Thanks Not Withstanding

(Above, an image from of the student body in front of the old administration building merges innto an image from the 2010 graduating class of Covenant Theological Seminary)

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.” (Prov. 3:27)

It surprised one woman to hear that--in my job as the Director of Alumni Relations--I didn’t regularly ask alumni for money. The concept seemed lost on her, even as I sought to explain the vocational nature of many of our graduates.

Beyond that, I struggled to convince her of the value (far beyond monetary) of our alumni presence--how four of every five new students come to us by way of an alumnus. How the testimony of faithful life and service as exhibited by our alumni in the little-c church (e.g. pastors, teachers, counselors, and ministry leaders of every kind) and as part of the big-c Church (e.g. a coffee shop owner in Colorado, a US congressman, a State Department field agent, a banker, a software engineer, several authors, a few medical doctors, a nuclear engineer, financial planners, a restaurant owner, and more than a few homemakers; to name a few) serves the hopeful glimmer of refracted light pointing future-ward, toward glory and tomorrow and tomorrow.

What is Shared
Yours is a testimony of a memory once remembered. Yours is a testimony of a past, shaped by the pursuit of a shared ending--a warm meal, a savory drink, a smile, an embrace, a dusty stretch of sidewalk. The classrooms may change, technology advance, and professors retire; but far beyond the acres of 123330 Conway Road, you share a native land in common. And testify to the same.

I mean no false praise. Scripture reminds us of the view of ourselves when pride overcomes--that when we have left behind our “dingy” for the Savior--(Can you hear Dr. Robert Vasholz saying that--interrupted by his occasional, deeply guttural, Yoda-like grunt?)--we yet remain “unworthy servants; we have only done our duty” (Luke 17:10). This is a self-reflective view necessary in our arrogance, and not the way our Savior see us.

These words from Luke 17 come after the parables of the lost: lost sheep, lost coins, and lost children (Luke 15). John summarizes Jesus’ intent, “No longer do I call you servants…but I have called you friends” (15:15). For to see ourselves as we are is human; but to see ourselves as Christ does--that is the power of the looking-glass upon which Mercy set her heart. John Bunyan writes, “Now the Glass was one of a thousand. It would present a man, one way, with his own feature exactly, and, turn it but another way, and it would show one the very Face and Similitude of the Prince of Pilgrims himself.”

As More than Servants
We are common servants, but more--Christ has made us friends. You labor, though not in vain. You work, and what history cannot remember heaven will never forget. And you send those who would do the same. Yes, alumni donate financially to the seminary. Our care for, appreciation of, and praise on behalf of these men and women is not less than that--but vastly more.

Our thanks is, I pray, what good we can bestow as we mutually labor for the Kingdom. Until all things are made manifest--let us render your praise as good. For this at least is in our power!

Joel Hathaway
Covenant Theological Seminary
Director of Alumni and Career Services


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