劳拉·皮尔森-学生回应2019

大一春季学期. 现在是2015年. 教室在102号创始人大厅. 课程:核心生物学. A very wise professor remained in the classroom once class was dismissed answering students’ questions and making himself available for conversation. 大群人散去后, 只剩下几个好奇的学生, and all questions about homework were answered--as happens so often on the grounds of Concordia--a conversation about belief broke out. 教授是博士. Rod Soper, and the question asked of him was, “Why are you Lutheran?他的回答是, 总结, “一个混乱的系统永远不会自我纠正?, it must be acted upon by a helping force outside of itself. Lutheranism agrees with this, I have found it to be 真正的 in nature and in salvation.”

一种外部的帮助力量.

朋友, 家庭, 毕业生, 康考迪亚大学欧文分校的教职员工, 今天能站在你们面前，我感到很荣幸. Today is a day that stands as the cornerstone between everything that we have come to know and everything that knowledge has prepared us to face. We entered onto Concordia’s campus several years ago, each of us in disarray in our own way. 今天，我们作为改变了的人站在这里, 得到这所大学的帮助和指导, 这个社区, 外在的力量. Today we hold to our colleagues and friends of the graduating class of 2019 as a united front one final time.

在过去的几年里, we have been presented with many opportunities to learn and to grow, 接受挑战，被改变. We have been asked to join in the great conversations of mankind not to only receive grades, 而是为了让我们成为这个世界上有意义的一员. We have been asked to look outside of ourselves and to seek how we might be helped by listening to an opinion that is different from our own, and how we might be listeners and prompters in a way that furthers thinking rather than smothering 的想法.

多亏了优秀的教职员工, 通过你所学到的一切, I hope that each of you is now sure of one thing: you are part of the Great Conversation. This thing called the Great Conversation goes by many names, 其中最臭名昭著的是核心课程. 通过这个课程, we have had to wrestle with some of the most enduring questions in and out of the classroom, 你熟悉的问题, 今天我想问你三个问题. 什么是善?? 真理是什么?? 美是什么?? 通过令人难以置信的学期论文, late nights of studying that turned to early morning breakfast burritos, through conversations with our esteemed faculty and staff, I can confidently say that we are departing today with refined answers to these enduring questions, 更重要的是, more refined questions than we were equipped with just several years ago.

所以让我们从这个开始:什么是善? Let me start by saying that I think we all know better now than to try to present one simple, 对这些问题的简明回答. If it were simple, our Core Math term papers would have been one page long. 但我们知道事实并非如此. No, these questions all simultaneously have a thousand answers and no answers at all, but we have learned that it’s still important to talk about them, 这就是我今天要做的.

所以,善. 在过去的几年里, we have encountered so much 善 at Concordia. We have found friends to lean on in times of pain and hardship. We have learned from professors who give grace and withhold grace as they relentlessly seek what is good for us. 我们已经学会了数学, 哲学, 生物学, 神学, English and history can guide us to a better understanding of 善 in a way that matters for how we interact with the world around us.

有人问过我们这个问题:“什么是真理??” While we might have spent years seeking a seemingly elusive answer to this question, it is in the seeking that we have found “little t” 真理s that sustain us and prompt us with new questions that lead us closer to the ultimate 真理. We have discovered that Socrates might not have been all that crazy when he said that the man who admits he knows nothing is the wisest of them all.

最后，“美是什么??” I can only fall back on the reality that you know beauty when you see it, and I have seen so much beauty from this group of people in the past several years. 我目睹过学生们一起祈祷, 一起创作音乐, 一起学习, 互相教导，互相学习, 彼此施恩, 在最艰难的时刻给予鼓励. 这趟旅程真的很美.

经历了所有这些问题和这些年, Concordia has taught us how to be a part of the Great Conversation. 我们可能仍然觉得我们的系统处于混乱之中, but I am confident in saying that we have found a helping force through Concordia. We have been pressed and challenged in ways that we never thought imaginable for an outcome that is all good, 真正的, 而且很美好——这样的结果不会在今天结束.

现在我们有了这些问题, 所有这些知识，甚至更多, 我们以什么方式继续? 研究生s, the world is in dire need of 善, of 真理, and of beauty. 我相信这不仅是我们的荣幸, but our obligation now to carry these things into our world.

未来比以往任何时候都更加渺茫, 但我们不需要成为混乱的体系. 我们在这所大学找到了帮助, through the relationships we have built with one another, 我们读过的古今书籍, 通过我们无私的教授和导师. 我们也同样得到了帮助, we are now to continue to act as that help for each other, 提问和倾听, 去爱和牺牲, 寻求善, 真与美, 并以此为乐. 这是我们继续相互依赖的方式, 帮助并寻求外部力量的帮助.

最后, 我们知道我们有最终的帮助力量, 神是一切美善的源头, 真正的, 和美丽的. 神在以赛亚书41章提醒我们不要害怕说话, “I am with you; do not be dismayed, 因为我是你们的神. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." He has brought us to this place, and He has now brought us through it.

这位神不仅是一位帮助者, 还有圣经, in Micah 6:8 says that it is God who has shown us what is good. This verse prompts us with a question and gives an answer, 耶和华向你要什么呢? To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Concordia has done well to uphold these kinds of teachings of love and humility over these past several years. Concordia has taught us about all of these things and so much more. 但也许最重要的是, 康科迪亚教会了我们要问问题, 公正地回应, 要仁慈, 谦虚地说话, 并努力变得更有智慧, 可敬的, 有教养的公民. 因此，我们将继续保持谦逊. It is with that humility and with honor that we join the ranks of alumni of 欧文康考迪亚大学, 和他们一起, 我们提出问题, 的想法, 善, 真理, 把美丽带入世界. So, class of 2019, let us go now and let us continue the Great Conversation.