of dirt. And the water began to flow directly from the branches, a thousand fold. Here's how the vision ends. And then I saw that there came a great host of people who were from the common folk. They drank the drops which ran off the branches and they were all satisfied. And I saw that they had raised their hands and their heads to God, the Eternal Father, and to him gave the highest praise and thanks. Ursula and Lean Hard became part of the Anabaptist community in Strasbourg led by Melchior Hoffman. Hoffman published Ursula's visions and they became popular wherever he ministered. Her writings became known to civic authorities who opposed and sought to stop her influence. As graduates of the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, you have been trained in the tradition of Ursula Yoast. My charge to you, therefore, is that you would take up Ursula's model as you go from here. That you would be captivated by God's beauty and that you would be therefore open in reverence and love to having your imaginations ever enlarged by God's spirit and word. That you would remain steadfast in your trust in God even as you survey with eyes wide open the carnage of centuries of imperialism, slavery and ecological devastation. That you would share widely the good news, the gospel, that God is on the side of the oppressed even when doing so gets you in trouble. That you would pursue communities of creativity and hope rather than of violence and toil. And finally that you would get your hands dirty in the soil of God's good earth and with holy dirt in hand that you would disrupt the powers that capture creation's abundance so that all might partake in God's blessing and that all might give God the highest thanks and praise. We are the graduates who experienced COVID from the beginning until the vaccine. When we hear of another Zoom meeting, we want to cry. So we would like to accept your charge, but I think I can speak in the name of all of us. We are exhausted. Ursula experienced another vision where the glory of God spoke to her saying, if I pull back my hand, what will become of all of you upon the whole earth? All of you together will become nothing. We are tired, but we are the graduates who experienced God's hand like never before in the midst of all of this. Held by God's hand, we can take up Ursula's model. Held by God's hand, we will pursue communities of healing and grace. Held by God's hand, we will get our hands dirty to work for a world where everyone has enough. Held by God's hand, we accept your charge. Please join me in prayer. God of endings and middles and beginnings. Thank you. Thank you for what has been, for the gift these graduates have been to the AMBS community, for their enthusiasm, friendship, challenge, and learning, for music and food and laughter shared and for shared tears as well. How blessed we have been. Thank you for what is, for this moment of celebration, for work accomplished, for papers and projects finished, or nearly so. Tests taken, boxes checked off, for the pleasures of graduation. Mini Wadsworth Bells ringing in joyful cacophony, applause given and received. Smiles so big, they make our cheeks ache. Thank you for what is yet to be. For plans unfolding, calls emerging, directions clarifying, for strengthened and strengthening ministry and for all the ways your kingdom is coming here and now in ways large and small through the hands and hearts and minds of these beloved ones. We name them now before you and trusting them into your care. In the name of Andrew Oh, Salome, Hennock, Endon, Amike, Marcos, Pratik, Quinn, Tai, Meredith, Alex, Becky, Anne, Josh, Kathy, Luis, Matthew, Hank, Michael, and Amy W. Bless them. Bless them in ways they can recognize and know in this moment. Bless them in your hidden ways that go beyond their knowing. Bless them so thoroughly that they can never go where your blessing is not and guard them, God. Protect them from what would do them harm. Heal in them what still needs healing. Strengthen what is newly emerging. Guide their decisions and actions and most of all whisper to them today and every day. You are my beloved. In you, I am well pleased. We pray all this in the name of Jesus, the Christ, and through the power and companionship of our advocate, the Holy Spirit. Amen. Sing, God, sing, God, inspire to soul. Will you rise for the benediction? Receive this benediction. Go into the world doing what the Lord requires. Living with kindness and justice. Walking your path humbly with God. Go and build up the body of Christ, serving the church's witness to God's shalom. Know that yours is the kingdom of heaven. Yours the strength and mercy of God. Yours all blessings to God's beloved children. Go forth with peace and joy as a friend of Jesus and you will find yourselves blessed.