A letter from President Phipps

 An excerpt from the charge I was privileged to share with Messiah University’s undergraduate Class of 2022, these words are powerful reminders for all of us:

I am honored as your president to share a few final thoughts with you, the Messiah University Class of 2022. I have enjoyed getting to know many of you during the past four years, despite stretches of time when COVID precautions required us to socially distance and interact less frequently. I commend your resilience, adaptability and creativity as we responded, “Together at Messiah!”

Your formal undergraduate studies have concluded, but your Messiah education is an important foundation upon which to layer a lifelong commitment to intellectual, personal and spiritual growth. Read actively across genres; engage complicated ideas with thoughtfulness and humility; challenge yourself to learn and try new skills; welcome civil conversations in which you can gain increased understanding; and seek daily opportunities to be God’s agents of reconciliation.

This past academic year, we have focused considerable time and attention on the Scriptural call in 2 Corinthians to be God’s ambassadors of reconciliation. As a campus community, we embarked on a process of listening, lamenting and allowing our hearts and minds to connect with people’s stories of pain, marginalization and injustice, and we learned the necessary role forgiveness plays in the journey toward reconciliation. Your journey—and mine—as peacemakers and reconcilers must persist. We must continue to seek transformative action that repairs and restores broken relationships and systems — praying for and encouraging each other along the way. 

As you leave the Messiah campus, I challenge you to be agents of grace—a counter-cultural calling in this current historical moment. It is so sad that, even as Christ followers, many expect us to match the deplorable tone, vehemence and outrage of current conversations —whether we’re interacting on social media, attending local school board meetings or having personal conversations.

At Messiah, you have learned an alternative way of living as a Christ-follower. Jesus Christ, who is described in the Gospel of John as “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), is our model. His interactions with people of various economic and social classes, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, religious faiths and different personalities throughout the Gospels demonstrate how we, too, can respond in the fullness of truth and grace without harshness, sarcasm or cynicism.

Serving, leading and pursuing the journey toward reconciliation with grace doesn’t mean that we value false unity above all else or that we don’t identify and work to address injustice. Rather, we invite and allow the Holy Spirit to influence our thoughts, words and deeds as we refrain from labeling anyone who disagrees with us as the enemy.

When I look out at your faces and remember your stories, your questions, your service, your accomplishments and your positive contributions to the Messiah University community, I am hopeful. May your grace-filled presence in the world—in your homes, churches, communities and workplaces—be a beautiful testament to your Messiah University education and, even more importantly, a witness to the Jesus of the Gospels. May He sustain and guide you now and forevermore.