Chapel View Magazine | Summer 2017

CHAPEL VIEW SUMMER 2017

magazine

CHAPEL ADVISORY BOARD CHAIR Charlie Berardesco, T ’80 VICE CHAIR C.B. Richardson III, T ’92 EMERITUS MEMBER William E. King, PhD, T ’61, G ’63, G ’70 ADVISORY BOARD Zoila Airall, PhD John A. Bussian III, T ’76 Cathy Gilliard, D ’97 Jihwan Hwang, T ’18 Zach Heater, T ’17 Sara Elizabeth Hyre, T ’89 T. Walker Robinson, MD, T ’00, G ’01, M ’09 Max Sirenko, T ’11 Valerie Sirenko, T ’11 Kathryn Watkins, T ’19 Amanda Wright Smoot, WC ’63

Evensong Services Choral Evensong is a centuries-old tradition that continues to be prayed every day all over the world. Offered at Duke Chapel at 4:00 p.m. on Sundays during the academic year, worshippers are invited to enter into a sacred space of reflection through music drawn from the 17th century, as well as scripture and prayers that have shaped Christian lives for hundreds of years.

CHAPEL STAFF OFFICE OF THE DEAN Luke A. Powery, Dean of Duke Chapel Jack Adams, Assistant to the Dean STUDENT MINISTRY Christy Lohr Sapp, Associate Dean for Religious Life Adam Hollowell, Director of Student Ministry Joshua Lazard, C. Eric Lincoln Minister for Student Engagement Gerly Ace, Staff Specialist for Student Ministry MUSIC Rodney Wynkoop, Director of Chapel Music Robert Parkins, University Organist Christopher Jacobson, Chapel Organist Brian Schmidt, Assistant Conductor and Administrative Coordinator of Chapel Music J. Samuel Hammond, University Carillonneur John Santoianni, Curator of Organs and Harpsichords Michael Lyle, Office Coordinator for Chapel Music Brandi Melvin-Scammell, Staff Assistant for Chapel Music COMMUNITY MINISTRY AND EVENTS Bruce Puckett, Director of Worship and Community Ministry Rachel White, Visitor Relations Specialist Blanche Williams, Wedding Director Ann Hall, Visitor Relations Assistant Wanda Cobb, Visitor Relations Assistant DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATION Amanda Millay Hughes, Director of Development and Strategy Joni Harris, Business and Facilities Manager James Todd, Communications Manager Andie Rea, Communications Specialist Lisa Moore, Accounting Specialist and Office Coordinator Ava West, Staff Assistant for Development Oscar Dantzler, University Housekeeper Beverly Jordan, University Housekeeper Duke Schools Abbreviation Key: D (Divinity School) E (Pratt School of Engineering) G (Graduate School) MD (School of Medicine) T (Trinity College of Arts & Sciences) WC (Women’s College) Cover: Arnab Chatterjee, E ’16

“My dad has been in the hospital for about a week now. He and my mom both expressed how wonderful it was to be able to tune into the Evensong service from his room.

Thanks to the director, Christopher Jacobson, the choir, the organ scholars, the clergy, the readers, and whoever is behind the scenes with the online streaming—it is a beautiful service and a gift to many.”

—Kirsten Homdrom, Evensong Choir Member, Associate Director of Music at White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh

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Chapel Dean Luke A. Powery closes a discussion on New Forms and Voices of Preaching, a session featuring performances by local spoken-word artists, at the March 30, 2017, Celebration of Preaching Day. (See page 12.)

A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN OF DUKE CHAPEL The Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery [@LukeAPowery] Dear Friends,

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o you remember when Jesus defined the future of his church?

He told his disciples, “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). There are no ifs, ands, or buts in that statement. He told us this is what “you will be.”

In this edition of Chapel View, I hope you will see how we are witnesses for Jesus in the world. We do this through more than our actions; we do it with our very being: being ready to listen, being present, being with others, being in the moment. We are not human doings, but human beings!

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The summer months at Duke Chapel give us the chance to be and reflect on the many activities of the previous year and our hopes and dreams for the next.

As you read through, I hope you will also find evidence of what your generous support has accomplished. Students’ lives are at the center of our work. They enliven our conversations, challenge our assumptions, and call us into a more faithful witness of the Gospel.

When Jesus told his disciples that they would be his witnesses, he was telling them that the future of the Gospel rested in their hands. The good and the difficult, the joyful and the sad, all entrusted to them—and therefore to us. Now, we tell students the same thing—“The future is entrusted to you as well for you are Christ’s witnesses.”

As we continue to bridge faith and learning at the Chapel, our work is to remind ourselves and our students

that the whole world is waiting for the “Good News” of God. We teach and learn together. We serve and celebrate together. We are in this life together as God’s people and we will walk through death together as witnesses, as the body, of Christ. There are no ifs, ands, or buts in that. “Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).

Can I get a witness? I hope so.

As you survey your life, to what do you witness? How is Jesus’s love, life, sacrificial death, and resurrection reflected by your love, life, and sacrifices? My prayer is that all of us will be faithful witnesses, filled with the power of God’s relentless love.

You won’t regret it and I can’t wait to see what and how “you will be.”

With gratitude for your life, my life, and our life together,

On April 26, the Chapel celebrated Duke students’ last day of classes (Duke LDOC) with an all-day “Love Duke & Our Chapel” celebration of food, fellowship, service, art, music, and more!

300 students colored their own stained-glass window T-shirts.

Popular yard games like badminton, corn hole, and Connect 4 were enjoyed on the Chapel Quad.

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The first-ever Yoga in the Chapel class was led by Lisa Jindra, coordinator of fitness and wellness/physical education instructor for Duke Recreation and Physical Education.

Clockwise from top left: Local artist Mark Iwiniski led guided sketching at the Chapel. | Duke Voices for Interfaith Action (Duke VIA) students added service to the day by hosting sandwich assembly, packing meals for distribution by Urban Ministries of Durham. | The Poetry Fox, a Durham performance artist, wrote custom poems based on words from students. | Students created sun-catcher art, a Chapel LDOC tradition of the past seven years.

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Clockwise from top left: Duke Senior, Chapel Scholar, and member of Duke Wesley Fellowship, Zach Heater performed an organ demonstration. Requests were taken and Bruce Puckett, director of worship and community ministry, finally received his wish to hear the “Old Rugged Cross” on the Chapel organ. | Something Borrowed, Something Blue, a student Christian a cappella group, performed. | A knitting circle brought together new and experienced knitters to make woven creations. | Snowcones, popcorn, and empanadas were so popular, emergency pizzas had to be ordered to replace them! | Students from the Duke Catholic Center sang praise songs in the Chapel’s crossing.

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A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR, DUKE CHAPEL ADVISORY BOARD Charlie Berardesco, T ’80

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t is a pleasure to once again write to you, now as chair of the Duke Chapel Advisory Board. I say “now,” in that we have recently approved a restructuring and modernization of the board, including a comprehensive update of our bylaws and clarification of our mission as the national advisory board for the Chapel, which included changing the titles of the board leadership to ones that are most commonly used by advisory boards.

All of this is intended to strengthen the Chapel Advisory Board and enhance our role as supporters of, and advisors to, the Chapel and its staff.

I have recently returned from Duke for meetings of the advisory board and the celebration of the completion of the Duke Forward campaign. There was much to celebrate during the weekend.

The advisory board continues to expand, with new alumni and student members joining the board. Chapel-focused fundraising is seeing clear momentum. The Chapel is completing its Year of Celebration, in honor of the completion of the Chapel renovation. And, the weekend I write this letter, the Chapel has been the site of the university-wide baccalaureate services, which are interfaith and include prayers, music, and scripture readings.

It strikes me how much of what the Chapel does is focused on Duke students.

During advisory board meetings, we always meet with students who view the Chapel as an integral part of their Duke experience. It is clear that Duke students view the Chapel in many different ways— as part of their spiritual life, a place to engage in service in the larger community, a refuge from the pressures of undergraduate life, and a home to explore their artistic passions, just to name a few.

I have learned during my board 6 CHAPEL VIEW magazine

service that, despite what seem to be the many contrary indicators in our national life, student interest in faith is actually growing at Duke—that there is increasing engagement across the spectrum of available activities. As a result, the Chapel is looking at its own space requirements, to see how it can provide more and better opportunities for student engagement.

It strikes me that this is consistent with James B. Duke’s vision for the new university he helped to found, when he stated, “I want the central building to be a great towering church . . . , because such an edifice would be bound to have a profound influence on the spiritual life of the young men and women who come here.” And, it aligns with the Chapel’s mission as set forth in its strategic plan—to bridge education and religion, especially for Duke students.

One of the other things I have learned during my board service is how unique Duke Chapel is, in that it is a vibrant, living faith community sponsored by a national university. I believe this is true primarily because of the intense focus the Chapel staff places on Duke students, particularly

undergraduates—one only has to spend a bit of time with the Chapel staff to feel their passion around students and their spiritual lives, education, and engagement. It helps to ensure that our beloved Chapel is not merely a grand building in the middle of a university. It is both a building that is beloved by Duke students, alumni, and staff, and a vital Christian presence in the heart of Duke University, outreaching to an amazingly diverse group of people and institutions. It is, in so many ways, the heart of a great university, inspiring, year after year, decade after decade, the very Duke students who will become the leaders of future generations of our nation and world.

I look forward to writing to you in future editions of Chapel View Magazine, and hope that some of you will reach out to me with your questions, comments, and suggestions. And, as always, thank you for your support of Duke Chapel and its mission and ministries— it is vital to the Chapel and its work, and I know that everyone associated with the Chapel is grateful for your support.

All the best, Charlie Berardesco

CHAPEL MUSIC FALL 2016–SPRING 2017

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“

hapel Music had a prolific schedule this year, with 38 total concerts attended by over 15,000 audience members. Ranging from the complete organ works of J.S. Bach to beloved hymns and spirituals— people of all ages enjoyed performances by multiple choirs, the Chapel’s organs and carillon, as well as several guest soloists and musicians.

Here’s what people had to say: This afternoon I attended Bach’s St. John Passion performed in Duke Chapel, and it was surely one of the best, most beautiful, most moving, best-performed concerts I have ever had the privilege to enjoy anywhere.

I live in Raleigh, where I retired two years ago after being a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey for four decades. And I’ve attended many concerts in New York City, in Boston (where I got my Ph.D. at MIT), and all over Europe and Australia, where I spent several sabbatical years. Having attended almost all of Duke Chapel’s Sunday organ concerts, cantata concerts, and carillon concerts this past 2016-2017 academic year, I would like to let you know that I have never experienced a concert series as consistently high-quality, thoroughly professional, enjoyable, and moving as this academic year’s concert series at Duke Chapel.

After the concert, I went to a secluded spot in Duke Gardens just to let it all sink in, and reflect on it all in silent, contemplative prayer. My thanks went out not only to God (of course) but also to each of you, who made this series possible!” —John Puchner, professor emeritus, Rutgers University

Above: Duke Chapel Choir joined forces with the Choral Society of Durham, the Riverside High School Chorus, and the North Carolina Boys Choir, as well as professional orchestra and soloists Wade Henderson and Mary Wilson, to present Hector Berlioz’s Te Deum and Francis Poulenc’s Gloria on Sunday, April 30, 2017, in Duke Chapel. The group of more than 300 musicians made for a powerful and wondrous performance.

Runner Bliss Octopi make the best organists but Christopher Jacobson is right there with them. #Bach @DukeChapel

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“Concerts performed in Duke Chapel have a certain ambience unlike any other. With an extremely live and vibrant sound combined with the solemn cathedral-like environment; this concert was no exception, and the audience was packed.” —Review of the Chapel’s Spring

Oratorio performance by Classical Voice of North Carolina (CVNC), an online arts journal Summer 2017 7

A Lenten Pilgrimage at Duke Chapel This spring, Duke Chapel partnered with Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts and the Nasher Museum of Art to host Miserere et Guerre, a series of fifty-eight intaglio prints by French artist Georges Rouault (1871-1958).

Rouault began the project in 1912.

He likely completed the series around 1927, though the works weren’t officially published until 1948. The title Miserere (“Have mercy” in Latin) refers to the opening of Psalm 51: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness . . . ,” while Guerre means “war” in French.

Duke Chapel presented images from the series that focused on Christ’s redemptive sacrifice and the call for his disciples to journey with him to the cross. Inspired by the architecture of Duke Chapel and the Lenten season of the Christian calendar, the thirty-six images from the series displayed in the Chapel were arranged to offer viewers an opportunity to undertake a kind of Lenten pilgrimage towards the altar.

Throughout, it is Christ’s visage which both condemns the evil inflicted by those with power and privilege and offers hope to a world bent on destroying itself. Rouault’s series invokes the words of penitence typically said during liturgical seasons of repentance.

Thus, in the midst of unsparingly critical portraits of the hypocrisy and blindness of the powerful elite and unsentimental portrayals of people and landscapes utterly devastated by the horrors of war, the Miserere’s first word is an invitation to confession and self-examination.

The Nasher Museum’s tandem installation highlighted scenes that illustrate the plight of refugees and the devastations of war. —Daniel Train, Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts Georges Rouault, “Obedient unto death, even the death on the cross” from the Miserere series, 1948. © 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

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Miserere et Guerre

GEORGES ROUAULT 1914-1927 “Here faith, love, and charity, vanity and cruelty, hypocrisy and pharisaism, life and death, are synthesized . . . This work is striking, even frightening. Every element in it has greatness.”

—Georges Chabot

W

An excerpt from a sermon titled “Old but New” preached by The Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery, on the Second Sunday of Lent, March 12, 2017

e can view these pieces of artwork by French artist Georges Rouault from his Miserere et Guerre series begun during World War I, and they mean nothing because all we see is the suffering Jesus and we think we know the old, old story. What new can really come from these old images? The art on the bulletin cover is called Jésus honni (Jesus despised), the first image in this particular series. It’s old news that Jesus was despised and rejected, a man of suffering and sorrows. “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” A crown of thorns is on his head. One interpreter says you see the wasteland of the earth in this piece of art. We know this old story and some just yawn when they hear it or see it. I don’t see a wasteland of the earth, I see the backdrop as the wind blowing for the wind blows where it chooses and sometimes it blows you where you would never imagine. In this image, the wind blows around Jesus in this lonesome valley of despair. The wind, the Spirit, is there even around the suffering of Christ.

So as with scripture, when you return to a passage over and over again, many times you might see something different, something new, never observed before by you.

The same is true with reading art. Rouault even said, “One is never finished seeing and watching . . . . Our eyes are the door of the spirit and the light of the mind.” So when you look at this image, it’s Jesus, but every time you look at it on another day at another time, you may see something new, something different, because you are different and the day and time are different.

Look at how his body is light because he is the light but the contour of his body is dark. The darkness cannot overcome him. But there’s always light and darkness in the world. And as Jesus bows his head in shame and agony under the burden of the world, he gazes down at a dark blotch in the bottom right-hand corner and as he does, he sees the darkness that is and is to come on his journey. His eye is on the sparrow, we sing, but Rouault shows us that in this moment his eye is on the darkness.

He faces it and hangs his head, knowing that even though he is the light, he has to confront the darkness. There’s no way around it. As you continue to study this artwork, you’ll see new angles on the suffering Jesus but almost at every turn, you will have to face the darkness so prevalent in this art.

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The March of

By Dr. Christy Lohr Sapp, associate dean for Religious Life at Duke University Chapel

At a recent rally in response to the current spate of presidential executive orders, my five-year-old got restless with too much talk and not enough action. She asked with urgency, “When are we going to start marching?!” I, too, have been thinking a lot about marching lately.

On the day after the presidential inauguration, I did not march in Washington, D.C., or even my state’s capitol. I did not caravan with a group of sisters or post pictures on social media. I did not make a pithy sign or knit a pink hat. With all of the protest marches happening in the U.S. and around the world that day, I was very aware of not being outside in the crowd.

That day, I was on-call as a chaplain in the hospital. In this work, and in the spirit of Abraham Joshua Heschel, the Jewish 10 CHAPEL VIEW magazine

rabbi and social activist, I felt as if I were praying with my legs. It may not have been a public show of prayer and solidarity, but working in a hospital is a march in its own right. Countless steps are logged, and several days have ended with sore feet and a weary spirit.

As I walked the hospital passageways on January 21, I prayed for all who face the future with legitimate fears about medical care and personal well-being. In translator-facilitated conversations, I prayed for those who are worried about their places in a country that is turning toward isolation and away from hospitable inclusion.

Throughout the day as my sisters and brothers were rallying miles away, I was deep in the heart of what folks were marching for: health care, immigration, sanctuary,

Our Lives and religious freedom. These are all things worth fighting for, and this fight comes on many fronts.

I was reminded at a rally a week later that such marching is not an isolated event.

Rather, it is a way of life. It happens on a daily basis in myriad ways. Martin Luther King Jr., and Abraham Joshua Heschel did not march once or twice and then hang up their shoes. They kept going—day in and day out, year after year, issue after issue. In the face of hostile, sometimes violent opposition, they marched on. They marched in streets, in prisons, in churches and synagogues, and in universities. They marched with their feet, their pens, their voices, and with their lives.

Today, we must similarly expand our understanding of marching to include the

constant, steady beat of footsteps in our lives. In this way, our marching becomes a spiritual posture, a prayer embodied daily, that connects our ideals to all aspects of life. Such marching is holy work not confined to one day or one gathering. When our lives become a march, we unite in deeply beautiful ways.

While I was not in Washington, D.C., or Raleigh on that cold, damp January day, I was marching with pride and compassion.

I was marching with people who were bedridden and wheelchair-bound, who were facing death and embracing life. I was marching with people of many races, genders, and creeds, and I felt myself praying with my legs. May we all join in this holy march together wherever our steps may lead.

Duke Professor Frances Hasso speaks at a rally on the steps of Duke Chapel. Seated in the front row of the crowd is Dr. Christy Lohr Sapp, associate dean for Religious Life at the Chapel, and her family.

This article by Sapp was originally published on the Duke Office of Civic Engagement blog.

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Celebration of Preaching A Celebration of Preaching Day, held March 30, 2017, celebrated the Christian preaching tradition, while acknowledging the creative tension in many voices seeking to proclaim one Gospel. The daylong event at the Chapel included a panel discussion on the tradition of preaching in Duke Chapel, featuring readings from the Duke Chapel Recordings archive.

Duke Divinity students read the excerpts below from the Chapel’s pulpit, the same place the words were first proclaimed years ago.

1978 | (On the story of Ruth) Faith answers the fulfillment of life by radical reinterpretations.

Radical decisions, radical actions, radical interpretations. Thus, in an ancient story, Phyllis Trible faith has spoken to the extremities of life, to the struggles of life, and to the fulfillment of life. Today this story has traveled to Duke University Chapel to speak to us . . . through the bold and brave decisions of women, who themselves challenged the culture in which they lived. They worked out their own salvation with fear and trembling, and thereby they participated in the work of God. Dare we do less?

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1983 | The significant journeys we make in this life may have little to do with geography, but they are the journeys from darkness to light, from implacability to reasonableness, from toleration to acceptance, from destruction to support, from hatred to love, from bitterness to appreciation. The road to Damascus is long C. Eric Lincoln and uncertain. It is filled with possibilities for evil (Paul’s original intent) and possibilities for good. Pray that on your way to do evil you may be blinded by the light of your own insufficiency; that you, like Paul, may hear a voice that calls you back to the responsibility of being what you are and what you can become . . . . There is a world out there, but it is still to be won. It is a world of men and women, in the mass, but it is also a world of human individuals. Human individuals, locked in an intimate struggle against the bars. And even though we preen and we prance and we prate, with the doubtful confidence of jesters and fools, in our hearts we know all too well that unless we learn to live for each other, we may not live at all.

1986 | You are something

Desmond Tutu

that is precious. When God created us, God blew into us the breath of life so that forever afterwards, each of us became a God-carrier. Each one of us had to be treated with deep reverence, each one of us was fragile, God carrying us in the palms of God’s hands. Each one of us created in the image of God. Each one of us God’s viceroy, God’s partner. And so the evil of the system at home is not so much the pain and the anguish that it causes, great as these must be, as they indeed are. The awful thing about Apartheid, the most blasphemous thing about it is when it makes a child of God doubt that they are a child of God.

Billy Graham 1985 | And most of us are that way. We want some-

thing and we don’t know what it is. We come to the end of our lives and we’re still unfulfilled. We haven’t found that fulfillment. It’s something that eludes us.

You see, you were made for God, and without God, you’ll never have total peace, total happiness, and total joy. It’s only found in a relationship with God. David had found a strength and a resource that took him away from the pressures of life. Have you?

1995 | You remember that great line of Mark Twain who said, “It’s not the things I don’t understand in the Bible that worry me; it’s the things I understand perfectly clear that worry me.” And these are among the things that you Peter Gomes understand and are perfectly clear: you are to love your enemies, you are to turn the other cheek, you are to lend without expectation of return. There it is, square in the middle of the Gospel, hardly ambiguous at all . . . .

The impossible ethic, and that is what it is, is the only one that counts. The Gospel is about light, manifestation, and disclosure. Perversity is the human condition more or less, and providence is the business of God by which we see our way through the darkness and in that light. And by that light, wonder of wonders, even the impossible is both possible and plausible.

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The Prophet’s YES The piece below was written and performed by Deborah A. Williams-Maske, D ’19 at the Chapel’s Celebration of Preaching Day. It was originally written for the fifth anniversary of Pastor Bankole Akinbinu at Baptist Grove Church in Raleigh, North Carolina.

[SING:] I say yes Lord, yes, to your will and to your way, I say yes Lord, yes, I will…I will [Repeat:] I say yes Lord, yes to your will and to your way, I say yes Lord, yes, I will…I will?

I said YES

I said yes to the Lord,

BUT THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE FROM THE YES Offered to US To love the still Me, and You God promised to take over my tongue and He would spit the rhyme on the mic When I said Yes The World didn’t stop and take notice That the new me grew in Thee With no clue, as to what shall Be Attitudes in pews—really?

But only he heard my YES. The world didn’t stop and take notice Don’t recall a flag waving or a palm leaf lifted because I said yes At an earlier age, God whispered into my ear And breathed over me and with the motion of A Hand They Pronounced the last rights Over the Old Me And Commissioned the new Me To reveal The Trinity They touched my lips with a dark iron finger Glowing Red with an amber illuminated coal And Commanded Me to Speak for That Which Was in the Beginning and Forever Shall be You See, I said yes to the Lord, But Only he heard my YES. The world didn’t stop and take notice Don’t recall a flag waving or a palm leaf lifted because I said yes

I said YES

To the burden of Convincing a people That favor ain’t about fairness Nor salvation a country club membership And blessings don’t equate to privilege And Grace don’t mean Karma won’t show up on the scene Bidding a hard-headed people to come I declare that on this journey You will toil and tarry You will have days of dark and light But with Joy running through our BLOOD-STAINED VEINS We can still make the claim That Love Lifts

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To forsaking all others And following you This prophetic life gets lonely And thankless, Often restless

Even on the days when I don’t feel you When I don’t believe you Turn on the TV and don’t see you When parents of murdered children look to me to pray to you And the man who did good all his life deserts you because life deserted him What is a prophet to DO? Or Look to?

Yet

Spoken word poetry is writing meant to be read aloud. You are invited to read the text on this page out loud, giving life to its powerful poetic elements.

I said to the Lord, YES

But only he heard my YES. The world didn’t stop and take notice Don’t recall a flag waving or a palm leaf lifted because I said yes Praying for more witnesses to join in this army To exchange cheap grace for a crown of glory Where Love has, the final say And Hope is more than French words But life over death I proclaim Faith is not about prosperity But Charity Then God took me out to the top of the mountain And showed me the reward for my obedience When I said Yes The World didn’t stop and take notice Don’t recall a flag waving or a palm leaf lifted because I said yes

A sermon preached in Duke University Chapel on April 2, 2017, by Katie Becker, a Duke senior and psychology major

Crying with Jesus Ezekiel 37:1–14, John 11:1–45 Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to You, our rock and our redeemer, who dries our tears and promises new life. Amen.

John 11:35. Jesus wept. Jesus WEPT. JESUS wept. I can’t get that image out of my mind. Picture it with me. Our strong and triumphant savior, so overcome by grief that He actually begins to cry. The same God who created the universe and hung the stars. That God. Crying.

Now, if someone asked you to identify one scripture verse that best encapsulates the Christian faith, what would you pick? John 3:16? For God so loved the world, He gave his only, well, you know the rest . . . Mark 12:30-31?

Love the Lord your God . . . and love your neighbor as yourself? Perhaps you’d go back to basics with something like the Ten Commandments or Psalm 23?

These are all excellent choices, to be sure, but I argue that John 11:35 should also be a strong contender. It has the added advantage of being short and easy to remember—Stephen King once admitted that when required to select and memorize a Bible verse in elementary school, he got cheeky and picked “Jesus wept” because it was short.

But brevity is not a bad thing. As my senior thesis advisors keep reminding me, you can say a lot with a little. And this particular short little verse succinctly and beautifully reveals three things at once: Jesus’s humanity, God’s intense love for us, and the promise of new life.

I believe that crying is emblematic of what it means to be human. Admittedly, I might be a bit biased in saying this. I cry

a lot. I cry when I’m sad. I cry when I’m happy. I cry when I hear a touching song. I cry when I’m in love. I cry when my heart is broken. I cry when I don’t know how to feel. And, as I’m sure my roommate can confirm, sometimes I cry when watching The Bachelor. But whenever I cry, or see another person crying, I am reminded that tears are the purest expression of human emotion, empathy, and life.

Tears reveal our deep brokenness.

As the band Mutemath puts it, “Tears remind us that we all break the same.”

We break the same. And we cry not because we are weak, but because

we are human. So did Jesus. Jesus’s tears demonstrate that Jesus was fully human—and Jesus felt the full depth of human pain and grief. We see in the Gospels that Jesus experienced many human processes; He ate, drank, slept, and was wounded. Yet nothing seems to demonstrate the depth of Jesus’s humanity more profoundly than tears do.

Crying is a clear indication that Jesus was Emmanuel, God with us. And God weeps with all of us. The eternal empath.

God weeps with the widow and the orphan. God weeps with the sick and the dying. God weeps with the grieving, the brokenhearted, and the mentally ill. God weeps with the people who are marginalized and ignored, who don’t think their cries are heard by God, let alone shared by God. God weeps with people whose lives are torn apart by violence. God weeps with the outcast, the migrant thirsty in the desert, and the refugee turned away at the airport.

In so doing, God demonstrates that She feels the full depth of our pain.

Many of us understand that crying can be one of the most cathartic experiences

Watch this sermon: bit.ly/StudentPreacher2017

Crying is a clear indication that Jesus was Emmanuel, God with us. And God weeps with all of us. The eternal empath.

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when faced with deep pain. There’s a reason we call it “a good cry,” right?

But, like a well-trained Duke psychology major, of course I had to do my research. In a peer-reviewed research paper that studied crying around the world, researchers found that crying did have a cathartic effect when people are upset, but that effect depended largely on how others responded to someone’s tears.

Support made people feel markedly better. In contrast, people felt worse when they were shamed for crying or when they tried to stop crying prematurely. In other words, we feel better when we cry with others—we feel worse when we try to suppress our tears out of shame.

Social support is the saving grace.

About two millennia before that study was published, the Jews in this story had already figured this out. Because what do they say when they see Jesus weeping?

They don’t point at him and ridicule him.

They don’t say, “Come on, Jesus, man up!” They don’t get uncomfortable at his display of emotion and turn their backs on him, deeming him no longer qualified to be their teacher.

No. They say, “See how he loved him.”

See how he loved him.

They know to equate Jesus’s tears not with weakness but with love. They understand that crying can be a powerful act of love—love for Lazarus, love for Mary and Martha, love for all who grieve.

This is radically different from how we’re used to talking about tears in our culture. We’re used to seeing tears as the punchline of a joke—many of you have probably seen and chuckled at that crying Michael Jordan meme, after all—but not as an expression of profound and holy love.

But can you remember a time someone cried with you, validating your pain and showing love? I can.

During fall semester of my junior year, I found myself living in a city called Xela surrounded by towering volcanoes in the gorgeous highlands of Guatemala.

There, I lived with a host family. We were different in many ways; I struggled to communicate with them in broken Spanish. While they were deeply faithful Evangelical Christians, full of certainty in their faith, I’ve always considered myself more of a doubter and a questioner.

But on my second day living with 16 CHAPEL VIEW magazine

that family, I received a phone call from my dad telling me that my grandfather, whom I loved so dearly, had passed away. There I was, living with strangers, thousands of miles from my family, with limited cell phone access, in a country where I hardly spoke the language well enough to order at a restaurant, let alone to communicate the depths of my grief.

The night I got the news, my host mom—again, I’d known this amazing woman for only two days—came into my room and brought me a cup of tea.

She sat on my bed, and she hugged me.

She prayed with me. And she cried with me. Across our many differences, she cried with me. And I felt her love and solidarity. In that moment, she acted as Christ to me.

Perhaps most critically, the Gospel writer reminds us that out of all this weeping comes new life. Because Jesus’s tears, while momentous, aren’t the end of the story. Lazarus is raised from the dead. If Jesus is the all-powerful and all-knowing God, not bound by the confines of chronological time, he must have known that he would see his friend Lazarus again, mere moments later.

Yet still, he weeps.

He weeps with his friends. Because tears and faith are not incompatible. In this moment, Jesus reminds us that we can have all the faith in the world in the promise of new life, and still we may cry and feel deep pain.

Our pain comes not from weakness or from lack of faith. Like Jesus’s tears, our tears often come from a place of profound love.

So if Christ having a physical body means that Christ cries, and we are called to be the body of Christ in the world, then we are called to cry with our brothers and sisters. We are called to cry with brothers and sisters who are sick or depressed, our brothers and sisters who are immigrants and refugees fleeing violence, our brothers and sisters who fear for their safety because of how

they look, whom they love, or how they worship. We are called to be with them, love them, cry with them, and trust that our tears—like Jesus’s tears for Lazarus— make way for new life.

We are also called to be vulnerable in our relationships. We are called to stop hiding our tears from each other, thinking they make us less worthy, less manly, or less strong. Our faith is a faith that values and cherishes lament.

Throughout the Christian story, new life begins with water—the water of the womb, the water of baptism, the flood, and, yes, the salty water of tears.

And sometimes the clearest act of love, the clearest indication of new life coming, is showing up and crying for someone else’s pain. Several years ago, Rev. Bruce Puckett took several of us Chapel Scholars to a prayer vigil held by the Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham. If you’re not familiar with RCND, this is a group dedicated to confronting the reality that someone is killed by gun violence in Durham every nine days. Among those killed, young African American men are tragically overrepresented.

Although RCND has many programs to address this issue, their prayer vigils are the most visible. The founders understood that the worst thing after an act of violence is silence and loneliness from the community. So they bring people together to pray together—and, yes, cry together—after a homicide. They strive to communicate to the community that the pains of violence will not be ignored—no matter the victim’s race, class, or background.

A mother whose son was killed by gun violence said of her son’s vigil, “a dark weight was lifted . . . there was a special love.”

I observed and felt that special love.

Holy love. I saw it in the faces of the people around me, people whose lives would never be the same. Surrounded by

Throughout the Christian story, new life begins with water—the water of the womb, the water of baptism, the flood, and, yes, the salty water of tears.

candles and salty tears, I knew—and I’ve never been surer of anything—that God was in that place, crying with us. Loving us. And, as hard as it was to believe in that moment, watering the way for resurrection and new life.

Andrew King, an Oakland fast food worker by day and spiritual poet by night, put it this way: You were there at the grave of Lazarus, irretrievably lost to his family and friends, but not lost to you; gone beyond their loving reach but not yours.

You were there and the stone was removed from the tomb.

You were there with your shout and the air held its breath.

You were there and burial cloths were unbound and lost Lazarus opened his eyes to the sun.

And you are here, Lord, in the hospital room, in the bedroom, the shopping mall, the street.

You are here drying tears on hurt faces, setting free the bound ones from the shrouds of death, leading us out of whatever caves are confining us and reminding us that in you Death will not triumph.

Exploring Faith through the Arts Duke sophomores Justin Baez and Edom Tilahun were selected as recipients of Duke University Chapel’s new C. Eric Lincoln Theology and Arts Fellowship.

As part of the fellowship, the two students created original works of visual art exploring theological concepts, their personal faiths, and engaging the intersections of gender, race, and religion. Their works were displayed in the Chapel for several weeks this spring.

Justin Baez, an art history and visual arts double major from New York City, created a documentary photography project exploring how faith is practiced across cultures and ethnicities in the Research Triangle area.

Edom Tilahun, born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is a junior majoring in global health and visual and media studies. Her exhibition Emnet, which is the word in the Ethiopian language Amharic for “faith,” depicts faith in technically and thematically unconventional ways.

Your love that has no limits has won.

Take heart. However your heart is hurting today, God is weeping with you. God bears your pain and weeps for love of you. And God has promised you that out of all your tears, new life is coming.

Because Jesus wept.

Amen.

Katie Becker was this year’s Duke University Chapel student preacher, an opportunity extended to one Chapel Scholar each spring. Currently a member of the singing group Duke Chorale and the selective living group Ubuntu, Becker plans to eventually attend law school and hopes to practice as an immigration attorney.

Edom Tilahun, a C. Eric Lincoln Theology and Arts Fellow, meets Lucy Lincoln, an educator and the widow of Dr. C. Eric Lincoln, a professor of religion and culture at Duke University from 1976 to 1993.

Summer 2017 17

Green & Fair Chapel Day

Duke Chapel seeks to live out its mission in a way that is ecologically sustainable and theologically just, as a Green and Fair Chapel. The Chapel recently celebrated this at its first Green and Fair Chapel Day on April 6, 2017.

The day of events included a fair, providing an opportunity for campus partners and local businesses to promote green/ethical goods and policies. A Bridge Panel Conversation titled “Facing the Flood: Faith and Action for the Rising Generation” moderated by Chapel Dean Dr. Luke A. Powery explored how different disciplines can work together for the same environmental goals during a time of political challenge and looked at the deeper religious or philosophical beliefs that help guide the panelists’ work.

Watch the conversation: bit.ly/greenandfairbridgepanel The event ended with a hopeful creation-care themed Eucharist, celebrating God’s creation and our work in partnering to steward it well.

Left: Bridge panelists included Dr. Saskia Cornes, farm and program manager at Duke Farm; Dr. Brian Murray, director of the Environmental Economics Program at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and interim director of the Duke University Energy Initiative; Lena Connor, senior MDiv student, chair of Creation Matters at Duke Divinity School; and Dr. Norman Wirzba, professor of theology, ecology, and agrarian studies at Duke Divinity School, and a senior fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics. Right: The Chapel’s Green and Fair Chapel Day was certified as a Duke Green Event. Carbon used in putting on the event was offset by the Duke Carbon offsets Initiative, making the event carbon neutral.

18 CHAPEL VIEW magazine

CHAPEL NEWS

New Interreligious Scholars Program This year, the Chapel supported the launch of Duke’s new Interreligious Scholars Program (ISP). The program supports students in building relationships with people of other faith traditions and prepares them for working together for the common good. In late January, the first cohort of ISP students attended the InterFaith Youth Core’s (IFYC) Interfaith Leadership Institute in Atlanta. At the institute, scholars learned from leaders and fellow students from other institutions as they planned for building the interfaith movement on Duke’s campus.

A Devotional for Advent by Dean Powery The latest book by Chapel Dean Luke A. Powery, titled Rise Up, Shepherd!, will be released in August. In writing this collection of devotions for the season of Advent, Dean Powery leads the reader through the spirituals as they confront the mystery of incarnation and redemption.

Each devotion features the lyrics of a spiritual, a reflection on the spiritual’s meaning, a Scripture verse, and a brief prayer.

Pre-order at bit.ly/RiseUpShepherd

FINDING SANCTUARY Spring Speaker Series In collaboration with the Penny Pilgram George Women’s Leadership Initiative, Duke Chapel invited four dynamic women to campus this spring. These women reflected publicly on the ways in which their lives and work meet at the intersections of faith-based advocacy and social justice.

Listen to the first two talks, available on the Chapel’s iTunes U channel.

bit.ly/DukeChapelConversations

EVERY CAMPUS A REFUGE: BECOMING A SANCTUARY FOR REFUGEES Dr. Diya Abdo | February 7, 2017

CREATING SANCTUARY WITH THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY Rev. Heidi Neumark & Rabbi Sara Paasche-Orlow | March 8, 2017

Chapel Staff Honored as Green Champion Jack Adams, assistant to the dean of the Chapel, was selected as the recipient of “Outstanding Leadership in Sustainability–Staff” in Duke’s 2017 Sustainability Awards for his work organizing and leading the Chapel’s Green and Fair Chapel efforts.

WOMEN WARRIORS: REVOLUTIONARY LOVE IN THE ERA OF ENORMOUS RAGE Valarie Kaur | April 24, 2017

Summer 2017 19

A PHILANTHROPIC LANDSCAPE

E

very year, we support organizations in our communities that provide for the needs of others. We are particularly grateful for the generosity and exuberance that these organizations offer to our neighbors. I hope you will take a moment to review both the recipients of our support and the many organizations who have offered their financial support to the Chapel in the form of direct and matching gifts.

Duke Chapel is pleased to be a part of this philanthropic landscape, working to meet the needs of others and to be a witness to the power of love in the world.

Augustine Literacy Project BUMP Durham Nativity School El Centro Family Health Ministries Genesis Home Habitat for Humanity Kidznotes Lincoln Community Health Center Meals on Wheels of Durham

Sincerely yours, Amanda M. Hughes Director of Development and Strategy

The notion of the infinite variety of detail and the multiplicity of forms is a pleasing one; in complexity are the fringes of beauty, and in variety are generosity and exuberance. —Annie Dillard

WHO SUPPORTS THE CHAPEL 1789 Questers James and Jody Akers Family Fund Allstate Foundation Allstate Giving Campaign Allstate Insurance Company Alton James Coppridge Irrevocable Trust American International Group Inc. Amgen Foundation Andrew & Julia Crewson Charitable Fund Anne and Bill Burch Fund Anne D. Alexander Charitable Fund Apple Inc. AT&T Foundation AT&T Inc. Baird Foundation, Inc. Baird Holding Company Bank of America Corporation Bank of America Foundation Bank of New York Mellon Barclays Capital Barclays PLC Bearden Family Charitable Trust Bechtel Group Foundation Bechtel Group Inc. Benevity Community Impact Fund Benevity Fund BlackRock, Inc.

Blue Ridge Fund Boylston Family Fund Brenda Macauley Trust Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation Bussian Law Firm, PLLC Carlyle Group Chad & Kristin Summe Family Fund Charles A. & Anne L. Bird Fund Children’s Mercy Hospital Christian Tours Cisco Systems, Inc. Gordon/Kate Clayton Donations Fund Clayton I. Bennett-Oklahoma Tower Clorox Company Clorox Company Foundations Coca-Cola Company Coca-Cola Foundation Collins Family Fund Congregation at Duke University Chapel Corning Incorporated Corning Incorporated Foundation Corporate Executive Board Crewsons DAF Dallas, LTD Daly Family Trust Darden Restaurants Foundation Davis Polk & Wardwell D. Craig Story Attorney at Law

WHO THE CHAPEL SUPPORTS

Deloitte Foundation Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation Devonwood Foundation Walt Disney Company Foundation Dow Chemical Company Dow Chemical Foundation Drake Family Fund Duke Catholic Center Dunham Family Foundation DW General Fund E2lmaths Limited Eason Foundation Edward E. Philpot LLC Electronic Arts Eli Lilly & Company Eli Lilly & Company Foundation Elizabeth P. Alsobrook Gift Fund Elle’s Lend a Hand Fund Ernst & Young Foundation Ernst & Young Global Ltd. Expedia Inc. ExxonMobil Corporation ExxonMobil Foundation Thomas N. Felgner Charitable Foundation Fidelity Investments Fiduciary Charitable Foundation Fifth Third Bank Fifth Third Foundation Fitzpatrick Family Giving Account

School for Conversion StepUp Durham Student Action with Farmworkers The Hill Center Threshold United Methodist Committee on Relief Urban Hope Walltown Children’s Theatre

Fluor Corporation Fluor Foundation Frank Jordan Jr. Trust Frederick O’Connor Medical Consultants Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Genentech USA GlaxoSmithKline Foundation GlaxoSmithKline PLC Goldman Sachs & Company Google Inc. Grandad’s Gravy, LLC Greater Cincinnati Foundation/ Proctor & Gamble Fund Greene Family Trust Gregory K. Ivins, M.D., F.A.C.S. Guggenheim Partners, LLC Russell B. and Deborah A. Hall DAF Harrison Brothers Trust Helen B. Coppridge CRUT H. E. Rainbolt Trust The Huisking Foundation Inc. IBM Corporation IBM International Foundation Jamestown Presbyterian Church The Johannes Horst Max Meyer Revocable Trust John F. & Carolyn J. Bigger JT Trust JustGive Kasper & Payne PA Katharine & Ryan Fleming Fund

Your gift today is tax deductible. Please make your check payable to Duke Chapel and send to: Director of Development & Strategy | Duke University Chapel | 401 Chapel Drive, Box 90974 | Durham, North Carolina 27708 For information about credit card or stock gifts, please contact Amanda Hughes for assistance.

(919) 684-5351 | amanda.hughes1@duke.edu | chapel.duke.edu 20 CHAPEL VIEW magazine

WHO SUPPORTS THE CHAPEL continued Katherine Gauld Family Trust DT Kazie Metzger & John C. Harvey Charitable Fund Kenneth W. Lewis Attorney at Law Kimley-Horn & Associates Inc. KJB Charitable Fund KKR & Co. L.P. KKR - MP Charitable Gift Fund KPMG Foundation Leo Burnett Company Lynn and Jeff Young Charitable Fund Macy’s Foundation McDade Family Foundation McGraw-Hill Foundation Fred McIntyre Family Fund Merck & Co. Inc. Merck Company Foundation Microsoft Corporation Morgan Stanley Mr. & Mrs. Robert F. Cook Fund Muriel G. Kirkland Family Foundation Nasdaq Inc Network For Good New River Neurology and Epilepsy, P.C. Nordstrom Norrell & Powers-Norrell, LLC North Carolina Conference - UMC Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Foundation Occidental Petroleum Corporation Panda Restaurant Group, Inc. PepsiCo Employee Engagement Fund Perry and Karen Miller Fund Pfizer Foundation Pfizer Inc. Richard and Ann Posey Charitable Giving Fund Farrel and Welshie Potts Gift Fund Procter & Gamble Fund Prudential Financial Inc. Rauch Rainoff Foundation Rauch Family Living Trust Raytheon Company Richard A. Wood, Jr. Endowment Fund Richard Schafer Family Trust

Robert J. Theis Sr. Trust Robinson Donor Advised Fund Charles A. & Elizabeth Ann Sanders Fund Sanofi-Aventis U.S. Inc. Sanofi Foundation for North America Sante Fe Property Holdings LLC Schwab Charitable Fund Serviceberry Fund Siemens Corporation Siemens Medical Solutions USA Inc Snyder Watchorn Foundation Inc. S&P Global Inc Christopher & Mary Ann Spivey Fund Steven F. Blalock, Attorney Steven Puopolo, M.D., P.C. Stone’s Piano Service Stump Printing SunTrust Bank SunTrust Foundation Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association The Procter & Gamble Company TIAA-CREF Employee Giving Campaign Trinity Properties Tyler Broadcasting Corporation UBS AG UBS Investment Bank & Global Asset Mgmt UMC - Texas Conference United Methodist Foundation of West Virginia, Inc. United Methodist Women University Women’s Club UyHam Foundation Verizon Communications Inc. Verizon Foundation Virginia Council of Churches, INC. Washington Women’s Foundation Watauga Club Wells Fargo & Company Wells Fargo Foundation Wiggins Family Charitable Gift Fund Wigodsky Family Fund William R. Newcomb Trust Wings Fund World Relief Durham

A prayer labyrinth, designed by Pathways Fellow Chrislyn Choo, was painted on the Memorial Garden lawn beside the Chapel, offering students a space for quiet reflection. (See page 3.)

First Class Mail U.S. Postage

P A I D

Permit No. 60 Durham, NC

Box 90974 | Durham, NC 27708-0974

PRAY WITH US

In our busy world, the Chapel bears witness to the human need for community and for times of solitude and silence.

This year, the Chapel initiated an intentional Silent Time, weekday mornings from 8:00 to 8:30 a.m. With so much strife and pain in the news, on campus, and beyond, we also began a regular time of Prayers for our World, weekdays at 4:45 p.m.

We invite you to join us in these times of prayer at the Chapel, or wherever you might find yourself.

CHAPEL.DUKE.EDU | @DUKECHAPEL