{"id":2045,"date":"2014-02-17T10:58:23","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T16:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/president\/?page_id=2045"},"modified":"2014-02-17T11:20:44","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T17:20:44","slug":"chapel-talk-02-17-14","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/president\/public-remarks\/chapel-talk-02-17-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapel Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

February 17, 2014
\nDeuteronomy 30:15-20<\/p>\n

Good morning. And a special welcome to everyone visiting St. Olaf today for Junior Preview Day.\u00a0We\u2019re delighted that you\u2019ve come to be introduced to our College, impressed that you braved the weather today, and especially pleased that you\u2019ve come to chapel today.<\/p>\n

Oles, Welcome to the spring semester! Even though you couldn\u2019t tell it by the weather, we\u2019re back for the spring term. To the nearly seven hundred of you who were studying off-campus during the Interim, welcome home. And to all of you who endured\/enjoyed a real Minnesota winter on campus this Interim, \u201cWell done!\u201d<\/p>\n

I like to point out to folks that even though we are both in the business of planting and growing and nurturing and reaping, our calendar is just the opposite of a farmer\u2019s. Farmers plant in the spring, grow in the summer, and reap in the fall. But colleges like St. Olaf plant in the fall, when our new students arrive, and our continuing students return to campus. Autumn and winter are our growing times, when you are absorbed in classes, living in community, broadening your range of experience, and encountering new ideas. By contrast with farmers, spring is our harvest time, and Commencement is our harvest ritual. It\u2019s nice now to be on the downward slope towards May 25, Commencement Day, just over three months away. Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the President of Estonia, will join you seniors in becoming an Ole at Commencement. He will receive an honorary degree and deliver the Charge to the Class. It\u2019s not too shabby to share the Commencement platform with a head of state. I hope you\u2019re looking forward to the day.<\/p>\n

But to continue my metaphors about growth and fruition, don\u2019t lets count our chickens before they hatch. A lot needs to happen between now and the end of the semester for you to finish in the blaze of glory that you and I both want for you, so this is a good time to commit to the work that will ensure that result.<\/p>\n

Because the beginning of a new semester seems like the right time to make commitments, or recommitments, the Old Testament reading for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany \u2014 yesterday \u2014 is particularly apt, and I thought I would spend a few minutes this morning reflecting upon it with you.<\/p>\n

When I read the Bible I find some texts particularly challenging. Whether it\u2019s the intricate reasoning of the Apostle Paul, or the chasm of difference in time and culture that separate us from the world of the Old Testament, or very likely just inadequacy on my part, not every texts speaks immediately to me. Thank goodness for daily chapel, by the way, for this is one of the resources we can turn to for help in encountering God\u2019s Word in the Scriptures.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there are other texts that\u2014and I hope this isn\u2019t too presumptuous to say \u2014 are kind of No Brainers. The text from Deuteronomy that Pastor Matt just read is one of those.\u00a0It poses two alternatives for people of faith to choose between, and it\u2019s not a complicated choice.\u00a0As binary choices go, in fact, I\u2019d say that it\u2019s about as simple as you can get.\u00a0\u201cSee, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.\u201d\u00a0H-m-m-m-m. That\u2019s a tough one.\u00a0Which would I prefer, life, or death?\u00a0 Prosperity or adversity?\u00a0 Stroke my beard, ponder, ponder, think, think:\u00a0I guess I\u2019m going with life. No, I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to need to consult my life line, I\u2019m pretty sure that\u2019s what I want.<\/p>\n

And that of course is what the text exhorts us to do: \u201cChoose life so that you and your descendants may live.\u201d But the problem is that many choices that seem simple aren\u2019t, and this is one of them, as the text reminds us. Choosing life isn\u2019t as simple as selecting the choice you want, dusting off your hands, and walking away pleased with yourself. That choice requires action, and the text tells us exactly what those actions are: \u201cIf you obey the commandments of the Lord that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live\u00a0….\u201d\u00a0Conversely, \u201cif your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish ….\u201d<\/p>\n

And this brings us hard up against the challenge that I daresay confronts every one of us every second of every day. The Apostle Paul laid it out pretty clearly in Romans, Chapter 7:\u00a0\u201cI do not understand my own actions.\u00a0For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate …\u00a0I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.\u00a0For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

I imagine everyone here today can translate those verses into passages in their own lives. For the most part it\u2019s not that hard to know what to do, but it can tax, and often exceed, our strength to actually do it.\u00a0 Over and over again we fall short of our own expectations for ourselves and God\u2019s expectations for us.\u00a0It wasn\u2019t that I didn\u2019t know I was supposed to reach out to a person in need, I was just too busy.\u00a0Or the person in need in front of me was so much in need that I didn\u2019t have the courage to reach out. It wasn\u2019t that I didn\u2019t know I was supposed to respond out of love, not anger, to another person, but anger was stronger than love that time.\u00a0It wasn\u2019t that I didn\u2019t know I was supposed to be generous in spirit, but suspicion, or vanity, or cynicism, or all three won out.\u00a0It wasn\u2019t that I didn\u2019t want to do the right thing. I couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Perhaps you could come up with a list similar to the one I just laid out, but that doesn\u2019t make either of us bad people. It makes us sinners, but we already knew that. We confess as much every Sunday when during the confessions of sins we say out loud that we \u201chave sinned in thought, word and deed.\u201d\u00a0So, what to do?<\/p>\n

This is actually the point at which we choose life.\u00a0That earlier moment in this chapel talk when I imagined myself in some kind of fake game show where you got to pick either life or death and then you got the prize, everybody clapped, and you were done never actually happens.\u00a0What really happens in the lives of real people is that every time we acknowledge God\u2019s commandments, acknowledge our own weakness, but commit ourselves to persist in the work to which all people of faith are called and study God\u2019s Word, seek to do God\u2019s will, call upon God in prayer to support us, and draw upon our giftedness to care for God\u2019s creation, that\u2019s when we choose life.\u00a0Sure, it\u2019s hard work.\u00a0It\u2019s the hardest work.\u00a0But it is the work to which we are called.<\/p>\n

So, if the beginning of a new semester is a time to commit, or to recommit, to our academic work and to our life together in community, I challenge everyone here in chapel today to make a corresponding commitment, or recommitment, to the task of the faithful:\u00a0to align our minds, our wills, and our actions with God\u2019s vision for us and for God\u2019s creation, knowing that we will stumble, and knowing that we will fail, but upheld in the knowledge that God\u2019s love supports us and God\u2019s Grace embraces us in that work.<\/p>\n

Choose life!<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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