(high pitched zip) (soft melancholy music) (soft melancholy music) (soft melancholy music) ♪ Let thy Holy presence ♪ ♪ Let thy Holy presence ♪ ♪ Let thy Holy presence ♪ ♪ Come on us ♪ ♪ We pray ♪ ♪ Thy Holy presence ♪ ♪ Thy Holy presence ♪ (dramatic organ music) (muffled choir singing) 

- Please be seated. (chattering) Let us together confess our sins. O God, we confess that we share some responsibility that our world is filled with ragged and hungry masses of your children and is torn between tensions of east and west, white and black, that our cultural and spiritual power lags so far behind our technological capabilities that we live with the possibility of nuclear co-annihilation. Turn us around, O God, we pray. Amen. (soft organ music) Though our wrongdoings and misdeeds are many, be not without hope. God is a God of mercy and a God of love. Let us give thanks then for God is good and God's love is everlasting. Thanks be to God whose love creates us. Thanks be to God whose mercy redeems us. Thanks be to God whose grace leads us into the future. Good morning to each and every one of you. I have two announcements. There will be a time of fellowship and light refreshments following the service of worship today in the Alumni Lounge in the Union Building. This is an opportunity to greet one another and to meet the guest preacher and others presiding in the service. This event is sponsored by the Pastoral Care Nurture Community and Worship Committees of the Duke Campus Ministry. Also, this afternoon at five p.m., there will be a reticle on the Benjamin N. Duke Memorial organ. The performer will be Professor Haskell Thomson who is a member of the faculty at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio. The public is invited free of charge. It is now my privilege and my honor to introduce my new boss and the new dean of the Duke Divinity School, Dr. Jameson Jones. 

- Dr. Joseph H. Jackson honors us and Duke University with his presence here today. He is one of the major religious leaders of our time. Dr. Jackson's record of leadership is of such magnitude, such breadth and depth and longevity that it will never be approached much less equal. He is a friend of Presidents and Popes. He has important ties here. His daughter, Dr. Kenny J Williams, is Professor in the English Department of Duke University and is here with us in the congregation today. Mrs. Jackson is also with us in the congregation and I extend a special word of welcome to her. Dr. Jackson is a graduate of Jackson State College, Creighton University, and the Colgate Rochester Divinity School. He has studied also at Pennsylvania State University, the University of Nebraska, and the University of Chicago. He has been awarded Doctor of Divinity degrees by two institutions, Doctor of Laws degrees by three institutions, including one in Liberia, and he is a Doctor of Canon and Civic Law. You know that he has been Pastor of the historic Olivet Baptist Church for 38 years and has been President of the National Baptist Convention for 26 years. He has an astounding record of raising money for good causes. Perhaps that work received its great impetus when he was Secretary of the Foreign Missions Board of the National Baptist Convention. He freed that board from debt for the first time in its history. He has led an establishing endowments in supporting churches and missions and educational institutions and in raising money for scholarships for students. He once dreamed of a million dollar miracle fund which has become a reality and does an amazing amount of good in the world. He began his ministry in small churches in rural Mississippi and he grew in witness and in leadership to become one of the primary figures not only in the church but in the life of our nation in the important work he did in Civil Rights accomplishments of this century. In 1956, it was Dr. Jackson who emphasized the ballot as the most important tool for change in Civil Rights. It was Dr. Jackson who, a year later, organized a national Urge Congress Movement and himself worked tirelessly to contact Congressional Leadership to bring about the constructive and pioneering Civil Rights Legislation which has been as important in our century as the emancipation proclamation was in the previous century. And during this long crusade, he never surrendered his principles nor compromised them, fighting over the years for first class citizenship for all people. Fortunately for the future, he has completed a book manuscript of more than 500 pages on this story of Christian activism. Historians to come will know much about the life and work of Dr. J. H. Jackson. Fortunately for us now, he is here with us today. On behalf of Duke University, I welcome him with joy and honor, I introduce him to you and in a few minutes, we will hear this man of God preach. 

- Let us pray. O Lord, our God, open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things out of your word and let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen. The Old Testament lesson is from Amos, chapter eight, verses 11 through 14. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it. In that day the fair virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst. Those who swear by Ashimah of Samaria, and say, As thy god lives, O Dan, and, As the way of Beersheba lives, they shall fall, and never rise again. Here ends the reading from the Old Testament, amen. (dramatic organ music) (muffled choir singing) (dramatic organ music) Will the congregation please stand for the reading of the gospel lesson? The gospel lesson is from Matthew chapter four, verses one through 11. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted 40 days and 40 nights, and afterward he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But he answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, He will give his angels charge of you, and On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, Again it is written, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; and he said to him, All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, Begone, Satan! For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him. Here ends the reading from the gospel lesson, amen. (dramatic organ music) (muffled choir singing) 

- It is an honor and a privilege to come to this great shrine of worship in the presence of believers and the presence of leaders of this great community. and the presence of leaders of this great community. It is no longer an easy task to stand today and make an attempt to preach the gospel of the son of God. These are difficult times in which we live, skepticism is great and profound. Materialism dogs our steps. Uncertainties plague us everywhere. And one who stands to talk about the Spirit and the power of God has a difficult task to perform. There can be no selfish pride. There can be no desire for honor. For any man or woman who speaks today in the name of the gospel of the Son of God must be humble, confessing first of all their sins and unworthiness, availability to do what God would have done. I want to read a statement to you, first of all, that is somewhat a summary of a philosophy of life. Life is more than a thrill, a sigh, and a joke to be laughed about. Human beings are endowed with more than funny bones to be rubbed for passing pleasures. We are blessed with minds to think, power of judgment to choose the right, and souls graced with wings to fly to higher kinds of being, to take our place in the highest realms of eternal destiny. These days we have some records from the past on which we depend and some in the present. When we come to the crises of life and seek to find an anchorage for our thoughts and our attitudes and our deeds, we turn to several records. The record of human experience with all of its perplexities and difficulties, we can find in that experience high points, valleys, means of comfort and consolation and some elements of despair but we can look in that volume and find some voice that speaks to us from the present and the future. We turn to the Holy Book, the Bible, and other inspired documents, and pause for them to speak to us and tell us what must we do to be saved. A church stands as a symbol, another force directing men and women to the way of truth and righteousness. Today, we think about the words of a great prophet, Amos, and the man Jesus Christ. 3,000 years separate us from the life and deeds of Amos. He was not a theologian. He was not a priest. He was not the son of a prophet nor from the school of prophets. He was a rustic character, a shepherd boy, leading his flock from place to place in valleys and on hillsides, depending on nature for their blessings and for their keep. I'm not ashamed to tell you that from this ordinary rustic, from this ordinary man from the countryside, we have received a message that has power, truth, and divine insight. He makes this confession and said, "I'm not worthy "to be a preacher or a prophet. "I have no credentials for that exalted place." "But," said he, "while I was on the countryside" "going about my task, something happened to me," "a strange and peculiar voice "overshadowed me. "I felt a presence divine "and something said to me, "this is my message, take it "and carry it to Israel "and beyond." That conviction of Amos gives us the right to listen to his words and follow his direction. His statements, his great expressions are inspiring, to say the least. But he talks about what God had done for him, But he talks about what God had done for him, he talks about a peculiar kind of famine. He had known something about the famine, of the scarcity of bread. He had seen the pastures wither and the green grass grow cold and stale. and the green grass grow cold and stale. He had seen the waters dry up but he says, I'm writing you today, not about the famine of bread and water but the famine of hearing the word of God. but the famine of hearing the word of God. Some power, some genius, some spirit that directs me to you. And Amos had the right to say what he said to Israel. He has the right to let us share those words and those convictions. Man is a creature of the dust. Man is a servant of the ordinary. Man is a sinner, plagued by drives and insights Man is a sinner, plagued by drives and insights that are not true. We have, with him, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. That man of the earth gets tired, gets hungry, he must eat and drink. There was a time when the Christian church thought it not wise to worry about man, bread, and meat. not wise to worry about man, bread, and meat, about the economic needs of humankind. Point them the way to the land beyond and leave their struggles to themselves. But we have learned by the insight of prophets and by the gift of great spiritual minds that man has a right to bread, has a right to water, and he has a right to the material things of life. One day the disciples of Jesus saw a crowd gathering around him and Jesus saw they were hungry and tired and weary. and Jesus saw they were hungry and tired and weary. He said to the disciples, "Give ye them to eat." And the disciples replied, "We have not enough. " Send them away." They may go to town and buy for themselves. Jesus replied, "They need not go away, "give ye them to eat." Man does live by bread. Man does need the material things of life but Jesus said, more than that, man needs bread that's not material. He does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. This humble creature, this slave of the dust, this pilgrim on earth has higher contacts. He belongs to the Spirit of God. He is a child of God. Mankind represents God's concern for the earth and for the world. He has given mankind to the earth, to teach man how to live and to serve God in spirit and in truth. He belongs to us and we belong to him. He belongs to us and we belong to him. In the great vision that Amos sees, he said the Lord is going to send another famine. he said the Lord is going to send another famine. Not of bread. Not of thirst for water. But of hearing the word of the Lord. Dustyesky once said in one of his great novels that you see this crowd of green youth sitting on street corners and going to taverns. They're not looking for words from Napoleon. They're not trying to find material things. They're trying to find answers to the eternal questions. That men are so made and organized, they will not be satisfied until they find the eternal question and answers. In other words, when men are called to preach, when choirs are called to sing, there is something in them that responds to what God says to them. We are so made and organized that we can't drift from God without pain. We can't get too far from truth without misery. This vision that Amos sees has several elements. This vision that Amos sees has several elements. I'll mention one or two of them. That people had resorted to consumers, they sought to consume the values of life. They sought to spend what was accumulated. They sought to use what others possess. Destroying some, weakening others, consumers of values. When the prodigal son said to his father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me so that I might go into a far country and try life for myself. The father yielded to the pleading tones of his son The father yielded to the pleading tones of his son and said one day, "Come, son, "take what I have that belongs to you "and take your journey into a far country." The boy accepted the gift from the father and went out to try life for himself. Not many days hence, he had used up his money, used up his friendship, used up his health, he had wasted all that he had. But didn't return to his father until he discovered there was nothing more he could get from the far country and he returned to his father's house and said to him, "Father, I've sinned. "I've done wrong. "I've broken my covenant with you "and I've gone into a far country "and spent all that I had and I'm not worthy to be called your son, "make me one of the hired servants." Sometimes we are so selfish and so holy that we forget to tell the father when we've gone wrong, when we've made mistakes, when we've drifted from his presence. Getting things for self, getting things to use for self, in our culture today, many of us know how to get but not how to give, know how to complain but not how to create and when we've gotten all we can from our social order, we feel victorious and happy and satisfied. we feel victorious and happy and satisfied. But you see, my friends, it is not enough to get, we must be willing to give. Today, the Christian cross is not too popular, it is not too honored, it is not too much respected because it demands of us not to consume values but to take them and share them with other people. but to take them and share them with other people. Take my cross upon you and learn of me. I'm meek and lowly and you'll find rest for your souls. It is difficult today for the church of Jesus Christ to go forward, preaching a gospel of a broken Christ and a crucified Lord. We like to think in terms of getting something for ourselves, fighting our battles, trampling others on the foot in order to be great and mighty and powerful but in this story of Amos, men must sacrifice and they must surrender some of the good things in life and serve because of eternal God. There's another thing about this parable, sometimes at the height of life, when you're the most happy and prosperous, the clouds come, we lose our way. Amos said, "When this famine comes, the sun will go down at noon and darkness will cover the clear earth. At a time when there should be beauty, at a time when the light of the sun should bless us, we find ourselves walking in the shadows. Western civilization has many discoveries, many powers, many great things, but Western civilization has forgotten that she did not come to this alone, there was some power, some spirit, some God who gave it to us. And when we forget his righteousness, we are plagued, something happens to us. The sun of progress goes down at noon The sun of progress goes down at noon and the shadows cover the distant earth. We've talked about peace a great deal in this period of life but now we are a long way from peace, we're in war. The great powers have used the little nations a long time The great powers have used the little nations a long time but now the sun is setting and going down. We must either turn to the God of peace or see the shadows of war settle upon us. This fair land of America, beautiful, blessed by God, and yet, so much pain and terror. Young people today are being hounded, children are dying innocent, we don't know what to do. I had a call the other day from one of my fine friends in Atlanta, Georgia. He said, "On the 22nd of March, "we're going to have a great rally, "we're going out to the places and mark the spots "where these innocent children have died." And I said, "Well, what are you going to do after that?" "We're going to church and lift a collection." I said to him, "I'm glad the people of Atlanta "and of Georgia and of the United States "have called into play "the law enforcement officers "who knew how to catch criminals "and it seems they're doing the best they can." Let us pray to God. Let us support them. And hope that something will come out of this. The guilty parties will be found and apprehended. Going in the wrong direction, trying to do it ourselves, well, some of these things we can't do. We must leave them to the power and principle of eternal God. Some years ago I was in Germany on a preaching mission and I had the chance to go into a youth group and preach to them and I said to them, what are your ideals and your outlooks of life? They said, "We have none. "We're skeptical. "Our nation is broken. "We've lost confidence, "our culture damned, "we have little hope." And then I was allowed to visit one of the camps of returning soldiers. Once great and powerful men, now broken, tired, and weary. They, too, had lost confidence but unlike the young people, these men had no source of hope but the young people gave to me a pen. It was their emblem and it was a cross over the world. Broken, tired, and perplexed, yet they still believed there was hope and the cross still stood over the world. In the days of Amos, people turned to idolatry. They had forgotten the God that brought them out of Egypt, they worshiped the sins of Samaria, they worshiped the evil spirits and expected those spirits to deliver them, losing sight of a living God. In this age, we are forgetting God, we are forgetting the Spirit, we're thinking in terms of idols, material things, things to meet the fancy, material things, things to meet the fancy, things to make us feel fine and good. But the prophet said, these things shall fall and never rise again. Today, we have different theories of God. One is that God is wrapped in ebony hues, One is that God is wrapped in ebony hues, blessed by pigmentation and if you do not follow that, you cannot be saved. Others are saying that there is no God, his time is out, no hope, no power to deliver. Altizer preached this gospel and then continued to draw his salary as a professor of theology. And on the one hand, preaching God is dead. A dead God cannot inspire us, a dead God cannot sustain us, a dead God cannot give to us deliverance and power and the great things of salvation. We must take the time to wait and make sure we have faith in God. I have no proof that I can give you that you don't have. I cannot draw him into some kind of room to test his strength. He cannot be weighed, he cannot be measured, he is an eternal spirit. We must try him by faith and without faith, it is impossible to please our God. We've heard a great deal these days about dope and our young people being lost by dope but we have a testimony from a young mind and tells us what she says. She has left us a paslm penned in this state of North Carolina penned in this state of North Carolina about eight years ago, near Reidsville, North Carolina. And Senator Ervin had this statement put into the congressional record, that he might show, or that people might know, it doesn't pay to lose our lives in dope and this young girl wrote a psalm of death. Among the things she said: "heroin is my shepherd, "I shall always want. "He leadeth me in paths of corruption and death. "He restoreth my pain, "wrecks my soul, "and robs the table of groceries. "and robs the table of groceries." "But," she said, "I will follow him "all the days of my life and then dwell "in the house of the damned." At the close of the note she said, "My doctor tells my family, it would have been better "for the persons who got me hooked "to have blown my brains out." She said, "I wish they had-- "my God, how I wish it." She had the wrong king. The wrong shepherd and the wrong leader. I recommend today another shepherd. In the Psalm of Life, not death, written back in the time of the ancient Hebrews, the Psalmist said: The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He disturbs not my soul. My cup runneth over. Yea, though I walk through the valleys of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. For thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's it. Not death but life. Not cowardice but confidence in God. Go on, believers, trusting in God. Go on in faith. Go on in confidence. He will not leave us alone. His faith, his mercy, his grace will teach us the way of life. Not a Psalm of Death but a Psalm of Life. (soft organ music) (muffled choir singing) ♪ Amen ♪ 

- Let us affirm what we believe. We believe in God who has created and is created, who has come in the truly human Jesus to reconcile and make new, who works in us and others by the Spirit. We trust God who calls us to be the church, to celebrate life in its fullness, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, our judge and our hope in life, in death, in life beyond death. God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God. The Lord be with you. 

- And with your spirit. 

- Let us pray. Please be seated. For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven. Almighty and great God, master of the universe, author of time and every matter under heaven, and thou hast to brought us to the last days of the winter and safely to the advent of another spring tithe. Our spirits leak with joy at the sight and signs of life calling forth new life all around and about us. And this is the season to plant. And dear Lord, we pray to plant well. We pray to plant our minds and our hearts within the throws of your divine will. We pray to plant our very souls near the reach and touch of your gracious hand. May your grace upon us this day and forever. This is the season to sow. We pray to sow good things. We pray to sow the things which heal. Dear Lord, we pray for the sick in our midst and throughout the world. Whether their sickness be of the body or the spirit, we pray for the bond which heals. We pray to sow the things which build up. Dear Lord, we pray for the things which build good relationships, good marriages, good friendships, good rapport between students and professors, good feelings among colleagues. We pray to sow the things which make us love, which make us dance, which make us gather together, which make us embrace. And we pray to sow the things which make us seek. Dear Lord, we pray for the things which make us seek better solutions to lingering problems, the problems of poverty and crime. We pray for the things which make us seek the bread of life. We pray to sow the things which make us keep, which make us keep family and those close to us near and dear to us. We pray to sow the things which comfort and console. And dear Lord, bring comfort to the people of Atlanta, bring consolation to the mothers and fathers whose children have been violently taken from them. We pray to sow the things which make for peace and good will. Bring peace to El Salvador and wherever the shadows of darkness from the rumors of war blot the landscape. Bring good will to Merritt in Connecticut and Buffalo New York and wherever racial prejudices rooted in the hearts and minds of people, it is an ugly weed and we do not wish to have it among the things we sow. And finally, we pray, dear God, to sow the things of love. For you do love the world, that you gave your only begotten Son so that we might have life beyond the seasons that we might have life everlasting. And may we now pray the prayer our Lord Christ Jesus taught us to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy 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. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. (soft organ music) (muffled choir singing) Oh Lord, our God, receive our praises and prayers and these our offerings which we present before thee and with them ourselves, our souls and our bodies, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to thee through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. (dramatic organ music) (muffled choir singing) And now may the grace of God and the sweet communion of the Holy Spirit rest, rule, and abide with us all henceforth now and forevermore. ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ (soft organ music) (chattering)