Howard C. Wilkinson - "A Word for the Adventurer" (March 4, 1962)

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-	There is a sense of high adventure in the air today,	0:13
	as perhaps there has never been before	0:18
	in the history of mankind.	0:20
	Less than two weeks ago,	0:23
	a human being was literally and physically vaulted clear out	0:26
	of this world.	0:30
	And for the first time in history,	0:33
	he made three complete orbits of the earth without being in	0:35
	the earth, being outside its gravitational pull,	0:41
	but with all the world looking and listening so that as he	0:46
	orbited the earth on the other side,	0:51
	all the people of one city could wish him well by turning on	0:56
	all their electric lights.	1:02
	And then after driving his space ship three times	1:05
	around the earth, he could by making a decision,	1:10
	bring it back to earth and land it at a predetermined area.	1:15
	This could be done successfully so that he could step out of	1:21
	his spaceship again, back on earth and say,	1:25
	"I am feeling fine."	1:29
	And encourage his fellow men to make the journey.	1:31
	Plans already are made	1:36
	for four other trips like this to be made this year	1:38
	and then for a much longer trip to be made	1:43
	before the year ends.	1:48
	Our nation is at the present time,	1:50
	challenging its young men to prepare themselves for careers	1:52
	in science and technology that will back up and make	1:57
	possible space exploration,	2:02
	challenging young people to prepare for careers	2:04
	as space men, not simply to orbit the earth	2:08
	outside the earth's atmosphere,	2:13
	but to make trips to the moon and back	2:15
	and to do other things which will be of exciting nature	2:18
	in the near future.	2:23
	This is not something that you read in a comic book,	2:25
	for the first time,	2:28
	this has happened within the past two weeks	2:30
	with everyone in the world	2:33
	being in position to know about it,	2:36
	to see aspects of it and to hear aspects of it.	2:38
	And this is a challenge which is before you today.	2:42
	Never before in the history of our nation,	2:48
	have we had a Peace Corps,	2:51
	which would make it possible for you and people like you	2:55
	to volunteer your services as representatives	3:01
	of your nation in other nations of the world,	3:05
	to teach them, to help build their schools, their hospitals,	3:10
	to repair their bridges,	3:15
	to teach them what they need to know about health	3:17
	that we have learned, to go out as representatives	3:21
	not of the armed forces, but of the peace forces of America.	3:26
	We offered this opportunity to the underdeveloped	3:32
	nations of the earth and the response was so terrific	3:36
	that for example,	3:39
	the call has come for 50,000 more school teachers	3:41
	than we are able to supply at the present time.	3:45
	The response in the other nations of the earth,	3:49
	whose friendship we want and need was so great that we had	3:52
	to call for many more persons than we have thus far been	3:58
	able to supply.	4:02
	The Peace Corps invites you to join it	4:04
	and to be a part of it	4:08
	and to give this service in the distant places of the earth.	4:09
	This is a thrilling challenge,	4:14
	which has not been offered before the students in America.	4:16
	And then there has been another new	4:22
	and from my point of view,	4:26
	even more exciting possibility that has opened up	4:28
	in recent years under the leadership	4:30
	of the Reverend James Robinson, a New York minister,	4:32
	who has organized what has been called	4:36
	the Operation Crossroads Africa.	4:40
	So that in the summertime college students,	4:44
	while pursuing their college careers may go as	4:46
	members of teams to the various nations of Africa	4:51
	to do something similar to what is done in the Peace Corps	4:55
	and yet to go beyond that,	4:58
	namely, to go there and not simply as hospital builders,	5:00
	as bridge menders,	5:04
	but as Christians to go in the name of Christ and to say,	5:06
	"This service, we perform for you at our own expense,	5:10
	or at least at the expense of the groups	5:15
	who are sponsoring us, to do something for the people	5:17
	over in Africa and with the people in Africa."	5:22
	This is not simply something that our students go over there	5:25
	and do for them but do with them shoulder to shoulder.	5:29
	Three Duke University students this year have responded	5:35
	to that appeal and Sucre, Betsy Gwyn and Al Reimer	5:39
	are three of the members of this	5:44
	present student body who will be in the	5:46
	Operation Crossroads Africa teams this coming summer.	5:49
	And then they will again be back in our student in the fall.	5:54
	This is high adventure.	5:58
	It isn't simply a thrilling adventure,	6:00
	but it is a great opportunity for service.	6:02
	Also planned on our campuses and other venture	6:06
	to Managua Nicaragua,	6:09
	which is being planned by Bob Hyatt	6:12
	of our Religious Life staff.	6:14
	And there are a number of Duke University students	6:16
	who are going down there this summer.	6:19
	Well, so it is that this thrill of high adventure	6:22
	is sweeping not simply the world today,	6:28
	but particularly our Duke Campus and people are being	6:31
	inspired to serve in far away places	6:35
	with strange sounding names all the way from outer space	6:38
	to the distant places on the face of the earth.	6:43
	This is great. This is good.	6:47
	Let no one say a word against this.	6:50
	However, there is something which we are inclined	6:55
	to forget as we are obsessed	6:58
	with these distant opportunities for service,	7:03
	which we should not forget	7:06
	and which if we do forget will rob the adventure	7:09
	of a great part of its unique distinction and greatness.	7:14
	We are in danger of forgetting that opportunities	7:23
	for service are about us now and here all the time,	7:27
	which are as demanding, as challenging and as great	7:35
	as any of these wonderful opportunities	7:40
	that beckoned us from outer space	7:43
	and from the other side of the earth.	7:46
	And therefore I believe that without in any way	7:49
	taking our vision away from the distant opportunities	7:52
	we should by means of a kind of bifocal vision look	7:56
	also at what is at hand.	8:00
	See what you can do at home for God, for mankind,	8:05
	for the kingdom of God.	8:12
	Now I am not thinking here particularly of Indianapolis,	8:15
	if Indianapolis is your home,	8:18
	I am thinking of Durham, because Durham is where you live,	8:21
	move and have your being at the present time.	8:28
	Durham, North Carolina, where you sit now	8:32
	and where I am standing, this is where we are.	8:38
	And today we are emphasizing a great opportunity	8:45
	for service here,	8:48
	known as the Edgemont Community Center,	8:50
	which is at a particular point in space	8:54
	known as 301 Elm street, Durham.	8:59
	There is a building there with walls and a floor and a roof	9:06
	boys and girls come to that building,	9:11
	a program is they're being carried on	9:14
	by people who represent this chapel	9:17
	and the Duke University Religious Council,	9:21
	the Duke YMCA and YWCA.	9:25
	We have specific organizations and committees set up	9:29
	to plan this work and to finance it.	9:33
	As you know, approximately 50 cents of every dollar	9:37
	that you put in the chapel offering Sunday after Sunday	9:40
	goes to support the Edgemont Community Center.	9:43
	301 Elm street, Durham, North Carolina.	9:47
	Part of your dollar goes to help send	9:53
	our representatives to Africa,	9:56
	but a large part of it stays here for this service at hand.	9:59
	But the most important part of our service	10:06
	for the Edgemont Community Center is not what we put in	10:09
	the chapel offering plate	10:12
	but what we do in working at the Edgemont Community Center	10:14
	by offering our services to the committees of the Y's	10:18
	that are carrying on this work, and they need your help.	10:22
	They have the help of a good many of our students.	10:27
	From time to time,	10:31
	there are additional persons whose help is needed.	10:32
	Today we would like to single out for special emphasis,	10:37
	this project, which is not an outer space,	10:41
	it is not on the other side of the earth,	10:43
	it is here, where we study and where we live.	10:45
	You know it's an interesting thing that Jesus	10:52
	often challenged people to leave their homes,	10:56
	their fishing nets, their tax tables,	10:59
	their friends, and follow him to distant assignments.	11:03
	We remember these things because they're rather dramatic.	11:07
	What we are inclined to forget is the fact that Jesus also	11:11
	challenged a great many people to serve him where they were,	11:14
	where he found them, at home.	11:17
	In the fifth chapter of Mark for example,	11:20
	there was a man who was not in his right mind	11:23
	and he came to Jesus and Jesus	11:25
	restored him to sanity and health.	11:27
	And the man immediately made the same response	11:30
	that a great many other people hadn't had made	11:33
	in answering the call of Christ.	11:35
	He said, "Well, master,	11:37
	I want to be with you and I'll go with you anywhere you go."	11:39
	I imagine he was a little bit surprised when the Lord said	11:44
	to him, "Decapolis is the place where you are to serve.	11:47
	Tell your family and your friends and your fellow citizens,	11:55
	what the Lord has done for you,	11:59
	make your witness in Decapolis."	12:03
	And I can imagine that this man almost shouted,	12:05
	"Decapolis, that's where I live."	12:08
	And I can then imagine Jesus saying, "That's just the point.	12:12
	That's just the point."	12:16
	If we cannot make a witness where we are,	12:19
	we cannot make a witness where we are not.	12:22
	Jesus is saying to a great many people	12:27
	I think that he wants them to make a witness where they are.	12:30
	But in spite of that,	12:35
	we seem always to want to see the grass	12:36
	that is on the other side of the fence,	12:41
	imagining that it is greener than the grass,	12:44
	which is on our side of the fence,	12:47
	the grass which is beneath our feet.	12:48
	There seems to be a human tendency to minimize	12:51
	the opportunities for service and for greatness,	12:54
	which are at hand,	12:56
	and to emphasize the opportunities that are on the horizon	12:58
	and which we cannot see very clearly	13:03
	but we imagine if we were looking at them,	13:06
	we could see them with great clarity.	13:09
	What great can be done here?	13:13
	What is right here that is wonderful and outstanding?	13:17
	Let me give you an illustration,	13:23
	which I hope you will not forget.	13:25
	This illustration is all around you now where you sit,	13:29
	it is around many of you	13:34
	when you lie down to go to sleep at night.	13:35
	It surrounds many of you	13:39
	as you eat your food three times a day.	13:41
	Some of you perhaps have not read Professor Blackburn's book	13:46
	on the architecture of Duke University	13:50
	and may therefore not know the description	13:53
	which is contained in that book of the process	13:56
	by which the stone for Duke University was selected.	13:59
	Mr. James B. Duke	14:05
	was a great admirer of Princeton University,	14:07
	it's architecture, it's stone, it's colors.	14:10
	And so when the decision was made that a great west campus	14:13
	would be built here as Duke University should blossom	14:16
	and flower, he wanted the best stone that could be had.	14:21
	And he preferred that it'd be similar to that of Princeton.	14:27
	So he sent word to all of the great stone quarries	14:32
	of America that had stone anyone resembling that	14:35
	and asked them to send samples here to Durham.	14:38
	Dr. Frank C. Brown,	14:42
	the late controller of Duke University was asked to erect	14:43
	sample of walls of the various kinds of stone,	14:46
	which Mr. Duke had shipped here.	14:49
	He took a great interest in this very important project,	14:51
	went over to Raleigh to the state geological lab,	14:55
	conferred with them,	14:59
	saw an interesting sample of stone there,	15:01
	which had 14 different colors.	15:04
	He made inquiry about it and found that the laboratory	15:08
	in Raleigh considered this a very excellent building stone	15:11
	and felt that it would be very very durable.	15:15
	Upon tracing this stone down,	15:19
	It was discovered that it came from an abandoned quarry	15:21
	in Hillsborough, 13 miles away from Durham.	15:24
	And so without the Duke family or the trustees	15:29
	or the building committee knowing anything about	15:32
	where any of the stone came from,	15:35
	Mr. Brown erected these sample walls,	15:36
	and they came and looked at them	15:40
	and on the basis of the beauty of the stone	15:42
	and the durability of the various kinds of stone	15:46
	as tested out, not only in the state laboratory,	15:49
	but also in the federal laboratory,	15:52
	they picked this particular Cambrian stone	15:54
	and then they said, where does it come from?	15:59
	13 miles away was the answer.	16:03
	And they did not let that fact keep them from choosing it.	16:07
	Many people would have been inclined to say,	16:13
	"Oh no, we'll not use this stone because	16:16
	it comes from our area.	16:21
	Let's get something that is from a great distance."	16:25
	But they built the university out of	16:29
	as it were hometown stuff.	16:32
	It is a university that is famous around the world,	16:37
	we say without false pride.	16:40
	The pictured stone of this building	16:44
	is carried around the earth proudly by many publications.	16:48
	Something great can come from where we are.	16:54
	Something great can be built out of the rock	16:58
	on which our feet stand, don't you ever forget it.	17:01
	I hope I will never forget it.	17:07
	We are inclined to forget it because of the human tendency	17:09
	to imagine that nothing really great can be where we are.	17:12
	Why do you suppose we did not see these opportunities	17:20
	for great service that are at our hand?	17:23
	This question has puzzled me at different times.	17:26
	I think the answer to that question is that we assume	17:31
	that nothing great can come from where we are	17:39
	and what an insult we give ourselves.	17:47
	If other people were to insult us to that extent,	17:51
	we would become enraged	17:55
	and would insult them in return, very likely.	17:56
	If someone were to say to me,	18:00
	"Now because your wife is your wife,	18:02
	she cannot be a fine person."	18:05
	I would be angry,	18:07
	but do I always assume	18:09
	that the possibilities of a great marriage are mine	18:10
	because she has married me?	18:15
	Can anything great come out of Duke University?	18:18
	Oh, it's my school, isn't it, of course not.	18:20
	If anyone else were to insult me this way,	18:24
	I would not allow it and yet from time to time,	18:27
	I'm willing to insult myself to this extent.	18:30
	This is a curious fact, but a fact, nevertheless,	18:37
	when Jesus Christ left the town of Nazareth	18:42
	and began his public ministry, he became famous.	18:47
	And within a short period of time,	18:51
	he was the most talked about man in Palestine,	18:54
	you would have thought that when he returned to his hometown	18:58
	and preached in his home synagogue,	19:01
	they would have been the first to say,	19:05
	"This man is the son of God."	19:07
	But what happened?	19:11
	You remember that when Jesus preached in the synagogue	19:13
	at first, they were thrilled and they said,	19:17
	"Never man spake as this man."	19:19
	And then mentally, they kind of pinched themselves	19:24
	and said this, "Is not this Joseph's son."	19:28
	And then they wrote him off.	19:36
	But what was wrong with his being Joseph's son?	19:38
	Just this, Joseph was one of the citizens of their town.	19:41
	They were saying, in other words,	19:46
	"Isn't he one of our boys, don't we know him?	19:48
	And if we know him and he is one of our boys,	19:51
	he cannot be the son of God.	19:55
	Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?	19:57
	Answer, no, because it's our town where we live."	20:00
	And so the people of Nazareth	20:04
	miss the opportunity to have the greatest thrill	20:07
	that any town in the world could have namely to realize	20:10
	that Jesus Christ,	20:13
	the son of almighty God was one of their hometown boys.	20:14
	They missed this because of the tendency to imagine that	20:22
	the grass is greener somewhere else,	20:26
	that nothing good can happen here because it is our place.	20:28
	And therefore no opportunity for serving God	20:33
	that is really worthwhile can be here.	20:37
	I think it's because we don't look for it where we are	20:42
	that we do not see it.	20:45
	JBIV, the former Merchant Prince of North Carolina	20:50
	so-called, had the hobby of raising flowers.	20:54
	Now he is where his specialty and every year	20:59
	at the Asheville Men's Flower Show,	21:02
	he would display a great many beautiful dahlias.	21:04
	Those of you who have seen Mr. IV's dahlias	21:08
	either in Charlotte or in Asheville	21:11
	will testify to the excellence of their beauty.	21:12
	He cultivated not simply flowers,	21:17
	but the art of raising flowers.	21:19
	And he knew what to do, how, and when,	21:22
	in order to make the flowers beautiful,	21:25
	he would rise before daylight every morning and go out	21:28
	and work his flowers.	21:31
	One year at the Asheville Men's Flower Show,	21:34
	a lady approached Mr. IV, she said,	21:37
	"I have come a long ways to see your dahlias	21:40
	because I have heard of their beauty and their excellence.	21:44
	I would like to know where you get your bulbs,	21:48
	because I would like to get some of the same kind of bulbs	21:51
	you have so that I could grow beautiful dahlias	21:54
	like you grow."	21:57
	He said, "Lady, the important thing	21:59
	is not where you get the bulbs, it's what you do with them	22:01
	when you plant them in your own soil."	22:04
	She said, "I know that that's important,	22:08
	but the most important thing surely must be	22:09
	the bulb that you have at the beginning.	22:13
	So please tell me where you get them if it's not a secret."	22:17
	He said, "It's no secret,	22:20
	but I have forgotten where I get them	22:21
	and if you'll give me your name and address,	22:23
	when I get back to my home in Charlotte, I'll write to you."	22:24
	She gave him her name and street address	22:28
	and while he was riding,	22:32
	she then added the city is Lebanon, Ohio.	22:33
	And he looked up from his writing then and said,	22:37
	"That reminds me,	22:39
	I order them from the Golden Rule Farm in Lebanon, Ohio."	22:40
	To which she exclaimed that nursery	22:46
	is just around the corner from where I live."	22:49
	Now, you see the reason she didn't see those bulbs	22:52
	at the Golden Rule Farm in Lebanon, Ohio,	22:55
	where she lived while she was not looking for anything	22:58
	in her hometown,	23:01
	with which she could develop into a beautiful garden.	23:02
	It was somewhere else, Asheville,	23:09
	if you get on the train and ride long enough,	23:12
	you'll get to a place where you can get	23:14
	some beautiful flowers.	23:16
	She did not realize that her best opportunity	23:18
	was where she was because she was not looking for it there.	23:21
	Now the relevance of this, so the matter before us is	23:26
	that we can do our best service in these distant places	23:33
	if we prepare ourselves first by serving where we are	23:37
	One of our great challenges today is	23:46
	to effect racial brotherhood in the world.	23:49
	A world that torn apart by racial brotherhood	23:53
	and on which sundering communism feeds	23:59
	needs men of goodwill to establish the bridges	24:05
	of racial brotherhood.	24:08
	Where are we going to do this, in Africa?	24:11
	Well, yes, but I understand the one of the first questions,	24:14
	which the people in Africa ask us when we get over there is	24:20
	"How are things in the town from which you came?	24:23
	In other words in Durham, how does it go?"	24:28
	Professor Robert Rankin,	24:33
	the Chairman of our own Political Science Department here	24:35
	at Duke gave an address to a civic club downtown	24:37
	just a few days ago, in which he said	24:40
	that as a member of the President's Commission	24:43
	on Civil Rights,	24:45
	he had gone over the country and had come to the conclusion	24:46
	that no city in the south had the possibilities for	24:49
	greatness and development in racial brotherhood	24:53
	which Durham has because of the excellence of the leadership	24:56
	in both the Negro race and the White race,	24:59
	which we have here, which many other cities do not have.	25:01
	And so he issued the challenge to us in Durham that we move	25:06
	forward in this area and make great progress in achieving	25:09
	racial brotherhood here, in order that when we go out from	25:14
	here to Africa or to other parts of the world,	25:20
	we may be prepared for the kind of service	25:24
	which will be effective there.	25:27
	We need to realize that we build upon the progress	25:32
	which we make today as we move into tomorrow.	25:37
	Dr. George Hester,	25:42
	who is professor of history at Southwestern University	25:43
	tells a rather amusing incident of something	25:47
	that happened in the US Patent Office	25:49
	back in the 19th century.	25:51
	The US Patent Office was operated in those days by one man.	25:52
	He did everything that was done by the Patent Office.	25:58
	And after he had been sitting there in his chair	26:02
	with his feet propped up on his table for several days,	26:05
	with nothing to do,	26:08
	he resigned and went into some other kinds of work	26:09
	because he said there was no future in the Patent Office.	26:11
	Everything has been invented, that's going to be invented.	26:14
	If that core soul could walk into	26:18
	the bureau of patents today,	26:20
	he would receive a mighty demonstration of the fact that	26:23
	what is invented yesterday makes possible	26:26
	more inventions today.	26:29
	And these in turn make possible	26:30
	additional inventions tomorrow that we build upon the past.	26:32
	And so instead of moving out of what was to become	26:37
	a tremendously booming business,	26:42
	he should have stayed there,	26:45
	but he thought that there was nothing great	26:48
	where he was sitting, no future.	26:52
	Not only do we look back and see how the people of Nazareth	26:57
	missed Christ, not only do we see how people have	27:02
	overlooked opportunities for beautiful gardens,	27:08
	we see how in our own lives, in our own time,	27:14
	on our own campus this month,	27:19
	we can miss great opportunities for serving Christ	27:24
	by concluding that since the Edgemont Community Center	27:29
	is just made up of boys and girls, just ordinary people,	27:36
	just folks who make mistakes, who do crazy things,	27:43
	people whose joys and sorrows are about like ours,	27:49
	that there's no possibility of doing anything	27:54
	great for God there.	27:56
	It looks rather drab and dismal at times.	27:59
	And by assuming that	28:03
	we would miss the greatness one day of hearing Jesus Christ	28:07
	say to us, "In as much as He did it	28:11
	onto one of the least of these, my brethren,	28:18
	He did it unto me."	28:24
	Jesus says to many of us today, what he said to that man,	28:28
	whom He restored long ago, when we asked him,	28:33
	"Good master, where shall we go to serve you?"	28:39
	" Right where you are, tell them,	28:46
	tell these people what the Lord has done for you	28:51
	and can do for them."	28:55
	Well, God, our heavenly father,	29:03
	who does call us to serve thee at all times,	29:05
	and in all places, grant onto us,	29:11
	the sharpness of vision that will enable us to see at hand	29:14
	the opportunities which we should take advantage of,	29:20
	which will give us the grace to put ourselves aside	29:25
	long enough to do it.	29:29
	May we not shirk our great worldwide task for Christ.	29:33
	May we not shirk the one which at hand and now may the grace	29:39
	of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the love of God, the father,	29:44
	the communion and fellowship of the holy spirit rest	29:48
	and abide with you now and evermore.	29:51

Item Info

Title:

Howard C. Wilkinson - "A Word for the Adventurer" (March 4, 1962)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r49p3172d

Date:

March 4, 1962

Speaker:

Wilkinson, Howard C.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0174
ref5552_5ez
uachapelsermaud
duke:628309
dcrau002187
ark:/87924/r49p3172d
c386d9f8-5a31-4c81-ae62-88d3a4b6bab1

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

Educational Use Permitted

Rights Note:

This material is made available for educational and non-commercial use. This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the license indicated here. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For other 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.

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

Howard C. Wilkinson - "A Word for the Adventurer" (March 4, 1962)

Transcript

Item Info

Duke University Archives

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