(choir sings) ♪ And he sought beyond your river ♪ ♪ Of a water on high ♪ (opera singing) (choir sings) (choir sings) ♪ Amen, amen, amen, amen ♪ 

- [Church Officiant] Will the congregation please stand for the reading of the Gospel lesson? The Gospel lesson is from Saint John chapter one. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of man. The light shines in the darkness, the darkness does not overcome it. He was in the world, the world was made through Him, yet the world knew Him not. He came to His own home and His own people received Him not. But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. We have beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. Here ends the reading from the Gospel lesson. Amen. (organ playing) (choir singing) 

Pastor: It is with a sense of profound gratitude to the President of this university for this invitation, and yet it is with a sense of great awe that I stand in this chapel to share and worship with you on Founder's Day. For Duke University has touched and influenced my own life in a multitude of ways. And I am doubly grateful to be privileged to share in the honor that this university, my alma mater, has bestowed upon one of my own members, an exemplary Christian friend and beloved Methodist, Stanley Kreschke. For the Bible knows that a great life is a classroom of its own, and his too, is a great life. Let us pray. Father, we have heard the living Word. May it come alive anew into spoken word. And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Thy sight. For Thou alone art our strength and our Blessed Redeemer. Amen. During recent weeks, I have sought to discover something of the man and his driving faith for whom this university is named. James Buchanan Duke, on December 11, 1924, established The Duke Endowment. And yet, this university does not bear his name. It is named for the man he admired and loved the most in this world, his father, Washington Duke. And as I've pondered about Washington Duke, I kept remembering something that Alfred North Whitehead once said, that moral education is impossible without the vision of greatness. And that is the judgment which the biblical writers implicitly concur. For again, and again, in the pages of history, we have seen throughout biblical history, the absorbing and instructive passages are essentially biographical. The lives of the great Abraham, David, Moses, are held up as an inspiration for later generations. "Let us now praise famous men and our fathers who begat us", begins a familiar passage in Ecclesiastes. Jesus Corea is studied with allusions to ancient worthies, Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah. And he said, if his contemporaries could not see the purposes of God in history, they would never see them at all. And then there is that notable passage in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, which calls the role of Israel's great and near great, who surround us now as then as a great cloud of witnesses. For the sake of our understanding better the influences that shape this remarkable family, The Dukes of Durham, I want us to look at the patriarch on this Founder's Day. For in a home where the light of education had never shown, Washington Duke lit a lamp of learning, which would be fueled by his sons, whom he affectionately called Ben and Buck. James Buchanan Duke was heard to say, "I want to do big things for God, and great things for humanity." And later, he would write, "My old Daddy used to say, that if he amounted to anything in life, it was due to the Methodist circuit riders, who frequently visited his home, and whose preaching and counsel brought out the best that was in his life." And then he added, "If I ever amount to anything, it will be because of my Daddy and the Methodist Church." So, let's look at his daddy and a faith that was engendered in his heart by the Methodist Church. He was a plain man, of English and Welsh ancestry. Washington Duke's forebears settled in the red clay hills of eastern Orange, now Durham county in the mid-18th century. He was the eighth of 10 children, and his parents managed to give the brood enough schooling to learn a smattering of the three R's. His family hewed out a living with ax, and hoe, and plow on a modest farm along the Little River, near Bowl Town which is the present village of Bahama. During my student days in this divinity school, I was appointed by Bishop Garber to serve the Mount Bethel Church in that crossroads community. I did not know at that time, what I came to know whilst there. That in that place, a significant event took place in the life of a timid 10 year old boy in 1830. In a protracted meeting, as they called them, during the hot dog days of August, under a brush arbor canopied by giant oaks, he was brought under conviction and converted. This lad, who had earlier joined the Mount Bethel Sunday School, now joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. And whatever we may think from our late-20th century sophisticated vantage point of revival meetings and protracted meetings, that singular event is of utmost significance to all of us who later would be touched by the Duke family. For it's abundantly clear that outside his own family, Methodism was the most powerful lifelong influence upon this man. The fiery preaching, and the spirited singing of early Methodists would shape his character, would sturdy his faith, and steel him for the personal tragedy and loneliness that lay ahead of him. Now his conversion must surely have pleased his eldest brother William. Later, Wash and another brother, were bound over to Billy, for whom they would work from crack of dawn to bedtime at an endless round of farm chores. Lean and wiry was this lad, and later in life he would write to a group of blacks, "I've plowed more furrows in God's earth than any man of my age in North Carolina." And we can be sure that brother Billy nurtured that young convert with a healthy dose of zealous Methodism. Deeply interested in Billy's church work, the younger Wash helped build a retreat, Duke's Arbor, where the camp meetings and the revivals could be held close at hand. And the church was the center of his life, spiritual and social, and understandably so, in that simple, rural society. His adult life began as a tenant farmer, and at age 22 he married Mary Caroline Clinton. She bore two sons. And in 1847, his father died, and then Mary Caroline his wife. Washington Duke was not quite 27, widowed, and his motherless boys were sent to live with his wife's parents. In his loneliness, he turned even more to religion. And he toiled away on the land. He built a modest house in the early 1850s, and on December 9, 1852, he married Artelia Roney. And he brought his pretty, singing wife, reunited with his two young boys to what we now know as the Duke Homestead. Oh, it must have been a joyful Christmas for him that year, but little did he conceive the lurking tragedy which lay ahead. During the next five years, she would bear three children, Mary, Benjamin Newton, and on December 23, 1856, James Buchanan, named we are told, in honor of the new Democratic President-elect. But then the scourge of the countryside, the typhoid epidemic of 1858, struck twice in Wash Duke's home. His 14 year old son Sidney died, and ten days later, beautiful Artelia. She was 29, he was 37. In little more than a decade, this God-fearing, Bible-believing, church-going farmer had buried his father, two wives, a son, and his mother. A single parent, responsible for four children, and a farm of 300 acres, he turned to two of his wife's younger sisters and his own unmarried sister Melinda, and they took turns caring for those four motherless children. Can we not see now how in later life he would have a special sympathy and care towards orphans? This was also a time in his life when he violated his own conscience. He was opposed to slavery, but he bought a slave girl, Caroline, and he brought her as a nurse and house servant for his children. You see, so bitter was his opposition to slavery, that both Wash Duke and his brother Billy changed their political affiliation in 1860 and voted for Abraham Lincoln. Decades later, he would help to build a hospital for black people in this city, and he called it Lincoln Memorial. He opposed North Carolina's secession from the Union, but when he was conscripted into the Confederate Army in 1863, he went without complaint, risking his life in a cause in which he did not believe. But he was a good Methodist, and methodically he arranged for the care of his children, for the slave girl, and for Aunt Betty. He turned over his farm to a neighbor, and he marched off to war. And as he left, he learned that his youngest brother Robert had been killed in Virginia. During the final weeks of that war he was imprisoned in Libby Prison in Richmond. Mustered out in New Bern, penniless and ragged, he made his way back, 135 miles to Durham. He had a single 50-cent piece in his pocket that he had traded a souvenir-hunting Yankee soldier his last, practically worthless, five dollar Confederate bill. And when he arrived, he found the home place looted, the livestock killed or driven off. He was confronted with a desolate situation, a veritable paw of doom and darkness, and the only thing that greeted him were two blind mules. This is the man for whom this university is named. At this time in his life he had nothing, but his children and his faith. But Washington Duke's faith had a promise in it. We rejoice at Saint Paul and our sufferings, for we know that suffering produces hope. Now that is new, and different, and strange. You would expect it to be otherwise, that suffering produces despair. But Wash Duke found what the early Christians had found, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can turn anything upside down. Suffering has a promise in it. Washington Duke's staunch Methodist faith enabled him to shoulder that suffering and to start anew. Let's examine on the basis of what we know about this man, his faith, and what we can be sure about it. Let it be said, first of all, it was a simple faith. We're here on this third Sunday of Advent, and I know what that conjures up in the minds of most of us, this holy season of love. Washington Duke reminds me of one of the main characters in that draw. He reminds me of the shepherds who came to the manger, the faithful, the devout, the people who may not have much book learning, who may not be very sophisticated religiously, but good people, intuitively open, and accepting people, strong in their faith but not dogmatic about forcing their belief on other people, the ordinary people who are the salt of the earth, and the light of the world. That's the kind of faith Wash Duke had, then, and 'til the end of his life. We need to be reminded of a faith like that. We need to be reminded that the church is not an exclusive club of people like us, whatever our category may be. The church is not restricted to those with an IQ over 140, or to those who have an income in the 30 or 40% tax bracket. It is not for those activists whose very soul is uplifted by the thought of a new demonstration or a new cause. Or those who would reduce to statistics the milk of human kindness if they could. Remember that scene in Mark Twain's book A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court? Where the American sees a medieval saint swaying to and fro in the ecstasy of religious devotion. It seemed like wasted energy, and so he hooked up the saint to a device to provide power for a sewing machine. A lot of people think the church is useless unless it's geared up for something. But the church is more than that. It should be open, and it should encourage and produce people of simple piety. For a faith like his, is a spiritual resource that is open to all persons. "Truly I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed", said Jesus, "You can say to this mountain, move hence to yonder place, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible to you." So, when you think of Washington Duke, I hope that you will celebrate that kind of faith. And I'm not about to argue that anything is possible if only you have faith. They taught me better than that in this place. But as I am concerned today with this man, I want to say that is not what Jesus meant when he made that statement. Jesus' word here is deliberate, proverbial, hyperbole, and ought never to be read in any other way. What I'm going to say about Washington Duke's faith is this. For this is what I think it says to us, that nothing is possible until you believe. Unless you have some kind of real faith, some kind of expectation, unless you make some kind of commitment before you can possibly know the outcome, you will never do as much as tie your shoe. Faith, in its usual biblical sense, is not as many people seem to think it is, an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. It is more nearly, what I call, reason grown adventurous. It is an act of confidence in the reliability of the moral order. What was it that Isaiah said to dispirited, defeated, frustrated people? There shall come forth a chute from the stump of Jesse, the royal line of David is like a tree that has been cut down. And just as new branches sprout from a stump, so a new king will arise from David's descendants. That is faith, adventurous and confident in the reliability of the moral order. When I think of Wash Duke trudging 135 miles from New Bern to Durham county at the end of the Civil War, I think of Jeremiah. He lived in a bleak, uncertain time, 400 years of empire, proud independence for the Hebrew people were dissolving. The nation was caught between two superpowers, and he did not know where to turn. Jeremiah had preached himself into prison, but silencing the prophet never changes the ills he has diagnosed. And things kept getting worse. One day, with all the signs pointing to total disaster, Jeremiah did a strange thing. He bought a piece of property from a cousin. The strangeness of it all was not merely that he was in jail, or that he had no immediate prospect of using the land. The strangest thing of all, is that it was property already that had been conquered and was in the hands of the enemy. And yet, he paid cash for it. And he was careful to see that the deed was properly notarized and recorded. Why did he do it? It was an adventurous faith, a deliberate act of faith, and the reliability of the moral order of things. A way of saying to the frustrated and the frightened, "Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, houses, and fields, and vineyards shall be bought in this land." No, the Bible does not mean in any literal sense that all things are possible if only we believe. But what it does say to us, is that nothing is possible until we believe. And we will never cast out the demons that plague us and our time except by faith. The third thing I want to say about Wash Duke's faith is this, it had more to do with holiness than happiness. I know a lot of people, who, when they become the least bit unhappy, lose their faith. His faith was not based on happiness. His faith was based on that of which the Scripture says, "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." The conviction that God was in Christ, and even though He came unto His own, and His own rejected him, that kind of goodness is something that will not be done away with. It has nothing at all to do with happiness, it has a lot to do with holiness, goodness, moral maturity. The indenture that created this university was signed during the season of Advent. We're in the midst of that holy season, with all the stories about the baby, and the star, and the angels, and the wise men. And they all are ways of saying that Jesus was the embodiment of Godliness. That in Him, we see what the nature, or likeness of God really is. He is the flesh and blood demonstration of God's outgoing love. The New Testament holds that Jesus is a model for us, that we are to be imitators of Him, that we are to walk in the way in which He walked, that we are to follow in His steps. That is the way Wash Duke walked, and it had more to do with holiness than happiness. Perhaps a clue to the love that Ben and James Buchanan had for him and his influence over them is caught up in the holiness of his life and his example. Albert Schweitzer said, "Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing." And real faith has more to do with holiness, moral maturity than with happiness. For it enables us to have a close working relationship with God. Finally, Washington Duke, this man of simple faith, whose life shows us that nothing is possible unless you believe, that real faith has more to do with holiness than happiness, became a man of the purest integrity. And that is something for us to celebrate on this Founder's Day. It's a fact that we can thank God for any day, for it's rare enough in any age to make us wonder whether or not it has completely disappeared, but it keeps turning up. First here, and over there, in unexpected places, in unexpected times. Let me say, that it is one of the things we ought to be looking for most of all, and reward, in our political leaders today. That's the criterion that ought to be in our minds, more than any other. More important than a party platform, more important than whether a candidate has supported a particular issue. What will affect this nation four years from now, 40 years from now, 400 years from now is not whether anyone is for or against the ERA, for or against the draft, pro-life or for freedom of choice with respect to abortions, for or against tax cuts. What will count most is whether the candidates we elect are persons of integrity, persons of courage, and consistency, and unselfishness. This man, Washington Duke, became a man of integrity. In 1905, he died. The trustees of Trinity College said, "We have never seen him less than a man acting under the fear of God and under the inspiration of lofty purpose." There was no act of his life for which the college need make apology. What integrity. The faculty said, "He never hampered us with a small idea, or a personal wish, or preference." What integrity. A generation ago, Herbert Butterfield was professor of modern history at the University of Cambridge England. I think he has a word to say to us, "The profoundest effects on our civilization have been produced by people who were not thinking of affecting the course of human affairs at the mundane level. They have come by the unanticipated byproducts of lives intent on spiritual things." Maybe the life story of Washington Duke has a remarkable parallel in William Booth, the founder of The Salvation Army. He was asked one time what was the secret of his success. And his answer was, "God had all there was of William Booth." He never claimed to be a great thinker. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He never got any particular breaks in life. He left British Methodism because it wouldn't let him do a job that he thought he could do, and he started from absolute scratch. But he said, "From the day that I got the poor of London on my heart, and a vision of what Jesus Christ could do with the poor of London, I made up my mind that God would have all there was of William Booth." Years later, that devotion would be tested. He was stricken with eye trouble, and when the final medical verdict was in, his son Bramwell had to break the news to him. "You mean that I'm blind?", said the old man. "I fear we must contemplate that", said his son. "I shall never see your face again?" "Not in this life, Dad." "Bramwell", he said as he reached out his hand and grasped his son's hand, "I have tried to serve God the best I can with my sight. I shall now try to serve him the best I can without sight." God had all there was of William Booth. Maybe we have this university today because God had all there was of Washington Duke. Let us pray. Almighty God, we now praise famous men, remembering especially the father of the new Trinity College and the man for whom this university is named, Washington Duke, one of Thy surprising saints. For him and to Thee on behalf of us all, including his children, we say thank you Father. Thank you. Amen. (organ playing) (choir singing) (organ playing) 

Church Official: Let us affirm what we believe. 

Congregation: We believe in God, who has created and is creating. Who has come into 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 and 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. 

Church Official: The Lord be with you. 

Congregation: And with you also. 

Church Official: Let us pray. Oh Lord, our God, who has made us a royal priesthood that we may offer unto you prayer and intercession for all your children. Hear us now as we pray. For all who labor with their hands, that they may enjoy the rewards of their industry. For those who bear the responsibilities of leadership and administration, that they may not use their authority and power for selfish advantage, but be guided to do justice and to love mercy. For those who have suffered in the battles of life, through the inhumanity of their fellows, through their own limitations, or the incomprehensible forces of evil, that they may contend against injustice without bitterness, and learn to accept with patience what cannot be altered. For the rulers of the nations, that they might act wisely and without pride. May seek to promote peace among the peoples and establish justice in our common life. For students, here at this university, who struggle to study, to show themselves approved unto God in all their habits and in their honest work. For teachers and ministers of the word, that they may rightly divide the Word of truth and not be tempted by any passion to corrupt the truth to which they are committed. For families and loved ones, who gather in this holy Advent season, that their lives may shine forth with a light of your presence and hope. For prophets and saints, who awaken us from laziness, that they may continue to hold their torches high in a world that is darkened by prejudice and sin. Oh God, who has bound us together in this very bundle of life, give us grace now to understand how our lives depend upon the courage, the honesty, and the integrity of all our brothers and sisters, that we may be mindful of their needs, grateful for their faithfulness, and faithful in our responsibilities to them. For it is through Jesus Christ our Lord that we pray and whom taught us to pray saying. 

Congregation: Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done 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. (organ playing) (choir singing) (choir singing)