The disciples were in total disarray. Yet here we are today, surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, proclaiming a faith that has moved mountains, built universities, changed lives. Easter morning, the resurrection set a new context for interpreting and responding to whatever life might bring. A portion of your educational journey is ended and we call that ending a commencement, a beginning. Ours is not a resuscitation faith.
Resurrection means assumption of a new kind of existence.
More important than the resuscitation of Phillips University in bodily form will be the resurrection of the Phillips spirit in her alums, in you and in me. The first essential ingredient in the Phillips legacy is a growing sense of self. I'm not talking about self-centeredness but about an enlarging sense of self in the context of the human family. You are unique and special. With that growing sense of self comes a molding and a shaping of our basic attitude toward life.