The Rev. Joseph Lowery speaks with Duke seniors Theresa Cho, Kathy Choi and Ashley Banks during a luncheon as part of Duke's annual Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration at the Washington Duke Inn Sunday Photo credit: Jared Lazarus

Durham, NC - On a cold Sunday afternoon during Duke's annual Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration, civil rights activist Rev. Joseph Lowery called on men, women and children in a packed Duke Chapel to join him in becoming "chaplains of the common good."

To the delight of a high-energy Duke and Durham community audience, Lowery, 87, a friend of King and the pastor slated to deliver the benediction at Tuesday's inauguration of President Barack Obama, offered what was part revival service, part political rally and part celebration of King's life.

"It says in Corinthians that God opens the floodgates of caring and power on us -- not for our self-aggrandizement but that we might serve the common good," said Lowery, convener for The Peoples' Agenda and co-founder and president emeritus of the Southern Leadership Conference (SCLC). "Today, I'm here to make you all ‘chaplains of the common good.

"And what better context than this celebration of Martin Luther King is there than to pledge to be like him, a man who was more comfortable serving than being served and had a deep and radical commitment to the common good. This holiday honors him as a man, scholar, preacher, teacher, crusader, healer and troublemaker. But we can't stop with honoring him; truth be told, he'd be a bit embarrassed by all the attention directed toward him --

"Too often, in our country, we've celebrated the messenger but ignored the message -- Martin was more than a dreamer. That's why we need to move from just social service to social change. -- It's nice to help an old lady cross the road that's something Martin would do. But we should also be checking to see if the streets these old ladies live on are properly paved."

Lowery, who was one of the leaders of the 1965 50-mile march from Selma to Montgomery to deliver written demands to Alabama Gov. George Wallace, admitted that he cried on election day this year. He praised the president-elect for pledging to "use diplomacy as his primary weapon," rather than opting for "military solutions in countries that have no solutions."

He also called for the new president and cabinet as well as all his new Durham "chaplains of the common good" to work with educators to bring the "strongest resources" to the poorest schools, rather than giving the "weakest resources to the poorest schools."

Decrying "the "greed and corruption" that led to the current economic recession, Lowery noted that "there's something wrong with a system where a handful of people have more money than ever, while the rest of us have less than we've ever had."

Lowery also said our country needs to use "social service and social change to help us put ‘justice' back in the criminal justice system," where the majority of prisoners are black males "because they can't afford good lawyers." He also took a swipe at supporters of a California proposition to ban same-sex marriage. "Laws are supposed to protect rights, not deny them," he said.

Known for his humor, Lowery's 45-minute speech, preceded by music from the 100 Black Male Choir, African drumming and dance, jazz, and music and greetings from Jewish and Muslim representatives, brought the audience to its feet several times, evoking both laughter and "Amens." Joking that he keeps trying to retire but occasions like this one and his upcoming participation in the inauguration keep coming up, Lowery confided, tongue-in-cheek, "I'm just trying to figure out how to take up an offering from three million people" in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.

Lowery's speech was part of a program called "What Becomes of the Dream? Faith and Politics, Vision and Leadership." Related events continue this week at Duke. Click here for the full schedule.