Director of Spiritual Care Jim Andrews
I remember being shown in to the private study of my major professor in graduate school. It was a large room with floor to ceiling book shelves brimming over with books. There were books on every surface as well and a big oak desk stacked high with papers. Behind the desk was a tall, be speckled man in his 60s; a life-long Lutheran and a soft-spoken intellectual. His life’s work had been immersing himself in the ethical morass of the Holocaust and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. His goal? To find within the narratives of the religions of the world a message which would prevent future catastrophic lapses in ethical judgment.
It was in the Jewish scriptures he found the message that, after years of study and contemplation, he concluded would guide us through the complex dynamics of modern life: welcome the stranger. I can still hear his raspy voice and imagine his intense eyes as he would tell us that the message of welcoming the stranger was one of the most prevalent invocations in Jewish scripture. When we welcome the stranger, when we extend open hospitality to those who are different from us; we begin to see that our diversity is something which makes us beautiful and strong. When we welcome the stranger, we put to rest our unfounded fears and our preconceived notions and create space in our souls to experience wisdom and wonder we would not have otherwise known.
Have a great week, everyone!
Jim