A WORLD OF COLLIDING MAPS
I Corinthians 12: 12-27
New Student Convocation
Greensboro College
Aug. 13, 2004
In an election year we hear a lot of political speeches. The closer we
get to election day, the speeches become louder and more vicious. It
must have been an election year when philosopher Alistar McIntyre said:
“There seems to be no way of securing moral agreement in our society.
We appear to have only rival claims, and rival premises and no rational
way of weighing the claims one against the other.”
The July 12 issue of “The Wall Street Journal” carried an editorial
talking about “lies and weapons of mass destruction.” The editor
writes, “If President Bush was lying about weapons of mass destruction,
then so was Jay Rockfeller … .” He went on to say that also lying
at the time were John Kerry, John Edwards, Bill and Hillary Clinton,
and seven other prominent Democrats.
I don’t care which side of the political fence you are on, it is not
good for us to call each other liars. I think our culture, and our
country are badly damaged by people who stand up and call each other
liars. And so, as this academic year begins, I want to make a political
speech.
Last April, the president of Occidental College shut
down the student senate because it was so divisive. He believed the
fierce fighting among the students was damaging and dangerous to the
college as a whole. I wonder where those students learned their
political manners. How can we expect people to behave any differently
when they watch what is happening on the political platforms every day?
The president of Seattle Pacific University reported
in a speech to his Chamber of Commerce that he recently saw a girl at
an airport wearing a
T-shirt that said, “Deny Everything!” What kind of a world view is
that? What kind of citizenship is that?
Dr. Philip Eaton reminds us of the Jewish novelist Chaim Potok who
said, “We live in a world of colliding maps.” His point is that each of
us has our own little map in our heads that guides our lives and gives
us direction in what we do and how we make choices. But those maps bump
into one another, and he claims there is no larger map that tells us
how it all hangs together. This is where I disagree with Mr. Potok. I
think there is a larger map that can keep our separate maps from
colliding.
Those of us in the United Methodist Church have a
wonderful term we like to use. The word is “Connection.” The term
really has its roots in Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church. Like
today’s political combatants, the Corinthian church was beset by
divisions. Paul tells them they cannot go their separate ways alone. He
says you not only belong to each other, you are organically connected.
This connection is not some loosey-goosey bump into each other now and
then affair. Paul says: “You are connected to each other the way your
eye is connected to your head, the way your hand is connected to your
wrist. You cannot simply say to each other, I have no need of
you.” You cannot say, “Deny Everything!”
I once visited a monastery near Aspen, Colorado. At
that monastery lived a modern mystic monk named Theophane. He wrote a
book entitled “Tales of a Magic Monastery,” in which various people
visit the Magic Monastery and report what happens to them. One man
tells of a conversation he had with one of the Magic Monks. “Father,
could you tell us something about yourself?” The Monk leaned
back. “Myself?” he mused. There was a long pause. “My name … used
to be … Me …. but now ... it’s You.”
According to Paul, we don’t choose who we are to be in communion with
the way you might choose a foursome for golf or bridge. We are grown to
each other. We are more like Siamese twins than tennis partners. Like
it or not, since you have chosen Greensboro College, you and I are
welded to each other. I am yours and you are mine.
The historian George Weigel made the case that
“Poland prevailed against the crushing occupation of Nazism and
Communism because of an enduring conviction: that the deepest currents
of history are spiritual and cultural … .” He says history is
driven by culture; by what people honor, cherish and worship; by what
society deems to be true and good; by the expressions they give of
those convictions in language, the sciences and the arts; and on what
individuals and societies are willing to stake their lives.
What are you willing to stake your life on? When you are ready to
answer that question you will know a great deal about yourself. This is
where you will get a vision for a decent society. You will get
that vision down there in the deepest currents of culture. Down there
where we ask the biggest questions about what is true, good, honorable
and beautiful. Down there in the roots of culture. Today you begin an
in depth study of the roots of culture.
Okay, that’s my political speech for today. Here it
is in summary form:
1. Each of us has little maps in our heads that guide our actions.
2. There is a large map available to each of us to keep our separate
maps from colliding with each other.
3. We have chosen you to come to Greensboro College. That means I am
you. You are me. What hurts you, hurts me. What fills you with joy
fills me with joy. Or, as Paul puts it, “If one member suffers, all
suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”
At Greensboro College you cannot wear a T-shirt that says, “Deny
Everything!” You cannot shout “Liar!” every time you hear someone say
something with which you disagree. You cannot look only at your own
little map; you also have to look at my map and the little map inside
each one of us.
This faculty will help you follow those maps and get down deep to the
roots of our culture. They will help you read your separate little
maps, and they will give you a perspective and a better understanding
of the bigger map. They will help you keep your map from bumping into
others as you travel along your journey. And what a splendid journey it
will be! Let’s get started!
Craven E. Williams
President
Greensboro College
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