STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

Theology Underground is a new series of guided conversations for students about how culture, identity, and race can impact the way they live out their faith and beliefs. The series is organized by the Rev. Racquel Gill, the Chapel’s minister for intercultural engagement. Each month, with the help of campus and community partners, the program engages a different cultural community to learn about ways they approach theology and the faith.

Selected as this year’s Duke Chapel Student Preacher, Erin Dickerson, T ’26, delivered a sermon in the Chapel’s worship service on Sunday, March 5.

A double major in Turkish and International Comparative Studies, Dickerson’s sermon, titled Resting in the Lord, was based on Psalm 121.

“Psalm 121 is about finding rest in God, and God protecting us,” Dickerson said about her approach to the sermon. “It can be tempting to find pseudo-rest in all these other forms, but truly ultimate and fulfilling rest is from the Lord, and the Lord only.”

“I think that’s something that can be life changing,” said Dickerson, who is a member of the Duke Wesley campus ministry and also attends the Summit Church in Durham.

A student in the Air Force ROTC detachment at Duke, Dickerson was selected by a committee organized by the Chapel. She then received coaching in revisions and delivery by Chapel ministers and a Divinity School professor.

Dickerson wrote the first draft of the sermon over the winter break after a semester of intensive study and writing. Having developed a penchant for theological reflection in high school, she said writing the sermon was actually a way for her to find inspiration and renewal at a time when she was exhausted.

“It can be easy to be in denial about our need to take a break and rest, but it takes a level of humility and a servant mindset to realize that we are incomplete,” she said. “We need God and can’t be everything for ourselves ”