My note today is from the dedication of our current Campus Center about fifty years ago. The words were written and spoken by Pastor John Arthur, Director of Campus Ministry from our predecessor body, the Lutheran Church in America. Ruth Wootten found this in her personal archives and shared it with me. I thought it worth repeating. I quoted this in my September 11 sermon.
If anyone is capable of writing/printing this in an attractive manner suitable for framing, let me know. I think it would be nice to post in a prominent place in the Campus Center. Let me know if you are able and willing to do this. Thank you! Perhaps, following Pastor Arthur’s words we should rename the Campus Center ” The Well”?
Pastor John Arthur:”I wish to affirm today that the center we have built together would be something like that well in Samaria…Prostitutes, thieves, and atheists were effectively excluded from the public places of worship, but they could come to the well…Let it be neutral ground. Let it be where students share a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine and speak to each other of their deepest concerns–or simply enjoy each other as members of God’s universal family. This may take some forbearance on the part of the church people. But let us stand fast against those religionists who want to separate Christ from mankind,–who want to separate Christians from the rest of the people–who think that God is only in temples and all those guys on Calvary must be thieves.
There was something about Jesus which made it possible for him to have dinner with the irreligious without killing the conversation. And when Jesus was thirsty, he didn’t look around for a religious person to draw some water from the well….It is often said that Jesus spent so much time with the sinners because it was good missionary strategy. Perhaps this was not the case, but rather that he simply felt more at home with them than with the scribes and pharisees….I believe this campus center should reflect the kinds of things that Jesus did–which, only in retrospect, and rather tardily did people recognize as being a real MINISTRY.
May God grant that this will be a place of ferment and excitement! Let the music and singing ring out and be heard from the street! Let study groups challenge students and stretch their imagination and understanding! Let the pastors’ offices or studies be sanctuaries for those who have burdens to heavy to bear alone, and for those who simply want to talk with another human being. Let it be a place where forgiveness is not pronounced ceremonial in a worship service, but where it is daily lived. Let the patio be an open forum where any idea can be openly expounded. Let the love of God so abound that, by His grace, people may no longer look upon this center as a religious building but rather, in the best sense, as a public place, a well.”
