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- We have been called to worship by the Duke Chapel Choir and its director, Greg Fountain. And we welcome you to this service on this opening Sunday of our sesquicentennial year here at Duke University. It's appropriate that our President is participating in the leadership of the service today as well as the University Marshall, Doctor Pelham Wilder, who is also the sesquicentennial committee here at Duke. Remind you that at the end of today's service we invite you for lemonade in the court in front of the chapel. An occasion to greet one another. One of the students was telling me that these tear out forms that we have in the Bulletin, we got a number of these forms back from people who wish to work in various aspects of the Church's ministry, but the student was telling me that if I gave you permission to tear these out during the service, we would get more of these back. We will have a moment for you to tear out your forms. (congregation laughing) I suggest right before the offering so you can hand them in the offering plate. We are grateful for the people that we were able to contact through these. We invite you to participate in some of the many areas of the chapel's ministry by filling out the form, tearing it out, and putting it in the offering plate. We also welcome the Dean of the Divinity School, Dean Dennis Campbell, who helps in the leadership of our service today; and we welcome those who worship with us through the Duke closed circuit television system in Duke Hospitals. Let us continue our worship. (peaceful organ music) (harmonious organ and choral music) (dramatic organ music) (harmonious organ and choral music) (dramatic organ music) (harmonious organ and choral music) 

- Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, in whom we live and move and have our being, who has created us for thy self so that our hearts are restless until they find rest in thee. Grant unto us such purity of heart and strength of purpose that no selfish passion may hinder us from knowing thy will. And no weakness from doing it. Oh, God, speak to each of us the word that we need. And let thy word abide with us until it has wrought in us thy holy will. Cleanse, quicken, and refresh our hearts. Direct and increase our faith, and grant that we by our worship at this hour may be enabled to see thee more clearly, to love thee more fully, and to serve thee more perfectly. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. 

- Let us pray. 

Congregation: Open our hearts and minds, oh God, by the power of your Holy Spirit, so that as the Word is read and proclaimed, we might hear with joy what you say to us this day, amen. 

- The first lesson is taken from the Book of Proverbs: My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my Commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom, and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice, and preserving the way of His Saints. This ends the reading of the first lesson. (peaceful organ music) (radiant solo vocal music) (harmonious choral music) The second lesson is taken from the Epistle of James. Every good endowment, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. But be doers of the world, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves, for if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in the mirror. For he observes himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like. But he who looks into the Perfect Law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing. This ends the reading of the Epistle lesson. (peaceful organ music) ♪ Oh Lord make thy face ♪ ♪ To shine upon me ♪ ♪ Oh Lord make thy face ♪ ♪ To shine upon me ♪ (powerful vocal music) ♪ The unfolding of thy words ♪ ♪ Gives light ♪ ♪ It imparts understanding ♪ ♪ To the simple ♪ ♪ With open eyes I can ♪ ♪ Because I hunger for they companion ♪ ♪ Oh Lord make thy face ♪ ♪ To shine upon me ♪ ♪ Oh Lord make thy face ♪ ♪ To shine upon me ♪ ♪ And to me ♪ ♪ And be gracious to me ♪ ♪ As is my want for those ♪ ♪ Who love and care ♪ ♪ Keep stead ♪ ♪ My stance according ♪ ♪ To thy promise ♪ ♪ And that you're inequity ♪ ♪ Has dominion over me ♪ ♪ Oh Lord make thy face ♪ ♪ To shine upon me ♪ ♪ Oh Lord make thy face ♪ ♪ To shine upon me ♪ ♪ Redeem me ♪ ♪ From oppression ♪ ♪ That I may keep ♪ ♪ My place there ♪ ♪ Make my face to shine ♪ ♪ Upon my servant ♪ ♪ And teach me my sanctums ♪ ♪ Oh Lord make thy face ♪ ♪ To shine upon me ♪ ♪ Oh Lord make thy face ♪ ♪ To shine up me ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Lead me to the Father ♪ ♪ Grant to thy son ♪ ♪ And to the Holy Ghost ♪ ♪ As it was in the beginning ♪ ♪ Is now and ever shall be ♪ ♪ World without end ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Oh Lord make thy face ♪ ♪ To shine upon me ♪ ♪ Oh Lord make thy face ♪ ♪ To shine upon me ♪ The Gospel is taken from Saint Mark: Then he returned from the region of Tier, and went through Sedan to the Sea of Galilee through the region of the Decapilus. And they brought to him a man who was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech. And they besought him to lay his hand upon him, and taking him aside from the multitude privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue, and looking up to heaven he sighed and said to Him, "Eh fata," that is, be opened, and his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And he charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. "He even makes the deaf hear, and the dumb speak." Here endeth the reading of the Gospel. (peaceful organ music) ♪ Amazing grace ♪ ♪ How sweet the sound ♪ ♪ That saved a wretch ♪ ♪ Like me ♪ ♪ I once was lost ♪ ♪ But now am found ♪ ♪ Was blind ♪ ♪ But now ♪ ♪ I see ♪ (harmonious choral music) 

- It is my custom to take as my text for preaching each Sunday, one of the lessons from the Ecumenical Lectionary. I do this in order, because this is an Ecumenical University Chapel, and we think it's good for us to be using the same Scripture that's being use by the majority of the world's Christians on a given Sunday. But perhaps more importantly, we do this to make clear, if we can, that subjects for sermons ought to be laid on us by the Bible. Not by the preacher's pet peeves or personal projects. By the way, if you want a copy of the Ecumenical Lectionary so that you can read the lessons before you come to worship, call the chapel office, we'll be glad to give you one. Now use of the Ecumenical Lectionary means that, you see, I have no control over which Scripture is read here on a given Sunday. It's not a matter of my picking and choosing, it's a matter of the Church's selection. And sometimes that can make it tough for the preacher. Say, like on graduation weekend, when the assigned text is an awfully interesting dissertation from Leviticus on the necessities of circumcision. It's an uphill battle for a preacher on a Sunday like that. But there are some Sundays when the fit between the biblical text and the University context just couldn't be better. Take today, for instance. Here it is, Opening Sunday. And I'm in luck, because the first lesson for Opening Sunday is from the Book of Proverbs. Proverbs, a Book of Hebrew wisdom. My son, unfortunately, only sons went to college in sixth century B.C.. My son, if you received my words, making your ear attentive to wisdom, inclining your heart to understanding, yes, if you cry out for insight, then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and you will obtain the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom. Wisdom? Understanding, that's why we're all here, right? You give us your money, agree to stay with us at least four years, and we give you a dormitory room, a meal card, and wisdom. And if you don't obtain wisdom within your allotted four year, don't worry, you can go on to graduate school, and you can give it a try there. We're in the wisdom business. I know at your commencement, some wag is bound to quote to you the tired old chestnut, that universities are depositories of wisdom. The freshmen bring so much of it in, the seniors take so little of it out. But if this was your opening week here, of course this means that this is your first week on the path towards wisdom, the beginning of wisdom. And what an appropriate biblical text for you as you begin your journey towards wisdom in botany or physics or physiology. An appropriate text except for one problem. And the problem is this: That the Proverbs' definition of a wise woman or man has absolutely nothing in common with contemporary, conventional definitions of wisdom. There is a great gulf between the Bible's definition of a wise person and contemporary standards of smart. A great gulf, a gap illustrated well by this text from Proverbs. The Lord gives wisdom. And from His mouth comes understanding. Now I tell you, that's quite different from modern definitions of wisdom. In the modern world. The modern world, I've always liked Cervantes' novel Don Quixote. I suppose it's still read in the Duke English Department. This account of this crazy romantic who ventured forth in a world of windmills imagined to be giants, and monks on mules imagined to be knights in armor and whores who were seen in Don Quixote's vision as aristocratic ladies. But I don't think I knew why I liked Don Quixote until I read Milan Kundera's book, The Art of the Novel. Kundera calls Quixote the first novel of the modern era, and Cervantes as the first writer in the West to recognize what it meant to live in a world of Galileo and Descartes. A flattened, one-sided cosmos of science, in which we came to know more and more about less and less. A world in which wise people, for the first time in history, were defined as those who knew a great deal about very small subjects. In this new world of the modern era, says Kundera, God slowly departed from the seat from whence He had once directed the Universe and its values, distinguished good from evil. Don Quixote set forth from his house in a world that he could no longer recognize. In the absence of some supreme judge out there, the world suddenly appeared in fearsome ambiguity. The single truth, decomposed into a myriad of relative and lesser truths parceled out by people. Thus was born the world of the modern era. The ancient professor of Proverbs tells his youthful seeker of wisdom, that you get smart by submitting yourself to God. To cry out for insight, raise your voice to God for understanding, seeking it as lustfully as you would grub for gold. Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God, because the Lord gives wisdom. Like the founders of this University, religion and erudition is our motto, you know. Like the founders of this University, the writer of Proverbs was convinced that all searching after knowledge which is serious ultimately leads to God, who is the source of all wisdom. But did the founders of this University, or the writer of Proverbs, envision a world in which knowledge resulted in the fragmentation of the world into so many detached bits and pieces? Just like the undergraduate curriculum. Now, let's see, I'm doing literature, and then I'll put that aside and I'll go do biology for a while and some day if I have the time I'll take a course in ethics and find out how to live. Our lives are minced and chewed up into little bits and pieces, where no one piece of our lives connects with any other piece. I am a professor and then I am a parent, and then I am a husband, and then I am a pastor, and how does it all fit together? At its best, such education tends to produce learned dilettantes who know a great deal about a very little. As some of you sit awaiting your name to be called at your commencement, read the titles of the PHD dissertations. The Foreign Policy of Albania Between Mid-March and Late-April of 1851. (congregation laughing) There are people who've given their years to doing that. And at worst, such education creates graduates who have sampled just a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Who's overriding philosophy is that there is no overriding philosophy. Since everything is relative to my own opinions anyway. And I wonder, this fragmentation of knowledge, this forsaking of the big picture, do you think maybe that's responsible for the ethical crisis we're in in this country? Do you wonder? We're in an ethical crisis in this crisis in this country. That doesn't come as news to any of you. Investigations of PTL and by SCC, publicly reveal what many of us know from our own lives: Morally speaking we are rudderless; we are cast adrift; we are without moorings. Over 100 political appointees in the present national administration have had to leave office because of illegal or improper conduct. This year's commencement speaker, Gary Trudeau, cataloged evidence of moral collapse in contemporary American society. "What does the Attorney General have to do to get fired?" He asked, "Knock over a liquor store?" Looking out over our 1988 graduates, Trudeau said, "As I look at you, my guess is that the yearning "for moral commitment is just as strong "among you as it's ever been at any time in our history. "But I also suspect that your generation, "raised without rules, "the generation that grew up in the rubble "of smashed idealism, "fallen heroes, and too many broken marriages "is deeply suspicious." Unfortunately, by the end of his commencement address, about all Trudeau could wish our graduates was: Good luck. Life. Life with no transcendent, overriding, objective criterion for the good or the right, or the true, outside our own egos, is life guided by nothing more than the whims of good or bad luck. There's not much room left in this fragmented world for the big picture. Not much opportunity for wisdom in a world where life is just one darn thing after another and nothing connects! And there are no values outside the realm of my own personal opinion. In another novel, Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, a character says, "Without God "anything is possible." Without some outside, overall other, some other who stands against our flattened, merely opportunistic and utilitarian universe, anything is possible. We can steal millions on Wall Street and shrug our shoulders, saying, well, the only law I broke was I got caught. We can shoot down an unarmed passenger liner and chalk it up to human error. Two Presidential candidates bit the dust. One for plagiarism, and another for what we used to call adultery, and say they were hounded by the press. Another Presidential candidate, a TV preacher just like me, when questioned about false information on his resume said, and I love this, I want to remember this: Look (laughs), I'm a preacher, we're not good on details. (congregation laughing) Finally, does anything make a difference when everything is cut loose and there is nothing out there? Nothing out there, other than values of my own creation. Wisdom consists in little more than how to feel good, because we have long since forsaken the task of how to be good. The fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord. Our text says that it is the beginning of Wisdom. The fear of the Lord: it's an Old Testament way of saying that God must be God. That God's ways are against our ways. That our actions should be judged by criteria other than those of our own devising. The fear of the Lord. It's an Old Testament way of trying to speak of the transcendent, other distance of God, the God who says in Isaiah: My ways are not your ways. Worship of that God is at the heart of any ethic which would call itself Christian. In fact, there is a close connection between what you do here in worship, and your life out there. The fear of the Lord. Have you read the book, Habits of the Heart? If you haven't, don't worry, it's required reading in at least three undergraduate courses here. But in Habits of the Heart, Chapter nine, I think, we meet a young adult named Sheila, who tells the interviewing sociologist that she has invented a new religion which she calls, Sheila-ism. She says, "I believe in God, but I'm not a religious fanatic. "I can't remember when I've been to church. "But my faith has carried me through some tough times. "I call it Sheila-ism. "It's just my own little voice." Do you know this person? I fear she is us. I am the sole source of truth and wisdom. I am the source of any criterion for living of life. Right, wrong, good, bad, well, it's all a matter of personal opinion anyway; it's what feels right for me; it's my own little voice that I listen to. Awhile back there was a joke going around that I disagreed with, and I know Dean Campbell would disagree with, but supposedly someone came up to three Christians and asked them, "Is this right or wrong?" the first Christian was a Catholic. When asked, Is this right or wrong, he said, "Well, the Pope says..." The next person was a Baptist. The Baptist said, "Well, the Bible says..." The third person, it was said, was a Methodist. The Methodist said, "Well, it seems to me that..." Alas, that is all too accurate a picture of the way we go about deciding what's wise and unwise, right and wrong. I spent this past summer in Germany. I promise not to bore you every Sunday about my trip to Germany. But in that sad country, with such a sad history, I asked people: Why? Why? What happened here between 1935 and 1945? Why? It's a question many thoughtful Germans have asked themselves over again. Why did not more people have the moral resources to stand up to Nazism and say no? As for the Church, Karl Barth said, "It was about 200 years too late for the German church "to muster the resources to resist Hitler." In fact, Barth says, it was about 200 years late for the church to even know there was something there worth resisting. Too many compromises had been made, too many false idols had been put in the place of the true God. The only church to mount a real opposition to Hitler was called The Confessing Church, and in it's inaugural Barman Declaration of 1934, the Confessing Church said this: "Jesus Christ, "as he is attested in Holy Scripture, "is the one Word of God. "The one Word which we have to hear "and which we must trust and obey in life and death. "And so we reject as false doctrine, "as though the Church could acknowledge "as a source of its proclamation other words, "other events, powers, figures, and truths "as God's Revelation." Now, that's a fancy theologian's way of saying: In the jaws of death, that a Christian is somebody who submits to a higher power. A Christian is somebody who submits to a better criterion of judgment than his or her own opinions and feelings. That a Christian is somebody who has been taught throughout life to fear no government, no opinion, no philosophy, no world view, no personality more than we fear God. The fear of the Lord. It gives us a means of saying yes and saying no. I'm not gonna tell you that this'll tell you everything to do in every circumstance in life, but the writer of Proverbs says, this is the beginning of how you respond to every circumstance in life. This is the beginning of wisdom. This is the starting point for how to get smart: The fear of the Lord. And that's what you ought to demand of me as your preacher. Not that I'd be entertaining or cute, or even that I help you make it through the week, but that I help you to fear God more than you fear being out of step with the status quo. That I teach you to listen to God's voice, speaking above the cacophony of conflicting voices in our world. And so, you should insist, that every Sunday I take as my text something more significant than my opinions so that you might base your life on something more significant than your opinions. Because, you see, that's why we're here on Sunday morning: To fear God. To listen. So that how we live, our ethics, might be more congruent with the one whom we adore. Our worship. So that we might get wise by learning to take God a little more seriously, and ourselves a little less so. This, my sons and daughters, is the beginning of wisdom. 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- I invite you to join me in the Litany for this year and the University. God of our Abraham and Isaac, of Apostle and Prophets, in every age you call people to work for you, showing justice, doing mercy, giving purpose to an aimless humanity. By your truth, darkness is dispelled, and all people set free to mature in wisdom. In pursuit of that truth we now take our place at Duke University. Receive us unto yourself, oh God. Use use to accomplish your sacred intentions. 

Congregation: Amen. 

Dr. Brodie: That in this place we will remember those parents, teachers, and friends who love us, and who's hopes follow us here. 

Congregation: Lord, hear our prayer. 

- That we may accept the responsibility of our freedom, and the burden of our privilege. 

Congregation: Lord, hear our prayer. 

- That with courage we may doubt, but that we will also place our doubts in the larger faith of Jesus Christ. (congregation murmurs) From insulating ourselves with books and words. (congregation murmurs) From ignorance that feeds injustice. From indifference that yields to cruelty. And from blind loyalty to false values. 

Congregation: Hear us, oh Lord. 

Dr. Brodie: From hopelessness that cripples us, a self consciousness that paralyzes us, and from temptations that destroy us. 

Congregation: Deliver to us, oh Lord. 

- Gracious God, in a world where justice does not yet roll down as waters, nor righteousness as a mighty stream, where there is much knowledge but little wisdom, we pray for this school, its students and faculty, staff and administrators, and for the task in which we now unite. Turn our efforts to good, that as our understanding increases, our responsibility will deepen. For the sake of the future that you give us to create. 

Congregation: Hear us, oh God, amen. 

- You may now be seated. (peaceful organ music) (peaceful clarinet music) ♪ Amazing grace ♪ ♪ How sweet the sound ♪ ♪ That saved a wretch ♪ ♪ Like me ♪ ♪ I once was lost ♪ ♪ But now I'm found ♪ ♪ Was blind ♪ ♪ But now ♪ ♪ I see ♪ ♪ Twas Grace that taught ♪ ♪ My heart to fear ♪ ♪ And Grace ♪ ♪ My fears relieved ♪ ♪ How precious did ♪ ♪ That grace appear ♪ ♪ The hour I ♪ ♪ First believed ♪ ♪ Through many dangers ♪ ♪ Toils and snares ♪ ♪ I have ♪ ♪ Already come ♪ ♪ Tis grace that brought ♪ ♪ Me safe thus far ♪ ♪ And grace ♪ ♪ Will lead me home ♪ ♪ The Lord has promised ♪ ♪ Good to me ♪ ♪ His word my hope ♪ ♪ Save us ♪ ♪ Beware my shield ♪ ♪ That glory shines on me ♪ ♪ As long as I ♪ ♪ Have you ♪ ♪ Amazing grace ♪ ♪ How sweet ♪ ♪ The sound ♪ ♪ That saved ♪ ♪ A wretch ♪ ♪ Like me ♪ ♪ I once ♪ ♪ Was lost ♪ ♪ But now ♪ ♪ I'm found ♪ ♪ Was blind ♪ ♪ But now ♪ ♪ I see ♪ ♪ I once was lost ♪ ♪ But now am found ♪ ♪ Was blind but now ♪ ♪ I see ♪ (peaceful organ music) (peaceful clarinet music) (triumphant orchestral music) (harmonious organ and choral music) 

- Oh Lord, our God, source of all wisdom, the author and giver of all good things, we thank you for all of your mercies, for your loving care over all your creatures. We bless you for the gift of life, for your protection, for your guiding hand upon us, and for the tokens of thy love within us. We thank you for friendship and duty, for good hopes and precious memories, for the joys that cheer us, and for the trials that teach us to trust in you. Especially on this day do we give you thanks for Duke University, for its 150 years of service unto your people. But most of all this morning we give you thanks for the saving knowledge of your son, our savior. For the living presence of your Spirit, and for your Church, the Body of Christ. In all of these things make us wise unto a right use of these benefits, that we may render an acceptable thanksgiving unto you all the days of our life. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who taught his Church to pray: 

Congregation: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever, amen. (peaceful organ music) (peaceful orchestral music) (harmonious orchestral and choral music) (vibrant orchestral music) (harmonious orchestral and choral music) (vibrant orchestral music) (harmonious orchestral and choral music) 

- Go forth in peace to serve God and your neighbor in all that you do! (peaceful choral music) (peaceful organ music)