“Are we ready to be renewed?” Blount asked a crowd of more than 800 guests gathered here May 7 to witness his installation as president of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seminary.
“Can we envision the future right now, see what God is calling this seminary to look like in 10 years, not from where it is, but from where it ought to be?” he said. “Instead of starting with the present and changing forward; can we think of the future, and then bring that future back to change our present? Having seen tomorrow, we can transform today,” said Blount, the first African-American to ever lead a predominantly white PC(USA) seminary.
It was an inauguration sermon that clearly struck a chord with the seminary students, faculty and staff, alumni, family and friends gathered for the afternoon service on the seminary’s quadrangle.
A strikingly clear, sunny day set the backdrop for the historic event laden with dignitaries from other institutions of higher learning, ecclesiastical representatives, and former Union-PSCE presidents.
A Scripture given by Blount’s father, selections from the senior choir at Carver Memorial Church in Newport News, Va., where Blount once was pastor, and reflections on the historic significance of Blount’s appointment by close friend, the Rev. Michael E. Livingston — a former colleague at Princeton Theological Seminary and immediate past president of the National Council of Churches — added special touches to the service.
Retired Union-PSCE president the Rev. Louis B. Weeks, whom Blount succeeded, brought the New Testament lesson, John 11: 1-44.
“This is the day that the Lord has made,” said the Rev. Arthur Ross III, chair of Union-PSCE’s board of trustees and pastor of White Memorial Church in Raleigh, N.C. “Surely all of us here rejoice and are glad in it.”
Blount, a Smithfield, Va., native who has spent a lifetime as a scholar, author, and pastor, was most definitely among those rejoicing.
I am humbled by the number of people who have come,” he said to the crowd. “It is an overwhelming moment for me.”
Prior to coming to Union-PSCE, Blount was the Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Princeton Theological Seminary. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion and psychology from the College of William and Mary, a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Seminary and Doctor of Philosophy degree from Emory University.
Blount also is the author, co-author, editor, or associate editor of numerous books, including The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible; Can I Get A Witness? Reading Revelation Through African-American Culture; and Struggling with Scripture.
His skills as a preacher shined as he challenged the audience to think about the current state of Union-PSCE and to move from the dead to the living.
Although speaking on the John 11 Scriptural text commonly known as the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, Blount said the story “is not as much about Lazarus being raised from the dead as it is about us being raised from our fears so we can pursue God’s dreams for us.”
He pointed out: “When Jesus said ‘I am the resurrection and the life’ he wasn’t talking about waking up the dead; he was talking about waking up the living.”
“We don’t have to raise a dead man. We just have to raise the bar of theological education, raise the expectations of seminarians who come here, raise the expectations of the churches where they go after they leave here, raise a vision about the future of theological education, raise enough energy to achieve that vision, and, yes, enough capital to fund it.
“Are we ready for that?” said Blount, an ordained minister in the PC(USA).
He queried the group as to their readiness to be flexible, creative, and more diverse; to build an interdisciplinary curriculum, to teach social justice and spirituality; to be evangelical, entrepreneurial, and 21st Century Reformed.
“Jesus expects response,” just as he did when he told Lazarus to get up and come out, Blount said. “The question is, are we ready to come out?”
Then, once we come out, we must shed those “dead people clothes,” he said.
“Dead people clothes are made of a fear fabric that weighs you down so you can’t rise up and meet difficult situations with challenging, even risky efforts of faith,” Blount contended. “Dead people clothes are shawls of doubt that prevent us from believing in new curriculum, new pedagogical strategies, and new administrative agenda.”
Union-PSCE has difficult situations it needs to address, Blount said, including re-branding itself to better communicate the years-old merger between Union Theological Seminary and the Presbyterian School of Christian Education and figuring out how to bridge the gap between the Richmond campus and its extension in Charlotte, N.C., miles away.
“We need to identify our dead people clothes and take them off so the renewed seminary, not the one we see in the rearview mirror, but the one we’re looking at 10 years down the road … can live,” Blount said. “It’s better to be naked in faith than dressed up in death. But are you ready to walk into the future that uncovered, that vulnerable, that alive?”
