Howard C. Wilkinson - "Maturity as Understood by Freud and the Bible" (July 19, 1970)
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(faint orchestral singing) | 0:14 | |
(lively organ music) | 1:51 | |
(faint orchestral singing) | 2:12 | |
- | May we pray together. | 4:19 |
Eternal God, our Father, | 4:27 | |
we stand to stay under the judgment of your word. | 4:30 | |
You have commanded us to seek first the kingdom, | 4:36 | |
But we are convicted of divided loyalties | 4:41 | |
and uncertain aims. | 4:44 | |
We have only occasionally put first things first. | 4:49 | |
We have too often bowed before the idols of our culture. | 4:55 | |
We have answered yes to you and acted no. | 5:01 | |
We have lost our courage and faith. | 5:08 | |
We no longer have the ears to hear your clear voice | 5:14 | |
in Jesus, the Lord, | 5:17 | |
or the eyes to see you in the face of a brother. | 5:19 | |
We confess that we haven't really meant anything | 5:27 | |
when we have said, thy kingdom come. | 5:30 | |
Have mercy upon us, oh Lord, forgive us, | 5:36 | |
and enable us to take up that life | 5:41 | |
that is worth living for. | 5:46 | |
Amen. | 5:50 | |
The words of assurance this morning are these: | 5:59 | |
In all things, we are more than conquerors | 6:03 | |
through him who loved us, | 6:06 | |
for I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, | 6:10 | |
nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, | 6:15 | |
nor powers, nor height, nor depth, | 6:21 | |
nor anything else in all creation, | 6:25 | |
be able to separate us from the love of God | 6:28 | |
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. | 6:31 | |
Now, will you join with me as we offer together | 6:37 | |
the prayer of thanksgiving? | 6:40 | |
Oh Lord our God, the author and giver of all good things, | 6:46 | |
we thank thee for all thy mercies, | 6:53 | |
and for the loving care over all thy creatures. | 6:56 | |
We bless thee for the gift of life, | 7:00 | |
with thy protection 'round about us, | 7:03 | |
with thy guiding hand upon us, | 7:07 | |
and for the tokens thy love within us. | 7:10 | |
We thank thee for friendship and duty, | 7:14 | |
for good hopes and precious memories, | 7:17 | |
for the joys that cheer us and the trials | 7:21 | |
that teach us to put our trust in thee. | 7:24 | |
Most of all, we thank thee for the saving knowledge | 7:28 | |
of thy son, our savior, for the living presence | 7:31 | |
of thy spirit, for thy church, the body of Christ, | 7:35 | |
for the ministry of word and sacrament | 7:40 | |
and all the means of grace, | 7:44 | |
and all these things, oh, Father, | 7:47 | |
make us wise under a right use of the days | 7:50 | |
of our life through Jesus Christ. | 7:53 | |
Amen. | 7:57 | |
(gentle music) | 8:05 | |
(faint orchestral singing) | 8:48 | |
Scripture lesson this morning is taken from | 14:35 | |
the letter to the Church at Ephesus from the fourth chapter. | 14:38 | |
And his gift were that some should be apostles, | 14:45 | |
some prophets, some evangelists, | 14:48 | |
some pastors and teachers, for the equipment of the saints, | 14:51 | |
for the work of ministry, | 14:55 | |
for building up of the body of Christ until we all attain | 14:56 | |
the unity of the faith and of the knowledge | 15:00 | |
of the son of God to mature manhood, | 15:03 | |
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. | 15:07 | |
So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro | 15:12 | |
and carried about with every wind of doctrine | 15:16 | |
by the cunning of men, | 15:20 | |
by their craftiness and deceitful wiles. | 15:21 | |
Rather speaking the truth in love, | 15:25 | |
we are to grow in every way into him, | 15:27 | |
who is the head, into Christ from whom the whole body joined | 15:30 | |
and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, | 15:34 | |
when each part is working properly, | 15:39 | |
makes bodily growth and up-builds itself in love. | 15:41 | |
Now, this I affirm and testify in the Lord | 15:46 | |
that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do | 15:50 | |
in the futility of their minds. | 15:53 | |
They are darkened in their understanding, | 15:56 | |
alienated from the life of God | 15:59 | |
because of the ignorance that is in them | 16:00 | |
due to their hardness of heart. | 16:03 | |
They have become callous and have given themselves up | 16:07 | |
to licentiousness, greedy to practice | 16:09 | |
every kind of uncleanness. | 16:12 | |
You did not so learn Christ. | 16:15 | |
(lively organ music) | 16:38 | |
(faint orchestral singing) | 16:48 | |
The Lord be with you. | 17:19 | |
Let us pray. | 17:22 | |
Our Father, we are only slightly upset | 17:39 | |
by the growing suspicion somewhere inside the head | 17:45 | |
that what we are doing here perhaps means very little. | 17:50 | |
We admit that it is most difficult to live, | 17:57 | |
in New Testament terms, as sons and heirs. | 17:59 | |
We are 100% citizens of this world | 18:09 | |
and have lost confidence in the future | 18:13 | |
while casting off a wasteland of past history. | 18:15 | |
O' God somehow free us to recognize the significance | 18:26 | |
of our place in the creative redemptive process | 18:29 | |
of the world's history, | 18:34 | |
Restore our courage and revive our faith in ourselves. | 18:38 | |
Let us learn the forgotten lesson within your word, | 18:46 | |
that this is our world, | 18:50 | |
that this are earth is our responsibility, | 18:53 | |
that we are not keepers of each other, | 18:58 | |
but brothers to one another. | 19:01 | |
We pray for the young mother of eight children | 19:08 | |
who can't find her husband this morning, | 19:10 | |
for all children who have access to toy departments, | 19:14 | |
but never the price of a toy, | 19:17 | |
for everyone over 30 whose mind is frozen to new ideas, | 19:23 | |
for everyone under 30 who thinks solutions are simple | 19:30 | |
and everyone but himself a cop out. | 19:35 | |
We pray for our president in the hope that insight | 19:42 | |
and wisdom might have greater influence on his actions. | 19:45 | |
For those who bend under the awful weight | 19:51 | |
and terrifying dimensions of warfare, | 19:54 | |
for those who still think that real peace | 20:01 | |
can come as a result of waging war. | 20:06 | |
Our Father, save us from boredom. | 20:13 | |
Give us the peace of a single minded purpose | 20:19 | |
in the name and spirit of Jesus, the Lord, | 20:25 | |
who taught his disciples to say when they pray, | 20:29 | |
Our Father, who art in heaven, | 20:33 | |
hallowed be thy name. | 20:37 | |
By kingdom come, thy will be done on earth | 20:39 | |
as it is in heaven. | 20:43 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 20:46 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 20:49 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 20:52 | |
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, | 20:55 | |
for thine is the kingdom and the power | 21:01 | |
from the glory forever. | 21:04 | |
- | Late at night on July 3rd, 1969, | 21:34 |
Mr. Ralph Benning set out from his home at Fair Hope, | 21:42 | |
Pennsylvania in search of his 17 year old son, Thomas, | 21:47 | |
who earlier in the day had gone to visit his grandparents | 21:54 | |
on his motorcycle. | 21:59 | |
The father was driving toward the home | 22:02 | |
of his son's grandparents in the family car, | 22:06 | |
but at the same time, the son was driving toward home | 22:11 | |
on his motorcycle. | 22:15 | |
They were on a gravel road. | 22:18 | |
As the car came around a curve, | 22:21 | |
the motorcycle rounded the same curve | 22:25 | |
coming from the opposite direction. | 22:28 | |
The motorcycle slid into the path of the oncoming car. | 22:32 | |
A head-on collision resulted and young Thomas | 22:38 | |
was killed instantly. | 22:42 | |
Ironically, he was killed by a collision with his father, | 22:46 | |
not withstanding the fact that his father | 22:52 | |
was at the moment searching for him, | 22:54 | |
and in spite of the fact that the son was traveling toward | 22:59 | |
his home and his father. | 23:02 | |
The son was killed because the approach which he was making | 23:06 | |
toward his father and the approach which his father | 23:11 | |
was making toward him were not according | 23:16 | |
to the best judgment and the most enlightened wisdom. | 23:19 | |
This is a parable of what happens all around the world | 23:27 | |
in the relationships between parents | 23:32 | |
and their teenage children. | 23:35 | |
Parents are reaching out toward their children | 23:39 | |
and the children are seeking to relate to their parents, | 23:43 | |
but often the relationship leads to collisions | 23:47 | |
which result in tragedy as serious as physical death, | 23:51 | |
though, it often does not take that particular form. | 23:56 | |
Most of the parent and teenager collisions center around | 24:01 | |
the whole concept of maturity, | 24:06 | |
The greatest source of tension between parents | 24:11 | |
and their offspring is the question of the relative maturity | 24:14 | |
of the daughter or son, | 24:20 | |
and therefore of daughters' or sons' fitness | 24:23 | |
to operate independently of parental control | 24:27 | |
and interference. | 24:30 | |
There never seems to be any disagreement | 24:33 | |
that the parent should supervise an immature child, | 24:36 | |
nor is there any significant disagreement | 24:41 | |
that the mature son or daughter should be free | 24:44 | |
from parental interference. | 24:48 | |
But how frequent, how furious, and how futile | 24:51 | |
is the disagreement over when this maturity | 24:58 | |
has been achieved. | 25:02 | |
In all the years of my counseling, | 25:06 | |
I do not remember a single instance in which there | 25:07 | |
was a disagreement between a parent and child | 25:10 | |
on this subject in which the parent contended | 25:13 | |
that the child was mature and the child contended | 25:18 | |
that he was not mature. | 25:24 | |
It's always the other way around. | 25:28 | |
It always seems that the younger eyes of the daughter | 25:31 | |
can detect this priceless maturity in herself quicker | 25:34 | |
than the older eyes of the mother can. | 25:38 | |
And so it is that during the college years, | 25:43 | |
daughters and sons chaff under the vestigial remains | 25:46 | |
of parental control and parents chaff | 25:49 | |
under the vestigial remains of the adolescent immaturity | 25:53 | |
of their offspring. | 25:57 | |
Now, because this is a recurring problem, | 26:00 | |
I have decided to discuss it today. | 26:07 | |
But mark you, It is not my chief purpose here this morning | 26:10 | |
to furnish ammunition to any parent who is seeking | 26:16 | |
to preserve control for just one more year, | 26:21 | |
nor is it my main desire to hand a sermonic key | 26:26 | |
to any son or daughter who is attempting | 26:30 | |
to unlock the parental door behind which he or she exists | 26:33 | |
in something less than total freedom. | 26:37 | |
In short, I am not out to please dad or daughter. | 26:41 | |
What I hope is that through this sermon, | 26:46 | |
some light may be shed on the nature of the maturing process | 26:48 | |
so that both parent and offspring may achieve | 26:56 | |
a creative approach to the solution | 27:00 | |
which both so properly desire. | 27:03 | |
Now, I want to do this by focusing upon it | 27:07 | |
light chiefly from the Bible and from the writings | 27:10 | |
of the Father of modern psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. | 27:14 | |
Although it would certainly be a mistake to suggest that | 27:22 | |
there is complete harmony between all that Freud taught | 27:25 | |
and all the teachings of the Bible, | 27:29 | |
I really know of no reason why the biblical understanding | 27:33 | |
of the maturing process cannot be accurately described | 27:36 | |
in terms of the familiar categories set forth by Freud. | 27:42 | |
For Freud, the human personality was seen in the interaction | 27:48 | |
of three levels of our functional nature, | 27:52 | |
the super ego, the ego, or EH-GOH, and the id. | 27:58 | |
The super ego he described as that part of our nature | 28:05 | |
which contains and expresses the mores of society | 28:08 | |
and the standards of behavior which are impressed | 28:13 | |
upon us from without beginning in earliest childhood. | 28:16 | |
Freud occasionally referred to this as reality. | 28:23 | |
The super ego is made up of such things as table manners, | 28:27 | |
politeness, tact, conscience, family traditions, the law, | 28:32 | |
a sense of duty and so forth. | 28:40 | |
It's a kind of penal code and jury board rolled into one. | 28:42 | |
Now, when someone gives us a present, our super ego demands | 28:47 | |
that we express thanks, right, a thank you note. | 28:51 | |
When we sit down to the table to eat, | 28:56 | |
it's our super ego that insists that we wait until everyone | 28:58 | |
is ready before we begin eating. | 29:01 | |
We walk into a store and we see the drawer | 29:04 | |
of the cash register open with no one in sight. | 29:08 | |
It's our super ego that demands that we keep | 29:13 | |
our cotton picking hands out of the cash. | 29:16 | |
Since class attendance at Duke is not compulsory, | 29:20 | |
and in view of the hot weather, which you may have noticed, | 29:26 | |
we would love to go to the beach and spend all of next week, | 29:30 | |
but our super ego cries out that we must stay | 29:34 | |
on campus and study. | 29:37 | |
We start to cut across the lawn, | 29:40 | |
but our super ego cries out, let it grow, Joe. | 29:43 | |
All right, now the second phase of human nature, | 29:49 | |
according to Freud, is the id. | 29:52 | |
this is composed of the animal instincts and passions, | 29:56 | |
the hunger for food and drink, the mating instinct, | 30:01 | |
the desire for bodily comfort, et cetera. | 30:05 | |
When you feel you just have to have a banana split | 30:10 | |
or a Tasty Freeze, you're hearing from your id. | 30:13 | |
Now the super ego and the id do not talk the same language | 30:19 | |
or represent the same interests | 30:28 | |
in spite of the fact that they exist in the same person. | 30:30 | |
They are in fact, almost constantly at war with each other. | 30:35 | |
They always have been, they always will be. | 30:39 | |
It is at this point that the third phase of human nature | 30:43 | |
necessarily comes into play. | 30:47 | |
The ego is the organizing principle in the personality | 30:51 | |
which chooses between the super ego and the id. | 30:56 | |
Sometimes the ego lets the super ego have dominion, | 31:01 | |
forces the id to be unsatisfied. | 31:07 | |
No, no you cannot have that Tasty Freeze. | 31:10 | |
Sometimes the ego unleashes the id and lets the super ego | 31:14 | |
take an awful beating. | 31:18 | |
Feel bad about it the next day. | 31:21 | |
But other times the ego works very hard and tries | 31:25 | |
to manage things so that both get | 31:28 | |
their reasonable demands fulfilled without injury to either. | 31:31 | |
Now, listen, it is in this area | 31:37 | |
that we see either maturity or immaturity. | 31:41 | |
We acquire our id and our super ego without | 31:50 | |
very much effort on our part. | 31:53 | |
But maturity is something which we have to achieve by trial | 31:56 | |
and error, through much anguish and over a period of time. | 32:01 | |
It requires training and discipline. | 32:08 | |
Maturity is achieved when the ego develops the strength, | 32:13 | |
the control, and the judgment that ensures the proper | 32:18 | |
blending of the norms of the super ego | 32:26 | |
and the passions of the id. | 32:29 | |
Jacques Ellul delineates this very convincingly in his book, | 32:34 | |
"The Political Illusion", and I recommend it to you. | 32:39 | |
In the immature child, | 32:45 | |
the parent takes over most of the functions | 32:47 | |
of the child's ego and makes his decisions for him, | 32:50 | |
organizes his super ego and his id. | 32:54 | |
Now in the mature adult, | 32:58 | |
on the other end of the spectrum, | 33:00 | |
the individual's ego does this from within. | 33:03 | |
The crucial and controversial time is that period | 33:08 | |
when the parent thinks the daughter's ego | 33:12 | |
has not yet sufficiently matured and the daughter | 33:15 | |
is very sure that it has. | 33:18 | |
And regardless of who may be correct in this dispute, | 33:23 | |
the fact remains that the essence of personal maturity lies | 33:26 | |
in the ability of the ego to manage a healthy | 33:30 | |
and creative blending of the other two phases | 33:33 | |
of human nature. | 33:37 | |
In light of this is clear that some people live 60 | 33:40 | |
or 70 years and never achieve maturity. | 33:43 | |
Now having taken an all too quick look at what maturity is, | 33:51 | |
let us turn to the negative side for a little bit | 33:57 | |
and see what maturity is not. | 34:00 | |
Very likely we shall see in sharper focus what it is | 34:04 | |
if we remember what it is not. | 34:07 | |
First, maturity does not consist | 34:11 | |
of having personal experience with things at the age of, | 34:15 | |
say, 18, which one has neither the freedom or the capacity | 34:20 | |
to experience at eight. | 34:25 | |
Maturity does not consist of knowing | 34:29 | |
what a cigarette tastes like. | 34:32 | |
You could stick a lighted cigar in the mouth | 34:35 | |
of a three year old child. | 34:38 | |
When he had recovered from his coughing fit | 34:40 | |
and had ceased to cry, | 34:42 | |
he would not be one bit more mature than he was before | 34:44 | |
his encounter with that fog of cigar smoke. | 34:49 | |
Maturity does not consist of knowing from experience | 34:54 | |
what the throb of a hangover is like. | 34:58 | |
It is not composed of the knowledge | 35:03 | |
of the empirical difference between driving a tricycle | 35:05 | |
on the one hand and a jet airplane on the other. | 35:08 | |
Wearing manly or womanly clothes does not make one mature. | 35:13 | |
Going without clothes altogether does not make one mature. | 35:20 | |
If one could high jump only three feet | 35:27 | |
at the age of eight, it is no proof of personal maturity | 35:30 | |
that he can now jump five feet high at the age of 18. | 35:36 | |
This only indicates that his physical growth has continued. | 35:41 | |
In short, the degree of one's personal maturity | 35:48 | |
is not in any way changed by the mere fact | 35:53 | |
that he has or has not had firsthand sensory experience | 35:56 | |
in the areas of food, drink, mechanics, drugs, sex, | 36:02 | |
athletics, or anything else. | 36:07 | |
One may have tasted a very broad range | 36:12 | |
of sensory experiences without having increased | 36:14 | |
his personal maturity to the slightest degree. | 36:17 | |
Okay, let us now look at a second thing | 36:24 | |
which maturity is not. | 36:27 | |
A rash of contemporary novels and movies suggest | 36:31 | |
that maturity comes with the loss of innocence. | 36:35 | |
If you wish to be mature, hurry up and lose your innocence, | 36:41 | |
they seem to say. | 36:44 | |
This is not the case at all. | 36:47 | |
In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. | 36:50 | |
To attempt to equate guilt with maturity | 36:53 | |
is to misunderstand both guilt and maturity. | 36:57 | |
The eight year old child who greedily grabs the toys | 37:02 | |
of another child is just as guilty of selfishness | 37:08 | |
as the dirty old man who lecherously uses the body | 37:12 | |
of a woman merely to gratify his sensate appetite. | 37:17 | |
It is simply immature selfishness operating | 37:22 | |
on a different level. | 37:24 | |
Some unprincipled young men use every argument | 37:28 | |
they think will be effective in breaking down | 37:32 | |
the decency of beautiful young women. | 37:35 | |
One argument often attempted is to tell a girl | 37:38 | |
when she reaches her 18th birthday | 37:41 | |
that she cannot really be mature | 37:43 | |
until she gives up her virginity, | 37:46 | |
and of course they kindly offer to be of help in that area. | 37:48 | |
Others feel that the way to achieve maturity is to write | 37:54 | |
or shout obscenities. | 37:58 | |
To use lewd, loud, gross, or foul language. | 38:00 | |
That the way to become mature is to lie down in the gutter | 38:05 | |
and to wallow in it until they fairly reek with filth. | 38:09 | |
Where this notion came from is anybody's guess, | 38:15 | |
but its correlation with reality is exactly zero. | 38:18 | |
As a matter of fact, sin and guilt enter the human heart | 38:24 | |
at a very early age. | 38:27 | |
And if the mere loss of innocence conferred | 38:31 | |
any sort of maturity on anybody, all of us, | 38:34 | |
every one of us would have been gloriously mature | 38:39 | |
by the time we were in the second grade. | 38:43 | |
Loss of innocence has nothing to do with maturity. | 38:47 | |
Now turning by then to the positive, | 38:53 | |
it is very important that we really understand | 38:57 | |
the significance of the process | 39:01 | |
by which we achieve maturity. | 39:03 | |
And now, so before going further, | 39:06 | |
I would like to pause long enough to give | 39:10 | |
an illustrative analogy. | 39:13 | |
As a teenager in south Texas, | 39:16 | |
I went to all the rodeos that I had | 39:18 | |
the time and money to attend. | 39:20 | |
Large crowd of persons would generally be present | 39:23 | |
to witness the various events of the rodeo. | 39:26 | |
Bleachers were constructed on each side of an arena | 39:29 | |
in a fashion very similar to our football | 39:35 | |
and basketball courts with their stands for spectators. | 39:37 | |
But now at one end of the arena, | 39:42 | |
a gate usually opened into a pasture. | 39:44 | |
At the opposite end, there were corrals | 39:48 | |
in which the animals were kept. | 39:51 | |
One of the exciting events which the crowds | 39:55 | |
have always enjoyed watching is the steer roping trial. | 39:57 | |
Steers are anxious to dash down through the arena | 40:01 | |
and make their way to freedom through the gate | 40:05 | |
at the distant end. | 40:08 | |
The Cowboys on horses are released soon after the steers | 40:10 | |
are released into the arena and it is each cowboy's purpose | 40:14 | |
to rope his steer and bring it under his control | 40:18 | |
while the steer is still in the arena | 40:22 | |
and before it gets out to the pasture. | 40:26 | |
I remember the arrangement of one of the rodeos. | 40:29 | |
The steers were in one corral on the right, | 40:32 | |
the Cowboys on horses were in a second corral on the left. | 40:35 | |
The two were separated by a plank fence, | 40:39 | |
Both the steers and the Cowboys had access to the arena | 40:43 | |
by means of a Y shaped corridor or passageway between them. | 40:46 | |
The trunk of this Y opened out into the arena. | 40:53 | |
The left branch of the Y opened into the Cowboys corral, | 40:57 | |
the right branch of the Y opened into the steers corral. | 41:00 | |
At the point in the passage way where the two branches | 41:05 | |
of the Y came together, there was a three-sided gate | 41:07 | |
which swung freely on hinges | 41:11 | |
which were attached to a heavy post, | 41:14 | |
and above this three-sided gate was a small platform | 41:16 | |
on which a man stood. | 41:20 | |
And by means of a manually operated device, | 41:22 | |
the man was able to swing this gate at will. | 41:26 | |
When the gate was in neutral, | 41:31 | |
each one of its three sides closed a branch | 41:33 | |
of the passageway so that nothing could get through | 41:36 | |
from any direction. | 41:39 | |
But when the man on the platform swung the gate | 41:41 | |
to the right, the horses and Cowboys could pass through | 41:44 | |
into the corral, into the arena. | 41:48 | |
And when the man swung the gate to the left, | 41:51 | |
this made it possible for the steers to go out | 41:53 | |
into the arena. | 41:56 | |
Now for the success of this particular event, | 41:57 | |
it was important that the man on the platform handle his job | 42:00 | |
with great skill, with great firmness, | 42:04 | |
and with great strength. | 42:09 | |
Although the casual observer often thought | 42:12 | |
it was not a difficult assignment, | 42:14 | |
actually a considerable amount of wisdom and speed | 42:16 | |
and strength were required. | 42:19 | |
If he made a mistake, | 42:22 | |
too many steers would be released at one time | 42:24 | |
and some of them would never be brought under control | 42:27 | |
in the arena. | 42:29 | |
If the horseman were released too late, | 42:31 | |
wild animals would escape into the arena without being roped | 42:34 | |
or in their confusion, they might even try to jump | 42:38 | |
the side fence of the arena and cause panic | 42:41 | |
among the spectators. | 42:44 | |
If only one steer was let out, and then if the gate | 42:46 | |
were held open for the Cowboys so long | 42:51 | |
that two of them dashed out, confusion would result | 42:53 | |
from the attempt of two Cowboys trying to rope one steer. | 42:56 | |
In such a situation, Cowboys sometimes | 43:01 | |
have accidentally rope each other, | 43:03 | |
or one of the horses in their eagerness to rope the steer. | 43:06 | |
Now in Freudian terms, | 43:11 | |
the super ego is represented by the corral with the Cowboys | 43:13 | |
and their ropes. | 43:19 | |
The id is the corral with the wild steers. | 43:21 | |
Ego is the man on the platform with the gate. | 43:26 | |
It's not the business of the man on the platform | 43:31 | |
to hold the gate forever in neutral, | 43:33 | |
allowing neither the wild beasts of the id | 43:37 | |
or the Cowboys of the super ego to enter | 43:40 | |
the arena of action, nor is it the business of the man | 43:43 | |
on the platform to allow Cowboys only | 43:46 | |
into the arena of action. | 43:48 | |
What an inhibited and repressed life that would be. | 43:51 | |
On the other hand, Freud taught that when the gate | 43:58 | |
is left open to provide for an uninterrupted flow | 44:02 | |
of the wild beast of the id into the arena, | 44:04 | |
or in other words, when a person lives | 44:08 | |
by the pleasure principle, he eventually loses, says Freud, | 44:10 | |
the ability to satisfy his pleasure impulses, | 44:16 | |
and he loses the will to live. | 44:20 | |
Seneca and Tillich both agree with Freud | 44:25 | |
that the death wish is simply the reverse side | 44:28 | |
of the coin of what we call the pleasure principle. | 44:33 | |
This accounts for the familiar suicides of some | 44:39 | |
of the so-called sex queens and others | 44:43 | |
whose animal passions are not brought under the rope | 44:46 | |
of the super ego. | 44:49 | |
In the language of the Bible, | 44:52 | |
those who live by what Freud calls the pleasure principle | 44:54 | |
have a carnal mind. | 44:58 | |
And as Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, | 45:02 | |
the carnal mind is death. | 45:04 | |
The force of the essential parallel of the biblical | 45:08 | |
and Freudian view at this point is not weakened | 45:11 | |
by the likelihood that Freud referred mainly | 45:15 | |
to physical death and the Apostle Paul | 45:18 | |
mainly to spiritual death. | 45:20 | |
When the ego joins forces with the id in an attempt | 45:23 | |
to shut out the super ego, | 45:28 | |
the person eventually loses even the ability | 45:29 | |
to find satisfaction in pleasure. | 45:32 | |
The biblical view of creation in general and of man's nature | 45:37 | |
in particular is that the animal instincts of the id | 45:41 | |
were created by God and that God has looked | 45:45 | |
over his creation and pronounced it, quote, | 45:48 | |
Very good, unquote. | 45:51 | |
God has how however not left us without advice | 45:55 | |
and instruction concerning the use of his creation. | 45:59 | |
His holy word revealed through the law givers, | 46:04 | |
the prophets and supremely unfolded in the incarnation | 46:07 | |
of Jesus Christ furnish a system of values | 46:11 | |
and a significance for living, | 46:15 | |
which transcend the claims of the id, | 46:18 | |
but without denying them, | 46:22 | |
Jesus made it clear that since God is the one | 46:26 | |
who gave us appetites for food, drink, shelter, sex, | 46:29 | |
and the rest, he is aware of our needs in those areas | 46:34 | |
and he wants to have those needs fulfilled. | 46:39 | |
However, our first loyalty is to what Jesus | 46:44 | |
called the kingdom of God and his righteousness. | 46:47 | |
In the Christian, the ego must respond affirmatively | 46:51 | |
to the claims of the kingdom as they come to us | 46:56 | |
through what Freud called the super ego. | 47:00 | |
The ego, which organizes its life around the kingdom | 47:05 | |
will relegate the id to a secondary place, | 47:08 | |
but to a place of importance. | 47:13 | |
The person who does this intelligently will discover | 47:18 | |
to his surprise what Jesus meant when he said | 47:21 | |
that those who seek first the kingdom of God | 47:25 | |
and his righteousness will have all these other things | 47:27 | |
added unto them. | 47:31 | |
We now are in position to see the maturing wisdom | 47:34 | |
of another biblical insight. | 47:37 | |
Our Lord Jesus Christ taught the paradox that whoever | 47:41 | |
will save his life will lose it. | 47:44 | |
Whoever puts the pleasure principle first | 47:52 | |
will lose pleasure. | 47:53 | |
Whoever loses his life for my sake, | 47:57 | |
that is for the kingdom, will find it. | 48:01 | |
Looking only at the first part of the paradox, | 48:05 | |
I understand Jesus to have meant by this | 48:07 | |
that those who are selfishly determined to squeeze | 48:10 | |
every drop of pleasure they can | 48:14 | |
from the uninhibited expression of the id | 48:16 | |
will find this pleasure elusive and unsatisfying. | 48:19 | |
They will progressively demand more and more from the id | 48:25 | |
in order to find a thrill, | 48:28 | |
Eventually it all becomes empty. | 48:31 | |
And as, Tillich writes in "The Courage To Be", quote, | 48:33 | |
the acceptance of the pleasure principle necessarily leads | 48:37 | |
to disgust and despair about all of life. | 48:41 | |
The mature Christian then is one who makes no effort | 48:48 | |
to repress the id, but who is wise enough to see that | 48:52 | |
the id needs a master, | 48:57 | |
who chooses Jesus Christ as that master, | 49:00 | |
who seeks first the kingdom of God and his righteousness | 49:04 | |
in the assurance that this will give eternal significance | 49:08 | |
to his life which he now lives in the flesh. | 49:12 | |
The maturing Christian will know that the goal | 49:17 | |
of full maturity is not too easily achieved, | 49:20 | |
whether at the age 18 or 28 or 38, | 49:24 | |
but he will continue seeking it until, | 49:29 | |
as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, | 49:33 | |
we all attain to the unity of the faith | 49:36 | |
and of the knowledge of the son of God | 49:39 | |
to mature manhood so that we may no longer | 49:42 | |
be children tossed to and fro and carried about | 49:46 | |
with every wind of doctrine. | 49:50 | |
Rather speaking the truth in love, | 49:52 | |
we are to grow up in every way into him | 49:55 | |
who is the head into Christ. | 49:58 | |
And so as parents and their teenagers seek | 50:03 | |
to avoid head on collisions as they grow toward each other, | 50:07 | |
both may seek to avert tragedy by a clear understanding | 50:14 | |
of what maturity essentially is, | 50:19 | |
and by truly seeking to achieve it. | 50:23 | |
Let us pray: Oh God, our divine creator, | 50:26 | |
our heavenly Father, we pray that we may be childlike | 50:31 | |
in our faith, but not childish in our attitude. | 50:36 | |
Give us mature grace that we may be enabled | 50:41 | |
to choose wisely, to live nobly and creatively | 50:45 | |
through Jesus Christ our master. | 50:50 | |
Amen. | 50:53 | |
(organ music) | 50:57 | |
(faint orchestral singing) | 51:35 | |
(gentle music) | 54:37 | |
(gentle orchestral singing) | 55:08 | |
(lively organ music) | 1:01:27 | |
(faint orchestral singing) | 1:01:48 | |
We offer and dedicate these offerings, | 1:02:46 | |
not as a substitute for, | 1:02:49 | |
but as a symbol of a gift of our lives into thy service. | 1:02:52 | |
Amen. | 1:02:58 | |
Amen, Lord, bless us and keep us. | 1:03:04 | |
Lord, make space to shine upon us and be gracious upon us. | 1:03:07 | |
(speaking faintly) and give us peace. | 1:03:11 | |
(faint orchestral singing) | 1:03:18 | |
(bell chiming) | 1:04:22 |