Howard C. Wilkinson - "Sanity and Christianity" (June 8, 1986)

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	(organ music)	0:03
-	Welcome to New Chapel.	12:36
	Our guest preacher is the Reverend Dr. Howard Wilkinson.	12:38
	Dr. Wilkinson is a former chaplain here at Duke University,	12:44
	and former president of Greensboro College.	12:48
	He currently serves on the chapel development committee,	12:51
	and we are delighted to have him	12:54
	back in the pulpit of Duke Chapel today.	12:56
	A number of Dr. Wilkinson's friends this year	12:59
	have instituted a fund for the Howard Wilkinson	13:02
	guest preacher, which will be established here in the chapel	13:07
	to invite distinguished preachers to our pulpit.	13:11
	Today at 5:00, our organist Doctor Monica Umstaedt Rossman,	13:15
	will present a concert that the public is cordially invited.	13:21
	Let us continue our worship.	13:27
	(choir singing)	13:42
	(organ music)	14:41
	(choir singing in unison with organ music)	15:10
-	As a forgiven and reconciled people,	18:22
	we gather to glorify God and to sing praises	18:25
	unto His name in recognition of all His mighty acts.	18:28
	Let us confess our sins so that we may acknowledge	18:33
	God's mercy towards us, and be at one with our creator.	18:37
	Have mercy upon us oh God,	18:55
	according to thy loving kindness,	18:58
	according to the multitude of thy tender mercies,	19:00
	blot out our transgressions.	19:04
	Wash us thoroughly from our iniquities,	19:07
	and cleanse us from our sins,	19:09
	for we acknowledge our transgressions,	19:12
	and our sin is ever before us.	19:15
	Create in us clean hearts, oh God,	19:18
	and renew a right Spirit within us	19:21
	through Jesus Christ Our Lord, amen.	19:24
	Hear the good news.	19:29
	Christ died for us while we were yet sinners.	19:31
	That is God's own proof of His love towards us.	19:35
-	In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.	19:40
-	Let us pray.	19:57
	Open our hearts and Minds, oh God,	20:01
	by the power of your Holy Spirit	20:04
	so that as the Word is read and proclaimed,	20:07
	we might hear with joy	20:10
	what you say to this day, amen.	20:12
	The first lesson is taken from the first book of Kings.	20:21
	"After this, the son of the woman,	20:27
	"the Mistress of the house, became ill,	20:29
	"and his illness was so severe	20:32
	"that there was no breath left in him.	20:35
	"And she said to Elijah, 'What have you against me,	20:38
	"'oh man of God?	20:42
	"'You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance	20:43
	"'and to cause the death of my son.'	20:47
	"And he said to her, 'Give me your son.'	20:50
	"And he took him from her bosom and carried him	20:55
	"into the upper chamber where he lodged and laid him	20:57
	"upon his own bed, and he cried to the Lord,	21:01
	"'Oh Lord my God, hast thou brought calamity even upon	21:05
	"the widow with whom I sojourn by slaying her son?'	21:09
	"Then he stretched himself upon the child three times	21:14
	"and cried to the Lord, 'Oh Lord my God,	21:17
	"let this child's soul come unto him again.'	21:20
	"And the Lord harkened to the voice of Elijah,	21:25
	"and the soul of the child came unto him again	21:29
	"and he revived, and Elijah took the child	21:33
	"and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house	21:37
	"and delivered him to his mother.	21:40
	"And Elijah said, 'See, your son lives.'	21:43
	"And the woman said to Elijah, 'Now I know	21:48
	"that you are a man of God, and that the word	21:51
	"of the Lord in your mouth is truth.'"	21:55
	This ends the reading of the first listen.	22:00
	(organ music)	22:12
	♪ Oh, sing unto the Lord ♪	22:19
	♪ Sing unto the Lord ♪	22:22
	♪ Sing unto the Lord a new song ♪	22:25
	♪ Sing, sing unto the Lord a new song ♪	22:29
	(choir singing hallelujahs)	22:35
	♪ Sing unto the Lord ♪	22:59
	♪ Oh, oh oh oh oh ♪	23:02
	♪ Sing unto the Lord, oh ♪	23:09
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	23:15
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	23:18
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	23:21
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	23:24
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	23:27
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	23:30
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	23:34
	(organ music)	23:41
	(choir singing in unison with organ music)	23:59
-	The second lesson is taken from Galatians.	25:03
	"For I would have you know, brethren,	25:08
	"that the Gospel, which was preached by me,	25:11
	"is not man's gospel, for I did not receive it from man,	25:14
	"nor was I taught it, but it came	25:20
	"through a revelation of Jesus Christ.	25:23
	"For you have heard of my former life in Judaism,	25:27
	"how I persecuted the church of God violently	25:31
	"and tried to destroy it.	25:34
	"And, I advanced in Judaism beyond many of	25:36
	"my own age among my people.	25:39
	"So extremely zealous was I	25:42
	"for the traditions of my fathers.	25:44
	"But when He, who had set me apart before I was born,	25:48
	"and has called me through His grace,	25:52
	"was pleased to reveal His son to me	25:55
	"in order that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.	25:59
	"I did not confer with flesh and blood,	26:03
	"nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those	26:06
	"who were apostles before me, but I went away	26:09
	"into Arabia, and again, I returned to Damascus.	26:13
	"Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem	26:19
	"to visit Cephas, and remained with him 15 days.	26:23
	"But I saw none of the other apostles,	26:29
	"except James, the Lord's brother,	26:31
	"and what I am writing to you before God, I do not lie.	26:34
	"Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia,	26:39
	"and I was still not known by sight	26:43
	"to the churches of Christ in Judea.	26:46
	"They only heard it said, 'He who once persecuted us	26:49
	"'is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.	26:55
	"And they glorified God because of me."	27:01
	The gospel lesson is from Luke.	27:10
	"And he came down with them and stood on a level place	27:16
	"with a great crowd of his disciples,	27:21
	"and a great multitude of people from all Judea	27:24
	"and Jerusalem and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon,	27:27
	"who came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases."	27:31
	When one has served in this chapel	27:57
	for 15 of the best years of his life,	28:01
	and then returns for an occasion, such as this today,	28:05
	he has many pleasant memories	28:10
	flooding through his consciousness,	28:13
	and along with them, a few that are tense.	28:16
	There is the temptation today to reminisce,	28:22
	and I must not yield,	28:26
	except to recount one useful episode	28:28
	which some in the congregation may remember.	28:33
	One Friday morning, I was putting the finishing touches	28:38
	on a sermon scheduled for delivery	28:41
	in this pulpit two days later.	28:44
	There was a knock on the heavy door or my office,	28:48
	and when I invited the person in, I found myself facing	28:50
	a somewhat distraught graduate student	28:56
	whom I had not met before, but who, at that very moment,	28:59
	demanded that I surrender	29:04
	this pulpit to him on Sunday,	29:07
	for he had an important message straight from God,	29:11
	which he absolutely had to present to the campus	29:15
	at the earliest possible moment.	29:18
	Well, I gave him several reasons	29:22
	why this couldn't be done, and he left.	29:24
	Well, at the appointed time on Sunday morning,	29:28
	I came up into this awesome enclosure	29:31
	and began to deliver the sermon.	29:34
	When I was several minutes into the thing,	29:38
	I noticed someone walking toward the front	29:41
	in the north aisle over here.	29:44
	When he passed the nearest column here,	29:47
	I recognized my Friday visitor,	29:50
	and I saw that he was coming toward the pulpit.	29:53
	My first thought was of the fact that	29:58
	we were broadcasting on radio station WDNC,	30:00
	and people listen to our service all the way	30:05
	to the Atlantic Ocean in the east as well as in Virginia	30:07
	on to North and South Carolina in the other direction.	30:11
	And, it was immediately clear to me that he was going	30:15
	to try to take this pulpit away from me.	30:18
	So, I gripped the pulpit securely with my left hand,	30:23
	got ready to push him away with my right hand.	30:28
	Fortunately, I had my manuscript with me on the pulpit.	30:33
	Sure enough, he came up the pulpit steps,	30:38
	took hold of my right arm and tried	30:41
	to pull me out of this pulpit.	30:44
	Silently, I pushed him,	30:48
	and he pulled me.	30:51
	This went on for a couple of paragraphs	30:54
	of the sermon,	30:57
	(audience laughing)
	which I hope I read coherently.	30:59
	Now, at this moment, in today's sermon you may be wondering	31:05
	why nobody in the congregation or in the choir on that day	31:10
	came immediately to my rescue.	31:15
	The answer actually is quite simple.	31:20
	Only a very few weeks before, a group of our students	31:24
	and two denominational chaplains had conducted	31:27
	an experimental service in the chapel.	31:30
	During which, one member of the group	31:34
	interrupted the service, and many people in nursing homes	31:36
	and hospitals listening by radio phoned the Durham Police	31:41
	and told them to come out to the chapel and restore order.	31:45
	(audience laughing)	31:48
	So, while in actual reality,	31:50
	my Friday visitor and I were existentially engaged	31:52
	in a heavily struggle for a physical possession	31:57
	of this pulpit, before the eyes of everybody in the chapel,	32:00
	the congregation serenely, but disgustedly	32:05
	sat in the pews wondering	32:11
	what the chapel leadership might plan next.	32:13
	(audience laughing)	32:16
	at last, an undergraduate
	in the choir came to my rescue.	32:20
	Ironically, the reason he did was that he had been	32:24
	a member of the experimental group, which had planned	32:28
	the earlier interruption, and he knew that I had expressed	32:32
	rather sharp criticism of that.	32:35
	So, he put two and two together and accurately concluded	32:38
	that if I was critical of what they had done,	32:42
	I wouldn't have scheduled this little wrestling match.	32:45
	So, he came forward and led the graduate student	32:50
	out of the chapel.	32:54
	Once outside, the disturbed person	32:57
	convinced the choir member that he would leave.	32:59
	So, he turned him loose and return to the choir,	33:02
	where upon my Friday visitor re-entered through	33:05
	the transept door and quickly was again	33:08
	at my right elbow yanking away.	33:12
	This time, the choir member brought a buddy with him,	33:17
	and they didn't turn to disturb the fellow loose	33:20
	until he was safely inside	33:22
	the psychiatric ward at the hospital.	33:24
	Now, I bring this up today because of a comment	33:28
	which was made to me on campus a week after the episode	33:31
	by someone who had learned of it.	33:35
	He told me that he had heard the news that a Duke student	33:38
	had gone crazy over religion, and he wanted me to know	33:41
	that the best way to avoid insanity	33:45
	was to stay away from religion.	33:48
	This was a very interesting comment,	33:53
	and I reflected on it for quite a while.	33:55
	I never did learn precisely what the student's illness was	33:59
	or what had precipitated his psychosis, but it is true	34:02
	that at the time his personality was falling into disarray,	34:07
	his conscious mind was obsessed with some religious theme.	34:11
	While I was reflecting on that, I heard a report of a man	34:18
	drowning in the ocean off the North Carolina coast.	34:21
	The person who told me about it had witnessed	34:25
	the actual drowning, so I asked him some questions about it.	34:28
	The swimmer had come to the surface	34:33
	three times after first going under.	34:35
	I asked what the endangered swimmer	34:39
	did each time he came to the surface.	34:41
	"Why, he gasped for air," said my informant.	34:44
	After the questioning and the reporting were over,	34:51
	it was clear that when the man drowned,	34:53
	he was desperately trying to get air into his lungs.	34:56
	Now, common sense tells us that his efforts to get air	35:01
	were not the cause of his drowning,	35:04
	even though he was completely devoted	35:05
	to those efforts at the time he did drown.	35:07
	Rather, it was his inability to get enough air,	35:12
	and in time, which caused the drowning, not the opposite.	35:16
	Somehow, after digesting that report,	35:21
	my mind made a connection with the comment that was made	35:25
	to me about the disturbed graduate student.	35:29
	Surely, during the days that he was slipping	35:33
	into a psychosis, his attention was centered	35:35
	on some aspects of religion,	35:38
	and he frantically was pursuing that aspect.	35:41
	But, whether his fairly sudden interest in religion	35:45
	logically means that his psychosis was caused by a religion	35:48
	is at least open to serious question.	35:53
	Rather, it may be that the human subconscious	35:57
	instinctively knows that a relationship to God would bring	36:00
	a stability to his soul that would be therapeutic.	36:05
	Even as the subconscious of a drowning man	36:09
	knows the air is needed.	36:12
	There are times when many of us echo the feelings	36:16
	of the psalmist who wrote:	36:19
	"As the deer pants for the Water Brook,"	36:21
	"So Pants My Soul After You Oh God."	36:25
	Well, whatever you or I may think about the influence	36:30
	of religion upon mental health, it at least it's clear	36:32
	that the Christian scriptures teach that our faith	36:35
	is a positive influence upon our emotional	36:38
	and mental well-being.	36:41
	For many years, the preeminent verse, which was quoted	36:43
	in support of this, was the King James translation	36:47
	of 2 Timothy 1:7,	36:51
	"For God gave us not a spirit of fear,	36:53
	"but of power and love and of a sound mind."	36:58
	However, the best Greek texts	37:02
	do not support that translation.	37:04
	The concept of discipline should be substituted	37:07
	for the phrase sound mind.	37:10
	There are other passages which do solidly	37:14
	support the link between our faith	37:17
	and the cure of illness, including mental illness.	37:19
	In today's lectionary, there is reference to the reputation	37:24
	which Jesus had in Palestine as a Healer of disease.	37:27
	In both Luke and Acts, there are accounts of Jesus	37:33
	casting out demons, which demons had caused their host	37:36
	to behave in ways which resembled the behavior	37:41
	of some mental patients today.	37:44
	People believed in demons in that day,	37:47
	and if we were to assume that Jesus actually knew	37:50
	it was mental illness rather than demon possession,	37:54
	it still would have been meaningless for Jesus,	37:58
	two thousand years ago, to have described their condition	38:01
	in the terms used by modern Psychiatry.	38:05
	He would have been talking to them in an unknown tongue.	38:09
	The 6th and 8th chapters of Luke describe episodes	38:13
	in which Jesus cast out demons	38:17
	and restored the poor victims to a soundness of mind.	38:20
	I am not alone in my assumption that the work	38:25
	which Jesus did in casting out demons in that far off time	38:28
	could be described today in the language of psychiatry.	38:32
	Yet, people today are as much in need of a cure	38:36
	which Jesus brought as were the people	38:39
	to whom he ministered in Palestine.	38:42
	And, if you remember, he admonished his disciples	38:45
	that as the Father sent him into the world,	38:51
	so he sent his disciples into the world.	38:54
	Indeed, the early church took very seriously	38:58
	this instruction of Jesus Christ.	39:01
	We read the following in Acts 5:16.	39:04
	"And there were also those who came together	39:09
	"as a multitude from the cities around about Jerusalem	39:12
	"bringing sick folks, and them that were vexed	39:16
	"with unclean spirits,	39:20
	"and they were healed."	39:23
	During the years when I ministered here in the chapel,	39:28
	as Will Willimond mentioned a while ago, I always felt that	39:30
	the Duke psychiatrists were up on their end	39:35
	of the campus casting out demons	39:38
	and restoring sick people to their right minds.	39:40
	On returning this weekend, I am pleased to find	39:44
	that they are still at it.	39:46
	By the way, I noticed that	39:51
	one of them has changed furniture.	39:53
	He has traded the therapeutic couch	39:56
	for a swivel chair of administration.	39:58
	I wonder if he has found it harder to cast out the demons	40:02
	in administration than the ones in the psychiatric ward.	40:06
	However, I digress.	40:11
	Part of the problem that we face whenever we try	40:14
	to answer any question which deals with mental health	40:17
	is that we do not all have the same definition of sanity.	40:20
	Joe says Tom is crazy, Tom says Joe is crazy.	40:26
	Across the years of my ministry, I've dealt with	40:31
	scores of individuals who were pronounced insane	40:33
	by knowledgeable professionals, and yet more than two-thirds	40:36
	of those individuals claimed they were sane,	40:40
	and other people, including their doctors, were batty.	40:44
	We would have troublesome problems enough	40:49
	if that were the extent of our disagreement over	40:52
	who is sane who isn't, but our dilemma is worse than that.	40:55
	For example, the Methodist Council of Bishops	41:00
	recently issued a pastoral letter on the subject	41:02
	of nuclear war, in which they called for a moratorium	41:06
	on all nuclear testing and manufacture,	41:10
	and the beginning of the dismantling of nuclear arsenals.	41:14
	The ink was scarcely dry on the letter when a group	41:19
	of militaristic hawks called the Council of Bishops insane.	41:23
	The Bishops replied, "It is the nuclear	41:29
	"arms race which is insane."	41:32
	Well, there's no way Jose a definition	41:36
	satisfactory to all is gonna come out of the sermon today.	41:39
	Let me simply say that for purposes of today's subject,	41:45
	we are talking about	41:49
	the ability to manage one's emotions,	41:51
	instincts, problems, frustrations,	41:54
	and goals with a fair degree of success.	41:57
	In Freud's terms, we are talking about the ability	42:03
	of the ego to control both the id and the super-ego	42:05
	so that each can function acceptably well,	42:10
	but neither will have unleashed license.	42:13
	In all of this, the individual should have enough	42:18
	peace of mind and freedom from inner conflict to be able	42:20
	to conduct his life at a reasonable level of efficiency.	42:24
	Now, that's what I'm talking about.	42:28
	Briefly, before suggesting some specific ways	42:33
	in which Christianity promotes sanity,	42:37
	I wish to enter two caveats.	42:40
	The first is, that some practitioners of religion	42:43
	say and do harmful things to mental health,	42:47
	make no mistake about it.	42:52
	In the name of Christian faith, these self-appointed	42:54
	religious spokesman, some on radio and TV,	42:57
	encourage attitudes and practices not in keeping	43:00
	with the mainline of the historic Christian community,	43:04
	and which sometimes destroy mental health,	43:08
	rather than strengthen it.	43:12
	Let their followers beware.	43:15
	Any potential leader who has not submitted himself	43:20
	to the instruction, the examination, the discipline,	43:23
	and the appointment of some recognized branch	43:28
	of the Christian community may so distort Christianity,	43:32
	that the effect of his leadership will be to create mental	43:38
	and emotional problems rather than solve them.	43:41
	During the years of my ministry, I've had occasion	43:45
	to witness quite a bit of this damaging distortion.	43:48
	Now, the second caveat is a caution against thinking	43:54
	that if one is Christian, all mental problems	43:57
	or emotional disturbances will disappear overnight	44:01
	and never return under any circumstances.	44:04
	Some mental and emotional illness is caused by physiological	44:08
	and biochemical quirks, notably Alzheimer's disease	44:13
	and schizophrenia, to mention only two.	44:17
	The biochemical abnormality which accompanies Alzheimer's	44:21
	has already been pinpointed here at Duke hospital.	44:24
	And, although the physiological and biochemical cause	44:29
	of schizophrenia has not yet been so precisely identified,	44:32
	and number of physiological aspects	44:37
	of the disease have been traced in the laboratory.	44:39
	If, therefore, one word to say to the victim of	44:43
	either of these diseases that he or she is sick	44:46
	because of a lack of Christianity, this would not only be	44:50
	a cruel word, but a non-scientific word also.	44:55
	Much yet remains to be known about the causes	45:00
	of certain mental and emotional disturbances.	45:03
	Okay, with that behind us, what then are the ways	45:07
	in which our Christian faith exerts a positive influence	45:11
	upon the health of our minds?	45:16
	The ones that I shall mention are representative	45:19
	of others I shall not take time to mention.	45:22
	The first derives from the fact that Christian faith	45:26
	offers an explanation of the reality,	45:28
	which allows the believer	45:32
	to make sense of his universe,	45:34
	which gives him a scenario that tells him	45:38
	where he came from and where he is going.	45:40
	It assures him that this is not an impersonal universe,	45:43
	and that the God who brought it	45:47
	into being is intelligent and just.	45:48
	While it is true that biblical Christianity	45:52
	does not answer every question that	45:55
	a curiosity seeker might ask, the basic questions	45:57
	are dealt with and answers provided.	46:01
	To see the importance of this, compare what Christian faith	46:05
	offers with what the scientific method offers.	46:08
	In an essay which Einstein published late in his life,	46:12
	he acknowledged that science can provide	46:15
	only 20% of the questions which humans asked,	46:20
	and that the 20% it can answer are the questions	46:25
	least important to human happiness	46:30
	and peace of mind.	46:34
	It has been my observation that individuals	46:37
	who have no notion of who they are	46:39
	or where they come from, where they're going,	46:41
	or what the human experiment is all about	46:43
	often are also unsure of what they should be doing today,	46:46
	and they occasionally suffer from an anxiety	46:50
	that is born of this sweeping uncertainty.	46:53
	This anxiety cannot be cured by psychotherapy.	46:57
	It can be banished only by one's coming	47:01
	to have a sound philosophy of life.	47:04
	I believe that the person who accepts Christian faith	47:09
	will find that although that faith makes	47:12
	stringent demands upon him, it also	47:14

-	The worldview that nourishes his mental health.	0:03
	The second support is a derivative of the first,	0:08
	this God who brought order into the universe	0:12
	and a sensible plan into our lives	0:15
	is a personal God who takes a personal interest in us.	0:17
	We are not alone.	0:21
	This creator even notices the fall of a dying sparrow,	0:24
	but is much more interested in caring for human beings	0:28
	whom he has created in his own image.	0:32
	Especially for the individual who has a tendency	0:35
	to feel unimportant and alone.	0:37
	Christian faith brings a sturdy reassurance	0:41
	that God values him or her	0:43
	and is seeking to bring strength and salvation.	0:48
	Someone has said that God does not love you	0:52
	because you are important,	0:54
	you are important because God loves you.	0:57
	I once knew a man who was hospitalized	1:02
	with a serious mental illness.	1:05
	The physicians were unable	1:07
	to help him make permanent progress	1:08
	because he steadfastly denied	1:10
	that there was anything wrong with him at all.	1:12
	He was about to be sent therefore	1:16
	to a long term custodial institution.	1:18
	When I had an opportunity to talk with him privately.	1:21
	I told him straight out that I believed he was a sick man,	1:25
	but I said I have some good news for you.	1:29
	Sick or well, if you will put yourself in the hands of God,	1:33
	your eternal security will be guaranteed.	1:38
	Because God, even more than human fathers,	1:42
	tenderly loves his sick children	1:46
	and would certainly not forsake you.	1:49
	Well in a simple prayer at that moment	1:53
	he intentionally put himself into the hands of God.	1:55
	Very few people who knew this man ever understood	1:59
	why he made such a dramatic improvement from that day.	2:03
	He admitted to me that deep down he had believed	2:08
	that he was far sicker than even the doctors thought,	2:10
	and the assurance that God would accept him	2:15
	just as he was, enabled him	2:18
	to pull together the discarded parts of his personality	2:23
	and a few years later he was elected to public office	2:28
	by the larges majority anyone in his county	2:32
	had ever achieved.	2:35
	The love of man by God and the love of man by man,	2:37
	both of which are strong ingredient in Christian faith,	2:42
	have a powerful and positive effect on your	2:46
	and my mental health.	2:50
	Its interesting to remember the even humanistic analysts	2:53
	and psychotherapists of the Eric Fromm variety,	2:57
	have great respect for the emphasis upon a God they love,	3:01
	which is in true Christianity.	3:06
	The third resource of Christianity	3:11
	that supports mental healthy is the possibility	3:13
	of the forgiveness of sins.	3:15
	The gospel pulls no punches in declaring	3:19
	that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.	3:21
	But one of the leading themes of our religion	3:26
	is that God calls the sinner to repentance.	3:29
	Declaring every which way that those who do repent	3:33
	will absolutely will be forgiven	3:38
	and their sin will not even be remembered anymore.	3:40
	Physicians who practice in the area	3:46
	of psychosomatic medicine report dramatic cures,	3:49
	dramatic cures in both the psychs and the soma.	3:53
	When an individual has been burdened down	3:59
	by a sense of guilt is brought	4:02
	to an experience of forgiveness.	4:05
	Flanders Dunbar has written extensively	4:08
	about the clinical effects of a patients release	4:11
	from the sense of guilt.	4:14
	One aspect of this matter of guilt and forgiveness	4:18
	has intrigued me in recent years.	4:21
	I had previously assumed that	4:24
	the only people who experienced a deep sense of guilt	4:26
	were those who believe in a God of righteousness,	4:30
	who took a dimmed view of the transcription	4:32
	of his code of justices.	4:36
	Those who violate that code have reason to feel guilty,	4:38
	but what came as a surprise to me in more recent years	4:43
	was the discovery who do not believe in God,	4:47
	so they say,	4:52
	nevertheless are burdened down by an oppressive	4:54
	and unremitting load of guilt	4:57
	which undermines their mental health.	5:01
	If on the one hand their sense of guilt does not come	5:04
	from an acknowledge duty to a righteous God,	5:08
	then where on the other hand will their assurance	5:11
	of pardon come from?	5:15
	In Christian faith one acquires his feeling of guilt	5:18
	from the righteousness of God and his assurance	5:21
	of forgiveness of the love of that same God.	5:24
	One of the passages in the New Testament	5:29
	underwent a radical reinterpretation	5:31
	after the advent of psychosomatic medicine	5:35
	a few generations ago.	5:37
	It was in the second chapter of Mark	5:41
	that there is an account of Jesus visit to Capernaum.	5:43
	Where a man was brought to him on stretcher,	5:47
	immobilized by palsy.	5:50
	Jesus simply said to him,	5:53
	"Son, your sins are forgiven."	5:56
	The account relates that the previously paralyzed man	6:02
	then got up and carried his bed home.	6:05
	In former years the reader had a choice,	6:08
	either he believed in miracles or he didn't.	6:11
	If he didn't believe in miracles	6:14
	he had to decide that this report in Mark was fiction.	6:16
	But along came the psychosomatic physicians saying	6:20
	that this type of cure happens frequently,	6:23
	when one is relieved of a sense of guilt.	6:27
	They say that if a paralyzed man believed	6:32
	Jesus had authority to forgive sins,	6:34
	it makes sense that he could have taken up his bed and walk.	6:37
	Its interesting that the early church	6:42
	seemed to be aware of the connection	6:44
	between the forgiveness of sins and healing.	6:46
	In the fifth chapter of James we read these words,	6:50
	"is any among you sick?"	6:55
	"Let him call for the elders of the church,	6:58
	"if he has committed sins it shall be forgiven him."	7:01
	"Confess therefore your sins one to another"	7:06
	"and pray for one another,	7:12
	"that you may be healed."	7:14
	Well the fourth and last resource making for mental health,	7:18
	which I shall take time to mention is the emphasis	7:21
	which Christianity places upon the family.	7:24
	In both the old and new testament,	7:29
	there's constant encouragement to strengthen family ties.	7:31
	Over and over again we are admonished	7:37
	to have strong families and to nourish one another	7:39
	in the family relationship.	7:43
	Nowhere in the cultures of the world do we find an	7:46
	ethical, moral or religious system,	7:49
	which more tenaciously promotes the family	7:52
	than does the Judao-Christian tradition.	7:56
	Do strong family ties promote mental health?	8:01
	One way to answer that question is to ask another question,	8:06
	is mental health as well protected in a society	8:11
	which takes a casual attitude	8:14
	towards marriage and family ties?	8:17
	If we attempt to answer either	8:21
	of these questions at the adult level,	8:23
	we shall be involved in claims	8:25
	and counter claims and while I believe the weight	8:27
	of the evidence shows that adults sanity	8:30
	is better promoted by strong family ties.	8:32
	The conclusion seems to be beyond all question	8:36
	at the level of childhood.	8:40
	There's a very immanent Harvard psychologist Robert Coles,	8:44
	has written 36 books and 850 articles	8:48
	in his life long campaign	8:52
	to build a better world for children.	8:55
	In 1972 Time magazine called him	8:58
	the most influential living psychiatrist	9:00
	in the United States.	9:03
	In his books, he lets little children talk about their lives	9:05
	talk bout their feelings, he tells you what kind	9:10
	of families they come from.	9:13
	These are children from the slums,	9:16
	children from the upper crust,	9:19
	children from Appalachia,	9:21
	children from the Eskimos,	9:24
	children from third world,	9:26
	children who live in academia.	9:28
	Children from shattered families	9:31
	and children from strong families.	9:33
	One thing, which stands out in these books and articles,	9:37
	is the underlying theme of the force of strong family ties,	9:41
	whether in poverty or in affluence,	9:48
	making for mental health.	9:52
	So in conclusion let me express the opinion	9:55
	that if my Friday visitor who came back on Sunday,	9:59
	took full advantage of the therapeutic	10:03
	skills of the Duke psychiatrist	10:06
	and if his sudden interest in religion	10:09
	became a substantiated interest	10:11
	and if it lead to a study of the faith,	10:15
	then it might very well be true	10:19
	that one day he could be invited to return to this pulpit	10:20
	and no one would try to push him out.	10:24
	And perhaps his message would be	10:27
	very helpful to the congregation.	10:29
	The Christian gospel offers hope	10:32
	and healing to every person,	10:35
	not only in the four ways suggested here this morning	10:38
	but in many other ways worth our exploring.	10:42
	May God granted we shall take full advantage of it	10:45
	and share it with our world, amen.	10:49
	(calming organ music)	10:57
	(chorus singing)	11:21
Man	The Lord be with you.	13:19
	Let us pray.	13:22
	Oh gracious creative God,	13:35
	we give you thanks for this day of worship and praise	13:38
	which has become for us a gateway to your glory.	13:42
	Having experienced your majesty in this morning,	13:48
	having been brought close	13:53
	to you in pray, preaching and song.	13:55
	We now are bold to intercede for the needs of the world.	14:00
	We beseech you oh God, for all hopeful	14:07
	and constructive moments now afoot in human life.	14:09
	We pray for all scientists seeking truth.	14:15
	For all teachers trying to guide the minds of our young.	14:21
	For all nurses and physicians that work in our hospitals,	14:26
	particularly those working in the fields of mental health.	14:32
	For all those who love beauty and seek to create it,	14:38
	all artists, artisans, musicians, dancers. Sculptors.	14:41
	For all philosophers who endeavor	14:48
	to cast light upon the deep questions of human life.	14:50
	For all servants of the common good,	14:55
	who in seniority and truth are endeavoring	14:58
	to life this low lying humanity of ours up	15:02
	to the realm of peace.	15:06
	We pray.	15:08
	The rich wondering beauty of this place.	15:12
	The stark contrast with the ugliness	15:16
	which many of our brothers and sisters much live.	15:18
	The ugliness of war, the horror of hunger,	15:23
	the bitterness of oppression.	15:25
	We think of them.	15:29
	Claiming the beauty of your holiness as our	15:31
	and their one best hope.	15:34
	Especially do we beseech you	15:39
	for the deep and unspoken needs	15:42
	that have been brought into this chapel on this day.	15:44
	Go deep,	15:49
	into the hidden corners of our hearts.	15:51
	If there are unforgiven sins	15:55
	there in grant us true penitence	15:57
	that we might be parton.	16:00
	If there are weaknesses there which unknown to us	16:03
	may yet cause our downfall in our own eyes	16:06
	and the shame decide of others,	16:10
	give us knowledge of them	16:13
	that we be made strong where we are weak	16:16
	and given power where we are frail.	16:21
	May come off more than conquers.	16:25
	Deal with us	16:29
	and with our intersessions, oh God.	16:32
	Not according to our (mumbles) which also few	16:34
	but according to your good will and wisdom,	16:40
	which is rich beyond measure.	16:44
	Minister this day to the deep places of our hearts,	16:48
	we ask it all in the name of Christ, amen.	16:55
	As a forgiven and reconcile people	17:02
	will the beneficiaries of the grace and love of God,	17:06
	let us offer ourselves sand our gifts to God.	17:08
	(calming organ music)	17:22
	(chorus singing)	18:04
Man	Let us give thanks to God.	23:21
	It is a good thing to give thanks into the Lord	23:24
	and suits to sing praises to thy name,	23:28
	oh one in the most high.	23:31
	To tell of thy loving kindness early in the morning	23:33
	for thall Lord has made us glad through thy works	23:38
	and we shall rejoice in giving praise for the operations	23:43
	of thy good and gracious hands.	23:47
	Direct us thy Lord in all our doings	23:50
	with our most gracious favor	23:52
	and further in us I continued help	23:55
	that in all our works begun and continued and ended in the,	23:58
	we may glorify thy holy name	24:03
	and finally by thy mercy obtain ever lasting life,	24:07
	through Jesus Christ our Lord,	24:12
	who has taught us when we gathered to pray.	24:15
	Our father, who art in heaven, holit be thy name.	24:19
	Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on	24:24
	Earth as it is in Heaven.	24:27
	Give us this day, our daily prayer	24:29
	and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive	24:33
	those who trespass against us	24:36
	and lead us not to temptation	24:39
	but deliver us from evil.	24:42
	Thy is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.	24:44
	Amen.	24:49
	(calming organ music)	24:54
	(chorus singing)	25:51
Man	And now may the grace of our Lord	28:57
	and savior Jesus Christ, the love of God	28:59
	and the fellowship of the holy spirit	29:03
	go forth with you now and always.	29:05
	(chorus singing)	29:18
	(calming organ music)	30:14
	(incoherent chatter)	40:40

Item Info

Title:

Howard C. Wilkinson - "Sanity and Christianity" (June 8, 1986)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 27:57. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 10:54.
Speaks of Christianity as a necessary religion for the creation and maintainance of good mental health: He gives specific ways in which Christianity promotes sanity: 1) Christianity offers an explanation of reality allowing the believer to make sense of the universe 2) the God who brought order into the universe takes a personal interest in us and in our lives 3) the possibility for the forgiveness of sin (cleans the human propensity to feel guilt) 4) Christian emphasis on the family (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "Whatever you or I may think about the influence of religion upon mental health, it least is clear that the Christian scriptures teach that our faith is a positive influence upon our emotional and mental well-being."

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4wp9tm9s

Date:

June 8, 1986

Speaker:

Wilkinson, Howard C.

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Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0336
ref8193_8w6
uachapelsermaud
duke:320649
dcrau001319
ark:/87924/r4wp9tm9s
7ded1485-2442-46b1-b4a7-f7ecf99f5a24

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Howard C. Wilkinson - "Sanity and Christianity" (June 8, 1986)

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1. Howard C. Wilkinson - "Sanity and Christianity" (June 8, 1986)

Duke University Archives

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Howard C. Wilkinson - "Sanity and Christianity" (June 8, 1986)

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