In the name of Jesus. Amen. Good morning!

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1 Date: May 5, 2017 Time: 11 a.m. Location: Thiel College Event: Presidential Installation for Susan Traverso, Ph.D. Author: Valparaiso University President Mark A. Heckler, Ph.D. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Good morning! On this historic day in the journey of Thiel College, I bring greetings to you on behalf of the students, faculty and staff, and alumni of Valparaiso University. Esteemed and dedicated members of the Thiel College community faculty, staff, students, alumni, and all those gathered to celebrate the installation of Dr. Susan Traverso as 20 th president of Thiel College, I am both honored and delighted to be here today. President Traverso and I share many commonalities and interests. She comes to Thiel having previously served as provost at Elizabethtown College, where I graduated with my bachelor s degree. In both of our long careers in higher education, we ve made personal and professional commitments to bolster the values of leadership and service in faith-based liberal arts education. And now we share the common bond of serving as presidents at two unique and distinctive institutions of higher learning Valparaiso University and Thiel

2 College both rooted in the Lutheran tradition and centered on common themes of meaning, purpose, vocation, and inclusion. At Valparaiso University and Thiel College alike, these common themes meaning, purpose, vocation, and inclusion are central to what it means to be a Lutheran institution of higher learning. We share that deep Lutheran heritage and ethos that reminds us of our journey where we ve come from, who we are today as institutions, and where we re going tomorrow. And what better Gospel lesson to illuminate our journey than Luke s story of Jesus encounter with two disciples on the Road to Emmaus. Here we find a journey rich with metaphors for encounters with the other, encounters at the intersection of reason and faith, and encounters with the meaning of Christcentered vocation. Here is a story that emulates how our shared Lutheran ethos shapes our work, our studies, and our callings. It was evening on the day of Jesus resurrection, writes Luke. Two men, followers of Jesus, were on a journey. Walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They welcome a stranger, who later, in the breaking of bread, reveals himself as the Risen Jesus. Luke s account reminds us of an important dimension of our identity as Lutheran institutions in the same way that these men encounter the Risen Christ unknowingly our institutions are on our way toward a destination. We are engaged with one another in a conversation, a search for Truth that is being continually revealed.

3 In the Lutheran tradition, we cling firmly to the notion that, as Christians, we have not yet and never will fully arrive at that destination in this life that our quest for truth will remain unattained for all of our days on this earth. That all we see and all we know is as if we are looking in a mirror in a room dimly lit. As this current season marks both the 150 th anniversary of Thiel College and the 500 th Anniversary of the Reformation, we remember especially that we are part of a much longer journey. Generations before us have struggled in this finite and imperfect world and, through their labors have re-formed both Christianity and this place that we know as Thiel. We remain in awe of what they accomplished during their lifetimes, and we know that there is still much work to be done. As Lutheran institutions, we are part of a tradition once reformed and always reforming. And as President Traverso comes from the United Church of Christ s tradition, her church s motto echoes this same theme: God is still speaking. As Lutheran institutions of higher learning, we adopt and affirm this notion that God is still speaking as we work diligently to continue the work that God has called us to do to continue to listen for God s voice as God reveals Godself to us just as Jesus did on the Road to Emmaus. Behold, I am making all things new! the Lord proclaims. Each day in months and years ahead, your work here at Thiel will re-form this place and the diverse people who come to you and move through you on their way. Through educational and cocurricular opportunities you will cultivate and nurture virtues like integrity, compassion, wisdom, and humility. You will ennoble qualities like leadership, service, and sense of meaning and purpose. You will foster character and

4 empower individuals to reach their full potential. Through your minds and hands and hearts and voices, God will speak to you and through you. And in this place, you will begin to make all things new. The Road to Emmaus also serves as a metaphor for the ways in which our Lutheran identity lives at an intersection that nexus where Athens and Jerusalem meet. Where reason and faith meet. This is not an easy intersection to navigate. It was the first-century Christian writer, Tertullian, who first described Athens and Jerusalem in this way: What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church? What between heretics and Christians? i In Tertullian s conceptualization of Athens and Jerusalem, there is no place for a Christian Lutheran University an academic institution with the motto Lux Mundi Verbum Dei Light of the World/Word of God. To Tertullian, that place where people might apply the tenets of philosophy to shed light on the Word of God represents nothing less than heresy. Yet, in Luther s understanding of our relationship to God, and God s abundant mercy, the paths of Athens and Jerusalem intersect frequently. And if those of us who live and work and study in the academy turn the lenses of philosophy and archeology and history and science and the arts to focus on God s Word in order to understand it, question it, or interpret it for our own time, even if we sin in so doing, then let it be so, as long as it is done in the excellent pursuit of truth. In his letter to Philip Melanchthon, Luther writes, Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly. For he is victorious

5 over sin, death, and the world. ii It is God s mercy, extended to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that gives us the freedom to pursue Truth, no matter where it may lead us. At Valparaiso University, we describe our place at the very crux of this intersection of Athens and Jerusalem. We believe that reason and faith ought to live in generative tension. We live and explore the paradoxes and contradictions at this intersection. And we have learned, over our history, that Athens and Jerusalem are inextricably linked in, what one of Valpo s most influential former presidents, O.P. Kretzmann, once described as a magnificent alliance. So too do we aim each day to embody this distinctive and difficult part of our Lutheran identity in classrooms, labs, playing fields, and residence halls. In biology, faith meets reason as we explore how science enriches our understanding of the world and its origins and marvel at the complexity of creation. In humanities courses such as history, political science, and language arts, we learn about how both our historical and contemporary experiences shape our understanding of the Divine and how that Divine Presence lives and acts in the world over millennia. As we live and work and study alongside our Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu brothers and sisters; our LGBTIQ brothers and sisters; our African-American, Latino/a, and Asian brothers and sisters, we also learn about how God created each of us differently and uniquely and that our differences only serve to strengthen us as a diverse community of faith and learning. Therefore, while we live and thrive in AND at the intersection of Faith and Reason, navigating this inherent

6 tension in generative and creative and informative ways, we can also deploy this distinctive capability to live at the intersection of a variety of paradigms. Faith and Reason. Tradition and Experience. Christian and Muslim. Male and Female. Gay and Straight. Black and Brown and White. Thiel College can unleash the inherent power and creativity of AND in ways that are unique to your Lutheran identity and ethos. Which leads me to another dimension of this rich story of the Road to Emmaus; that is, the encounter with the other the stranger. This story reminds us that cultural norms and deeply rooted, even largely unconscious bias, can blind us to Truth. For if you recall even earlier in the Easter story, it was the women who first came upon the empty tomb. It was the women to whom the angels reveal Truth. It was the women who first believed in the resurrection. It was the women who rushed to bear witness to a Divine prophecy fulfilled. And, unfortunately, it was the women who were not taken seriously by Jesus disciples. As the story progresses, we learn that, on the Road to Emmaus, the two disciple s eyes were eventually opened as Jesus revealed himself to them on that journey. I wonder, if they had taken Mary the mother of James, Joanna, Mary Magdalene and all the other women seriously, would their eyes have been open when Christ first joined them on that road rather than at the end of the day and the breaking of bread together? Christ walks alongside us and reveals himself to us, oftentimes in those encounters with people who differ from us. As colleagues gathered together in

7 a Lutheran college engaged in the pursuit of Truth, ought we also strive to take seriously the voices of the other, of those who have been historically marginalized? Ought we strive to listen to and dialogue with and learn from people whose path to this place has differed measurably from our own, in order to grow in knowledge and wisdom and to see more clearly the infinite wonder and complexity of Creation and our place in it? Ought we tell the stories that have gone untold so that we too may open our eyes allowing God to reveal Godself to us along our own journeys toward lives of meaning and purpose? Even as we sing All are welcome in this place, what will it mean for Thiel College to welcome and include the stranger as part of its Truth-seeking and Truth-seeing journey? And here is the final lesson we might glean from the Road to Emmaus the way in which this story illuminates our Lutheran devotion to calling and vocation. In verse 21 of today s Gospel lesson, one of the disciples says this: But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. So while the story is about an encounter with Jesus, it s also about how, without Jesus, they were a people without identity without hope without meaning and purpose. In the Lutheran tradition, we seek to live our lives with our faith and God s purpose at the center and for the sake of the world. Or in the words of the American writer and theologian Frederick Buechner, the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world s deep hunger meet. iii This is what it means to live a life of meaning and purpose. To be called. As members of a Lutheran community of learning, regardless of our individual backgrounds and beliefs, we affirm that our educational paths, our career

8 choices, our relationships none of these are our own. Each has a higher purpose because it is driven by our Christian calling for the sake of the world. Thiel College has celebrated a long history rooted in the Lutheran tradition. And similarly to Valparaiso University, those of you sitting in this room today and those faculty, staff, students, and alumni who came in the generations before you have taken seriously the role of faith, reason, inclusivity, and vocation as you ve forged an institutional identity that is grounded intentionally in preparing graduates who have deeply discerned their meaning and purpose and who will become inclusive servant-leaders. This is your mission and your identity. It springs from your Lutheran ethos. And under President Traverso s leadership, I m confident you will continue on that same path as you journey down a road not yet finished, at the intersection of faith and reason, encountering the other as essential to Truth-seeking and Truth-seeing, and using your journey to discern God s calling as individuals and as a community of learning dedicated to the glory of God and for the sake of the world. Thank you again for allowing me to celebrate this important milestone with you. May you be as Christ to one another. May God bless your president and servant, Susan, as she embarks on this shared journey alongside you. May God bless Thiel College as together you build upon that Lutheran identity and heritage that has brought you to this place: Light of the World. Word of God. And may God bless each of you as you live out God s meaning and purpose in this place. Amen. --Mark A. Heckler, Ph.D.

9 i Tertullian, Prescription against heretics (Beloved Publishing LLC, 2015), Chapter 7. ii Let Your Sins Be Strong: A Letter From Luther to Melanchthon Letter no. 99, 1 August 1521, from Wortburg (Segment), trans. Erika Bullmann Flores from: Dr. Martin Luther's Saemmtliche Schriften, ed. Dr, Johannes Georg Walch (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, N.D.), Vol. 15,cols iii Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (Harper & Row, 1973).

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