Ever to X-el
Preacher: Revd Dr Donald MacEwan, University Chaplain
Reading: Acts 1:9-14
Congratulations! You have excelled!
Graduands, you have completed your assignments, given your presentations, read at least some of the required reading, submitted your essays, reports, dissertations and theses, viva’d and survived.
Colleagues, you have taught these graduands, imparted knowledge, and shared skills with which they have remembered, understood, applied and analysed, evaluated and even been creative in ways, secretly, we envy.
Parents and other supporters, you have been alongside these students over years, and during this St Andrews degree, have listened to them, encouraged them, and may occasionally have redistributed your family’s goods from one generation to another.
Excellence all round.
Today the University will bear witness to that achievement, as students cross the stage of the Younger Hall, and are changed from graduands to graduates.
But what comes next?
Some are already involved in further studies, or gainful employment, or a period of reflection. It may be that the University’s motto is guiding your journey following your degree – Aien Aristeuein – Ever to Excel. But clearly, unless you are very unfortunate, your life is not a constant series of modules marked out of 20. So what could Ever to Excel mean for the rest of your life beyond a degree?
Well, today is St Andrew’s Day: could there be some guidance from St Andrew, disciple of Jesus, patron saint of Scotland, whose name is given to this town and University?
As we heard in our Bible reading, following the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, he appeared to his followers for forty days. But on this day, he makes his final appearance and then ascends, going up to heaven. We then hear how his people gathered together after this: the eleven closest disciples including Andrew, women disciples, Jesus’ mother Mary and other members of his family. We could see this as a change, a transformation, a graduation from life with Jesus’ physical presence among them. What next for them? The rest of the book of Acts makes that clear: the disciples became apostles, which means people sent out. With God’s Spirit with them, they were sent to share Jesus’ message of love and compassion, justice and integrity, reconciliation and commitment throughout their nation and beyond, indeed, as Jesus says in his final words to them in verse 8, to the ends of the earth.
This passage is the final reference to Andrew by name in the Bible. But there are many accounts of his subsequent life preserved in tradition. It is thought that he went to share the good news of Jesus in Scythia – the area to the north of the Black Sea which has been so much in the news over the past year: southern Ukraine, Crimea. Sources say he followed the Dneiper River to Kiev, and even further north to present-day Novgorod in Russia. Indeed, alongside Scotland, Andrew is the patron saint of both Ukraine and Russia. How desperately sad it is that there is war between these countries united in Andrew.
Andrew’s witness to his faith in hostile country was brave, and led to his death. It is believed he was put to death in Patras, in Achaea, in Greece, on a cross. And we are told that Andrew felt he was not worthy to die on a cross of the same shape as Jesus and so he requested the X-shaped cross which is depicted on the Scottish flag and in countless images of Andrew, not least the statue outside the University’s Wardlaw Museum, on the cover of our order of service today.
So if St Andrews’ graduates are ever to excel, does that entail martyrdom for all those graduating today? Ever to X-el? I profoundly hope not. And let us pray and work for a world where people can bear witness to their faith – such as Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Baha’í – or secular path without fear or persecution.
Rather than Andrew’s fate, we surely expect that a St Andrews education promises excellent rewards – stimulating occupations, decent salaries and a terrific network of alumni friends. But could I suggest that it also invites an excelling in character? A bearing witness? A commitment to truth? A giving to those in need? Kindness? An empathy with the earth, and with its oppressed? A faithfulness in places of power?
What’s next? The future hasn’t happened yet. Surprises are almost definitely coming our way. And there will be no shortage of contexts for excelling by our graduates (and their supporters, and all who share this University community). There will be plenty of times and places for bearing witness to God’s love, and the dignity of the earth and all who share it. I look forward to hearing, in months and years to come, of the acts of our alumni.
END