Convocation Address: "Ultimately Worthwhile"
By Douglas J. Schuurman, Professor of Religion
Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003

Introduction
Faculty, staff, students, administrators, regents, Emeriti, and friends of St. Olaf College. Ready or not, we are poised to begin the new academic year. It is a great honor to be the speaker for this occasion. It is also very humbling, since many of my faculty colleagues deserve this honor more than I. But this year the honor, and the task that comes with it, have fallen to me.

Earlier this summer, when I was fretting over what I should say today Kathy, my wife, advised, “Just say, ‘Go in peace. Serve the Lord. Thanks be to God.’ And then sit back down.” As usual, had I taken my wife’s advice, my life this summer would have been a lot easier.
My family and I have devoted a lot of our lives to this college. I’m beginning my 18th year of teaching. My wife has worked here for five years, first in Admissions, and now in the Alumni Office. Sarah, my oldest daughter graduated in ’02. And Krista, my middle daughter is a Senior here this year.

Is all that time and energy worthwhile? Each one of you has devoted some part of your life to the projects that constitute the mission of St. Olaf College. Is what you are doing here worthwhile?

The title of my address comes from the second sentence of St. Olaf’s mission statement. It says, “In the conviction that life is more than a livelihood, it [St. Olaf] focuses on what is ultimately worthwhile and fosters the development of the whole person in mind, body, and spirit.” What we are doing here is not only worthwhile, it is supposed to be “ultimately worthwhile.” That’s quite a claim! Quite a promise! Quite a challenge! Let’s reflect for a few minutes on what this claim might mean, and what it implies for our labor in this place.

Body
I. What is “ultimately worthwhile”?
One thing it means is that St. Olaf does not focus on what is worthless. Worthless things are meaningless; they have no positive significance; they serve no larger goods. Worthless things corrupt or destroy what is worthwhile. They destroy meaning. Their only significance is the damage they do to what is good and valuable. The Apostle Paul identifies these as “works of the flesh.” In his letters he names some of them: “[I]dolatry...enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels...factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing....(Gal. 5:16-21). In Ephesians he says, “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander..., and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you” (4:30-31).

The works of the flesh are finally the work of death. They destroy physical, emotional, and social health. They rip apart families, destroy friendships, churches, nations, and the natural world. Like what happened on 9/11, they are significant. But according to the Christian gospel they are not ultimately significant. The mighty powers of God’s creative and redemptive work will prevail over them, ultimately. God triumphed over the murderous envy of Joseph’s brothers, causing it to result in Joseph saving the world from a famine. Look at what God did with the cowardice of Pontius Pilate. God can wrestle good even out of the jaws of evil. But in themselves, the works of death are worthless.

If St. Olaf attends to worthless things, it does so only to expose them in their many guises, to confront them, and to dismantle them with the tools of wisdom, courage, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

What seems worthwhile often depends upon perspective, circumstances, and an order of goods and values.

On August 27, 1996 my father died unexpectedly in Florida where he and my mother moved after retirement. My mother had Alzheimer’s Disease. My father had been caring for my mother in their home. The funeral, grief, and anxiety about how to find a place for my mother loomed large. Week One, classes, and committee work did not seem all that worthwhile to me as I began the fall semester. At some points I wished I were a mail carrier rather than a religion professor, whose calling is to reflect upon life, death, God, and meaning. In time my duties on the Hill returned to their rightful place in my life. Circumstances affect what we take to be worthwhile.

To a student seeking wisdom and knowledge for the sheer joy of learning, grades may be trivial. But to a student who has lost a sense of wonder, and who needs a specific GPA to stay in college, or to get into Medical School, grades may be worth much.

Many forms of recreation may be worthless in one kind of life, but worthwhile in another. A game of Trivial Pursuits, for example, may have its proper place in a well-ordered, well-balanced life. But in a life obsessed with playing Trivial Pursuits to the point where a person forfeits sleep, skips classes, misses work, fails to study--all so that he or she can spend more time playing Trivial Pursuits--in such a life playing Trivial Pursuits is worthless. The same truth applies to surfing the net, video games, golf, fishing, playing cards, exercise, watching television, and other things. If they have their proper place in a balanced life, they are worthwhile.

A wise person discerns the worth of the varied goods of human life, and allots to them the degree of love, concern, and commitment that they merit depending on relevant circumstances. We hope that a liberal arts education at St. Olaf will help form people who are wise, people who can discern the relative worth of things in their relevant contexts, and who make their commitments accordingly.

A thing is ultimately worthwhile if it is the one thing that ought to be valued above all other things. The priceless pearl that causes a pearl merchant to sell all he has so that he can possess it. Its supreme value evokes from us our deepest desires, passions, and commitments. It shapes how we live our lives and how we pursue the other things we hold worthy. For many Ancient Greeks it is honor. Friendship is another candidate. For Plato it is philosophizing about the eternal forms of truth. For the Stoics it is tranquility. For Epicureans it is pleasure. For John Stuart Mill it is happiness.

A recent New York Times survey of Americans’ values revealed that “having a fulfilling job” was rated more highly by more respondants than “being married,” “being religious,” “being a good neighbor,” “being involved in the community,” “having a lot of friends,” or “having enough time for yourself” (Philipson, Married to the Job, p. 3). Many schools do focus on a preparation for a job. Technical schools, business schools, medical schools, law schools all focus on supplying skills necessary for employment in a given job or career. But our mission statement says that the focus of St. Olaf on what is ultimately worthwhile is born of the conviction that life is “more than a livelihood,” even a fulfilling livelihood.

St. Olaf does not deny that getting a well-paying and fulfilling job is worthwhile. We like to remind students and their parents that liberal arts education enhances prospects for employment, promotion, and creative adapting to changes in a rapidly changing economy. We have some pre-professional programs. We provide career counseling and other resources aimed at helping students gain a livelihood. But for the most part finding a livelihood is a by-product of a St. Olaf education; it’s not the focus. The focus is on what is “ultimately worthwhile.” The mission statement seems to suggest that the livelihood thing will work itself out so long as one focuses on what is ultimately worthwhile.

The mission statement identifies several aims that it implies are worthwhile. They include (1) fostering “the development of the whole person in mind, body, and spirit,” the (2) integrating “teaching, scholarship, creative activity, opportunities for encounter with the Christian Gospel and God’s call to faith,” (3) combining “academic excellence and theological literacy with a commitment to life-long learning,” (4) striving to be “an inclusive community, respecting all our differing backgrounds and beliefs,” (5) stimulating “students’ critical thinking, (6) heightening students’ “moral sensitivity,” (7) encouraging students “to be seekers of truth, leading lives of unselfish service,” and (8) challenging students to become “responsible and knowledgeable citizens of the world.” Quite a list!!

These very worthwhile aims constitute the core of our mission. The items mentioned above focus on students, and the student-faculty relationship. But we need more to achieve them. We need admissions and financial aid personnel to attract and enroll students; we need residence life personnel to bring our stated aims to bear on dorm life; we need nurses and counselors, we need buildings and classrooms conducive to a community of learning; we need grounds that are well-maintained and attractive; we need people to prepare our food, clean our dishes, and wash our public bathrooms; we need a safe and secure campus; we need books, journals, and media resources; we need academic assistants and office workers of various kinds; we need administrators who balance competing interests in ways that are fair and creative; we need Regents who provide for the long-range planning and fiscal strength of the college; we need donors and advancement personnel to ensure that a St. Olaf education is available to all, regardless of income level.

The aims stated in the mission statement, and all the support services crucial to pursuing those aims, are very worthwhile. But are they “ultimately worthwhile?”

Finally, ultimately, only God is worthwhile. Only God merits unhindered passionate commitment from the core of our being. According to Jesus, the first commandment is this: “Hear oh Israel: The Lord, our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mk 12:29). The second is “love your neighbor as yourself.” The two are distinct, but connected. The main way a person loves God is by meeting the needs of her or his neighbors. If our lives and of all our projects are ultimately worthwhile, it is only because God confers worth upon them.

This is what Luther’s doctrine of vocation is all about. In serving others one serves God. Luther urged fathers to imagine they were holding the baby Jesus in their hands when they were changing their infants’ dirty diapers. As Jesus said, when we meet the needs of the least of these, we are doing it to him. This is why Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, “To allow the hungry [person] to remain hungry would be blasphemy against God and one’s neighbour, for what is nearest to God is precisely the need of one’s neighbour” (Ethics, 135).

Human needs are diverse. According to the Old Testament prophets, what we need is Shalom. They dreamed about shalom, longed for shalom, and hoped for Shalom. One theologian describes the prophets’ vision of Shalom as follows:

[Shalom] is the webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight.... We call it peace, but it means far more than mere peace of mind or a cease-fire between enemies. In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight--a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its Creator and Savior opens doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he delights.... It would include, for instance, strong marriages and secure children. Nations and races in this brave new world would treasure differences in other nations and races as attractive, important, complementary. (Plantinga, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, 10-11).

Justice, universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight. That is God’s project for the whole creation. Only God can make this vision a reality. Jesus proclaimed that his first coming was the beginning of the presence of God’s shalomic kingdom on earth. And it is our calling, as individuals and as a college, to work toward God’s shalom. Everything we do at St. Olaf can contribute to this broad and exciting project. And when we do good work and offer it to God in grateful response to God’s gifts to us, then by God’s grace we become partners in a project that is ultimately worthwhile.

II. How does what we do relate to what is ultimately worthwhile?
What does this calling mean for our life together on the hill? It means many things. Here are a few.

It means that we will all strive for excellence. Whether we are teaching, learning, studying, preparing food, keeping financial records, cleaning the classrooms and bathrooms, we try our best to do good work. If the Devil is in the details, then so is the Holy Spirit. When we work here we are not only getting a paycheck or a B.A., we are not only serving students, we are not only forming responsible and knowledgeable citizens of the world, we are serving God. Let us then dedicate ourselves to excellent work.

We have many predecessors to inspire us. The Emeriti in this chapel today. Plaques around the campus remind us of others. There’s one in the beautiful garden on the south side of Old Rolvaag Library building. It cites the words of John Berntsen, who served the college from 1912 through 1964 (52 years) as superintendent of grounds and buildings:

I want to make St. Olaf so nice no student will ever have to apologize for it.

The plaque then notes

This was his purpose for dedicated service and excellence in his work.

Another plaque outside the NE corner of the Science building describes Dr. Harold W. Hanson:
Dr. Hanson served St. Olaf college for over 40 years, dedicating his life’s work to the teaching of biology and to the care of God’s earth.

Dedication and excellence should characterize all the work we do.

If we view our work here as part of a calling we will be attentive. We will be attentive to the image of God that is in each one of us, regardless of our gender, race, class, or position in the college. We will be attentive to the ways in which we each need each other. What may seem the least important, or worthwhile, is really crucial to the function of the whole. Being attentive to God’s image each other will cause us to respect each other as we respect God. Knowing that each one of us is serving an essential role will help us appreciate each other’s work, rather than feel superior or inferior to one another. If we’re attentive to each other, then it will show in many large and small gestures of kindness, support, and respect.
We will also be attentive to our natural surroundings. What a privilege we have to work in a place of such beauty! The design, maintenance, and artwork of the campus enhance its natural beauty. St. Olaf has a long tradition of thoughtful planning of our campus. In the Feb. 14 1922 issue of the Messenger the headline read, “Will Ruthless Materialism Drive Spirit Children of Manitou From Vale of Tawasentha?” The student writes,

St. Olaf’s sons and daughters read with a sense of shock the plans for the Greater St. Olaf which provide for a road through Norway Valley. If the silence of the valley be broken by the noises of the road, where then will the dreaming youth listen to wisdom’s muse? Where will solitude’s sweet peace lure the heart of care and trouble? Who can find an inspiration in the clatter of a Ford? (Shaw, Dear Old Hill, 102)

We will also be attentive to traces of God in, with, and under the universe and our life here at St. Olaf. There are reminders of this all around us. Just look at the windows of this chapel. We can also find God’s presence in the mutual support we give each other, especially in times of crisis and sharp need. We can find God’s wisdom in the insights that emerge as we discuss texts, in the knowledge we gain of the workings of nature, and in the beauty we enjoy in music and the arts. The words engraved on the SW entrance to Holland Hall lift the mind toward God. They say,

“Nature: The living visible garment of God.”

And on the SE entrance:

“In the vast and in the minute we see the footsteps of the God who gives luster to an insect’s wing and wheels His throne upon the rolling worlds.”

Let us all grow in curiosity, wonder, awe, and joy. If we view our work here as part of our calling, we will be attentive.

The call to serve God and God’s shalom is also a call to suffer. Luther taught that carrying the cross, a symbol of suffering, is central to all vocations. For him one’s vocations were not places to fulfill the self; they were places to sacrifice the self in service to others, only to find it again as a gift from God.

No pain, no gain. It’s a slogan that contains a lot of truth, whether it’s about exerting oneself in an athletic program, gaining knowledge, or achieving excellence as a musician or artist. All jobs have some unpleasant aspects we must endure for the sake of other things we gain from them.

Studying for exams can be painful. University of Chicago undergraduates in the dorm where my wife and I worked as Resident Heads had a custom for each night of exam week called “the Primal Scream.” All 600 of them would come to the windows of the horseshoe shaped building at the appointed time to let out 60 seconds of the most pain-filled scream one could imagine. Then they’d quietly return to their work.

In the early years here at Olaf, the Old Music Building was called “Agony Hall.” Each of us, as faculty, students, administrators, support staff, building and grounds workers--each of us has to endure unpleasant aspects of our work if we are to do our work well. We must be willing to suffer through it.

Some of our suffering will come from allowing ourselves to get close to each other. If you love no one, you suffer little. If you love much, you suffer much. For when you love someone, you worry about him or her and you become vulnerable. They may become ill. They may even die. When students die it is especially painful. The new memorial chimes tower will soon provide a location for commemorating all who died while enrolled as students at St. Olaf.

The death of Scott Wade hit me particularly hard. Scott had been my student in the Great Conversation. We had just completed its two year cycle. In mid-June of 1996 he was struck dead by a bolt of lightning on a soccer field in Chicago. Ed Langerak, Ron Lee, and I decided to compile a set of memories about Scott from his fellow Great Con students. Ron and Ed were out of town, so the notes trickled into my office almost daily for over 6 weeks, repeatedly reminding me of Scott’s death and the hole it left in the lives of his friends and fellow students. Jenny Howenstine wrote this:

Living together for two years made many of us friends and almost family. While he treasured Dana as his sister, he was a brother to many of us. Someone that cannot be replaced. Because we are young, and our lives are so full right now, it is so easy for me to take what should be treasured the most for granted.... Scott has taught me so much from his life, but it often takes a death to teach us what is most important in life, that we are not here forever, and we do not know how long we will be together with the people we love.... I will always miss Scott, but the ways that he touched our lives will be with us forever.

God cherishes each one of our lives. Our calling to cherish and care for each other. To form friendships and relationships with others is to open ourselves up to suffering. But the caring, and the pain, are ultimately worthwhile.

Conclusion
Death does not have the final word, Life does. Our life came from God, and to God it will one day return. While we have this gift of life, let’s do all we can to be faithful in the tasks and opportunities before us this year. May God confer upon it the divine blessing, taking it up into the kingdom of shalom that is ultimately worthwhile.

The first stanza of the hymn we sang sets the right tone for beginning the year.
God, whose giving knows no ending,
From your rich and endless store;

Nature’s wonder, Jesus’ wisdom,
Costly cross, grave’s shattered door

Gifted by you, we turn to you
Offering up ourselves in praise

Thankful song shall rise forever,
Gracious donor of our days.

Go forth in peace.
Serve the Lord.
Thanks be to God.


Works Cited
Biblical citations are from the New Revised Standard Version.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics. E. Bethge, ed. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1955.

Ilene Philipson, Married to the Job: Why We Live to Work and What We Can Do About It. New York: The Free Press, 2002.

Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Not the Way It’s Supposed To Be: A Breviary of Sin. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989.

Joseph M. Shaw, Dear Old Hill: The Story of Manitou Heights, the Campus of St. Olaf College. Northfield: St. Olaf College, 1992.