Duke Chapel Student Preacher Sermon March 5 to Focus on Rest in God

First-year student Erin Dickerson will preach on Psalm 121

Erin Dickerson will deliver the annual student sermon in Duke Chapel.
Erin Dickerson’s sermon in Duke Chapel will focus on the comfort God provides.

Selected as this year’s Duke Chapel Student Preacher, first-year student Erin Dickerson will deliver a sermon in the chapel worship service at 11 a.m. on Sunday, March 5.

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

“Psalm 121 is about finding rest in God, and God protecting us,” said Dickerson, who is a member of the Duke Wesley campus ministry and also attends the Summit Church in Durham. “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,” she said.

Dickerson’s sermon was selected by a committee that included the Rev. Kathryn Lester-Bacon, the chapel’s director of Religious Life.

“When I read a draft of Erin’s sermon, I was struck by the pastoral wisdom at the center of it,” Lester-Bacon said. “She offers us a vision of Christ that resonates with good news across generations, while also being particularly meaningful to young adults right now.”

As part of the process of developing her sermon, Dickerson will be coached in revisions and delivery by chapel ministers and a Divinity School professor.

“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.”

Erin Dickerson

A student in the Air Force ROTC detachment at Duke, Dickerson now calls Durham home but has also lived with her family in Cary, and Tokyo and Okinawa, Japan. Since her family moved to Durham about six years ago, they have been attending Christmas Eve services at Duke Chapel.

Dickerson wrote the first draft of her sermon over the recent 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 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.”

The service, free and open to the public, will be live-streamed on the Duke Chapel website and YouTube and also broadcast on WDNC 620 AM and channel 12 of the Duke Hospital television system.