Martin Luther King, Sr. - Sermon Untitled (October 9, 1977)

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-	Duke University Chapel Service and Worship.	0:02
	19th Sunday after Pentecost.	0:06
	October 9th, 1977.	0:08
	("Guilain, Suite du duexieme ton: Prelude")	0:15
	("Guilain, Suite du duexieme ton: Duo")	1:57
	("Guilain, Suite du duexieme ton: Basse de trompette")	4:28
	("Guilain, Suite du duexieme ton: Trio de flutes")	5:54
	("Guilain, Suite du duexieme ton: Dialogue")	7:19
	(choir singing hymn)	9:09
	("For All The Saints")	10:24
-	We don't want you to make yourself uncomfortable,	15:01
	but if there is some space that you can provide	15:06
	another person to sit down, that would be helpful.	15:09
	I also would like to ask the ushers	15:12
	to keep the doors open over here	15:14
	so it might be a little cooler.	15:16
	If you can provide some space,	15:18
	would you move toward the center aisle?	15:20
	There are a number of persons waiting to be seated, please.	15:22
	I greet you in the name	15:39
	and in the spirit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.	15:42
	Grace and peace be with you.	15:45
	Let us confess our sin to almighty God.	15:49
	Let us pray.	15:54
	Oh God, we confess that we share some responsibility	15:57
	that our world is filled with ragged	16:02
	and hungry masses of your children,	16:04
	and is torn between tensions of east and west,	16:07
	white and black,	16:11
	that our cultural and spiritual power	16:13
	lags so far behind our technological capabilities,	16:16
	that we live with the possibility	16:21
	of nuclear co-annihilation.	16:24
	Turn us around, oh God.	16:27
	God's mercy is from everlasting to everlasting.	16:43
	God's love is ever present to you, and to me,	16:47
	and to every person.	16:52
	In the name and in the spirit of Christ now.	16:54
	Let us receive God's forgiveness, rejoice in it,	16:58
	and move on to new life.	17:02
	Amen.	17:06
	("Hallelujah")	17:18
	Will the congregation please stand	22:01
	for the reading of the gospel?	22:03
	The lesson is written in the 10th chapter	22:11
	of the gospel according to Saint Luke,	22:14
	versus 16 through 22.	22:17
	He who hears you hears me	22:21
	and he who rejects you rejects me.	22:24
	And he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.	22:28
	The 70 returned with joy saying	22:33
	Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.	22:37
	And he said to them,	22:42
	I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.	22:44
	Behold, I have given you authority	22:49
	to tread upon serpents, and scorpions,	22:52
	and over all, the power of the enemy.	22:55
	And nothing shall hurt you.	22:58
	Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this	23:00
	that the spirits are subject to you,	23:04
	but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.	23:07
	In that same hour, he rejoiced in the holy spirit	23:11
	and said, "I thank thee father, Lord of heaven and earth,	23:15
	"that thou hast hidden these things	23:21
	"from the wise and understanding,	23:23
	"and revealed them to babes."	23:26
	Yay father, for such was thy gracious will.	23:29
	All things have been delivered to me by my father	23:33
	and no one knows who the son is except the father,	23:37
	or who the father is except the son.	23:41
	And anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him.	23:45
	Then turning to the disciples he said privately,	23:49
	blessed are the eyes who see what you see	23:53
	for I tell you that many prophets	23:57
	and kings desire to see what you see and did not see it,	24:00
	and to hear what you hear and did not hear it.	24:05
	Here ends the morning lesson.	24:09
	Thanks be to God.	24:13
	(organ music)	24:15
	(choir singing hymn)	24:23
	Let us affirm what we believe.	24:58
	We believe in God who has created and is creating,	25:01
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	25:06
	to reconcile and make new,	25:09
	who works in us and others by the spirit.	25:13
	We trust God, who calls us to be the church	25:17
	and to celebrate life and its fullness,	25:21
	to love and serve others,	25:25
	to seek justice and resist evil,	25:27
	to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,	25:31
	our judge and our hope.	25:35
	In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us.	25:38
	We are not alone.	25:45
	Thanks be to God.	25:47
	The Lord be with you.	25:49
	Let us pray.	25:53
	Oh God, we give thanks to you for this day,	26:02
	for the soft, falling, soaking,	26:06
	longed for and much needed rain.	26:09
	The changing leaves and brightness of beauty	26:14
	in nature around us,	26:17
	the gray slow dawning of a new day	26:19
	to help us arise slowly but surely in your love	26:22
	and in your care.	26:29
	We thank you for this place where we can gather	26:31
	as brothers and sisters in Christ,	26:34
	sing your praise, hear your word,	26:36
	know the healing love of Christ,	26:39
	and share a deep and abiding joy	26:41
	our souls long for and need.	26:44
	We pray for others now, oh loving God.	26:48
	For those who suffer and starve,	26:52
	for those who are ignored and those who are indifferent,	26:55
	those who hurt from injustice and cry for recognition,	27:01
	those who hunger for bread and long for love,	27:07
	those who struggle for peace	27:12
	and search for work with dignity,	27:15
	Oh God, may the proud and mighty	27:18
	be made humble in your sight	27:20
	and the meek and lowly surely lifted up.	27:22
	May we not leave this place this day, any one of us,	27:26
	without a greater awareness of the needs of others	27:29
	and without a commitment and a desire	27:33
	to love at least some one other person as Christ loves us.	27:35
	Come now, oh loving spirit, very close to each of us.	27:42
	You, your spirit know that we have suffered pain	27:47
	in this community.	27:53
	There have been perplexing, and confusing,	27:56
	and doubting moments.	27:58
	Moments when we really have wondered what like is all about.	28:00
	In the quietness and deep devotion of this time together,	28:05
	please, oh God, come very close and dwell within.	28:08
	Fill us with assurance and trust, belief and hope.	28:13
	With clear vision and sure promise	28:18
	for today and for tomorrow.	28:22
	Oh God, now may we put our lives	28:24
	and all we are in your keeping.	28:29
	Trusting in the loving Christ who redeems us,	28:34
	and cares for us, and walks not only beside us,	28:36
	but before us.	28:40
	Hear us as we pray in the name	28:42
	and in the spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ	28:45
	who taught us to pray.	28:47
	Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.	28:49
	Thy kingdom come.	28:56
	Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.	28:57
	Give us this day our daily bread;	29:02
	and forgive us our trespasses,	29:05
	as we forgive those who trespass against us;	29:07
	and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.	29:11
	For thine is the kingdom, and the power,	29:17
	and the glory forever.	29:20
	Amen.	29:23
	We welcome you to this service of worship today.	29:26
	We have a process here connected with the chapel	29:32
	by which we determine what the offerings	29:36
	in the chapel will go for.	29:38
	There are a number of people	29:40
	who are involved in that process.	29:42
	But this morning, I am going to say to you	29:44
	that the offerings which are received	29:48
	after our message for today.	29:51
	Every penny of the offering which we receive this morning	29:54
	will go to the Martin Luther King Junior	29:58
	Center For Social Change.	30:00
	So I urge you to give whatever you have, and can,	30:02
	and are willing, and want to give this morning	30:08
	knowing that every penny will go for this very,	30:10
	very significant purpose.	30:15
	Doctor King has asked me to say to you	30:19
	that he would like to greet you following the service today,	30:22
	but he has some trouble with his left ankle	30:25
	and his doctor has ordered him not to stand for very long.	30:28
	So I'm sure he will greet you as he preaches,	30:32
	but he wanted me also to say that word.	30:35
	My dear friends in Christ,	30:38
	it is our very honored privilege	30:40
	to have in the Durham community,	30:43
	on the Duke University campus,	30:48
	and in this service of worship today in Duke Chapel,	30:51
	the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Senior.	30:57
	I ask you to stand now and greet him as we welcome him	31:01
	in Christ's name to this place of worship	31:06
	and to preach for us.	31:09
	Doctor King, we are pleased to have you here, sir.	31:10
	(congregation applauding)	31:13
-	Thank you very much.	31:52
	I'm very humble about this.	31:58
	I get this kind of ovation	32:03
	whether I'm preaching at church	32:08
	or whether in a chapel.	32:10
	And I am very humble.	32:17
	I do not feel high and mighty.	32:22
	I dare not to be high and mighty.	32:24
	Where I live, it's too hazardous	32:30
	to be boastful or chesty.	32:32
	Where I live, it is rough	32:40
	every day for me and my family.	32:46
	Now, I'm not gonna worry God about why	32:52
	that it had to be me.	32:57
	If this is the way he wants it, this is the way it must be.	33:00
	And I bow in humble submission to his will	33:05
	and purpose.	33:11
	I've got a message	33:15
	that I want to get across the world.	33:18
	It's always my first message	33:22
	when I am speaking to an audience	33:25
	maybe I haven't spoken to before.	33:27
	And I'm serious about it.	33:31
	Never been more serious in my life	33:34
	than I am when I utter the words	33:39
	that I am about to utter to you.	33:42
	I would that you'd help me carry the cross,	33:45
	but you've got to first be sure	33:48
	that one self is sure.	33:52
	I'm not bitter.	33:58
	I carry no ill will in my heart against any man.	34:03
	I'll refuse to stoop low enough to hate anybody.	34:09
	If anybody has a right to hate,	34:16
	I would belong at the top.	34:20
	So I know what hate is. I know what hate can do.	34:23
	I know what hate does!	34:28
	I'm not gonna hate. Don't you do it. It's too expensive.	34:33
	It destroys the man who has done the hating.	34:39
	I'm not gonna hate the people that took my loved ones.	34:47
	I'm stunned, I'm hurt, bothered and worried.	34:52
	But I'm not gonna hate them.	34:57
	But I am going on	35:01
	and see what the end to all of this is going to be.	35:02
	I'm not gonna hate.	35:09
	You lookin' in the face of a black man	35:13
	who is every man's brother.	35:17
	No matter the color of his skin,	35:21
	or the texture of his hair,	35:22
	or what he owns of this world's goods.	35:24
	Or even just the least of these.	35:28
	More of them than all the rest.	35:32
	I'm every man's brother.	35:36
	If you want to debate it, I don't have time.	35:41
	Go ahead, debate whether or not	35:44
	the black man can be your brother,	35:50
	or whether or not this man	35:53
	that talks to you can be your brother.	35:57
	You want to debate it? Go ahead.	35:59
	I have no time debate it.	36:02
	Help yourself. What you do about it is you.	36:05
	I'm talking about what I am.	36:08
	And I'm going on with my job,	36:11
	going on being every man's brother.	36:13
	I love you, every one of you.	36:19
	I hope, I hope	36:24
	you love me.	36:30
	Now, that's the first message	36:36
	and it is an important message.	36:40
	If we would go on and do this,	36:44
	we could live together more	36:47
	graciously and more happy.	36:51
	If we could just learn to live this way,	36:56
	the problems that we are faced with everyday	37:01
	would be solved.	37:04
	I must know, and tell you, and you know it;	37:07
	it's hard to do this. You've got to move up	37:11
	and get your cross up high	37:15
	to do this.	37:20
	And if you do this, you're free.	37:24
	Free in your heart, free in your soul.	37:31
	I'm your brother.	37:37
	Now, for the moment, we shall have you think with us.	37:41
	But let me rush also to say to you	37:48
	I'm fundamentally a Baptist preacher, I reckon.	37:50
	Sometimes I wonder if I'm a real good Baptist.	37:57
	And it's pretty difficult for a Baptist preacher to talk	38:04
	without ending up in some preaching.	38:09
	(congregation laughing)	38:12
	I don't know whether I'm surprised or not.	38:18
	I hear over this chapel, some Amens.	38:20
	Well, keep it up.	38:27
	It's not gonna bother me, but I tell ya,	38:32
	I'm not gonna ask you for it.	38:34
	If you do it, you do it of your own will.	38:37
	I can do it either way.	38:41
	You can sit there and not say a word.	38:42
	But before I'm through, I'm afraid you gonna be saying Amen	38:47
	with your feet, or with the nod of the head, or something.	38:50
	But I'm not gonna beg you for it.	38:58
	I want you to think with me from this subject or theme:	39:05
	a misplaced emphasis,	39:09
	a misplaced emphasis.	39:14
	We've done it.	39:20
	America has done just this.	39:23
	She's misplaced her emphasis,	39:28
	forgetting that all of us, no matter where we live,	39:32
	or who we are, or what we have, or what we do not have,	39:37
	all of us belong to God.	39:40
	God is not concerned about any color.	39:47
	We get hung up on that.	39:52
	Color, texture of hair,	39:56
	of what one has of this world's goods, materialistic things.	39:59
	Good, but not nearly good enough.	40:05
	So we need not boast on	40:10
	all of these things,	40:14
	but boast that your name is written in the sky.	40:16
	Boast is sinful, you know?	40:25
	You can't boast without being chesty.	40:30
	Any man who stands to boast	40:40
	suffers an inferiority complex.	40:44
	Most men are inferior.	40:49
	The moment you move over to believe you,	40:56
	you've got it made, and	41:00
	you're supreme, and you're above,	41:04
	you're suffering a superiority complex.	41:11
	And (mumbling) to get over that, you know?	41:15
	We misplace our emphasis there.	41:20
	No man need not boast that he has it made.	41:25
	I've got my degree now.	41:31
	So what?	41:35
	(congregation laughing)	41:37
	Your degree must have you work,	41:45
	and your degree must have you help to make a man.	41:49
	If it doesn't do that, it's no good.	41:55
	I'm walking on my degree.	42:00
	I'm standing on my degree.	42:05
	Neither of which will help you through this world.	42:09
	We are tied together, all of us.	42:14
	Essentially, our problems are the same.	42:18
	I was born in the deep South,	42:24
	one of the most segregated counties in the world.	42:32
	But I never, never	42:39
	let my soul feel that I was segregated.	42:44
	I accepted it because it was a must, but not in my soul.	42:51
	Well, we made progress there.	42:59
	That was a misplaced emphasis.	43:01
	We made progress at that point.	43:05
	Segregation in American is dead.	43:08
	Now, when are they gonna have a funeral? I don't know.	43:12
	(congregation laughing)	43:16
	I might not be able to attend that particular funeral.	43:18
	I wish I could. But it's dead.	43:21
	Now, the courts can do this.	43:27
	But what bothers me and worries me,	43:31
	we've done very little about integration.	43:36
	No court.	43:43
	All it can say for integration as integration is concerned,	43:46
	there can't be no segregation in Duke's chapel.	43:51
	Go in there and take a seat wherever you please,	43:56
	but I can't make you sit with somebody	43:59
	you don't want to sit with.	44:02
	But you can sit in there.	44:07
	'Cause I knew when you couldn't sit in there	44:10
	if you were black.	44:13
	I think I always must speak of my son,	44:18
	and I never speak of Martin Luther King Jr, my namesake,	44:23
	without rushing to tell you Martin Luther King	44:28
	was a world renowned individual.	44:32
	I can always talk about him	44:38
	without praising a member of the family,	44:42
	but he did so much for us.	44:46
	He did for much for us in helping us to get rid of	44:49
	much of the evils that we suffered with.	44:52
	He made it possible through his leadership	44:57
	that we might sit down at the table together as brothers.	44:59
	And let me rush to tell you,	45:05
	I'm glad that Martin Luther King Jr didn't come down.	45:07
	If he had of come down that first night	45:14
	when he was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama,	45:17
	when they hauled him around for more than two hours	45:20
	deciding whether they're gonna kill him	45:24
	or whether they're gonna take him to jail.	45:25
	And they kept asking our boy if you would go away from here,	45:30
	we won't take you to jail and we won't bother you anymore	45:34
	if you just go on away from here tonight.	45:39
	Boy, if you would go on away from here,	45:41
	we'll take you across the line tonight.	45:43
	Are you going?	45:48
	With this hands handcuffed.	45:52
	With chains around his legs.	45:56
	With his head bound	45:59
	in the backseat of this particular automobile.	46:02
	Are you going? He said, I can't.	46:08
	I can't forsake those people that's depending upon me.	46:13
	I can't do it.	46:20
	And one of those police officers said,	46:23
	"There's something peculiar about this fella."	46:29
	There's something about this that strikes me.	46:34
	Let's take him on to jail and get him off our hands.	46:42
	But if had of come down that night,	46:48
	I'm just as afraid as I can be	46:52
	that we would still be riding	46:55
	segregated buses.	46:59
	We would still be not allowed to go in the fine hotels	47:02
	and restaurants of this country,	47:06
	certainly in the South.	47:10
	But I'm glad that he didn't come down. I'm hurt, hurt!	47:13
	But I'm glad he stayed up there.	47:19
	You know, they said that to Jesus too, you know?	47:22
	If you be what you say you are,	47:25
	come down from the cross.	47:29
	Young people and all the rest of you,	47:33
	the devil is gonna often say that to you.	47:36
	If you be what you say you are, come down.	47:39
	Doesn't cost much to come down,	47:47
	but it costs a lot to stay up there.	47:52
	So we've got a misplaced emphasis (mumbling).	47:57
	And we've got to come to see that we are	48:02
	to get this problem straightened out,	48:08
	we must come to see that this is God's world.	48:11
	Man is never going to run this world.	48:16
	He isn't good enough. He isn't old enough.	48:20
	He isn't righteous enough. He isn't just enough.	48:23
	Man will never run this world.	48:26
	This world is gonna be	48:30
	run by God himself.	48:32
	I'm glad about that.	48:37
	You ever thought what would have happened	48:40
	in the creation if God had man with him all along,	48:45
	and particularly, when he made man.	48:48
	What do you think would have happened?	48:52
	If man had anything to do with the making of the rest of us,	48:55
	he'd be (mumbling).	48:58
	You better get quiet. You know, I made you.	49:00
	But he had no part in it. I'm glad about that.	49:05
	Had no part in it at all.	49:10
	In the bosom of every man, I know there's a tendency	49:13
	if he doesn't keep on working after it,	49:18
	in the very bosom of every man,	49:21
	there's a tendency to be selfish at points.	49:22
	Awfully considerate of oneself, inconsiderate of others.	49:27
	Forgetting others.	49:33
	This is a need, you know?	49:37
	I've been speaking in the last few months	49:40
	to a large group of senior citizens.	49:42
	They're great people. Very important people.	49:48
	But in many instances, they're forgotten people.	49:53
	You see, when you get old and decrepit,	49:57
	nobody wants you it seems.	50:02
	Nobody wants you.	50:07
	Isn't it bad that our congress,	50:13
	and senate, and all the rest have to continue to debate	50:17
	what must be done with senior citizens.	50:24
	Important people.	50:29
	I often say that's a misplaced emphasis too.	50:33
	You women worrying about women lib.	50:36
	You ain't got a thing to worry about.	50:41
	Well, what you mean, preacher? Yes, I believe in it.	50:46
	But I know also that there ain't no man who ever had a baby.	50:51
	(congregation applauding)	50:55
	Ain't no man can be called	51:07
	the man of this world.	51:12
	You know who is responsible	51:15
	for every one of us sitting here today?	51:18
	A woman was responsible!	51:20
	You, this is very practical. The next statement.	51:26
	I'm a very practical preacher anyway.	51:30
	You ever heard anybody riding along in his automobile	51:33
	and she's running good.	51:37
	You never hear him say, "He's running good."	51:39
	She's running good tonight.	51:42
	That's power.	51:45
	When you were standing at the depot	51:48
	waiting for the train to come to meet your loved one,	51:52
	and after a while, you heard her coming around the corner.	51:56
	You said, "Now, here she comes."	51:59
	You didn't say, "Here he comes."	52:02
	(congregation laughing)	52:04
	That spells power!	52:07
	And don't fool yourself.	52:12
	The women of our world are power!	52:16
	And we're fussing about whether they oughta be equal,	52:22
	and paid, and jobbed, and what have you.	52:25
	It's all foolish to me. It's a misplaced emphasis.	52:31
	And some of you men, married men, you found that out.	52:37
	Maybe you didn't know it until you married.	52:40
	(congregation laughing)	52:43
	But you found out two things. You can't make her hush.	52:47
	(congregation laughing)	52:51
	She gonna say what she wanna say no matter what you say.	52:55
	And you can bluff all you want	53:02
	and talk about what you gonna do,	53:03
	they just stand right on up there and say it.	53:05
	Power.	53:11
	That's a misplaced emphasis there.	53:14
	There is nowhere I read	53:17
	really in God's words	53:21
	where a man is so superior over woman.	53:24
	I want to rush to tell you	53:30
	anybody that beats your thinking is your master,	53:32
	whether it's a woman or a man.	53:35
	Some of you married folks got a wife.	53:39
	That's your master, you know?	53:43
	She can outthink you.	53:46
	She's your master.	53:50
	And the best way to keep her in line	53:52
	and keep her sweet and kind	53:55
	is just love her all you can	53:59
	for you can't outthink her.	54:03
	(congregation laughing)	54:05
	Now, I'm not downing the men.	54:09
	Not at all.	54:11
	We've got to have man power as well,	54:14
	but we've got to have women power.	54:20
	You know, there's some sin around here,	54:25
	brothers and sisters, and students of this university.	54:27
	There are a lot of sins to be counted with, sins.	54:32
	That's why I don't like a snake.	54:38
	As far as I know, that's the only thing I'm afraid of,	54:44
	is a snake.	54:47
	And my children turn on the radio sometimes, TV rather.	54:52
	And here comes somebody out here who a big old snake.	54:57
	I say, "Close it! Turn it away!" I don't want to see it.	55:00
	I don't want to dream about this tonight.	55:03
	A snake.	55:06
	Have you ever thought what that booger's name,	55:08
	the first part of that booger's name?	55:14
	That snake is the sss, snake.	55:16
	Sinful.	55:19
	And I'm afraid of him.	55:22
	Can turn his own eyes several colors, lick out his tongue.	55:25
	I don't want to see him.	55:31
	To me, he's evil and sinful.	55:35
	But I'm afraid there's some (mumbling) snakes	55:39
	walking around in this world.	55:45
	And that sin I'm about to tell you about	55:51
	other than the snake.	55:53
	And I want you to hear me, young people.	55:57
	One of the worst sins I know anything about	56:00
	is satisfied dumbness.	56:02
	(congregation applauding)	56:05
	That's dumb!	56:16
	Boasting about it.	56:18
	Satisfied.	56:20
	Lord, we have to know something.	56:23
	Don't know anything and won't go to school,	56:28
	won't read, won't keep up. Dumb.	56:31
	And I don't want to hear anybody tell me	56:39
	that any student in this school	56:41
	would come up saying, you know, Mary, what did you mark	56:45
	did you get? Says, Honey, I made an A.	56:48
	Misplaced emphasis, you know?	56:53
	The other one say you know that old preacher,	56:55
	that old devil gave me a C.	56:57
	Gave me a C.	57:06
	The other one boast,	57:09
	I made, I made an A.	57:11
	A's are alright if you get them honest.	57:17
	I have no objection.	57:20
	I didn't make them when I was in school.	57:22
	I didn't have the background to get them.	57:24
	I made only one A in all of my college days, one A.	57:28
	And I'm using it well out here while I live now,	57:34
	and that was in parliamentary law.	57:37
	I made an A in that, brother.	57:42
	But I'm not gonna say the C's,	57:46
	C pluses and the B, that I made! I didn't do it.	57:50
	I'm gonna give credit to the persons	57:58
	who straightened out the things that I didn't know.	58:03
	I want to rush to tell you, young people,	58:07
	you can be a drop out on either one of these subjects	58:09
	if you aren't clear and knowledgeable.	58:12
	I like to have been a drop out of Morehouse College	58:16
	because I just couldn't stand biology.	58:19
	And so last one day in my senior year,	58:25
	I walked down going home!	58:29
	I don't have to have this mess to preach.	58:31
	I can preach without dissecting snakes,	58:37
	and frogs, and lizards!	58:41
	(congregation applauding)	58:44
	I was through. I wasn't gonna get no degree.	58:50
	And the head of my department, Sam Nabrit.	58:56
	Some of you might know Sam. Brilliant mind.	59:00
	He was the head of my department.	59:05
	When I started down, he saw me	59:07
	and said, "Hey fella, what's your trouble?"	59:09
	I said, "I'm going home."	59:10
	He said, "You can't do this, man."	59:12
	I said, "Oh yeah, I'm through.	59:15
	"I'm going. I ain't gonna mess with this."	59:17
	I said, "I'm not gonna have my stomach upset anymore."	59:19
	Upset anymore with all of this mess.	59:21
	Lizards!	59:26
	Worms and all of that mess, I don't have to have it!	59:28
	Said your assistant	59:35
	failed me, and he was right.	59:40
	I just ain't gonna write this stuff. I can't do it.	59:42
	He said, "Come on, go back upstairs.	59:45
	"I'm gonna take you over myself	59:48
	"and we're gonna have to do some studying day and night,	59:51
	"but I'm gonna get you over and you're gonna make it."	59:54
	I said, "Okay."	59:59
	(congregation laughing)	1:00:00
	I went back with him.	1:00:04
	I got where I could draw that old earth worm.	1:00:07
	So I said, "Now, don't have me mess with the snakes please."	1:00:15
	But anyhow, Sam Nabrit	1:00:20
	got me over the hill, and you know what I made	1:00:24
	is one of the biggest ones you can ever have.	1:00:29
	I made a C.	1:00:32
	(congregation laughing)	1:00:34
	I'll let you decide what	1:00:40
	that C has done out here in the world.	1:00:42
	Don't take a defeatist way.	1:00:46
	Never say you can't.	1:00:50
	If anybody else did, you can.	1:00:53
	And I said to my children, "Aim at the skies!"	1:00:56
	If you don't get there, aim up there.	1:01:02
	Never feel that any man	1:01:06
	can do any more than you can do.	1:01:11
	If some other man did it, you can do it.	1:01:13
	I kept teaching that to my children.	1:01:18
	I don't know any of them	1:01:23
	that made C's.	1:01:27
	I never said to them go and bring me A's,	1:01:31
	but you have no right to fail. You must pass	1:01:33
	'cause I'm not gonna let anything else in the way.	1:01:38
	You go and study and I'll pay the freight.	1:01:40
	And they did. And I'm happy about that.	1:01:48
	Don't misplace your emphasis.	1:01:53
	When he sent out those 70,	1:01:58
	Jesus said go. I'm gonna give your authority over.	1:02:03
	The serpent and everything else,	1:02:09
	none of them shall harm you so tread upon them	1:02:11
	and none of them will harm you.	1:02:14
	Go ahead. Out there.	1:02:16
	And you know, they did what, if you aren't careful, we'll do	1:02:20
	before they got anywhere much.	1:02:23
	Hadn't looked at the whole field.	1:02:25
	They come on back and make a report	1:02:27
	and said, "Lord, you know even the demons	1:02:29
	"are subject under us in thy name."	1:02:31
	Good, but not good enough!	1:02:34
	You haven't touched the surface of what I sent you to do.	1:02:37
	Don't you think ever when God gives you a task,	1:02:42
	stay at it	1:02:48
	until you sure it's completed	1:02:52
	before you go back to make a report.	1:02:55
	Lord, even the demons are subject under us.	1:02:58
	A misplaced emphasis.	1:03:03
	The other powers that I sent you to get rid of,	1:03:08
	and here you come back telling me	1:03:14
	that you have only conquered the devil.	1:03:22
	There are a lot of devils, you know?	1:03:29
	There is no one devil. The devil is everywhere.	1:03:31
	That's what America must come to grips with,	1:03:37
	and I'm afraid she won't do it.	1:03:41
	I'm worried, bothered, disturbed, and amazed.	1:03:43
	(mumbling) America and I love America. America is my home.	1:03:50
	I'm gonna die here. I'm going to sleep here, rather.	1:03:55
	But it worries me because America just won't repent.	1:04:00
	America has men enough, orators enough,	1:04:06
	scholars enough, preachers enough,	1:04:10
	teachers enough, to lick all of the problems we have	1:04:14
	if she would just go ahead and do it.	1:04:18
	Americans, stop all of this	1:04:22
	killings, looting.	1:04:25
	America can find out who killed Kennedy	1:04:30
	and who killed Martin Luther King.	1:04:35
	They just keep on coming up.	1:04:39
	(congregation applauding)	1:04:41
	But I'm afraid we never thought	1:04:44
	we'd be as far along the way as we far.	1:04:46
	There's a white man	1:04:50
	in my state,	1:04:54
	just a little bit out of Atlanta.	1:04:58
	Opens his mouth, every time he opens his mouth,	1:05:01
	he talks about them damn niggers and damn Jews.	1:05:03
	He thought he had it made. 20 years ago.	1:05:09
	I kept saying to him, don't worry	1:05:14
	about who put that dynamite under the door steps	1:05:17
	of 16th Street Baptist Church	1:05:21
	and blew the heads off of poor little black girls	1:05:23
	there for Sunday school that morning.	1:05:28
	Don't you worry about who, but worry about what.	1:05:31
	What did that?	1:05:35
	And just here a week (mumbling) ago,	1:05:38
	they found the man and he's in jail, denied a bond.	1:05:41
	Supposed to put that dynamite	1:05:46
	under the door steps of that church.	1:05:49
	Then I looked around, they had indicted in Alabama	1:05:53
	this white man that I'm talking about.	1:05:58
	He thought he had had it made.	1:06:03
	Found out he had bomb, so they say, I don't know,	1:06:06
	one of the Negro Baptist churches there.	1:06:10
	And they said they're gonna take him back	1:06:14
	to Alabama for trial. He says, "Not going."	1:06:16
	But I saw why the governors are working together on it.	1:06:19
	Georgia governor says he gonna send him back.	1:06:22
	Wallace has already said send him back.	1:06:25
	Sir, I can't go back to Alabama. They'll kill me.	1:06:30
	Friends, the gods of the mill grind slow,	1:06:36
	but exceedingly fine.	1:06:41
	(congregation applauding)	1:06:44
	Be sure, be sure your sins	1:06:49
	one day will find you out.	1:06:55
	This is God's word.	1:07:00
	This is God's word.	1:07:03
	I'm coming on in to wrap it up now.	1:07:06
	(congregation laughing)	1:07:09
	We got a misplaced emphasis in our whole educational setup	1:07:14
	beginning in the kindergarten right on through high school,	1:07:19
	through elementary school, high school,	1:07:24
	colleges, university. A misplaced emphasis.	1:07:26
	Here we are, in 1977	1:07:31
	is fastly going away.	1:07:36
	And here we are today fussing in different cities	1:07:40
	about who is going to school with who.	1:07:44
	Fussing about busing.	1:07:48
	And they ask me, the news media always ask me,	1:07:51
	"What do you think about busing?"	1:07:53
	I said, "Go and ahead and bus the hell out of them	1:07:55
	"until you get the job done."	1:07:59
	(congregation applauding)	1:08:01
	'Cause I know, I know the reason we have that,	1:08:07
	have no business with it. We did endure it.	1:08:13
	The two things that they can't pin on us, thank God.	1:08:18
	We had nothing to do with Watergate.	1:08:22
	(congregation applauding)	1:08:25
	They couldn't get us in there anyway.	1:08:31
	We had nothing to do	1:08:34
	with all of this running out of neighborhoods.	1:08:36
	Are you listening?	1:08:43
	I told ya I wasn't gonna ask you to say Amen,	1:08:46
	but I will ask you if you're listening.	1:08:48
	(congregation laughing)	1:08:50
	You know who did it? Any city?	1:08:52
	Oh yes, New York, I don't care what.	1:08:56
	(mumbling), no matter what it is.	1:08:58
	That was a swanky white community.	1:09:01
	One black moved, bought and moved into that community.	1:09:05
	The whites started running.	1:09:08
	You know that's true.	1:09:14
	They moved away from the schools, broke up the church,	1:09:16
	left it empty, left it so blacks could assume their debt.	1:09:21
	I wouldn't do it.	1:09:26
	I said, "No, I wouldn't have your church."	1:09:27
	They had no business running away from their schools	1:09:31
	and away from their churches.	1:09:34
	Just wasn't gonna have no black man	1:09:36
	living as my neighbor!	1:09:40
	And they moved, they did it in Atlanta.	1:09:44
	They did it everywhere else. They thought they had it made.	1:09:46
	They'd go on off and make them another ghetto.	1:09:50
	Then what happened?	1:09:55
	The courts finally handed down	1:09:58
	a most momentous decision	1:10:01
	saying that these schools must be balanced.	1:10:04
	You've got to bus some of the whites	1:10:12
	right back where they went from.	1:10:14
	You got to bus some blacks up there	1:10:17
	where they have not been.	1:10:20
	And you've got to have some black	1:10:22
	principals at schools that's been predominantly white.	1:10:26
	You got to have black teachers	1:10:31
	teaching white, or what have you.	1:10:36
	And what bothers me,	1:10:39
	some blacks are so brainwashed.	1:10:43
	I can't teach white children. That's a dumb Dora there.	1:10:46
	(congregation laughing)	1:10:51
	All the schools I know anything about give you a text.	1:10:55
	For you to teach most of your teaching at least	1:10:59
	out of that textbook that they've given you.	1:11:02
	And yet you suppose to be trained,	1:11:05
	and you can't teach what's there?	1:11:08
	What's the matter with you?!	1:11:11
	(congregation applauding)	1:11:13
	All the same time, whites can't teach blacks.	1:11:17
	I'm afraid I'm talking too long, but I'm full.	1:11:24
	Misplaced emphasis, that's what it is.	1:11:30
	You know?	1:11:36
	There ain't much in the history about us.	1:11:39
	That's why we kicking up so much dust about black,	1:11:41
	black history! They didn't honor nothing we had.	1:11:45
	All the great (mumbling) folks	1:11:51
	was great in any field, all were white.	1:11:53
	No black at all.	1:11:57
	But brother, we got some new painting going on now.	1:12:00
	It's gonna be that way from here on in.	1:12:05
	It does matter who's doing the writing	1:12:10
	and who's doing the painting.	1:12:11
	When 10 great persons go out there,	1:12:15
	the next time, some of them gonna be black.	1:12:18
	We ne'er so far behind as some folks would have us be.	1:12:26
	I'm threatened that back then	1:12:33
	when we wasn't allowed to do to Duke,	1:12:36
	and Boston, and Harvard.	1:12:40
	If we got there, we had to take examination	1:12:45
	though we'd finished our college	1:12:48
	and wanted to go on for higher training.	1:12:50
	We'll take qualified.	1:12:54
	Then we would have to take examinations.	1:12:58
	And you know, coming from	1:13:01
	what they said was inferior schools,	1:13:02
	you know this as well as I,	1:13:05
	some blacks went to that school.	1:13:07
	Harvard, if you please. Chicago, Duke, whatever.	1:13:10
	(mumbling) haven't finished college	1:13:17
	from that interior school,	1:13:19
	and stand up there and finish head of the class.	1:13:21
	Now, who's dumb? Look at that thing.	1:13:24
	Who is isn't dumb showing up?	1:13:26
	We've come a long way.	1:13:29
	Don't you let anybody down you on that.	1:13:32
	We've come a long way!	1:13:34
	We've got (mumbling) now of PhDs, women and men,	1:13:40
	black, and scholars.	1:13:43
	We got to write about them pretty soon.	1:13:47
	Haven't said nothing about as much,	1:13:50
	but we're gonna be in there.	1:13:52
	You ever looked in the paper?	1:13:54
	That's a misplaced emphasis, you know.	1:13:56
	You see the man got to lying down,	1:13:59
	and he's pulling his mouth apart,	1:14:01
	and he's whipping the line. That's in the paper.	1:14:04
	You know who drew that paper? Man do that.	1:14:07
	My golly, you wait 'til the line draws that picture,	1:14:11
	and you will see a different picture.	1:14:14
	When he paints that picture, it'll be different.	1:14:19
	All that Brother King's trying to say to you this morning,	1:14:22
	all of us are God's children	1:14:27
	whether we are black or white.	1:14:33
	I'm gonna close now, gonna wrap it up.	1:14:39
	I hope I've gotten through to you.	1:14:45
	If I haven't gotten through to you	1:14:48
	in my practical way as a preacher, I've missed out.	1:14:50
	I'm simply blocking traffic.	1:14:57
	Now, there's some folks	1:15:02
	that couldn't even get in here this morning.	1:15:03
	They're stacked everywhere.	1:15:07
	I have that almost everywhere I go.	1:15:10
	So I have to always send word to those that couldn't get in.	1:15:14
	And you help me carry it.	1:15:21
	I'm sending word through this little story,	1:15:23
	and yet it has so much meaning.	1:15:27
	A woman was married and she had a dear husband.	1:15:33
	She loved him, it was her dear husband.	1:15:37
	And her dear husband died.	1:15:40
	And the first thing that woman did,	1:15:44
	she went to tombstone man,	1:15:46
	and told him she wanted the finest stone he had,	1:15:50
	and told him what she wanted carved on that tombstone.	1:15:53
	He did it.	1:15:59
	The most expensive stone he had.	1:16:01
	He carved just what she told him.	1:16:05
	It said right in the front to her husband, rest in peace.	1:16:09
	She went on back home to get ready for the funeral.	1:16:15
	Every policy she found was made to another woman.	1:16:19
	She found a deed to the house they were living in.	1:16:26
	It was made to another woman.	1:16:29
	She couldn't stand any more.	1:16:31
	She went right on back to the tombstone man	1:16:33
	and said, "I don't want this. I ain't gonna have it!"	1:16:36
	He said, "Madam, I've done just what you told me."	1:16:39
	She said, "I know that, but I ain't gonna have it.	1:16:40
	"I don't want it!"	1:16:41
	But madam, I can't erase anything here,	1:16:44
	and I don't have room enough to add anything, madam.	1:16:47
	You bought this stone.	1:16:50
	I know it, but I don't want it!	1:16:51
	I told you a little while ago, women are smart.	1:16:55
	She said, "Now, you tell me	1:16:59
	"you don't have nowhere to add anything?"	1:17:00
	He said, "No." She said, "I see plenty of room	1:17:03
	"for what I want to put there."	1:17:05
	Now, you put there where I've said rest in peace,	1:17:07
	you put right at the end of that until I get there!	1:17:10
	(congregation applauding)	1:17:15
	Thank you very much.	1:17:52
	(congregation applauding)	1:17:54
	(organ music)	1:18:13
	(choir singing hymn)	1:20:40
	(organ music)	1:25:25
	("Hallelujah")	1:25:54
-	Oh God, accept, receive, and use these gifts.	1:26:57
	And through the use, and through the witness,	1:27:05
	and through the ministry of the Martin Luther King	1:27:07
	Center for Social Change,	1:27:10
	may your love, oh God, continue to be revealed	1:27:13
	to all those who stand and wait.	1:27:16
	Accept us now, use these gifts of offering,	1:27:21
	and use us in the name of Christ our Lord.	1:27:24
	Amen.	1:27:30
	("O God Our Help In Ages Past")	1:27:33
	You will be pleased to know	1:30:55
	we have had another member of the King family	1:30:56
	with us today, Albert King.	1:30:59
	We are pleased to have you come	1:31:02
	and share in this service with us.	1:31:04
	May God's peace and grace be with you, Al.	1:31:07
	And now without bowing heads or closing eyes,	1:31:10
	will you receive this blessing	1:31:14
	which I offer in the name of Christ.	1:31:15
	The grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,	1:31:18
	the love of God,	1:31:22
	the communion and fellowship of The Holy Spirit be with you	1:31:23
	and with those whom you love this day and forever.	1:31:28
	♪ Amen ♪	1:31:38
	♪ Amen ♪	1:31:41
	♪ Amen ♪	1:31:47
	♪ Amen ♪	1:31:53
	♪ Amen ♪	1:32:00
	♪ Amen ♪	1:32:07
	♪ Amen ♪	1:32:23
	♪ Amen ♪	1:32:31
	("Guilain, Suite du second ton: VI. Dialogue")	1:32:43

Item Info

Title:

Martin Luther King, Sr. - Sermon Untitled (October 9, 1977)

Description:

America suffers from a misplaced emphasis, because it has focuses more on the differences that separate us rather than the fact that we are all God's children. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 31:51. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 1:17:15.
Key quotation: “All of us are God’s children, whether we are black or white.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r46q1sx7j

Date:

October 9, 1977

Speaker:

King, Martin Luther, 1899-1984

Liturgical Calendar:

Pentecost

Biblical Book:

Luke

Chapter and Verse:

Luke 10:16-22

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0920
ref7043_e8u
uachapelsermaud
duke:321127
dcrau001824
ark:/87924/r46q1sx7j
e022d57a-1df3-4516-9a2d-289d7e51887b

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

Unknown Rights-Holder

Rights Note:

This material is made available for research, scholarship, and private study. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Transcript

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Duke University Archives

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