P. Wesley Aitken - "The Freedom to Fail" (March 28, 1971)
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| - | He may be found and call ye upon him while he is near. | 0:04 |
| To all who are weary and seek rest; | 0:09 | |
| to all who struggle and desire victory; | 0:12 | |
| to all who sin and seek forgiveness; | 0:15 | |
| to all who are idle and look for service, | 0:19 | |
| this hour is open with opportunity and with promise. | 0:23 | |
| Come then let us worship our Lord, | 0:28 | |
| for he is our maker and we are his people | 0:31 | |
| and the sheep of his pasture. | 0:35 | |
| Serve the Lord with gladness | 0:37 | |
| and come before his presence with singing. | 0:40 | |
| (uplifting music) | 0:45 | |
| (uplifting music continues) | 1:00 | |
| (uplifting music continues) | 1:59 | |
| (uplifting music continues) | 3:00 | |
| (uplifting music continues) | 3:55 | |
| (uplifting music continues) | 5:00 | |
| We are coming together in the presence of all mighty God | 5:29 | |
| and the whole company of heaven | 5:31 | |
| to make confessions of our sin, | 5:34 | |
| which is a part of the true worship of God. | 5:37 | |
| Let us remember the ancient promise of God | 5:40 | |
| to his people, Israel, | 5:43 | |
| who also turned aside after other gods. | 5:45 | |
| "If my people which are called by my name | 5:49 | |
| shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face | 5:52 | |
| and turn from their wicked ways, | 5:57 | |
| then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin | 5:59 | |
| and will heal their land." | 6:04 | |
| May we begin now to meet the conditions | 6:07 | |
| that will enable God to fulfill his promises, to hear, | 6:09 | |
| to forgive and to heal. | 6:14 | |
| As we offer unto him our prayers of confession | 6:17 | |
| and for repentance, let us pray together. | 6:20 | |
| Holy Father, we humbly confess that in kneeling, | 6:25 | |
| our hearts often are not humble. | 6:30 | |
| And that in praying, | 6:33 | |
| we often have felt no burden greater than our own strength. | 6:34 | |
| We confess that in naming Christ, | 6:39 | |
| our spirits have often saw the comfort of soul. | 6:42 | |
| We pray the to burn our hypocrisy | 6:46 | |
| with the fire of thy judgment, | 6:48 | |
| lest we be destroyed by our own conceit. | 6:51 | |
| We pray thee to forgive us through the sacrificial love. | 6:55 | |
| We ask this in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, amen. | 7:00 | |
| Let us hear and receive in faith these assuring words | 7:07 | |
| from the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah. | 7:12 | |
| "'Come now let us reason together' says the Lord, | 7:16 | |
| 'though your sins are like scarlet, | 7:19 | |
| they shall be as white as snow. | 7:22 | |
| Though they are red like crimson, | 7:25 | |
| they shall become like wool.' | 7:28 | |
| Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: | 7:31 | |
| 'I, I am he who blocks out your transgressions | 7:36 | |
| for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.' | 7:41 | |
| And these words from the gospel and the lips | 7:46 | |
| of Jesus, the Christ." | 7:50 | |
| Your sins are forgiven, go, | 7:52 | |
| forgive those who sin against you and sin no more, amen. | 7:56 | |
| (uplifting music) | 8:09 | |
| (uplifting music music) | 9:00 | |
| (singing) | 9:18 | |
| (singing continues) | 10:18 | |
| The lesson for this day is taken | 11:47 | |
| from the gospel according to St. Luke chapter 15, | 11:49 | |
| commencing at verse 11, continuing through verse 32, | 11:53 | |
| let us hear the word of the Lord. | 11:58 | |
| "And he said there was a man who had two sons. | 12:02 | |
| And the younger of them said to the father, | 12:07 | |
| 'Father give me the share of the property | 12:10 | |
| 'that falls to me.' | 12:13 | |
| And he divided his living between them. | 12:15 | |
| Not many days later, | 12:18 | |
| the younger son gathered all that he had, | 12:20 | |
| and he took his journey into a far country | 12:23 | |
| and there he squandered his property in loose living. | 12:27 | |
| And when he had spent everything, | 12:30 | |
| a great famine arose in that country | 12:33 | |
| and he began to be in want. | 12:35 | |
| So he went and joined himself | 12:38 | |
| to one of the citizens of that country | 12:40 | |
| who sent him into his fields to feed swine. | 12:42 | |
| And he would gladly have fed on the pods | 12:47 | |
| that the swine ate and no one gave him anything. | 12:49 | |
| But when he came to himself, he said, | 12:54 | |
| 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough | 12:58 | |
| 'and to spare, but I perish here with hunger? | 13:01 | |
| 'I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, | 13:06 | |
| 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, | 13:10 | |
| 'I am no longer worthy to be called your son, | 13:15 | |
| 'treat me as one of your hired servants.' | 13:19 | |
| And he arose and came to his father. | 13:22 | |
| But while he was yet at a distance, | 13:25 | |
| his father saw him and had compassion | 13:28 | |
| and ran and embraced him and kissed him. | 13:31 | |
| And the son said to the father, | 13:34 | |
| 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, | 13:36 | |
| 'I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' | 13:40 | |
| But the father said to his servants, | 13:44 | |
| 'Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him | 13:46 | |
| 'and bring a ring, put it on his hand and shoes on his feet | 13:49 | |
| 'and bring the fatted calf and kill it | 13:53 | |
| 'and let us eat and make Merry for this my son was dead | 13:56 | |
| 'and is alive again. | 14:01 | |
| ' He was lost and is found.' | 14:03 | |
| And they began to make merry. | 14:06 | |
| Now his elder son was in the field | 14:09 | |
| and as he came and drew near to the house, | 14:11 | |
| he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants | 14:13 | |
| and asked what this meant. | 14:17 | |
| And he said to him, | 14:20 | |
| 'Your brother has come | 14:21 | |
| 'and your father has killed the fatted calf | 14:23 | |
| 'because he has received him safe and sound.' | 14:25 | |
| But he was angry and he refused to go in. | 14:29 | |
| His father came out and then treated him. | 14:33 | |
| But he answered his father, | 14:35 | |
| 'Lo, these many years I have served you. | 14:37 | |
| 'I have never disobeyed your command | 14:41 | |
| 'yet you never gave me a kid | 14:42 | |
| 'that I might make Merry with my friends. | 14:45 | |
| 'But when this son of yours came, | 14:49 | |
| 'who has devoured your living with harlots, | 14:52 | |
| 'you kill for him the fatted calf.' | 14:54 | |
| And he said to him, 'Son, you were always with me | 14:58 | |
| 'and all that is mine is yours. | 15:02 | |
| 'It was fitting to make Merry and be glad | 15:06 | |
| 'for this your brother was dead and is alive, | 15:09 | |
| 'he was lost and is found.'" | 15:13 | |
| Here ends reading of the lesson. | 15:17 | |
| (uplifting music) | 15:21 | |
| The Lord be with you? | 16:03 | |
| Let us pray. | 16:06 | |
| Let us offer unto God our prayers of Thanksgiving, | 16:16 | |
| intercession and supplication. | 16:19 | |
| Almighty God and father of us all, | 16:24 | |
| though has made of one blood all the nations of mankind | 16:28 | |
| and has placed us upon this earth for home. | 16:33 | |
| We praise thee, oh God. | 16:39 | |
| And we acknowledged the to be the Lord. | 16:41 | |
| Thine is the providence by which age, after age, | 16:45 | |
| the families of men have been fed. | 16:50 | |
| Thine is the justice, | 16:53 | |
| which amidst the turmoil of history has given it a course | 16:55 | |
| and the direction. | 16:59 | |
| Thine is the mercy by which man has reached out to men | 17:02 | |
| with healing that binds up the broken heart, | 17:05 | |
| the torn body and the disturbed mind. | 17:10 | |
| Thine Oh Lord, thine is a love that brings light | 17:15 | |
| to every day of our lives | 17:19 | |
| and close friendships and associations | 17:21 | |
| where openness and trust enable us to speak comfortably | 17:25 | |
| to each other. | 17:29 | |
| And especially in our homes and in our families | 17:31 | |
| where love protects and sustains us against all our foes. | 17:35 | |
| As with each other, we share the love, | 17:40 | |
| which thou alone destined part to thy children. | 17:43 | |
| God, our father bless thy name for every gift of life, | 17:48 | |
| from humble things to holy grace, for earth itself, | 17:52 | |
| the bodies we wear, the universe in which we live, | 17:58 | |
| where all that sustains and supports us, | 18:02 | |
| we raise our prayers of Thanksgiving. | 18:06 | |
| For the spirit, by which all material things are in life | 18:09 | |
| and then fulfill; | 18:12 | |
| for the beauty of holiness and for the hope of wholeness; | 18:14 | |
| for the heart and mind man; | 18:19 | |
| for the miracles and mysteries of each day; | 18:22 | |
| for the companionship of love | 18:25 | |
| and all the weathers of the world, | 18:27 | |
| we give the thanks our God. | 18:30 | |
| Increase in us we ask the spirit of our Lord | 18:32 | |
| that we may share our joy and extend thy praise | 18:37 | |
| in all that we do. | 18:41 | |
| Oh God of love, who are both enabling spirit | 18:47 | |
| and faithful father send rescuers we ask | 18:53 | |
| into the rubble of our lives, our societies and our world, | 18:58 | |
| call forth those from among us, | 19:04 | |
| who are able to save, able to protect, | 19:06 | |
| able to give hope and able to free. | 19:11 | |
| Lord got heightened we asked the hope of the fearful | 19:15 | |
| who were lost and who were hurt, | 19:20 | |
| increased the hope of the fearful who wait for the lost | 19:23 | |
| and who wait for the hurt. | 19:26 | |
| Lengthened the hope of the fearful, who hunt, who help, | 19:29 | |
| who rescue and who free. | 19:34 | |
| Lengthened the days and the hours | 19:37 | |
| of finding and freeing we ask, oh, God. | 19:40 | |
| Shorten the hours and the minutes of waiting. | 19:43 | |
| Lord God, save the loss, free the oppressed rescue the hurt, | 19:48 | |
| receive the dying, comfort the grieving, hear the thankful, | 19:57 | |
| we asked them the name of Jesus, our Lord. | 20:04 | |
| Our father who art Creator and Redeemer, | 20:10 | |
| we have labored each of us in our own place, | 20:14 | |
| seeking to share in the work of thy world. | 20:17 | |
| We have known the anguish of incompetence. | 20:21 | |
| We have tasted the bitterness of failure. | 20:24 | |
| We have dream dreams and seen visions, | 20:28 | |
| lured by something beyond our failure | 20:32 | |
| and something beyond our small successes, | 20:35 | |
| we struggle onward that we may be accounted worthy | 20:38 | |
| of thy kingdom. | 20:42 | |
| Grant us gracious Lord, patience to endure our failures | 20:44 | |
| and humility to outgrow our achievements | 20:50 | |
| that we may increasingly serve thee and our fellow men. | 20:53 | |
| Almighty God, this day began for some of us joyfully, | 21:00 | |
| for others grimly. | 21:04 | |
| Some will spend the hours without anxiety | 21:07 | |
| and others will be caught in the web of living pain. | 21:11 | |
| Some will exalt in its gift of joy | 21:15 | |
| and others will carry a burden of heart too heavy | 21:20 | |
| to see very far beyond the moment. | 21:23 | |
| Some of us have known thy forgiveness and by strength | 21:26 | |
| and some of us still seek it. | 21:30 | |
| We are not alike, but all of us need thee. | 21:33 | |
| Minister in these moments, | 21:39 | |
| we ask to our particular and individual needs | 21:41 | |
| and grant us thy blessing in mercy and in wisdom. | 21:46 | |
| If Jesus Christ our Lord who taught us, | 21:51 | |
| we might be bold to pray together saying, | 21:55 | |
| Our Father who art in heaven, | 21:58 | |
| hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, | 22:02 | |
| thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 22:06 | |
| Give us this day, our daily bread | 22:11 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses | 22:14 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us | 22:16 | |
| and lead us, not into temptation, | 22:20 | |
| but deliver us from evil. | 22:23 | |
| For thine is the kingdom and the power | 22:25 | |
| and the glory forever. Amen. | 22:29 | |
| If there is any one quality of healthy, righteous living, | 22:49 | |
| which I feel is a greater importance than others, | 22:53 | |
| it is the freedom to make decisions, | 22:57 | |
| the freedom to decide just for oneself, | 23:01 | |
| not necessarily anyone else, just deciding for oneself. | 23:05 | |
| This freedom to make decisions, | 23:12 | |
| it should automatically include the freedom to succeed | 23:14 | |
| as well as the freedom to fail. | 23:18 | |
| However, people of today, | 23:21 | |
| especially in our culture are having difficulty | 23:23 | |
| finding any freedom to make a decision, | 23:27 | |
| let alone succeed or fail on the basis of the decision made. | 23:30 | |
| Some of our youth tell us that we as a society are so locked | 23:36 | |
| into a particular system, | 23:40 | |
| a particular way of thinking about life | 23:43 | |
| and a particular style of living | 23:46 | |
| that it is virtually impossible to decide to be different | 23:50 | |
| on the basis of one's own inner yearnings and convictions. | 23:54 | |
| Traditionally, many have thought | 23:59 | |
| that once a young person left home | 24:02 | |
| and went into the world on his own, | 24:05 | |
| he was then free to make his own decision | 24:07 | |
| and experience the success or a failure | 24:11 | |
| that might result from them. | 24:14 | |
| This is seldom the truth. | 24:18 | |
| By the time young people leave home | 24:21 | |
| and attempt to assume adult responsibilities, | 24:23 | |
| they are so programmed to live a certain way | 24:26 | |
| that there are only glimpses of freedom | 24:30 | |
| in their decision-making. | 24:32 | |
| You might challenge me | 24:36 | |
| and asked how I explain all of the radical departure | 24:37 | |
| from the traditional style of living in this country | 24:40 | |
| that are being practiced today. | 24:46 | |
| My answer would be that the few radical departure | 24:51 | |
| thus far have been symptomatic ripples | 24:55 | |
| of discontent with the kinds of mental programming | 24:58 | |
| which compels us to feel uncomfortable and the ability, | 25:02 | |
| unless we live a certain way and embrace certain values | 25:07 | |
| and attitudes about living. | 25:12 | |
| Let me state quickly that I have no desire | 25:16 | |
| to lift up one mode of living and consider its merits | 25:19 | |
| over against the merits of another mode of living. | 25:23 | |
| My concern this morning is to identify the problem | 25:28 | |
| rather than evaluate the symptoms | 25:31 | |
| or manifestations of the problem. | 25:34 | |
| For example, let us take a look at religion. | 25:38 | |
| Many times when a person is asked, | 25:43 | |
| why he is a Methodist or Baptist or a Presbyterian, | 25:45 | |
| he thinks that he is one or the other | 25:49 | |
| because he was born into such a family | 25:51 | |
| and was brought up that way. | 25:54 | |
| He may give some other reasons, | 25:58 | |
| but the obvious and dominant answer is that | 26:01 | |
| he is a Methodist because he never really had the freedom | 26:03 | |
| to choose to be anything else. | 26:06 | |
| Some may say, what about membership vows | 26:11 | |
| and the opportunity for a person to join | 26:13 | |
| or not to join the church? | 26:15 | |
| The pressures I referred to earlier are felt so strongly | 26:20 | |
| by a child at that age, | 26:24 | |
| that he would probably feel that he had only two options: | 26:27 | |
| to join the church or be ostracized. | 26:30 | |
| Let me state it another way. | 26:35 | |
| A nine-year old child might be free to join a church, | 26:38 | |
| but I wonder whether he could decide what to join | 26:42 | |
| and perhaps not even to attend? | 26:46 | |
| Would his family or his friends permit that? | 26:49 | |
| I suspect his decision would be praised if he chose to join, | 26:55 | |
| but rejected as immature and irresponsible | 27:01 | |
| if he chose to stop attending. | 27:07 | |
| Let me turn to our educational system for another example, | 27:13 | |
| A10-year old child in the fourth grade | 27:18 | |
| has a math test the next day in school, | 27:20 | |
| his parents know this, that night the child announces | 27:23 | |
| that he has decided that for whatever reasons, | 27:27 | |
| he does not want to study for the test. | 27:30 | |
| How many parents would be able to say, | 27:35 | |
| we'll talk it over with you if you wish, | 27:39 | |
| but it is your decision. | 27:42 | |
| Will not most parents decide | 27:46 | |
| that a 10-year old is not old enough | 27:48 | |
| to make that kind of decision | 27:50 | |
| and that they would be forced to make it for him | 27:51 | |
| and require him to prepare for the exam? | 27:54 | |
| The pressure would be on and the disapproval of the child | 27:59 | |
| for making such a decision will undoubtedly be felt by you. | 28:03 | |
| For too many of the goal of education is achievement. | 28:08 | |
| Success in education is achievement. | 28:12 | |
| Failure in education is to not achieve. | 28:16 | |
| To illustrate further, | 28:18 | |
| let us suppose that the parents did grant their child, | 28:23 | |
| Joe, we'll call him, the freedom to act | 28:26 | |
| on his decision not to prepare for the exam. | 28:29 | |
| Once he went to school the next day, | 28:34 | |
| I wonder how much appreciation there would be | 28:36 | |
| for his risking of himself in a decision-making process, | 28:38 | |
| from which he could learn much. | 28:44 | |
| I fear that that vital life issue would get lost | 28:48 | |
| in the activity of taking the exam, | 28:52 | |
| completing it properly or improperly | 28:54 | |
| and experiencing the disapproval of his peers | 28:57 | |
| as well as his teacher, if he completed it improperly. | 29:01 | |
| And the examples I have given, | 29:08 | |
| no respectful consideration was given to the child's right | 29:11 | |
| to engage in adult type decision-making | 29:16 | |
| at a fairly early age. | 29:20 | |
| When I say adult type, | 29:23 | |
| I mean making a decision on the basis | 29:26 | |
| of one's inner yearnings, thoughts and feelings, | 29:29 | |
| and being willing to live with the consequences | 29:33 | |
| of that decision. | 29:36 | |
| This type decision making is | 29:41 | |
| too frequently reserved for adulthood. | 29:43 | |
| At least parents believe that they can withhold | 29:48 | |
| this type decision making freedom from their children | 29:51 | |
| until they are adult or near adult, such is not possible. | 29:55 | |
| A child by nature will begin risking | 30:02 | |
| fairly autonomous decisions at an early age | 30:07 | |
| and no one can actually prevent him from doing this. | 30:11 | |
| In fact, that person can not become a vital healthy adult, | 30:14 | |
| unless he does have repeated opportunities | 30:20 | |
| to engage in this process throughout his childhood | 30:23 | |
| in preparation for adulthood. | 30:28 | |
| Adults can not prevent children | 30:32 | |
| from making autonomous decisions. | 30:34 | |
| They can prevent a child from acting on the basis | 30:37 | |
| of the decision he makes and deprive him of deciding | 30:40 | |
| whether his action was a success or a failure | 30:43 | |
| or a combination of both. | 30:46 | |
| Why do adults resist and delay granting children the right | 30:50 | |
| to act on their decisions? | 30:57 | |
| It's the risk of a failure | 31:00 | |
| that accompanies any such decision | 31:02 | |
| and parents don't want to fail. | 31:05 | |
| Success is good and failure is bad. | 31:09 | |
| Failure is especially bad | 31:14 | |
| if the child's failure suggests in some way | 31:16 | |
| that the parents might have made a mistake | 31:18 | |
| with their children. | 31:20 | |
| Thus, if children are deprived of the freedom to fail, | 31:24 | |
| they are forced to rely on second hand information | 31:28 | |
| from adults to fill out their understanding | 31:33 | |
| of the experience of failing. | 31:36 | |
| Actually, failure never will become an experience | 31:40 | |
| for them except as one to dread and avoid at any cost. | 31:43 | |
| If a child is granted the freedom to fail, | 31:51 | |
| he will dare to act upon his decisions at an early age | 31:54 | |
| when he is vibrant and carefree | 31:59 | |
| and can give more realistic content | 32:02 | |
| to the experience. | 32:05 | |
| He can define for himself what it means to fail | 32:07 | |
| while he is in conversation with those people | 32:12 | |
| who are important to him. | 32:15 | |
| Failure need not be overloaded with feelings of pain, | 32:19 | |
| fear and destruction. | 32:24 | |
| A classic example of the freedom | 32:28 | |
| to fail is our scripture for today, | 32:31 | |
| The story of the prodigal son. | 32:35 | |
| What I have said thus far does not need to be validated | 32:39 | |
| by referring to the scriptures, | 32:41 | |
| but this particular parable serves vividly to illustrate. | 32:43 | |
| When the prodigal son asked his father for his inheritance, | 32:51 | |
| the father did not even voice an opinion other than | 32:56 | |
| by his actions. | 32:59 | |
| The father behaved as if the younger son | 33:01 | |
| had the inherent right to make this decision. | 33:05 | |
| And the father gathered his money and turned it over to him. | 33:10 | |
| The son then felt the freedom to leave and risk failure, | 33:16 | |
| and fail he did. | 33:21 | |
| And I'm not referring to failure as judged | 33:23 | |
| by those who observed the son. | 33:26 | |
| I am referring to the fact that he concluded on his own, | 33:30 | |
| that he had failed himself. | 33:35 | |
| When he returned home, | 33:41 | |
| his father still behaved as if the judgment | 33:42 | |
| of his son's action was his son's responsibility. | 33:45 | |
| He loved his son and obviously respected him very much | 33:52 | |
| and welcomed him back with open arms. | 33:55 | |
| I wonder how many fathers could behave | 33:59 | |
| in the same manner toward a son | 34:01 | |
| who today announces his decision | 34:03 | |
| to act in some unilateral way | 34:06 | |
| that would be completely independent of the father | 34:09 | |
| or the other members of the family. | 34:14 | |
| You can add your own contemporary words | 34:19 | |
| to the prodigal son parable. | 34:24 | |
| You might try it. | 34:27 | |
| I also wonder how many sons after failing miserably | 34:31 | |
| would feel the security of relationship with their father, | 34:36 | |
| that they could come home and not fear rejection. | 34:40 | |
| We are producing intellectually sharp young people | 34:47 | |
| who insist on decision making freedom | 34:53 | |
| that at an earlier age, alright, | 34:56 | |
| insist on decision making freedom at a much earlier age | 35:00 | |
| than ever before. | 35:04 | |
| The decisions they are insisting | 35:07 | |
| on making involve major life issues. | 35:09 | |
| I need not give many examples of this. | 35:15 | |
| Perhaps the most prevalent decision making responsibility | 35:18 | |
| that has been granted to people at a younger age | 35:23 | |
| than ever before, is the change in the voting age, | 35:27 | |
| Major decisions that were reserved for people | 35:34 | |
| of not too many years ago in their 20s now are being claimed | 35:38 | |
| by young people in their teens. | 35:44 | |
| I don't think we have helped them prepare well | 35:47 | |
| for this change and the accompanying responsibilities. | 35:50 | |
| I return to little Joe, the fourth grader | 35:56 | |
| who has decided not to study for his math test the next day. | 35:58 | |
| If he is courageous, he made there to cry out. | 36:04 | |
| What's wrong with flunking a math test? | 36:08 | |
| To tell him that someday he will understand, | 36:14 | |
| or that it is wrong because adults say it's wrong | 36:18 | |
| or that it is wrong because school teachers say | 36:21 | |
| that it is wrong, it's not a fair response. | 36:24 | |
| One answer that has been given is that there is not time | 36:28 | |
| in educating the masses to afford one student the privilege | 36:32 | |
| to explore such an issue by actually living through it | 36:37 | |
| and drawing his own conclusions about it | 36:43 | |
| while in conversation with people that are important to him. | 36:47 | |
| Opportunity to discuss failure | 36:52 | |
| and figure it out without being ridiculed is part | 36:55 | |
| of the healthy process of living. | 37:00 | |
| And to me, that is what education is all about. | 37:03 | |
| The freedom to fail in the strictest sense is an experience | 37:09 | |
| of the spirit, the emotional dimension of the person, | 37:12 | |
| not the intellectual or rational dimension of the person. | 37:17 | |
| To try to protect the child from this risk | 37:24 | |
| or deprive him of it is a stifling kind of experience | 37:26 | |
| for the child. | 37:30 | |
| Risking himself in a decision making process | 37:32 | |
| and assertion and discovering the consequences | 37:40 | |
| and how to live with them is a growth producing | 37:45 | |
| and healthy experience. | 37:50 | |
| Now make note, a gap is created between parents and a child | 37:54 | |
| when the child on several occasions asserts his freedom | 38:01 | |
| to make a decision and live with the consequences | 38:05 | |
| and the parents overrule him because they do not agree. | 38:09 | |
| If this situation is repeated many times the gap will widen | 38:14 | |
| because the child will begin to build a private life | 38:19 | |
| of his own, that he will not share with his parents. | 38:23 | |
| It is in that private life that he will risk his self | 38:28 | |
| in decision-making, which is a compelling natural process. | 38:33 | |
| This poses many problems. | 38:40 | |
| But the only one I want to point | 38:43 | |
| to this morning is the growing distance then | 38:45 | |
| between the child and his parents | 38:49 | |
| and the accompanying reduction | 38:52 | |
| of understanding and communication. | 38:55 | |
| If a child ever relinquishes his rather compelling, | 39:00 | |
| healthy need to risk himself in decision-making | 39:04 | |
| and yields completely to adults, he is in serious trouble | 39:07 | |
| and almost predictably will become ill. | 39:13 | |
| There are some exciting things | 39:19 | |
| that are happening in elementary education, | 39:20 | |
| which deal directly with the concern | 39:22 | |
| I have expressed this morning. | 39:24 | |
| I know of some of these innovations in our own city, county | 39:27 | |
| and private schools. | 39:32 | |
| These attempts, however, represent a drop in a bucket | 39:34 | |
| compared to the size of the problem. | 39:38 | |
| It is still an embarrassing fact | 39:40 | |
| that the weight of all educational funding, | 39:42 | |
| is that the adult end of the years | 39:45 | |
| as a person is in the process of education, | 39:48 | |
| not the childhood end of the educational process. | 39:51 | |
| The emphasis is still upon producing keen intellect | 39:56 | |
| who are thoroughly programmed to produce and achieve. | 40:00 | |
| If these adult products happen to be emotionally | 40:06 | |
| and spiritually mature, | 40:10 | |
| it is far more a result of chance than planning. | 40:12 | |
| I suspect there is more money invested | 40:18 | |
| in determining the numerical odds involved | 40:20 | |
| in decision-making | 40:22 | |
| than in providing an educational opportunity | 40:23 | |
| for small children, | 40:26 | |
| that would help them discover what it means | 40:28 | |
| to live through a decision-making process and understand. | 40:31 | |
| Of course, what I am claiming is | 40:38 | |
| that the healthy development and growth | 40:41 | |
| of the spirit of the small child is as much a responsibility | 40:43 | |
| of the adults who attempt to educate him | 40:49 | |
| as is the developing of a keen intellect. | 40:53 | |
| We have achieved great successes intellectually, | 40:58 | |
| but we suffer from a cycle of poverty | 41:02 | |
| with the emotional, spiritual development. | 41:05 | |
| Intellectually we have virtually gained the world | 41:10 | |
| and are reaching for the moon. | 41:14 | |
| And in the process perhaps, we are losing our own soul. | 41:18 | |
| And this spirit doesn't seem to have progressed | 41:23 | |
| in his capacity to live with one another, | 41:26 | |
| any further than he did centuries ago. | 41:31 | |
| If we merely take the position | 41:41 | |
| that the parents don't do a very good job | 41:43 | |
| of raising their children, I think that's a cop out, | 41:44 | |
| or that adult problems are merely evidence of sin | 41:49 | |
| and its manifestations. | 41:52 | |
| That's a cop out. | 41:55 | |
| There are many adults involved in helping little children | 41:58 | |
| from childhood into a productive and fulfilling adulthood. | 42:01 | |
| We have a great taskforce that haunts the intellect, | 42:05 | |
| but we allow the emotional-spiritual development | 42:09 | |
| to occur by happenstance. | 42:11 | |
| The result is that we have by necessity, | 42:14 | |
| another enormous task force, | 42:17 | |
| completely invested in helping the adult products | 42:20 | |
| with their emotional, spiritual problems | 42:24 | |
| in their middle years. | 42:27 | |
| There are several things that we could be doing now. | 42:31 | |
| We know what to do in many instances, | 42:35 | |
| but we're afraid to launch out into these new ventures | 42:39 | |
| because of our same old fear of failure | 42:42 | |
| as one part of the problem. | 42:46 | |
| I mentioned only two possible things that we could be doing. | 42:49 | |
| Many churches are involved in providing daycare | 42:53 | |
| and kindergarten opportunities for children. | 42:56 | |
| This could be expanded greatly | 43:00 | |
| and enriched with professional leadership | 43:02 | |
| to provide preschool children with a significant opportunity | 43:04 | |
| to develop and grow emotionally and spiritually | 43:08 | |
| before they ever begin their formal intellectual pursuits. | 43:14 | |
| Second, the church should provide discussion group | 43:19 | |
| opportunity on child rearing and child development | 43:22 | |
| for every young couple anticipating | 43:27 | |
| or involved in parenthood. | 43:29 | |
| Or if the church doesn't do it, | 43:32 | |
| it should be thoroughly invested | 43:34 | |
| in helping other community agencies to do it. | 43:36 | |
| And I'm not talking about friendly chitchat groups. | 43:41 | |
| Providing this kind of group opportunity would require money | 43:45 | |
| for professional leadership and guidance. | 43:49 | |
| Is this the business of the church? | 43:54 | |
| I think so. | 43:58 | |
| The Christian Church has become expert | 44:01 | |
| in teaching people of today, | 44:03 | |
| how people lived, loved, succeeded | 44:05 | |
| and failed 2000 years ago. | 44:08 | |
| That's a very safe subject. | 44:13 | |
| The church needs to invest itself in helping people discover | 44:16 | |
| what is required to live, love, succeed and fail now, | 44:20 | |
| not 2000 years ago, now. | 44:28 | |
| Yesterday, today and tomorrow, amen. | 44:32 | |
| (uplifting music) | 44:44 | |
| (uplifting music continues) | 45:26 | |
| (uplifting music continues) | 46:12 | |
| (uplifting music continues) | 46:59 | |
| (soft music) | 48:02 | |
| (soft music continues) | 48:59 | |
| (singing) | 49:33 | |
| (singing continues) | 50:30 | |
| (singing continues) | 51:05 | |
| (singing continues) | 52:12 | |
| (uplifting music) | 53:08 | |
| (uplifting music) | 53:30 | |
| Almighty and redeeming God, accept and use these our gifts | 54:28 | |
| for the ministries of thy church in the world, | 54:35 | |
| receive our resources, the offering of our whole being | 54:39 | |
| that we give to the one who gave his life to us. | 54:42 | |
| To the many who need the human touch of his life | 54:47 | |
| once again, made in Christ, | 54:51 | |
| through Christ our Lord. | 54:55 | |
| In fact now to continue God's works in the world, | 55:02 | |
| may the blessing of God, the Father, the Son, | 55:06 | |
| and the Holy Spirit be and abide with forever, amen. | 55:10 | |
| (bell ringing) | 55:19 | |
| (uplifting music) | 55:35 | |
| (uplifting music continues) | 56:42 | |
| (uplifting music continues) | 57:15 | |
| (uplifting music continues) | 57:59 |
