- Raining on your parade, it is unfair that the machinations of the economies such as it is, will make it likely that your standard of living will be lower than that of your parents. That is unless you're going to be a lawyer. It is unfair that we cannot resolve the wrongs in Latin America, South Africa, the Middle East or Northern Ireland, or next door without undue inconvenience to ourselves. It is unfair that we should be kicked out of Duke just when we got to figure out how the place ran and could almost do it by and for ourselves. Now, it would be presumptuous of me to come from afar to lay this kind of indictment upon you as your guest, but I know this to be a universal axiom, or in Cambridge, before I came down here on Thursday in Harvard Square, I saw a great blue sweatshirt and on the front of that sweatshirt it said Harvard, the Duke of the north. (audience laughing) (applauding) So I know what is true in Cambridge is equally true in Durham. Now we know, at least we ought to know, that a university education ought to teach one how to make the most of one's opportunities. Opportunities come to him who is prepared, that we know. But the university at its best is also engaged in the business of dealing with the adversity that also and always comes with opportunity, for nothing less than life itself. That combination of opportunity and obstacle, nothing less than life itself is the business of learning and it is to that business that the university is committed. It doesn't always succeed, however. It was Kierkegaard, who in criticism of Hegel, that gloomy German, said, "He teaches you everything "you need to know in the world except "how to live your life and die your death." What a sad verdict on such a wise man, and it would be a sadder verdict upon you if it were true. Well, one of the reasons that you spend your last hour and a half as Duke students not out on the field and not in the library or in the laboratory, but in this holy place, is that if you learn nothing else, you will begin to learn the necessity of how to live your life and die your death. For that is the whole sum of any education worth having and begins in this holy place. You're at the right place at the right time, whether you know it or not. Now there will still be commencement orators across the land who will rise in place and continue to sound the trumpets of opportunity in technological terms. Some of them will even offer some of you a job. They will tell us that we can do anything we want to do. They will give audiences license to sing that grammar school taunt, "Anything you can do, I can do better," and because so many of you have been here for so long, have worked so hard and paid out so much, you will be tempted to believe these prophets of progress and take them to your bosom. Now, I do not despise progress. Please do not mistake me as an anti-progressive. Do not think me as one who sticks a spoke in the great wheel of progress. I am not a Luddite. If you don't know who a Luddite is, you shouldn't accept your degree this afternoon. I am not a member of the Amish community. I do not hold the little old lady from Dubuque who said that if God had intended man to fly, he would not have invented the railroad. No, I, I don't accept those negative views of progress. I am a result of progress. All of us are results of progress. I like my microwave, for example. I continue to be amazed by the internal combustion engine. I think digital clocks are terrific and I admire all the other marvelous, miraculous products from Japan. I'm very much in favor of progress, but I hope that neither you nor I will ever mistake these achievements and wonders for anything other than what they are, means and diversions. Means and diversions. Perhaps we need to remember Thoreau's words when in voting against the extension of the telegraph from Concord to Boston in 1847, he stood up in the town meeting and said, "All our progress is but improved means to unimproved ends." Now, we don't need to be chastened by anything quite so modest as the extension of the telegraph line from Concord to Boston. The Challenger disaster in January may have delayed the exploration of outer space, but it may as well have accelerated the exploration of inner space because it has introduced to us a season of great and significant introspection. When that dreadful disaster revealed itself before our eyes on the television screen, we were assured in the days after, first that it was some kind of terrible technical or technological fluke or error, which once detected could be corrected and no loss to progress or science or to the space program would be recorded, despite the regrettable human loss. Our commentators, for example, were concerned for our young children who saw this disaster on the television. They were concerned not that the children would be traumatized by the sight of so violent a death. No, our children see violent death all the time. That was nothing new. They were quite used to that, more's the pity. What they feared, what the commentator fears were, was that children would be traumatized by the apparent failure of technology, that the machine would be seen to be fallible. They were not worried about the loss of life. They were worried about the loss of confidence in the machinery, the technique, the technology of our time. But now, five months later, we know that at the heart of the shuttle failure was not technological failure, though that is the immediate cause, but we know that at the heart of this as at the heart of so many things, is human failure. Ally here on the part of an over-ambitious engineer, a coverup there on the part of super sensitive administrators in the space program, the desire to push things along faster and faster, the need for the appearance of success at any cost. The unwillingness to entertain adversity as a colleague of opportunity, the unwillingness to admit even the susceptibility of failure, that is their very phrase, we did not think this was susceptible to failure. Human error, human arrogance, human ambition, not ignorance, not evil, these were at the heart of this dreadful dilemma, this terrible disaster. Error seems to be the culprit here, and ambition for achievement, fame, distinction, power, all of those things that you have been taught so wisely to go after and have been so clever in adapting to, all of these things that from time immemorial have deluded us into thinking ourselves wiser and better than we are or can be. The opportunity for wide and effective work is great, but often, more often than not, the adversaries are not only out there beyond those doors, but right here within ourselves. At the end of the second war, when Europe had been restored to peace and democracy at the height of the great achievement of the Western democracies in restoring peace and the prospect of prosperity, Winston Churchill, who had every reason to speak with authority, surveyed all of this and wrote these words. "Man, at this moment of his history has emerged in greater "supremacy over the forces of nature "than has ever been dreamed before. "He has conquered the wild beasts. "He has even conquered the insects and the microbes. "There lies before him, if he wishes, "a golden age of peace and prosperity. "All is in his hand. "He has only to conquer his last and worst enemy, himself." The work of the last four or six or eight years in this university has been devoted on your part to what you know. The next years, as soon as you pass through those doors, will be devoted in some measure to what you do, but none of it, what you know or what you do, will amount to anything if you don't know who you are and whose you are. Now, there is an arrogance that comes with knowledge such as you and I possess, and such as will be celebrated in high academic festivity this afternoon. And that arrogance is just as dangerous as the ignorance which it is called to vanquish. There is also an arrogance that comes with virtue as well, and you who would be virtuous ought to pay heed to its dangers. There is an aphorism that says, a surplus of virtue is more dangerous than a surplus of vice, for a surplus of virtue is not subject to the constraints of conscience. Think of it. How much harm is done in the name of good or of God? How much real wickedness is done by those, who in the name of a just cause will stop at nothing to achieve their ends. University men and women are subject as few others are to the arrogance of knowledge and virtue, thinking that all who disagree with you are either stupid or wicked or both. One of the virtues of the world that lies beyond those wide and effective doors in the west end is that you will not be permitted the luxury uncontested of either of these options for long. I said earlier that this is not an original occasion. It would be tempting, even seductive for us to believe that somehow the world today is now a very different place from what it was 25 or even 50 years ago, and certainly there is no comparison with the world of Adam and Eve or of Saint Paul, or even of the Duke's. Happily, we are freed from all of that. We feel our medieval academic costume and this medieval ecclesiastical architecture and the Wesleyan's piety that surrounds us all are simply ornamental props for a brave show, for a brave world, for brave new people. I think that is both a fault and a dangerous view. The world, I suggest, nuclear threat and all, is fundamentally the same place it has always been and so to therefore, are men and women. The same fears, the same hopes, the same weaknesses, the same ambitions and the same joys confront us as confronted your mothers and your fathers and your line back to Adam and Eve. We are not so much different than they. And if that is so, is it not a source of some profound reassurance that the God who cared for them and preserves them under this very moment is the same God who will do the same thing for you and for me as well. And if that is true, is it not one of the hopeful ironies of our time, that you should be prepared to enter a secular and crazy world by a service of piety, prayer, hymns, thanksgiving, before the holy table of God in this most holy spot. That you should be prepared to face the world by facing the presence of the living and loving God. Now, what encouraged Saint Paul to pass through that wide door for effective work and to embrace the adversaries within-without on every side, was the conviction that God, in Jesus Christ, was the same yesterday, today and forever. No lesser conviction than this would enable or empower him in the face of his own arrogance and the face of his own weakness and the face of the opposition of many forces and adversaries within, without and beyond. If there is continuity in the sin of the world, there is also continuity in the hope of the world and you now are part of that hope. You cannot act that part alone. And that is why all of you young scholars and old scholars, good scholars, indifferent scholars and bad scholars, why all of you find yourselves here to receive the prayers and the blessings of the church. For finally and ultimately, it is the best thing that we can give you and it is the only thing that will keep you. Some of you, this may seem just one more pious anachronism. Here we are in the midst of a gothic quadrangle translated from the 15th century to the woods of North Carolina. What has this to do with me, you say. Well, a great deal. All the power of the Christian faith does not depend upon whether you believe in God or not, has very little to do with your consent to that proposition. It has everything to do with the proposition that God believes in you both despite who you are, and because of who you are, and upon such a bold, uncompromising premise as that is our holy church founded, this university nourished and the hope of the world in you maintained. That's what holds this place up. Well then, are we asking you ladies and gentleman of 1986, are we asking you to be heroes and heroines? Dare to be a Daniel, dare to be a Paul, as the old Sunday school song goes. Are we asking you to join the saints and the martyrs, these marvelous people in these windows, God's Phi Beta Kappa chapter, are we asking you to join with them in this great, heroic enterprise? Well, with all due respect to you and the saints and the ideal of the heroic, we do not need to graduate one more hero or heroine. We do not need to create yet another class of experts and specialists. What we want are ordinary men and women who, with extraordinary passion and compassion, perform the ordinary tasks of life in this world, which is ours. We pray the prayer of Browning's Paraklesis who asks, "Make no more giants Lord, but elevate the race." We ask you to elevate the race, to raise the standard of living, to raise the standard of expectation by doing what you can, where you are with what you have, because you know to whom and for whom you labor. There is now open to each of you a wide and great door for effectual work in the world. I see it, it is open, trust me, when you turn around, there it will be and there are many adversaries as well out there and you will meet more than your share of them. You cannot stay here. You cannot stay in this chapel. You cannot stay in this university. You must get on with it and get out and the quicker, the better. In the words of the spiritual, you will go, you shall go to see what the end will be. But as you go, may God go before you, behind you, beside you, within you and always with you. For you can't do what you must do alone, for there is open to you a wide and effective door for great work and there are many adversaries. God go with you as you meet them. Amen. (organ music) (choir singing) 

- Let us unite in this historic confession of the Christian faith. I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. The Lord be with you. 

- Also with you. 

- Let us pray. Be seated. Gracious God, source of all truth and wisdom, all knowledge and love, without your guidance this day would not be possible. For these, our graduating students, we pray that they might be blessed with self confidence and determination, to use their lives and what they have learned here in service of causes which benefit humanity. We are conscious, oh God, of the many needs present within our modern world. Humanity has made progress, but there is still hunger, ignorance, prejudice, and fear. We pray that these young people may go forth into our world with a burning desire to rectify these wrongs. We pray for fellow students and teachers in places where freedom and truth are being tested, particularly those in universities and colleges of South Africa. We pray for fellow students and teachers in countries where there is war or civil strife, particularly those who work and study in Lebanon and Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, may they persevere in spite of the terrorists around them and be strengthened in their search for knowledge that brings peace. We pray for those who are engaged in the work of research and discovery. Their minds may be continually enlightened to see more of your glory. We pray for those who teach, that their love of learning may never grow cold and their respect for the wonder of developing young minds never be dulled. We pray for all those who, by economic adversity or lack of natural ability are denied educational opportunity. We pray for those in the Class of 1986, who have died since this journey began, Louise, Molly, Allison and Ted, and we remember them with gratitude. For all seekers after truth, that their minds be open to new revelation and their will strengthened to follow the truth disclosed. This we pray, expectant of your grace and care. Amen. (organ music) (choir singing) 

- Please stand for the responsive prayer. Almighty God, as you have granted us a place in this university, hallowed to us now this day when we dedicate ourselves to the life and work to which you have called us, that we may remember with gratitude the families and friends who've cared for us. (audience responding) 

- But in the life ahead, we may keep faith with those who have loved us and trusted us and whose hopes follow us. (audience responding) 

- That we may enter with good courage and constant purpose upon the task which await us. (audience responding) 

- From all vanity and pride as if our accomplishments were of our soul creation. (audience responding) 

- From neglect of the opportunities which are all about us and from distrust of our ability to meet the duties of each dawning day. (audience responding) 

- That the example of wise and generous people who have gone before us and our families, and here in this university may save us from folly and self indulgence. (audience responding) 

- More especially, that you would show to us your way of love in all that we do and say, that we should come to love the Lord our God with our soul and mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. (audience responding) 

- These things, and whatever else you see needful and right for us, we ask in your holy name. Amen. (organ music) (choir singing)