Augsburg College - Augsburgian Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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Once again, it is a pleasure to put down a few words for the Augsbur- gian. Your theme, which focuses on the future, is very attractive to me because as a theologian and a teacher in the church I have always been drawn to the tasks of relating the past to the future. It is in the continuing dialogue between the events and insights of the past and the challenges of the present that the future is shaped This exchange must continue. If we ignore the past we are destined to repeat its mis- takes; if we try to live in the past by romantically retreating we are ren- dered incapable of meaningful life today. The concern for our religious roots that is apparent in this volume is also most appropriate to your fu- ture orientation. What can be said about this place and our work together? At the very outset it is appropriate to note that Augsburg College was founded and has been sustained by a dream; not only a dream about to- morrow. but a dream that it should be possible to educate men and women of good will so that they are not embarassed by their history, nor overwhelmed by the present, nor afraid of their future It should be possible to help open persons up to themselves, to others and the wbrld. and to God so that they are enabled to be servants and leaders m society and in the church. Our history has always been fu- ture oriented Our founders, the im- migrants from Norway who came to southern Wisconsin and Minnesota, always looked to the future At the same time their ties to the past were strong They remembered the homeland with its mountains and fjords They held fast to the faith that God was indeed gracious and that his purpose for humans was best seen in the person and work of Jesus Our forbears were neither embar- rassed nor encumbered by the past They were made for the future Ev- ery child born m a sod hut. every baptism in a woodland or prairie church every family meal, every death and buria with children and grandchildren standing by. every- thing looked somehow to the future Tomorrow was as near as the next sunrise or nse m the road, it was as imminent as the next plant- ing or harvest, the next death and CHARLES S. President 8 INTRODUC” ON

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always just a step ahead of me INTRODUCTION 7

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 birth. What noble and courageous people! They held to the beauties of the past, worked to better the pre- sent. while always struggling for- ward into the future. Our present, just as our past, has a future look. Tomorrow” is a word that leads us on. Uncertainties about the economy or the world scene have been a part of our past and are obviously pre- sent today. They have never been able to destroy the spark of opti- mism that seems to be built into our beings. Tomorrow is a word of both disturbance and promise. The future is disturbing because of its uncertainty; it cannot be controlled. By contrast, the past, with its re- cords and memories, is in hand. It can even be changed a bit as memories and histories are altered to fit the way things should have been. The future is also a place of prom- ise. This is particularly true for the child of God Every Sunday is a re- membering and an embracing of the new life that has come through the resurrection. Every Communion Ser- vice is a preview of the great feast in the last times. Every Baptism, a joining in Christ's death and resur- rection. All things look toward the future; a future that is secure in the hands and promises of God. Our lives as individuals and Augs- burg’s life as an institution are inex- tricably tied to the tomorrows that invite us to move ahead. We cannot avoid this call, even if we would wish to do so. Our confidence that the future is in fact inviting is tied to the conviction that our roots are firmly set in a history of service and hope, and that our present is dedicated to addressing the needs of community and church. Each of us. along with Augsburg, has a place of service and leader- ship which we must fill. As long as this vision of tomorrow is before us. our futures, while beset with regular challenges, are open and inviting. — Charles S. Anderson President r