Samuel Proctor - Sermon Untitled (January 15, 1995)

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	(organ music)	0:00
-	Good morning, we'd like to welcome you to this service	0:55
	of worship at Duke Chapel.	0:58
	I'd like to call several announcements to your attention.	1:00
	We're glad to welcome back the Duke Chapel Choir today.	1:03
	The choir has been, of course, on recess break,	1:07
	and half the choir members have just returned	1:09
	from a fabulous tour to England.	1:12
	It was a wonderful opportunity to be a part of that,	1:14
	and the wonderful music that they presented	1:17
	throughout England.	1:20
	We're glad to welcome them back.	1:21
	We'd also like to call on a more serious note,	1:24
	to your attention, that one of the freshman choir members,	1:27
	Tara Grove, was injured in a car wreck here on campus	1:30
	last week, and we ask you to keep her in your prayers.	1:34
	Our preacher today is the Reverend Doctor Samuel Proctor,	1:38
	a distinguished author and preacher and member	1:42
	of the Divinity School faculty here at Duke.	1:45
	We're glad to welcome him again to our pulpit.	1:48
	Tonight is the university Martin Luther King service,	1:51
	and Dr. Bernice King, who is Dr. King's daughter,	1:54
	will be the keynote speaker.	1:58
	That service is at six PM	2:00
	and we hope you will be able to return for that.	2:02
	Please stand as as we continue our worship	2:05
	with the call to worship.	2:07
	The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.	2:12
Congregation	And also with you.	2:15
-	The splendor of Christ shines upon us.	2:17
Congregation	Praise the Lord.	2:21
	(organ music)	2:23
	(echoing choral music)	3:24
-	Let us pray.	8:01
	Bless us, O God, with the reverent sense of your presence.	8:05
	That we may be at peace,	8:10
	and may worship you with all our mind and spirit.	8:13
	Through Jesus Christ, our lord, amen.	8:17
	You may be seated.	8:22
-	Let us pray for illumination.	8:31
	Open our hearts and minds, O God,	8:34
	by the power of your Holy Spirit,	8:37
	so that as the word is read and proclaimed,	8:40
	we may hear with joy what you say to us this day.	8:44
	Amen.	8:49
	Here begins the 62nd chapter	8:53
	of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah.	8:56
	For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent.	8:59
	And for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest.	9:03
	Until her vindication goes forth as brightness,	9:06
	and her salvation as a burning torch.	9:10
	The nation shall see your vindication,	9:14
	and all the kings your glory.	9:17
	And you shall be called by a new name	9:20
	which the mouth of the Lord will give.	9:22
	You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,	9:26
	and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.	9:30
	You shall no more be termed forsaken	9:34
	and your land shall no more be termed desolate.	9:37
	But you shall be called my delight is in her,	9:42
	and your land married, for the Lord delights in you,	9:45
	and your land shall be married.	9:50
	For as the young man marries a virgin,	9:53
	so shall your sons marry you,	9:56
	and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,	9:59
	so shall your God rejoice over you.	10:03
	This is the word of the Lord.	10:07
Congregation	Thanks be to God.	10:11
-	The psalm appointed for this day is Psalm 36,	10:22
	found on page 771 in your hymnal.	10:25
	Please stand and join in singing the psalm	10:28
	and Gloria responsively.	10:30
	♪ Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens ♪	10:40
	♪ Your faithfulness to the clouds ♪	10:47
	(choral music)	10:52
	♪ O God, how precious is your steadfast love ♪	11:10
	♪ All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings ♪	11:16
	(choral music)	11:23
	♪ For you is the fountain of life, ♪	11:37
	♪ In your light do we see light ♪	11:42
	(choral music)	11:47
	♪ All glory be to you, creator, ♪	12:03
	♪ And to Jesus Christ, our savior ♪	12:06
	(choral music)	12:10
	♪ As it was 'ere time began ♪	12:18
	(choral music)	12:23
	You may be seated.	12:32
-	Here begins the second chapter	12:42
	of the Gospel According to Saint John.	12:44
	On the third day, there was a marriage at Cana,	12:48
	in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.	12:51
	Jesus also was invited to the marriage with his disciples.	12:55
	When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him:	13:00
	They have no wine.	13:03
	And Jesus said to her: O woman, what have you to do with me?	13:05
	My hour has not yet come.	13:10
	His mother said to the servants: Do whatever he tells you.	13:13
	Now, six stone jars were standing there,	13:17
	for the Jewish rights of purification,	13:20
	each holding 20 or 30 gallons.	13:23
	Jesus said to them: Fill the jars with water.	13:26
	And they filled them up to the brim.	13:30
	He said to them: Now, draw some out	13:33
	and take it to the steward of the feast.	13:35
	So they took it.	13:38
	When the steward of the feast tasted the water,	13:40
	now become wine, and did not know where it came from,	13:42
	though the servants who had drawn the water knew,	13:46
	the steward of the feast called the bridegroom	13:49
	and said to him: Every man serves the good wine first,	13:51
	and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine.	13:57
	But you have kept the good wine until now.	14:01
	This is the first of his signs	14:05
	Jesus did at Cana and Galilee, and manifested his glory.	14:08
	And his disciples believed in him.	14:14
	This is the word of the Lord.	14:18
	(murmuring response)	14:21
	(reverberating choral music)	14:42
	Here begins the 12th chapter of the First Letter	20:48
	of Saint Paul to the Corinthians.	20:51
	Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren,	20:55
	I would not have you be ignorant.	20:59
	You know that when you were heathen, you were led astray	21:01
	to dumb idols, however you may have been moved.	21:04
	Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking	21:08
	by the spirit of God ever says: Jesus be cursed.	21:12
	And no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.	21:16
	Now, there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit.	21:22
	And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord.	21:27
	And there are varieties of working,	21:30
	but it is the same God who inspires them all, in everyone.	21:32
	To each is given the manifestation	21:37
	of the spirit for the common good.	21:39
	To one is given through the spirit the utterance of wisdom.	21:42
	To another, the utterance of knowledge,	21:46
	according to the same spirit.	21:48
	To another, faith by the same spirit.	21:51
	To another, gifts of healing by the one spirit.	21:54
	To another, the working of miracles.	21:57
	To another, prophecy.	22:00
	To another, the ability to distinguish between spirits.	22:02
	To another, various kinds of tongues.	22:06
	To another, the interpretation of tongues.	22:09
	All these are inspired by one and the same spirit,	22:13
	who apportions to each one individually, as he wills.	22:17
	This is the word of the Lord.	22:23
	(murmuring response)	22:26
-	I'm very grateful to be worshiping in this sacred	22:39
	and awesomely beautiful chapel once again.	22:43
	And I give thanks to God for this privilege,	22:48
	and give thanks to Dean Willimon for inviting me.	22:52
	To Reverend Brazzel and Mr. Hammond for their generous	22:56
	words of welcome today.	23:01
	I really did not expect to see all of you here today,	23:03
	because of the rain.	23:06
	I'm a Baptist, and while we talk a great deal	23:08
	about the efficacy of a lot of water,	23:12
	we don't wanna get wet but once.	23:15
	(laughing)	23:18
	Isaiah chapter 62, verses one through three.	23:23
	For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent.	23:33
	For Jerusalem's sake, I will not remain quiet.	23:39
	Until her righteousness shines out like the dawn.	23:45
	Her salvation, like a blazing torch.	23:49
	The nations will see your righteousness,	23:54
	and all kings your glory.	23:58
	You will be called by a new name,	24:02
	that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.	24:05
	You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord's hand,	24:08
	a royal diadem in the hand of your God.	24:12
	These majestic words of the ancient prophet ring with hope,	24:19
	and high expectation.	24:25
	He is reaching for the drooping spirits	24:28
	of a broken-hearted people,	24:32
	who are trying to put their lives together,	24:35
	returning after two generations of captivity	24:38
	in the land of Babylon.	24:42
	The prophet knows everything that they know.	24:46
	He has the same facts that they have about life.	24:50
	But where they put a period, he puts a semicolon.	24:55
	And where they cease in despair, he picks up with hope.	25:01
	And so, in the light of these words from Isaiah,	25:09
	let us think for a moment on the prophet's vision,	25:14
	and the real world.	25:18
	The Bible is a compendium of 66 books,	25:22
	and we often forget that.	25:26
	These books are describing the God-human encounter,	25:29
	for a period of some three to 4,000 years.	25:33
	It is a periscopic view of the human spirit.	25:38
	The human spirit, reaching up toward the divine,	25:42
	and the eternal God bending low toward humanity.	25:46
	That's what it's all about.	25:51
	And these inspired writings describe to us	25:53
	both the high points of that encounter, and the low points.	25:56
	The low points that are reflected across these centuries.	26:02
	The encounter culminates for us who are Christians	26:07
	in the person of Jesus, who was born in an humble	26:10
	carpenter's family, went about doing good,	26:13
	preached good news to the poor, healed the sick,	26:16
	called demons out of suffering little children,	26:20
	challenged the empty religion of his time,	26:23
	and was executed on a Roman cross after a mock trial.	26:26
	And his name is sung today in a thousand tongues,	26:32
	because death was defeated, and eternal life	26:35
	was made secure by his triumph over mortality.	26:40
	And throughout this holy history,	26:46
	this (speaking foreign language),	26:49
	there was the prophet, standing tall above the din	26:51
	of the people, affirming the vertical dimension	26:56
	of our existence.	27:00
	One way to study the Bible is to ask	27:03
	a question about these prophets.	27:05
	Who are they, anyway?	27:07
	Who are these people who come rising up out of the mist	27:10
	and the darkness, speaking with so much authority	27:14
	in the name of God?	27:18
	Do they have a sixth sense that allows them access	27:20
	to truth and insights that are hidden from the rest of us?	27:24
	What makes them so authentic,	27:28
	and should we credit them with special license,	27:31
	because they tell of their extraordinary experiences?	27:34
	We're here today in remembering one of the prophets	27:39
	of our own time, Martin Luther King Jr.	27:43
	What gave him such rare stamina?	27:48
	Such integration and harmony and coherence	27:53
	in his ministry and his message?	27:57
	Notice how many of these prophets take the time	28:01
	to tell us of rare moments of spiritual intensity	28:04
	that wafted them to the realms of the ethereal,	28:08
	and gave them utterance with words	28:12
	uncommon among ordinary mortals.	28:15
	Remember how the prophet Isaiah told us of his call.	28:19
	He tells us that it was when King Uzziah died.	28:23
	Uzziah, a king who had performed so well,	28:30
	and one who was close to Isaiah's family.	28:34
	He said that when Uzziah died, he saw the Lord.	28:38
	And then he carries us deeply into his innermost secrets	28:42
	and shares with us a mystical experience.	28:46
	I like to read that call of Isaiah.	28:50
	He saw seraphim flying about the temple, crying:	28:53
	Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty!	28:57
	He saw the temple door posts shaking,	29:01
	and the place was filled with smoke.	29:03
	Young Isaiah cried out: Woe is me, for I am undone.	29:06
	I am a man of unclean lips,	29:10
	and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.	29:13
	You see, it was not just ecstasy.	29:16
	It was commitment and a calling that came through	29:18
	in this experience.	29:22
	He said: Now my eyes have seen the king, the Lord almighty.	29:23
	And in the midst of that experience,	29:28
	he tells us that he heard the voice of God saying:	29:29
	Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?	29:32
	And Isaiah said: here am I, send me.	29:37
	So speaking of prophets, there are not many of us	29:42
	who go around telling people that we've had an experience	29:45
	of such life-changing consequences as that.	29:49
	I remember my call to preach,	29:54
	but it was not exactly like this.	29:56
	And then Ezekiel gives us even closer details of his call.	29:59
	He said it was in the 30th year, in the fourth month,	30:04
	on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles	30:07
	by the Kebar River, that's over in Babylon.	30:11
	And he said: The heavens were opened,	30:14
	and I saw visions of God.	30:16
	Then Ezekiel tells us of storms and lightning	30:19
	and supernatural creatures.	30:22
	And you read that 37th chapter and the first chapter,	30:25
	and he talks about wheels turning in the air.	30:29
	The scholars are able to decipher most of this vision	30:33
	and translate it into symbols of contemporary significance,	30:36
	but oh what a frightening vision Ezekiel had.	30:39
	And in it, he saw his own people in desolation,	30:44
	like a valley filled with dry bones.	30:48
	And God told him to prophesy until the bones came together,	30:51
	reassembled, with sinews and muscles wrapped around them,	30:55
	and the breath of life breathed into them.	31:00
	So there was always some message coming through,	31:04
	no matter how exciting the vision was,	31:09
	and how filled with symbolism the content of it,	31:12
	was a call to do something about the condition	31:17
	of the people.	31:20
	Jeremiah tells us that he was about to give up on God,	31:22
	altogether.	31:26
	He said: I am through.	31:27
	I will never call his name again.	31:29
	But then he said, his word was in me like a burning fire,	31:33
	shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing.	31:37
	I could not be quiet; I had to speak.	31:41
	So the prophets all speak autobiographically.	31:46
	They tried hard to convince their people of their authority,	31:51
	even though they were stoned and jailed,	31:55
	and ostracized for crying out against injustice and greed,	31:58
	idolatry and disobedience.	32:03
	But the long and ceaseless centuries have come and gone,	32:06
	and these same names remain sacred among us,	32:09
	as spokespersons for the eternal one.	32:12
	Amos, Isaiah, Micah, Hosea, Ezekiel and Jeremiah.	32:15
	They're not only canonized in scripture,	32:20
	but their words are axiomatic in human experience.	32:23
	What they said as thus saith the Lord has been validated	32:27
	and verified and amplified in empirical and pragmatic terms.	32:31
	What they spoke from Jerusalem was echoed by the sages	32:37
	from Athens as well, and what was received by them	32:41
	through meditation in the desert,	32:45
	was verified by what was arrived at by cogitation	32:48
	in the Lyceum; same truth, same truth.	32:52
	Micah said do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God.	32:57
	That has become axiomatic everywhere,	33:03
	all over the world, in every age.	33:06
	Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God.	33:09
	Today we celebrate the birthday of another prophet	33:14
	in the 21st century, Martin Luther King Jr.	33:16
	We remember him not only for what he said,	33:20
	but for what he did.	33:23
	And we pause in reverent respect,	33:25
	because he was one of a long procession	33:27
	of those who gave their lives for the cause	33:29
	in which they believed.	33:33
	There are an awful lot of us who could say	33:35
	what Martin King said.	33:37
	An awful lot of us believe exactly what he believed.	33:40
	But he died for it.	33:45
	And that's why we pause to remember him today.	33:47
	It was he who said that if we have not found anything	33:52
	worth dying for, we've not found anything worth living for.	33:57
	This is the language of a prophet.	34:03
	Now I was there, at that meeting in August.	34:06
	I mean, I was a super hot day in Washington,	34:11
	at the Lincoln Memorial.	34:15
	I had an upfront seat, looking right in King's face.	34:17
	I had known him for some 15 or 20 years.	34:22
	I had known him since he first came out of Morehouse College	34:25
	and I had followed him through his seminary,	34:29
	doctoral program, very closely.	34:32
	We were friends; I knew his father and his mother.	34:35
	But on that day, it seemed that I was looking	34:38
	at somebody else, altogether.	34:40
	I was in my office in the Peace Corps Building	34:44
	on Connecticut Avenue and I was talking with Bill Russell,	34:46
	the basketball immortal from the Boston Celtics.	34:50
	We had asked Bill Russell to come down and talk about	34:52
	helping us to recruit Peace Corps volunteers	34:55
	across the south from the 100-odd traditionally,	34:57
	historically black colleges.	35:01
	We wanted more black Peace Corps volunteers	35:04
	to know about the Peace Corps.	35:06
	And while I was talking with him, we looked at our watches,	35:08
	and he said: Sam, we'd better get out of here.	35:10
	It's almost time for King to speak.	35:12
	We jumped up, and oh, I felt so wonderful,	35:15
	trotting through Connecticut Avenue, beside Bill Russell.	35:18
	And when I got there, the ushers embarrassed me	35:24
	by reaching for him and not reaching for me,	35:27
	but I just followed closely behind,	35:30
	and we ended up with seats right up front.	35:32
	And then, King started.	35:36
	250,000 people were there.	35:41
	And they all seemed to want to go somewhere	35:45
	and find higher ground.	35:47
	They seemed to be ready to scream for a more honest,	35:50
	a more just, a more accountable response	35:53
	to the nagging issues of privilege and poverty,	35:57
	illiteracy and enlightenment, racism and community,	36:00
	war and world development, greed and compassion.	36:04
	There were rabbis, and nuns,	36:09
	Muslims and Christians, the very rich, and the very poor,	36:13
	the homeless and the senators, students and professors,	36:18
	busloads of Pentecostals, with the names of their churches,	36:23
	printed in large letters on the side.	36:27
	And then limousines bringing those from chartered airplanes,	36:30
	from Hollywood and the jet-set.	36:34
	A quarter of a million people.	36:37
	And King just lent himself to the moment,	36:39
	and spoke about only important things.	36:42
	No words were wasted in trivialities.	36:45
	He was like an oracle from Delphi on that day,	36:48
	and the truth just poured forth like new wine.	36:52
	I found myself in a transcendent state,	36:56
	lost in a rare state of mind.	37:00
	You know the truth when you hear it,	37:04
	listening carefully to it.	37:06
	It is cleansing and purifying and hypnotic.	37:08
	There was nothing about which to debate.	37:13
	I recall reading about Daniel Webster and Henry Clay	37:17
	debating in the Senate about a proposal	37:20
	of several states to secede from the union,	37:23
	and after an hour of long oration on the issue	37:26
	by Henry Clay, Webster took the podium and rebutted Clay,	37:29
	item by item, with great conviction.	37:33
	And afterwards, they met in the cloakroom,	37:36
	and Henry Clay said to Daniel Webster:	37:37
	How did you know what I was gonna say today?	37:40
	He said: Senator, I did not know what you were going to say.	37:43
	He said: Well, then how could you give such a rebuttal	37:47
	to my arguments?	37:50
	You gave it with such logic and coherence.	37:54
	Webster said: When I heard you speaking about the union,	37:57
	falling apart, I did not need any rehearsal.	38:01
	I did not need any preparation.	38:05
	All that I had ever read in the Bible and Shakespeare,	38:08
	in John Locke and the Declaration of Independence,	38:12
	in the Constitution, came before me in panoramic array.	38:15
	And whenever I needed a thunderbolt, said Webster,	38:19
	I just reached out and grabbed one, as it went smoking by.	38:22
	Well, King on that day seemed to be grabbing thunderbolts.	38:28
	For about 45 minutes, he was a prophet in our time.	38:34
	And like the prophets of old, he had his detractors,	38:39
	his critics, and his own, personal limitations.	38:43
	But like the prophets of old, he dipped his pen	38:46
	in the flow of eternal and abiding wisdom and truth.	38:49
	And his lessons have remained indelible amongst us	38:53
	for all of these years.	38:56
	He was like Isaiah.	38:58
	He did not settle for the cynicism of the time,	39:00
	the transient, ephemeral mood of the moment.	39:05
	He echoed the sentiment of Isaiah and transposed	39:08
	his words from the sixth century BC to the 20th.	39:11
	For Zion's sake, I will not be silent.	39:16
	For Jerusalem's sake, I will no remain quiet,	39:18
	until her righteousness shines out like the dawn.	39:22
	Her salvation, like a blazing torch.	39:25
	The nations will see your righteousness,	39:29
	and all kings your glory.	39:30
	You will be called by a new name,	39:32
	that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.	39:35
	You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord's hand,	39:37
	a royal diadem in the hand of your God.	39:41
	You will become like Beulah land.	39:45
	And like the prophet of old, King left us a message	39:49
	of courage, a message of wisdom, and a message of hope.	39:52
	Like the prophets of old, King faced the real world,	39:57
	the real world.	40:02
	Persons struggling with the kind of atavistic	40:03
	drag on human nature, that the church calls original sin.	40:07
	A primeval propensity towards self-regard	40:13
	and tribal protection.	40:16
	A compounding of mistakes and evil intent	40:19
	in institutional life, as well as in personal behavior.	40:22
	And then the complex relationship between success	40:27
	and sacrifice, between one's own survival and altruism	40:30
	toward others whose needs are far greater than our own.	40:36
	He left us a message in the midst of all of this ambiguity.	40:41
	And it was a message of courage.	40:46
	I always admired him for this.	40:49
	King did not plan to be a civil rights leader.	40:52
	He didn't plan to go to a Birmingham jail	40:55
	or get shot in Memphis.	40:57
	Everything about him pointed in another direction.	40:59
	He would tell his friends about his ambition in private.	41:03
	He would smile and say: you know what I really wanna be	41:06
	is Benjamin May's successor at Morehouse College.	41:09
	He wanted to be President of Morehouse College.	41:12
	He said he wanted to be an intellectual,	41:15
	black, Baptist preacher in the meantime,	41:16
	like Howard Thurman and Mordecai Johnson and Vernon Johns.	41:18
	And he did succeed Vernon Johns,	41:22
	the inimitable Oberlin-trained voice of social justice.	41:24
	King was reared in privilege.	41:29
	I'm reluctant to say it, but he was never really poor.	41:33
	He grew up in a family of successful people.	41:38
	Isn't it odd that a lot of people don't like	41:42
	for us to talk about the fact that	41:45
	some black folk just weren't poor.	41:47
	They learned how, early in life, not to be poor.	41:51
	You see, my daddy didn't like roaches and rats	41:55
	and falling plaster, toilets that didn't flush	41:59
	and lights that didn't turn on.	42:01
	He worked hard, and there was food	42:05
	always in the refrigerator.	42:06
	The telephone always worked.	42:08
	King grew up in a house where they had enough to eat	42:10
	for themselves and they could entertain other people.	42:12
	He said that when he would come home from school,	42:16
	he would look at the dinner table and there would be	42:18
	Mary McLeod Bethune sitting there,	42:20
	Charles Houston, you know, Mordecai Johnson,	42:22
	Charles Houston, almost any big shot would be there,	42:26
	because in those days, black people couldn't stay	42:30
	in hotels and motels, so they stayed in the homes	42:31
	of the important people who had big houses.	42:34
	And they would say: well, it's not your house anyway.	42:37
	It's a parsonage; it belongs to the Methodist Conference	42:39
	or somebody, so we'll just stay here.	42:42
	(laughing)	42:45
	So King was always hanging out and hobnobbing	42:46
	with very important people, as a little fellow.	42:49
	And he would tell us about these people.	42:52
	Raised in comfortable surroundings,	42:53
	around well-educated people, his mother was a graduate	42:55
	of Spelman College, she played the organ,	42:58
	she was playing Melotz's Lord's Prayer as a Prelude,	43:01
	when she was shot in the back by a demented person,	43:04
	you'll remember.	43:06
	He went to a special laboratory high school.	43:08
	He didn't even go to a public high school.	43:10
	The high school was sponsored by Atlanta University	43:13
	for very bright people.	43:15
	Isn't it odd how people who are already privileged	43:17
	get more privilege; you know how that goes.	43:20
	So here he was, already well-educated at home,	43:22
	and then selected for another school	43:24
	to educate him even better.	43:26
	And then he went to Morehouse College, a very special place.	43:29
	It is not easy for me to talk about Morehouse College	43:32
	because I'm not a Morehouse man, but I'll tolerate this.	43:35
	Morehouse was very special.	43:40
	Highly-qualified people, and there's a secret about it	43:42
	that not many people know: John Hope, who was the president	43:46
	of Morehouse College, was also the classmate	43:49
	of John D. Rockefeller at Brown University.	43:53
	And in 1895, when they were graduating,	43:56
	they were both marshals of the class.	44:00
	John Hope, this mulatto black fellow from down in Georgia	44:03
	was marching down Manning Street Hill	44:07
	with John D. Rockefeller, both of them carrying the mace.	44:09
	If you've got to pick a classmate,	44:12
	pick John D. Rockefeller Jr.	44:14
	(laughing)	44:16
	And so, Morehouse College and Spelman benefited greatly	44:19
	from the contact of John Hope with the Rockefeller family.	44:24
	Not only that, but other Baptist institutions	44:28
	like my own benefited.	44:30
	Then he went to Crosier Seminary.	44:32
	I don't know what you think we do in the seminaries.	44:34
	I know a lot of you have some strange ideas	44:36
	about what we do over there.	44:38
	We do not pass out holy oil, you know,	44:40
	and recite the incantations about what to do in church	44:42
	on Sunday morning; we start out studying the Old Testament	44:44
	by studying the religion of all the cultures surrounding	44:48
	the Old Testament people.	44:52
	The religion of Assyria and Babylonia and Persia	44:54
	and Greece, all of that, we begin there.	44:57
	We begin with archeology and the study of the languages.	45:01
	We want to have the whole world well-established,	45:04
	so we can drop Judaism right down in the matrix of it,	45:07
	and see what it looks like.	45:11
	Then when we study the New Testament,	45:14
	we start with Alexander the Great.	45:16
	We put the whole Seleucid Empire together,	45:18
	and then after a while, we can isolate this little piece	45:21
	of real estate called Palestine,	45:24
	and see what that looks like in the larger context.	45:27
	Then we can understand Herod and all of those people,	45:31
	Felix and Festus and Pontius Pilate and all of the people	45:34
	who affected the life of Jesus.	45:38
	Seminary is serious study.	45:40
	Some seminaries just have folks reciting Bible verses	45:43
	and regurgitating them, but not at Duke Divinity School.	45:47
	And not at Vanderbilt, and not at Emory, and not at Crosier.	45:51
	You learn the complete environment of the Bible,	45:56
	and then you study the Bible in the light of that knowledge.	45:59
	That's what King studied, and King was one of those persons	46:02
	who knew very well there was a God a long time	46:06
	before there ever was a Bible, hello?	46:09
	(laughing)	46:13
	And there's a God alive a long time after the Bible canon	46:15
	is closed.	46:20
	He also knew that the NAACP had won all of these cases,	46:22
	and what was needed now was a new strategy	46:29
	to do something different, and he had the courage	46:32
	to employ that new strategy.	46:35
	Rosa Parks refused to move that day,	46:38
	they had a meeting that night,	46:41
	the meeting of the Montgomery Improvement Association.	46:42
	Look at the title of the organization.	46:46
	You know they weren't going to do anything iconoclastic.	46:48
	Look at the name: Montgomery Improvement Association.	46:52
	Take your time; don't get carried away.	46:57
	But Rosa Parks had been arrested.	47:01
	The wrong person to arrest.	47:04
	Here she was, no lipstick, no eye shadow, eh?	47:06
	No jewelry, no makeup, her hair combed back in a smooth bun.	47:11
	She'd been sewing for some rich people	47:19
	on the other side of town.	47:21
	She got on the bus, sat somewhere in the middle.	47:22
	Rule was black people filled it up from the back,	47:25
	white people filled it up from the front,	47:28
	but if nobody's on the bus, sit wherever you wanna sit.	47:29
	Then a white man got on the bus and wanted to sit	47:33
	where she was siting, and she would have to move back,	47:36
	and the bus driver left his seat,	47:40
	came all the way back there	47:42
	and started a worldwide revolution.	47:43
	He had a wonderful opportunity to go on and drive his bus	47:48
	until that woman got off.	47:51
	(laughing)	47:53
	And if he did, I wouldn't be standing here right now,	47:56
	annoying you.	47:58
	But he started a worldwide revolution.	48:03
	He could have looked at her and he could have told	48:07
	that she was nobody to be bothering.	48:09
	She looked like an angel.	48:11
	Now, there were some women that he could have asked to move	48:15
	and there never would have been a revolution.	48:17
	I know some of them.	48:20
	Sick and tired of racism, just fed up.	48:21
	Not pledged to nonviolence.	48:25
	They would have said: man, if you wanna move me,	48:27
	you try to move me.	48:30
	(negative vocalizing)	48:33
	(laughing)	48:36
	And then some of them would have taken an apple	48:37
	out of a pocketbook and thrown it up into the air,	48:39
	and then pulled out a sharp razor-blade	48:42
	and peeled it on the way down, and said: Now move me.	48:44
	(laughing)	48:49
	And there would not have been any Civil Rights Movement,	48:51
	at all, but Rosa Parks, the epitome of grace and dignity,	48:54
	she had already studied nonviolence,	49:00
	she was a part of a little movement there,	49:02
	wanting to see change.	49:05
	And that night when they had their meeting,	49:06
	everybody had an excuse.	49:08
	I can't lead a boycott; my wife just got a new job	49:09
	on the faculty of the college.	49:12
	I can't lead one; my wife is a principal	49:14
	of a junior high school.	49:16
	I can't lead one; I just bought a farm	49:17
	and I just got a mortgage from the bank.	49:19
	They said: Martin, you're the last one to come to town.	49:21
	You're young, you've got a PHD.	49:24
	They don't want a black PHD in jail around here.	49:25
	So you lead it.	49:29
	King had to abandon all of his plans,	49:31
	put aside everything he'd thought of doing,	49:35
	change his role entirely.	49:38
	He even changed his clothes.	49:41
	He took off those Hart Shaffner Marx marked suits,	49:43
	started wearing dungarees and a leather jacket.	49:46
	I was with him one day when we went from Montgomery	49:51
	over to Tuskegee to try to make a deal to buy some gas	49:54
	for the people who had their automobiles,	49:57
	in the protest, they were carting the people back and forth,	49:59
	the gasoline dealers in Montgomery couldn't get gas	50:02
	to sell them, so we had to go to Tuskegee	50:05
	to make arrangements.	50:06
	And a state trooper followed us all the way,	50:08
	about one yard off the tailgate of King's old,	50:11
	raggedy, second-hand Pontiac station wagon.	50:15
	We perspired, we were scared to death.	50:20
	And then when we got there and stayed about an hour	50:23
	and came back, he picked us up,	50:25
	followed us all the way back.	50:28
	King lived like that.	50:30
	And then, one night in his home, he heard a noise.	50:32
	The Deacons were out front, sleeping, guarding his house.	50:35
	Now, they didn't believe in nonviolence.	50:38
	They were sleeping with baseball bats in their laps.	50:40
	And one of them dropped a bat,	50:43
	and I just got right straight up, you know,	50:44
	I didn't rise up, I levitated.	50:46
	My whole body raised right up outta the bed.	50:48
	I went running out front, and there the Deacon was,	50:51
	still sleeping; he didn't even know he'd dropped the bat.	50:53
	I came back and I asked King, knocked on his door:	50:55
	Are you all right, Mike?	50:58
	We called him Mike.	50:59
	Come on in, Sam.	51:01
	And I went in, there was Loretta, asleep,	51:02
	far on the other side of the bed.	51:05
	And he was leaning out of the bed with a lamp on the floor,	51:06
	reading Paul Tillich's book, Courage to Be.	51:11
	Three o'clock in the morning,	51:15
	in the midst of the bus boycott.	51:16
	Whenever we approach his life from any angle,	51:20
	we got a message of courage from him.	51:24
	And we got a message of wisdom.	51:28
	A lot of people gave him all kinds of advice.	51:30
	They were saying to him: You're just naive	51:33
	and simple-minded, you know?	51:36
	Nothing is gonna happen with nonviolence.	51:38
	He rejected all of the cheap seductions	51:41
	to preach a message of hate.	51:43
	So many young, black folk couldn't stand his strategy.	51:46
	A message of nonviolence, to civil disobedience.	51:50
	They wanted to burn down a town somewhere,	51:54
	and let people know exactly how angry they were.	51:57
	Some of them wanted to teach separation.	51:59
	Let's bail out; we don't need to stay here.	52:01
	Let's go somewhere.	52:04
	Or, stay here and isolate ourselves.	52:06
	Insulate ourselves from the whole culture.	52:12
	They talked that in his presence,	52:15
	argued with him at public meetings.	52:17
	Some talked violence in his presence.	52:20
	But King knew that at the time of his boycott,	52:24
	39 Supreme Court cases had already been won,	52:28
	all of the legal strategy had been accomplished.	52:32
	What remained was another kind of strategy altogether,	52:35
	that would cause a nation's conscience to be seared,	52:39
	and for things to start changing.	52:42
	So he stood in the tradition of all of those apostles	52:45
	of civil disobedience, like Thoreau and Dante,	52:49
	and Jesus of Galilee.	52:53
	And then we found that like Victor Hugo,	52:56
	King discovered that greater than the power	52:59
	of all the armies that ever marched	53:01
	is the power of an idea whose time has come.	53:03
	King was the precursor of a new emancipation.	53:08
	A genuine emancipation, because he spoke wisdom.	53:12
	There was nothing self-contradictory about his message.	53:17
	We can live with it today	53:22
	as he taught it to us 30 years ago.	53:24
	And finally, there was a message of hope.	53:27
	We need it so much right now.	53:30
	People don't know what to believe in anymore.	53:34
	These are some dark days.	53:39
	There are people who are ready now to give up	53:42
	on the total American experiment,	53:44
	trying to embrace 260 million people	53:47
	of the greatest diversity in the world,	53:50
	with unprecedented freedom,	53:53
	freedom of worship, freedom of the press,	53:54
	freedom of assembly, freedom of speech,	53:56
	a polyglot of 100 languages spoken in the public schools	53:59
	of Chicago, for example, 250 some-odd religious affiliations	54:03
	in every color of the rainbow amongst us.	54:09
	Refugees from poverty, from war,	54:12
	from racism and religious intolerance,	54:16
	here they all are, on American soil.	54:18
	A perfect recipe for failure and chaos.	54:22
	Most countries wouldn't even try it,	54:28
	without a royal family, without a dictator,	54:30
	without a one-party system, you gotta be kidding!	54:33
	You're gonna bind together 260 million people,	54:37
	with ideas and values and make it stick?	54:41
	Do you realize what we've got before us,	54:46
	right now in America?	54:49
	This splendid opportunity to prove to the whole world	54:51
	that it can be done.	54:56
	There's hardly any other goal worth striving for.	54:59
	To prove to everybody that it can be done.	55:03
	And like the prophet said, in America,	55:08
	we are ready now to become a royal diadem,	55:11
	a flaming torch in the hands of our God.	55:14
	We're going to do it.	55:18
	King was just simple-minded enough and naive enough	55:19
	to have the hope and the faith to believe	55:23
	that it could be done.	55:25
	And I hear some of these prophets of a new age,	55:28
	running around now talking	55:30
	about a new contract with America.	55:31
	We don't need a new contract; we've got an old contract.	55:34
	Long overdue contract.	55:38
	Starts out with those words that say:	55:41
	We hold these truths to be self evident,	55:44
	that all persons are created equal.	55:48
	That's an old contract.	55:50
	We can start there.	55:52
	And King believed that if we started there,	55:55
	we could make it all happen.	55:58
	And I remember during his last days,	56:01
	a man called me up, man I had met in 1953, in Burma.	56:05
	It's terrible to be so old.	56:09
	I am as old as dirt.	56:11
	Way back in 1953, I met this man when I was	56:12
	on a preaching mission in Burma.	56:17
	He was way up in northern Burma, near the China border.	56:19
	Tall, thin man from Spartanburg, South Carolina,	56:23
	named Martin England.	56:27
	He retired as a missionary after some 30 years	56:30
	translating the Bible in these exotic languages,	56:32
	and he'd come back to the United States	56:35
	and had a part time job.	56:37
	Part time job of working with the Baptist Pension Board.	56:39
	He'd asked me, Sam, do you think King	56:43
	is covered by the pension plan?	56:46
	No.	56:49
	Do you think his church has him in it?	56:50
	No.	56:52
	Any health benefits?	56:53
	No, not a chance.	56:54
	He never thought about that.	56:55
	That's beyond his concern.	56:58
	Well, Proctor, he lives dangerously.	57:00
	And I think that if I could get the money together,	57:03
	I'd like to see his premium paid for the first year,	57:05
	until the church could pick it up.	57:08
	I'd hate to see something happen to him,	57:10
	and find his family just losing out entirely.	57:12
	Well, find him and tell him, and if I should see him first,	57:15
	I'll tell him to watch out for you.	57:18
	He went all around the south, looking for King,	57:20
	and all the great big, six-foot, black Baptist preachers	57:22
	said: White man, get out of here!	57:25
	You always thinking about money.	57:26
	Who do you represent, the Ku Klux Klan, the FBI, the CIA?	57:28
	Get out of here!	57:31
	He called me back with a thin, thin broken voice.	57:33
	Proctor, I can't get close to King.	57:36
	Those fellas don't trust me.	57:39
	I said: I'll call them.	57:41
	And I called Wyatt T. Walken, Rath Abernathy	57:42
	and a few others, Andy Young, said: This man is different.	57:44
	This man cares about King and his four children.	57:48
	This man has raised money to pay his premium.	57:52
	Let him talk with him.	57:54
	And they met him, found him down there in Georgia,	57:55
	somewhere in a meeting in one of these rallies,	57:57
	and they let him talk with King.	58:00
	King signed the application, and within 90 days of that,	58:01
	King was cut down by a high-powered rifle in Memphis.	58:06
	And ever since that day, his wife has received a pension	58:10
	from this pension board, all during the young lives	58:15
	of his children, they were covered by health insurance	58:18
	provided by the Baptist Pension Board.	58:20
	Because there was a man out there from Spartanburg,	58:24
	South Carolina, 70 years old, tall and thin and balding,	58:27
	who believed in a genuine community,	58:33
	transcended the culture, broke all the mores,	58:37
	walked right out of all of the taboos,	58:40
	and looked for Martin Luther King,	58:43
	to provide this service for him.	58:46
	King was not so naive.	58:49
	He was not so simple-minded.	58:52
	He was a person filled with hope	58:54
	that America could become this diadem, in the hand of God.	58:56
	May the Lord bless you all.	59:02
	(organ music)	59:05
	(echoing choral music)	59:24
Debra	The Lord be with you.	1:03:17
Congregation	And also with you.	1:03:19
-	Let us pray.	1:03:20
	Faithful and loving God, we come to the abundance	1:03:29
	of your house to drink again from the river of your spirit.	1:03:33
	Meet us now that we may hear what you want us to hear,	1:03:39
	and know what you want us to do.	1:03:43
	Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.	1:03:46
	O God, you are the giver of hope,	1:03:50
	the one who inspires dreams and brings them to fulfillment.	1:03:53
	Through your prophets, you have promised to bring us	1:03:58
	to a land of peace and righteousness,	1:04:00
	where all people serve the common good,	1:04:03
	yet we are aware that all too often we seek	1:04:07
	not your designs, but our own.	1:04:10
	We've used your gifts and resources for our own purposes,	1:04:13
	and acted as if we were not indebted for all that we have	1:04:17
	and all that we are.	1:04:21
	Forgive us, we pray, and bring us back to you,	1:04:23
	that our lives might glorify your holy name.	1:04:28
	Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.	1:04:33
	Help us to see and realize the possibilities	1:04:37
	that you have imagined for us.	1:04:40
	A world where all people realize that they are created	1:04:43
	in your image, and that they have the calling	1:04:47
	and the power to do justly, love mercy,	1:04:50
	and walk humbly with you, our God.	1:04:54
	Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.	1:04:57
	A world where all people, whatever the color of their skin,	1:05:02
	whatever their ethnic heritage,	1:05:06
	will be treated with dignity and worth.	1:05:08
	Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.	1:05:12
	A world where all people, whatever the land of their home,	1:05:16
	whatever the history of violence	1:05:20
	and deprivation they have endured,	1:05:21
	will learn peaceable ways to live and settle conflict.	1:05:24
	Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.	1:05:29
	A world where all people,	1:05:33
	no matter the circumstances of their birth,	1:05:35
	will share in the abundance of your creation.	1:05:38
	Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.	1:05:43
	A world where all people will learn to accept	1:05:48
	your gifts with gratitude, and utilize them	1:05:52
	for the purposes you have ordained,	1:05:54
	that all creation may celebrate the glory	1:05:57
	of your loving care.	1:05:59
	Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.	1:06:01
	We pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ,	1:06:05
	our Lord, who showed us what it means to live fully for you,	1:06:08
	with courage and everlasting hope,	1:06:13
	knowing that in the end, the victory belongs to you.	1:06:15
	Amen.	1:06:20
	God has abundantly blessed us and called us	1:06:23
	to be a community that blesses others,	1:06:26
	through our gifts and our offerings.	1:06:29
	Let us give with gratitude.	1:06:31
	(saxophone music)	1:06:44
	(organ music)	1:12:31
	(choral music)	1:13:30
	♪ Hallelujah, ♪	1:13:42
	♪ Hallelujah, ♪	1:13:46
	(choral music)	1:13:50
	♪ Hallelujah, ♪	1:14:04
	♪ Hallelujah, ♪	1:14:07
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	1:14:10
	♪ Hallelujah, ♪	1:14:13
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	1:14:17
-	Let us pray.	1:14:29
	O gracious God, bless our offering	1:14:31
	that it may reach and touch those who hunger,	1:14:34
	who hurt, and who seek new hope.	1:14:38
	We pray, dear God, that you would give us courage	1:14:42
	in all things, to act justly, love mercy,	1:14:45
	and walk humbly with you through Christ our Lord,	1:14:50
	who taught us to pray together, saying:	1:14:53
	Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.	1:14:56
	Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,	1:15:01
	on Earth as it is in heaven.	1:15:04
	Give us this day our daily bread,	1:15:07
	and forgive us our trespasses,	1:15:10
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	1:15:12
	Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,	1:15:15
	for thine is the kingdom	1:15:20
	and the power and the glory forever.	1:15:22
	Amen.	1:15:25
	(organ music)	1:15:29
	(echoing choral music)	1:16:40
	And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,	1:20:35
	the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit	1:20:38
	be with you and keep you.	1:20:41
	(layered choral music)	1:20:45
	(organ music)	1:22:38

Item Info

Title:

Samuel Proctor - Sermon Untitled (January 15, 1995)

Description:

Sermon start time: 22:39. Sermon end time: 59:04.
Like the prophet Isaiah, and all the prophets of old, Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed a prophetic message of hope and courage to a broken-hearted and despondent people. His was the vision that could allow America to achieve its promised goal put forth in the Constitution. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “And like the prophet said, in America, we are ready now to become a royal diadem, a flaming torch in the hands of our God. We’re going to do it. King was just simple-minded enough and naïve enough to have the hope and the faith to believe that it could be done.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r44f1n04z

Date:

January 15, 1995

Speaker:

Proctor, Samuel

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 VHS-0410
ref9525_el9
uachapelsermaud
duke:321370
dcrmv001390
ark:/87924/r44f1n04z
3e59281d-b1ff-43ba-aed4-379b37d3dc07

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings

Language:

English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

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

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