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Good morning. I rejoice in being here this morning for this convocation of our 118th year. I want to thank my faculty colleagues and the president for giving me this honor. This morning's convocation address I have

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entitled Learning from the exiles resilience and the general epistles . It emerges out of the research I'm doing for my introduction to the general epistles for Abingdon Press, a volume geared for the educated generalist rather than specialists

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in Biblical studies. As I begin this address, allow me to thank the saints at ST Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church in New Orleans for inviting me to be the sally lecturer this past year. Some of the

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thoughts that you hear in this address were first introduced in that lecture last spring. Now let me begin with an unsurprising confession. I love facebook despite the international and political scrutiny that facebook and social media currently

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face as a person who's closest extended family lives in at least seven different countries across major bodies of water and distance is too far to walk or bike facebook keeps me connected to siblings, cousins, uncles and

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aunts and friends around the globe. And these days I can barely read it. Every time I log on I face the myriad global calamities and existential threats to our existence as earth creatures descendants of ha adam

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. The Daily News rattles me raising up in me element, not unlike those of the Babylonian exiles. How do I teach preach right or even just live faithfully in times like these in a nation whose politics

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seems all of a sudden, so alien to me on a planet whose very sustenance I can no longer take for granted I have not moved. And yet it seems I we find ourselves as exiles in a

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land that we no longer recognize. And how do we sing God's song in a strange land? Thankfully . During my sabbatical, I immersed myself in other correspondence, the writings that, for lack of a

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better term we call the general epistles. My proposition this morning, is this the general epistles suggest a pattern for cultivating resilience during difficult days, a pattern that can serve us as a theological source as our

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faith seeks understanding in these troubled days. To address this proposition, I begin with two preliminary questions which writings are meant by the general epistles and what does resilience entails? Then turning to the general epistles themselves

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? I consider three overarching questions what moral stress has occasioned these writings? How do these writers foster spiritual integration among their audiences? And how do these writings encourage relation maliti or solidarity among those in their congregations

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? I then consider some complications for us as we consider these writings as theological sources. Finally, I consider some implications for us as we begin this year's work of communal theological construction. Although resilience carries a

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wide semantic range, my use of it relies on the work of Dr Carrie during the Clifford baldwin, Professor of pastoral care and counselling at I'll if School of Theology In a 2015 paper for the journal Pastoral

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Psychology during describes resilience as and I quote, an outcome of caregiving relationships that help people spiritually integrate moral threats. During then examines the question of resilience from the perspective of a 21st century postmodern social justice focused

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white female pastoral theologian, she argues that contemporary person should engage in a practice of theological reflectivity to unpack the embedded intersectional oppression, they experience oppression that leads them to internalize beliefs of moral inferiority and moral stress

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. This unpacking and the creation of new theological lens is a process she calls spiritual integration most effectively occurs within a relational context. This process of recognizing moral stressors and of engaging in spiritual integration in a context

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of relation Haliti enables persons to develop resilience During the description consists of three interrelated components. 1st one must recognize the sources of moral stress during defines moral stress as deriving from conflicts in core values such as parenthood

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demands and work demands. University of Washington, business Professor Scott J. Reynolds concurs for Reynolds. Moral stress describes a psychological state born of an individual's uncertainty about his or her ability to fulfill moral obligations.

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The psalmist eloquently put this moral stress to poetry in the lament with which I start, how can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? Spiritual integration. The second component involves connecting with God,

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identifying the ways in which one's own embedded theologies participate in worsening moral stress and constructing life giving theologies. This definition neatly maps to the work of constructive theology , identifying one's epistemological lens. Then using one sources

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to create a theological and ethical construction. Such a construction reframes ones internalized moral stress and resists threats to resilience. As the late reverend dr Katie Geneva Cannon might have put it. This sort of reframing of

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spiritual integration is doing the work my soul must have third during observes that healthy supportive relationships undergird this theological work of spiritual integration, allowing the resilient person to grow South. African theologian Desmond tutu calls this life

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giving relation Haliti Ubuntu in no future without forgiveness. He writes, Xubuntu speaks of the very essence of being human. When we want to give high praise to someone, we say, you know, boom

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to hey. So and so has been to. Then you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, my humanity

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is inextricably bound up in yours. We belong in a bundle of life. Close quote. Thus, to paraphrase during doing the work our souls must have within a context of cuBA into enables us to sing

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the Lord's song even in a strange land full of moral stress. While during those were concerns persons in this century, her description of resilience does not have to remain there. Part of my argument is this

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the theological work of cultivating resilience in the face of moral stressors, predates the theorizing impulses of postmodern pastoral care and can be traced within some of the earliest writings of the christian church. There too, we

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find moral stressors vexing the community of faith. In response early church leaders here, the authors of the general epistles proposed theologies for spiritual integration, bolstered by loving supportive relationships. Additionally, the shifting history of

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the new testament canon requires that I specify which biblical texts, I mean by the general epistles. In considering which of the earliest christian writings might form a cannon for christian scriptures. The earliest church leaders divided

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up their candidates into various categories That were the four gospels, the unique theo historical acts of the apostles and the apocalypse of john. But most of the collection consisted of smaller writings, most of them letters

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. These were divided into two groups, The 14 writings by Paul And the seven writings not by pop Mhm. The latter group became known as the general or catholic epistles from the greek word catholic. Additionally

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, the group included traditionally the group included the one letter attributed to James, the brother of Jesus. The two letters attributed to Simon Peter, the three attributed to john and the one attributed to june.

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Hebrews was considered the 14th book of Paul. Now , few contemporary biblical scholars continue to follow these rubrics for determining which letters are general consensus removes Hebrews from paul's corpus, adding it to the general writings.

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Further, johann in studies claims as its own. The three johann in epistles as agenda to the gospel of john. This leaves us five general books to which I will attend this morning. Hebrews James the

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two letters of Peter and jude. While these books differ in significant ways, most share a rhetoric of exile or diaspora. Thus, the title of my lecture, whether their exile is political or simply a

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rhetorical flourish is debatable and the subject of a different address. However, this rhetoric of exile marks them as participants in a larger christian discourse about displacement within the larger community. Moreover, they all share a

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world orientation of separation, emerging from their mutual perception of the external world as a source of moral stressors . I have addressed those world orientations in an earlier address from this pulpit and I will not rehearse them

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here in this address, I argue that in response to their self perception of exile and their world orientation of separation, these five writings proposed theological and ethical responses intended to foster resilience within their christian communities through

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spiritual integration and calls to relation maliti. Working with ancient writings, presents challenges of distance and silence. The general epistles originate in a part of the world considerably distant from our own likely written under pseudonyms.

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These writings defy overly short claims about their authors and their contexts. However, the writings contain clues that help readers sketch out some of the moral stressors they address economically. The first of these is the book

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of Hebrews. Although traditionally considered pauline. This was debated as early as the third century C. E . When bishop origin of alexandria in Egypt famously quipped that as to the authorship of the Hebrews, God

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only knows. In recent scholarship on Hebrews, dr Gabriela Gilardino argues that Hebrews originated as a sermon to a roman or italian community of jewish christians. Drawing from the Jerusalem lecture Neri of readings for the service

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of worship closest to the holy day tissue off a day of mourning and consecration in Judaism, traditionally remembered as the day when the people of Israel were condemned to wander in the wilderness and never entered the promised

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land. Tisha B. Av also served as a day of mourning for the fall of both the solomonic and the Herodian temples in Jerusalem. The late dr Ellen Bradford Aitken suggests an additional historical framework. You

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see in 81 ce after less than two years of rule, the flu Avian emperor Titus died unexpectedly. Emperor Titus was a war hero. The successful victor of the jewish roman war of 70 C. E

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. After his victory, he had been granted attribute a grand procession into Rome with all of his war loot, including famously large golden mena wrote that had once illuminated the temple of Jerusalem. So in 81

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when the emperor and war hero unexpectedly died, the roman senate declared him to be a god, a process called apotheosis and erected a massive arch in his honor that still stands in Rome today, Bradford akin

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argues that the author of Hebrews, maybe responding not only to Tisha B. Av, but also to the roman apotheosis of Emperor Titus sadly, war affects more than those on the battlefield. The prejudices surrounding

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war affect those far from the front, often. Long before the battle begins, Neil Elliott's work has illuminated the roman prejudices against jews and christians, which surely would have been heightened by war. If Eliot

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, Gherardini and Bradford taken are correct. The moral stress in hebrews stems from Rome's violent antipathy toward Jews and by extension toward Christians, both in Jerusalem and concurrently in Rome antipathy that the community still remembers.

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We hear this moral stress reflected in hebrews 10 vs 32: 34. Recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to shame

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and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated for You, had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possess something better

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and more lasting note what the preacher raises imprisonment, the plundering of personal possessions, physical abuse and public humiliation. The preacher rights, hebrews for fear that the moral stressors caused by roman violent antipathy may cause

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believers to become apostate, But How does one sing the Lord's song When faced with these sorts of hardships ? Similar moral stressors attend the community addressed by 1st Peter. Written from a roman or italian church context

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. The letter addresses believers in Asia minor. Most scholars consider first peter pseudonymous, considering it unlikely that the peter of the gospels and acts of the apostles would have the literacy or depth of scriptural knowledge.

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To compose this letter dating first Peter proposes, poses additional challenges, relying on my former colleague, Professor emeritus louis Donaldson, I place first peter roughly during the period of Emperor commission, an emperor who actively

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increased empire wide devotion to the imperial cult. This shift costs conflict between gentile christian converts who refused to participate in the imperial cult with its deification of the roman emperors and their gentile pagan neighbors. Thus,

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as in hebrews, the moral stressors in First Peter stem from the gentile outsiders and their antipathy towards the chosen exiles of First Peter's audience, Non believing gentiles appear to treat members of the self named eggs,

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Ilic community harshly maligning them as evil doers, presumably for their unwillingness to participate in the rights of the imperial cult. To put this in our context, Consider the reaction faced by those who refuse to say

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the pledge of allegiance or to stand for the United States National Anthem. Now add the element of worship and deity, and you begin to understand the tension faced by the community of 1st Peter Further, some

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of those addressed by First Peter live at the bottom of the social ladder, enslaved to non believing and possibly abusive masters. Women also find themselves indirectly threatening situations, especially if married to non believing and abusive

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spouses. Indeed, in Chapter four, the author calls experiences the churches in Asia minor face a fiery ordeal And how can one sing the Lord's song in the midst of a fiery ordeal. Although the letter

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of James also identifies external world as its source of moral stress. This stress takes a form at once more subtle and perhaps more familiar to those of us living in the global north. James hints at it

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naming external issues around poverty and wealth, favoritism and exploitation of labor, as well as internal struggles with gossip, envy and slander. But at the core of James concern. The critical moral stressor comes in

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the form of friendship or better allegiance. The community finds itself torn in its allegiance. In the external world, in which rich patrons dragged the poor into court slander, christians and exploit laborers. They might

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be effective business people if they try yet. God , the father of lights and birth mother of the community, demands of them a different devotion and ethic than the external world to James the world stains.

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The community leads it into sin and thus serves as its primary source of moral stress. The world influences the tongue to slander. The world influences people to privilege the exploitative rich over the poor. The world

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encourages the hubris of people who traveled this place and that place for business. The world entices people away from their love of God. Moral stress thus may be framed this way. How can we sing the

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Lord's song if we are in love with corrupt and sinful world? Second peter and jude are also both considered synonymous. Moreover, it seems likely that the letter of Second Peter was not written by the same

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person as first Peter because their theology strikes scholars is quite dissimilar. We will consider second Peter and do together. Because the second chapter of 2nd Peter contains a lengthy paraphrase of the letter of June right down

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to Dudes most colorful politics. If we know relatively little about hebrews, James and first peter. Second peter and jude er even more obscure, the more developed theology in these books suggests a later dating.

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But beyond that it's hard to know, relying on louis donaldson's work. Again, we might play second peter a little later than first peter, But maybe even as late as the early 2nd century, unlike

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the other general epistles, the moral stress at the heart of both second peter and jude stems from an interim mural theological argument about what constitutes heresy sadly dudes argument waxes long on polemics and short on details intruders

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have entered the community, bringing in actions that jude characterizes as licentiousness, defiling the flesh, rejecting authority and slandering the glorious ones. While many theories abound as to the matter, Judah dresses are most honest

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admissions as readers of this text is this we really don't know what jude is talking about Further. It is unfair to project any of our 21st century concerns or hang ups about what we may or may not

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consider licentiousness on to jude. We can say this as a result of this unspecified conflict systems have started to form within the community to which jude writes. Second Peter expands upon jude's polemic and here we get

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some context for the community being addressed. In second Peter, the delay of the peru Jha has led some from outside of the community to reinterpret Christianity in ways with which the author disagrees causing riffs because of

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different beliefs. This moral stress may echo moral stressors that some of us hold today. We might frame them this way. How do we continue to sing the Lord's song when christ has not yet returned?

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And we find the church at odds with itself. Moral stressors abound in the general epistles and each writing has at its heart the same question as these communities find themselves outsiders to the wider community exiles in diaspora

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, how do they continue to live faithfully and resiliently in the face of these moral stressors? How do they sing the Lord's song in a strange land for Carrie? During the work of spiritual integration of doing

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the work our souls must have, involves connecting with God, identifying the ways our own embedded theologies participate in exacerbating moral stress and constructing life giving theologies. This is the work of constructive theology of using our

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sources of theological wisdom and epistemological understanding to craft a theo ethical response to the world in which we live for the writers of the general epistles. Spiritual integration constitutes their primary work. The way of spiritual integration

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requires naming the moral stressors and one's exacerbation of those stressors. The writers of the general epistles do this well. These christian leaders name directly those moral stressors that attend to their communities, whether external, as

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in hebrews or internal as in dude. Further, they named the ways in which their communities are tempted to participate in these moral stressors in hebrews. The abuses of Rome tempt the community to apostasy to neglecting

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so great a salvation as the writer says in James , of course the power of the world and particularly the wealthy but oppressive patrons of the world, test the community's allegiance or friendship with God. In first

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peter the desires of the flesh, or perhaps more fully the pleasures of living lives as they had before their conversion, wage war against the soul likewise and second peter and jude the entanglements of the world.

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Entice the community to participate in the moral stressors that threatened to undo them. However, spiritual integration requires more than naming a community's participation in the moral stressors that oppress it. Spiritual integration requires life giving theological

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constructions that serve as a means of theologically reframing the situation. One is in each of these writers does this work beautifully constructing as they do some of the more memorable theological images in the new testament. In

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response to the apotheosis of the emperor responsible for the temple's destruction, The preacher to the Hebrews constructs a description of christ that outshines any deiced IQ declaration of the Senate regarding the emperor christ the preacher declares,

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is pre existent, victorious and enthroned a priest forever after the order of milk acidic, making the ultimate eternal sacrifice for sin through his own blood. In the one true sanctuary, moreover, that one true

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sanctuary, we cannot be destroyed. The preacher reframes the catastrophe of the destruction of the earthly temple by invoking the presence of an eternal indestructible temple in the heavens with a pre existent, all powerful king lee

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high priest far greater than the emperor. The preacher then re imagines the congregation as part of the great parade of martyrs. A triumphal march of steadfast athletes running an eternal race for an indestructible crown, overshadowing

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the triumphal parade of titus after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. However, the leaders of this race are the elders of the faith, not the romans , and everyone is looking to jesus, not the

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emperor simultaneously. The preacher names the congregation as outsiders , homeless sojourners and exiles Here in this world. They must await the time when they shall reclaim their eternal home. Meanwhile, the creature imagines them world

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stress as a time of preparation, even problematically of parental discipline until the congregation gains their inheritance. As the preacher calls the community to an ethic of persistence . Unlike the Israelites in the desert who stopped trusting

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God and we're left to wonder never to enter God's promised rest. The preacher challenges the congregation to stay the course, not to give up on the faith , but to endure or to use a quick that

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dr Beverly given to mentioned to me recently to persist . Despite the trials that they are facing, trusting that their reward is greater than anything they may endure . James theological construction begins with a reminder of the

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God. They serve the father of lights, the giver of good in every perfect gift and the birth mother of the faithful God also sits as judge and law giver believers must thus give account for their actions

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to the God who gave the law to the people . Moreover, James insists upon christ's imminent return, a signal that God's judgment is at hand. These theological assertions set up James fully response to the moral

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stressors. His community faces worldly deference to wealthy community leaders, a violation of the commands of God, worldly self assurance of one's own abilities, hubris before the God who made humanity as grass and worldly slanderous

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speech, a fire burning through God's community. In his spiritually integrated letter, James warren's a community to consider every action they take within this context of God's divine sovereignity, slanderous speech injures those made in God's

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image. Good and perfect gifts come from God, not the world to God alone should difference be made God not the world is the one true judge and law giver James, response to each of the moral

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stressors facing his community with ethical directives. The community is called to privilege and radically welcome the poor, making sure they have what they need, especially those who are orphaned and widowed. For James, a

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community that claims to be faithful but does not attend to the needs of the poor practices. A dead faith Now Slander has one remedy. Silence. However , this comes not as an imposed silence by an

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external oppressive force, but from an internal strength. A personal attention to one's own talk. In response to the temptation to befriend the world, James appeals return to God, befriend God, determine your actions

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based on God's will rather than your own. The community and identity and action within the staining world must live as the 12 tribes dispersed among the gentiles, but clinging to their friendship with God through their faithful

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practice of the mandates of faith. The Theology of 1st Peter reflects the status of its recipients, a community consisting primarily of those without societal power. The author calls them exiles. They parallel perhaps the African

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american community during segregation who found ways to survive despite the jim crow system. The author begins by encouraging these exiles to remember their identity and this is a paradox to the author. This group of exiles,

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some powerless poor, even enslaved, truly comprise a royal priesthood, a holy Nation, God's own people with an inheritance that is imperishable in heaven. Yet they face potentially harsh abuse. The author responds by

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rethinking abuse as a cost of following christ who himself was abused but later glorified to this author. Those who suffer unjustly walk the path of christ, they receive divine approval and they will ultimately be vindicated and

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glorified by God theologically. This is a way to help people endure the unendurable, and we see similar language in the african american spirituals such as keep your hand on the plow, hold on and done.

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Made my vow to the Lord ethically. The people must respond to the abuse they face by living blameless lives. That means honoring the institutions of the outsiders , enduring the oppression without retaliation, obeying their superiors

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in treating their subordinates with love and respect. Underlying this ethic is the idea that abuse, if it comes should not come because of poor behavior. Those who are holy Royal and chosen should live that way

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despite the caprices of the hostile world. In 2nd Peter and in jude upon which it depends. The author asserts that God provides all that we need for faith, Moreover, underscoring the majesty of Christ and

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2nd Peter, the author rehearses the wonder of Christ transfiguration, assuming the voice of Simon Peter. The author asserts he received honor and glory from God the Father, when that voice was conveyed to him by

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the majestic glory saying this is my son, the beloved with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain. Now, if their

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moral stress includes doubt about Christ. The writer of 2nd Peter seeks to quell them through the, through the assertion by an ostensible eyewitness. Like James, the author of 2nd Peter also emphasizes God's role as

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creator and judge here, responding to the moral stress caused by the delay of the Peru Ceo. God is in charge. The author replies, We live according to God's timeline. Here this author presents the

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marvelous paradox that God's timing may take millennia, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief . Therefore, the community must trust God and persistent faith. Excuse me in their work of spiritual integration

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. Each of these authors attends to the moral stressors facing their communities directly rather than obliquely. Their work opposes denial, but it does not engage in despair . Rather, they uphold an ethic of persistence.

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Excuse me, sir, wanted friends and battling a head cold. So I'm doing the best thing. Thanks. So their work opposes denial but does not engage in despair. Rather, they uphold an ethic

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of persistence, acknowledging the presence of moral stressors without nihilistic capitulation to life as it is their theological work names, the difficulties of their context yet points to theological truths about God. God's people and the tell

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us of all things reframing even situations of war and physical abuse in the language of faith. Spiritual integration can help Communities of faith developed the resilience they need to persist. Nevertheless, however, this works much

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more effectively as a collective effort during notes, as a key ingredient in this work spiritually supportive relationships and communities. Earlier, I referred to this as the posture of a bunch of living as though my humanity

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is inextricably bound up in yours. To quote Archbishop tutu, The writers of the general epistles would concur with during and to to, but this may not be self evident to readers of the English Bible for

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two reasons. First, overtime, contemporary english has collapsed the second person pronoun from two words thou and you into one you thou the second person singular pronoun referred to an individual, you the second person plural

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pronoun to a group. Now, people from the southern regions recapture this distinction with the use of the word you are and in the north some people employ use or the gender non specific use guys. However

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, none of these colloquialisms have been incorporated into the more widely read english translations of the bible. As a result, many contemporary readers read were you in these writings as that an individual command regarding good behavior

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? However, the authors of these and other new testament books usually address their instructions for spiritually supportive relationships and communities to a collective and intend that these instructions we lived out in community. Second, the movements

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towards Ubuntu in the general epistles might be overlooked because of how we read. Often we read new testament texts for the big ideas, the Milky Sadiq and metaphors of hebrews, or James's pointed aphorisms we glass

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over the seemingly unimportant list of instructions for life together . Perhaps because they have not been the subject of him nitty or theological treatises or because perhaps living together in christian community, has become an increasingly rare phenomenon

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, even among those preparing for ministry within the church . Still, each of these writers does counsel their communities about life together, about how to practice relation maliti. And perhaps even at times you've been to

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Hebrews 13 contains a list of these practice mutual familial love toward each other. Welcome the stranger. Remember the imprisoned, honor each other's marriages, turn from greed, remember and follow those who lead you in

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faith, share with one another in James. The list includes not grumbling against one another, praying for one another and laying hands on the sick. The author of 2nd Peter also caused the community to mutual

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affection and to be at peace with one another. Even little jude calls for the restoration of those who wander in the face of dehumanizing moral stressors. These overlooked instructions serve to humanize the believers. They issue

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a call to see one another as full human beings with joys and burdens, and to extend this insight , both of those known within the community and those who enter strangers. Moreover, the believers must address

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one another. They must engage each other, sharing , praying, laying hands, practicing the little acts of hospitality that lead to genuine mutual affection by offering these instructions, the authors and empower the believers,

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naming them as moral agents, capable of responding in small and large ways to the moral stressors that they face together. Now, first Peter with his extended and brutally misused house household code gives modern readers more

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difficulty. Yet if read from the perspective of one who has no choice but to remain enslaved, we can glimpse even here, an attempt at humanization, in an impossible situation, the author of First Peter

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sees the people who are enslaved and abused than the women married to pagan husbands, who fear the consequences of their conversion. And the author can do nothing concrete from a distance to emancipate those enslaved persons or

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protect those married women. But the author can attempt to humanize them. Therefore, instead of addressing this letter solely to men, the author directly addresses the enslaved and married women as moral agents in the community

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. Instead of imagining only the freeborn men of icon as icons of theological forebears, the author names the women married to pagan men as image bearers of sarah and the enslaved persons as image bearers of christ.

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And the author expects that they, along with the freeborn men, the husbands, the leaders of the church, collectively constitute a community grounded in an ethic of mutual love for one another. On complaining hospitality

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, careful speech and generous service. We might wish that first Peter 434 rightly anathema ties these injustices and we should still challenge First Peter's acceptance of the ancient world status quo. Still, we glimpse here as

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in the other general epistles, a framework of supportive life together the seeds of an ethic of a boon to that allows space for the flourishing of spiritual integration and thus of resilience. Now no one sermon can

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be preached in every church, nor does every model of spiritual integration foster resilience in every place. Likewise , we christians of this century cannot adopt models of spiritual integration intended for christians of the first century.

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Uncritically, The household codes in 1st Peter make this evident In this the 400th year after the beginning of European human trafficking of enslaved Africans to the United States area. We must reject any whole cloth adoption of

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models like the household quota. First Peter for we still bear the national and ecclesiastical scars of the sin of human enslavement. Thus, even as we look to our forebears for guidance in addressing our moral stressors

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, we must register caution, sometimes, even disagreement with aspects of their solutions that trouble us. We must always remember that we contemporary christians read these ancient scriptures and practice Christianity from a very different position,

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from a position of societal power and wealth unimaginable to our ancestors. Thus, our theological constructions must differ from theirs. In response to our different epistemology, we must not too quickly adopt for ourselves images of

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royal priesthood or holy nation, without considering the enslaved impoverished community for which those words were intended or for that matter, the enslaved, impoverished communities of our globe, upon which much of our economic power relies

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. As we look to the scriptures as a theological source, We must attend to the times when, by accident of our social location, we stand in the place of the antagonist rather than the protagonist.

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Our work requires a co creation of theological structures that address a dominant class, highly educated, relatively wealthy community of christians, who nevertheless find themselves facing moral stressors. A second caution attends to the world orientations

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of these writings. Each of them privileges separation from the world. We perhaps are too much towards separation . We need a theology of global and planetary interdependence that goes beyond the biblical Hoya del Foy. The

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christian kin here are work must be done with care for our forebears, correctly cautioned us against loving too much the powers of the world, but we have other theological sources that remind us of our duty to

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the stewardship of this world that God so loves. Whatever we construct, must wrestle with that tension just as we may not accept these epistles. On critically , we do ourselves a disservice when we only focus

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on their most famous verses. For while the general epistles may not always teach us exactly how we should be spiritually resilient in the face of the existential crisis of this age. They provide us with a scaffold

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on which to construct our own theological models. Then , like our forebears, let us name the moral stressors that face us, appraising them soberly. And honestly, these moral stressors come from outside of Austin

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Seminary, race space massacres in El paso and the detention of the undocumented throughout this country, the continued segregation of the city of Austin by class and race , as is evident in the most recent school scores

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the death of the first glacier in Finland and the list can go on. These moral stressors also dwell among us. We embody the tensions within society at large. The tensions within the congregations and denominations from

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which become they emerge as we struggle to speak and listen and reason with each other in classrooms, refectory resident halls and places of worship, but naming the stressors only marks the beginning of our task. We

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must do the work. Our souls must have work , such as that found in the beloved community statement and video Approved two years ago. This work may be found in other points of spiritual integration. In

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this place, we can trace it back to our mission statement and in the history before the founding of the seminary, we can trace points of spiritual integration through the recorded and un recorded words of the enslaved

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and those working for their abolition, the Tejanos and the indigenous, the colonizers and refugees from europe and before them through the words and actions of the spiritual ancestors of the church. Through mary of Magdala Tabatha

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junior. And on backwards through time to that very first moment when Ha Adams, faith sought understanding our spiritual integration builds on their work to this work. We turn as we begin our academic year translating,

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reading and interpreting together, preaching and practicing the arts of ministry, learning to attend to our full psycho spiritual beings, doing the work our souls must have as we prepare ourselves to enter the places that God

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will send us in the future. Joyfully, we get to do this work together. The general epistles remind us that we need faithful community community in which we are seen and addressed and named as moral agents

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, even as we work together to create a persistent , resilient, winsome and exemplary community of the people of God. Therefore, we must do our work in relationship with one another, not simply students to

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students or students to faculty. Our community includes all on this campus, staff spouses, Children, students , faculty visitors, police officers who eat here on a regular basis. Those who pass through on their

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bicycles, those who occasionally camp behind statehouse, Yes , even the turtles in the creeks, the grackles in the trees at all of the resident pets. The authors of the general epistles remind us that within

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a community of faith, moral agency is shared among all of us, regardless of how the external world ranks us. And the image of christ often appears where we do not expect to look if we do

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these things, if we name our moral stressors, honestly lamenting our need to sing in a strange land . If we do the work of spiritual integration, the work our souls must have. If we work

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together to create the kind of community that recognizes our common shared existence, we will not change the headlines on facebook any more than the authors of the general epistles were able to change the worst excesses of the

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roman empire. Yet we will be changed. We will be moved from fretful silence to sober speech, from embedded theologies, to spiritual integration, from the insularity of modern and postmodern society, to the difficult

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and joyful work of living as those bound together in a common God. Imaged humanity. Thank you.