President’s Opening Convocation Address 2012

Rejoice always!

It is wonderful to be back in the Chapel of the Resurrection after a summer of closed doors, construction fences, cranes and jackhammers. Although we’ve only begun our three-year restoration and expansion of the Chapel, it is a blessing to have this magnificent facility open and all of us gathered together again.

Rejoice always!

In the last gathering we held in the Chapel, May’s baccalaureate service, I shared these words, “rejoice always,” from the apostle Paul’s fifth chapter of First Thessalonians as advice for our graduates from the Class of 2012 as they prepared to leave Valpo and commence the next leg of their life’s journey.

And now, for those of you who have just arrived at Valparaiso University, to begin your personal journey with this very special community of learning, Paul’s advice is just as fitting: Rejoice always.

And why ought we to rejoice? Because we are beginning a new academic year, a time of tremendous potential, a time of great hope. Because, in this new year, we are gathered together for the first time as a community. Those new to campus, together with the old- timers – staff, faculty and even some from that very ancient group – the sophomores, juniors, seniors, grad students, 2L’s and 3L’s of Valparaiso University.

Today we officially re-gather as a community. We renew. And we rejoice. Welcome. Welcome back.

This day is a special one, because we welcome our new students. Students, we believe that you carry the potential to accomplish amazing and wonderful things as part of this community and as you graduate and journey through life. We saw your potential, and we invited you to become part of this place. Part of our traditions, part of our present, and part of our future.

You will learn much about this University while you are here with us. Our stories, our symbols, our motto, the fight song, and our alma mater. And you will learn that becoming a member of Valparaiso University carries with it a great responsibility—the responsibility to explore, to discover and rediscover who you want to be when you grow up. … This is a question most of us keep asking—your fellow students, your faculty, the staff who support you, and your president.

Albert Einstein is said to have asked: “How many people are trapped in their everyday habits: part numb, part frightened, part indifferent? To have a better life we must keep choosing how we’re living.”

Today, through this convocation, we re-engage in the question of how we, as individuals and as Valparaiso University, will choose to live. We begin by reaffirming who we are and where we stand as a University and by taking responsibility for living in accordance with our values and claims.

First, Valpo students, faculty and staff stand for excellence. Our expectation is that every one of us will strive for the highest level of academic and professional performance he or she can attain. … That we will strive for excellence in all that we do—from arts to athletics, from volunteering to venturing forth on a service project.

The English author Dorothy Sayers gained renown as a writer of murder mysteries and as a Christian humanist. In the morning she might have been killing off an unsuspecting victim in a novel, that evening, writing treatises about our relationship with God. She did both well, although the two could not have been more divergent. For her, they were both work, and “work” was a positive word. She wrote, “work is not, primarily, a thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do … the thing in which [s]he finds spiritual, mental and bodily satisfaction, and the medium in which [s]he offers [her]self to God.”

Students, as you embark on your journey here, you will begin to discern your gifts and define the work of your life, your calling, that excellent thing that you will live to do, an offering of your self, your most excellent self, for the glory of God.

Valpo also stands for leadership and service. We boldly claim that we prepare graduates to lead and serve in church and society, that we will be recognized worldwide for the lives of leadership and service led by our graduates. You have been chosen for Valparaiso University because we believe you have both the capacity and inclination to lead and serve, not only while you are here, but also for the rest of your lives.

Leadership too easily conjures up the image of the CEO of a large corporation, a prominent community figure, or elected official. True, many Valpo alumni have become leaders in these ways. Yet, there are many paths to leadership that, while eliciting less public acclaim, can truly change lives. Teaching. Nursing. Scientific research. Pastoral care. Art-making. Writing. Coaching. Engineering. Business. Law. Whatever unique and God-given gifts inspire you, wherever your personal and professional journey takes you, we expect you to seize life’s opportunities to both lead and serve while you are here at Valpo and beyond.

Finally, at Valpo, we value being a community constituted by people of many and various beliefs and backgrounds in dialogue with one another in common pursuit of truth. This is how we describe our vision as a community of learning, a diverse community, yet one that celebrates its Lutheran ethos and character.

Unfortunately, when we look at nations around the world, including the United States, we see too often that differences are not welcome, nor are they respected. People congregate with those who share their thoughts and behaviors. They seek media outlets and commentators who present information through a lens focused solely on their beliefs. They aim to elect leaders and control governments in a winner-take-all mindset, hoping to force others to comply with their point of view.

The pursuit of truth, careful and nuanced, falls victim to the sound and fury of meaningless sound bites that no one believes, unless they support their particular point of view. Sincere and thoughtful discussion seems barely a whisper when compared to the current contest carried out on our airwaves to see who can scream the loudest—and by doing so—sway opinion.

Yet, this University firmly stands for something more. We are deliberate in our invitation to people who come from different backgrounds and who hold different spiritual beliefs and intellectual positions. We welcome difference in this community.

We aim to respect one another as we live and work together. We seek to model for one another how to navigate our differences by honoring and respecting others, by examining and expressing our own truth claims with humility and caution, by using our differences as opportunities for learning and teaching, and by focusing on our common bonds rather than on that which divides us.

Together, we aim for something more. The world yearns for money and possessions, yet we strive for excellence. The world struggles for power and control, yet we prepare to lead and serve. The world aims to silence difference, yet we respect, honor, and learn from diverse perspectives. The world assaults us with opinions and conflicting information, yet we pursue truth. And we do so for the glory of God.

The extraordinary nature of a Valpo education was never clearer to me than this summer, when my wife and I had the privilege of hearing the Valparaiso University Chorale perform in Leipzig, Germany. Our students sang at the 800th anniversary celebration of St. Thomas Church, the place where Johann Sebastian Bach composed and performed some of the most important musical works in the Western canon.

It was a Sunday morning worship service. Earlier, the cantor had played the Bach Prelude in C Major on the organ, one designed to sound similar to the original instrument during Bach’s time. We listened and imagined what it must have been like to sit in the sanctuary while Bach himself played the very same piece hundreds of years before.

Later, I was standing in line, waiting for communion in this magnificent sanctuary. I gazed at an altar that had been created eight centuries ago. Before the altar rested a large bronze plaque, identifying the final resting place of Johann Sebastian Bach. I stood in the communion line with people of many ages. People of many places, many languages.

The Chorale began to sing a contemporary work by James MacMillan titled, A Child’s Prayer:

Welcome, Jesu,
deep in my soul forever stay,
joy and love my heart are filling
on this glad Communion day

The music captured beautifully the child’s joy and love for Jesus, fighting its way heavenward against the dissonance and confusion of our age. In my mind and in my heart, I heard the innocence and trust of a child living in our anxious and troubled time crying out to God. As I stood in the midst of this ancient sanctuary, one that has gathered the faithful century after century, I imagined the child’s voice, our voice, heard by that great cloud of witnesses through the ages who composed and performed preached and worshiped and communed in this place. In that very moment, I was cognizant, in a way that I had never known before, of the great sweep and panoply of history, of one century crying out to another, like bells pealing in the night, calling out to the Creator—we are here, God! Deliver us from evil! Deliver us.

I was deeply moved.

And I was reminded once again of what makes Valpo so special. Here were our students, delivering a performance meriting international attention, achieving excellence. Here were people of many backgrounds and beliefs, serving the church, working in harmony, performing an expression of the truth of our time through the medium of music. All for the glory of God.

Students, each of you can embark on a comparable journey—a journey personal and professional that will be uniquely yours—yet also filled with equally electrifying experiences. You may not sing, but there is a song within you. And we yearn to hear your voice.

Today I welcome you into this extraordinary community where Athens meets Jerusalem, where both faith and learning thrive. Today, you assume the mantle of the students who came before you—who chose lives of leadership and service. Whose continued generosity and labor enable us to engage in the pursuit of truth in this University most excellent.

You now begin your journey of discovery of how you will choose to live, and the thing you will live to do, all as your offering to God.

Welcome! Welcome! Welcome to Valpo!