Dr. Halford Luccock, former professor of homiletics at Yale Divinity School, loved to tell this incident from his personal experience. One day a policeman friend of his stopped him in the midst of street traffic and asked, "What is the degree which many preachers have which makes them doctors?"

Dr. Luccock answered, "It is usually a D.D. - Doctor of Divinity. Why did you ask?"

"Well," said the policeman, "down at the police station that is the most common entry on the charge sheet. To us it means, ‘Drunk and Disorderly.’ So when I saw Reverend So and So, D.D., I was naturally curious."

Dr. Luccock pulled away safely before reeling from that blow, but when he reached home, he began to meditate on the policeman’s words. Suddenly it came to him that those were the very same charges brought against the early disciples on the Day of Pentecost. The crowd said, "These men are drunk with wine." Later on, the disciples were dragged before the rulers of the city and were charged with being disorderly. "These men have turned the world upside down," shouted their accusers. And then, in his inimitable way, Dr. Luccock commented, "How I would love to stand before every congregation in the church and say in most solemn tones, 'Now with the authority invested in me as a minister of the Gospel, I confer upon each and every one on you the degree of D. D. - drunk and disorderly.' That, in figurative terms, is a very honorary degree, a degree that every Christian should possess."

The early Christians had this degree. How we need it today!