Graduates and guests it's my distinct
honor to call on pastor Liz Walker to
give the keynote speech at this year's SPH convocation.
Pastor Walker.
Thank you.
First of all congratulations to the class, the graduates of 2017, this is your day
and nothing I say will be bigger than that achievement.
I just wanted to talk to you for a few minutes
about lessons I've learned from out here in the world,
how I ended up in religion
where I started in communications.
It seems like hundreds of years ago that I
was on television, and in some ways it
was a long time ago, but I believe that
our two institutions religion and public
health have much in common.
We are both concerned with vulnerable
populations issues of social justice and
most obviously healing. As your dean has
eloquently written public health would
be remiss in ignoring the role that
religion plays in shaping the health of communities.
There is much room for collaboration, these troubled and
uncertain times in which we lived a man
creative getting together to build and
maintain healthy thriving communities.
In the words of Daniel Berrigan we can at the very least
stand together and utter a common outcry,
there is much work to do.
But I want to speak to you for just a
few minutes on something a little more
personal I want to suggest to you
an idea that I've been thinking about for
many years, that I believe is already
realized in your life and in your work,
an idea that I believe will ultimately
save the world. It is as simple as it is
profound I want to talk to you for
minute about practicing grace.
Now by its very nature we think of grace as a
religious word, more appropriate inside a
church, but I promise you I'm not here to
preach there will be no collection.
Grace is thought of in the church as divine
forgiveness but I would argue that grace
is much more than that, Author Philip
Yancey writes, "graces is the last best
word in the world." We have maligned and
distorted the notion of love perhaps we
can get back to love by understanding grace.
Its power has been barely tapped
it goes beyond forgiveness at its
roots in the Greek it is the word,
charity, kindness, goodwill, if you take it
all the way back to its Hebrew roots you
will even find rejoicing. We give a grace
period that means that gives you a
little bit more time to pay something
back. A gratuity which is from this same
word is a little extra something for
your service. Gracious people are those
who are accommodating and giving. So
there is more to grace than forgiveness
my definition of grace is based on where
I live I live in Jamaica Plain on the
Jamaica way I don't know if you know
that area but the Jamaica way is a
beautiful winding road that goes from
western part of the city into the city
and it's two lanes and and on the Sunday
morning it is exquisite because it
passes a conservation land and parks and
and ponds but between Monday and Friday
at nine o'clock in the morning and five
o'clock in the evening the Jamaica way is the road to hell.
The traffic is much too much for the
size of the road and nobody's going fast
but everybody's mad on the Jamaica way.
I know that because I live right on one of
those corners and if you don't have a
streetlight on the corner or a street
light of the stop sign on a corner
you're at the mercy of the traffic and
so if you want to get into the traffic
or cross over to see the pond you have
to stand there in yell and pray or
beg and people just refuse to even look
at you and the sad part they're not going fast.
As a matter of fact traffic is
bumper to bumper but no one lets you in,
maybe one car in 20. Now I noticed this
weekend that the State Police have put
up signs on the Jamaica Way checking
your speed and so I, this may change, but
the last time I was on the Jamaica way
it was still hell. So here's my
definition of grace, just let somebody in,
just give somebody a break, you don't
have to know them, you don't have to love them,
you never will see him again just
give them a break.
I learned about this
definition of grace in the time that I
left television news and ended up in
working in South Sudan. I went there on a
news story back in 2001 but because I
was with some incredible people I ended
up spending 11 years between Boston and
South Sudan. We went there to investigate
allegations of slavery but what we found
in the midst of constant conflicts and
villages burned and men murdered we
discovered people with an amazing sense
of resilience and strength that was
inspiring. This is a part of the world
that seems always caught in conflict
there are always wars there are droughts
and famines both natural and man-made.
People are killed by the thousands and
the hundreds of thousands and in the
midst
the chaos and madness I was exposed to
the kind of grace that I had never seen
before. You see, people in South Sudan,
and I'm sure it's this way in many other
villages all over the world, consider
hospitality as a art form. We think
of tribes as perpetrators of conflict
and of course there is that part of the
problem but tribes actually exemplify
belonging and when you have a sense of
belonging you are not threatened
necessarily by anybody else so
hospitality is what you do. It has
nothing to do with your possessions it's
a way of seeing the other person first
you see that person you recognize that
person and you're willing to give to
that person because you see in South
Sudan people said we belong to
each other.
Now on certain levels there's war
and there's conflict but at the bottom
of this there are people who belong to
each other.
I would argue that grace is a way of
seeing the interconnectedness of the world.
It was Martin Luther King who said
we are caught in an inescapable network
of mutuality a single garment of destiny
what affects one of us directly affects
all of us indirectly I can never be what
I ought to be until you are what you
ought to be,
and that doesn't cost anything.
Right now my church Roxbury Presbyterian is
working with Boston Medical Center and a
number of other medical health
institutions with a program on
post-traumatic healing we have decided
to focus on the long-term effect of
violence loss and grief what happens
after the yellow police tape is down and
the physical wounds have healed that
pain goes on. And this kind of trauma
permeates so many aspects of whole
communities and I would argue it is not
just a problem of war or urban violence
I would suggest to you that we are all
suffering from trauma today all you have
to do is turn on your television or
watch the news once you watch for a few
minutes you start twitching and then you
feel like you want to slap somebody
that's trauma. It is slowly eating away
at our ability to practice or even see
grace in the world introducing the
notion of grace to the children in my
neighborhood is very difficult because
they want to live their lives at least
some of them on the politics of revenge
but grace in its most public forum is
civility and that is getting more
difficult every day we don't have to
agree we don't have to hang out together
we don't have to hide our anger but in
seeing in each other's humanity and in
seeing something possible in the other
person we can elevate the discourse and
in the process elevate each other.
Ultimately practicing grace mode goes
much deeper than policy or law.
It is simply a way of being in the world.
A way of knowing that we are all connected.
Desmond Tutu said interdependence is the
fundamental law of humanity we have to
relearn our approach to each other with
dignity and empathy we have a
responsibility to each other simply
because we are all here.
So whether you end up in the bush of Sudan
or the streets of Roxbury or on the Jamaica way
there is something you can do, in the way
you see each other, in the way you treat each other.
In the times like these
asking you to show grace in your life is
asking you to be a hero because there
are voices out there that seem to insist
the world is divided between us and them.
I have been in many places in the world
and I am here to tell you there is only us.
Practice grace and whatever you do,
wherever you work, wherever you are,
and in that moment you will have lifted all of us.
Congratulations to you and God bless.