Howard C. Wilkinson - "Can Examination Endure Examination?" (June 20, 1971)

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	(choir sings)	0:12
	(choir singing swells)	0:57
	(serene organ music)	1:23
	(choir sings)	2:02
	(serene organ music continues)	2:27
	(choir singing continues)	2:32
	(choir singing continues)	2:43
	(choir singing continues)	3:25
	(choir singing continues)	3:55
	(serene organ music continues)	4:06
	♪ Amen ♪	4:47
-	Grace be to you and peace from God, our father,	5:07
	and from the Lord, Jesus Christ.	5:10
	We are come together in the presence of all mighty God	5:14
	and of the whole company of Heaven to make our worship,	5:17
	which is to make confession of our sins,	5:22
	to set forth God's praise, to hear his word,	5:26
	to declare our common faith,	5:30
	to ask for ourselves and for all men,	5:33
	those things necessary for the body and the soul,	5:37
	to offer unto him the service of our lives	5:41
	and to receive his blessing.	5:45
	Therefore, remembering the words of Jesus	5:48
	that he came not to call the righteous,	5:50
	but sinners to repentance.	5:53
	Let us continue his worship,	5:55
	as we acknowledge and confess our sins and our failures.	5:58
	Let us pray.	6:02
	All mighty God, our Heavenly father,	6:08
	who standeth beyond both the darkness and the light,	6:12
	who are hidden by the names we give you,	6:18
	who moves in mystery to touch us to life.	6:23
	Grant us, we ask in this hour,	6:27
	the glory and the power of your presence.	6:29
	Oh God, break through the safe customs of our praise.	6:35
	Turn back the thin devices of our devious fear,	6:40
	and let us hear your word reverberate	6:45
	in the high places of our hearts,	6:48
	and in the deep abyss of our need.	6:51
	If our religion has protected us from your mercy	6:56
	or our prayers' smothered our rebellion and sin,	7:00
	or our faith made your grace feudal,	7:06
	then put us straight, undeceive us,	7:10
	and bring us where we will find you our savior	7:14
	and our Lord.	7:18
	God, most merciful and holy,	7:21
	forgive us for the sin of blindness,	7:24
	which sees so superficially that it sees no sin,	7:27
	more deeply still forgive the sins which make us blind,	7:32
	the furious haste, the weary indifference,	7:38
	the hard sophistication, evasive restlessness,	7:43
	the covered guilt and the love of comfort,	7:50
	which so infects our lives.	7:54
	Forgive us and save us we ask	7:57
	from that sin of all sins of denying your love.	7:59
	Forgive us for that denial,	8:05
	which refuses to face you	8:06
	even more for confessing your name,	8:10
	but avoiding your presence.	8:13
	Most of all, for coming into your presence	8:16
	to well-protected by self satisfaction,	8:19
	to be humbled by your glory or meekend by your grace,	8:22
	forgive us, oh God.	8:28
	Open our eyes that we may repent and be saved,	8:31
	have mercy upon us, our father,	8:36
	and restore us unto the joy of your salvation.	8:39
	Giving us an understanding of those conditions among us	8:44
	that are an offense to you,	8:48
	that are contrary to your spirit of love and compassion.	8:50
	That we may learn of you	8:55
	and be living expressions of your love	8:57
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.	9:00
	Hear now these words of assurance from the new covenant.	9:08
	If anyone is in Jesus, the Christ, he is a new being.	9:14
	The old has passed away and the new has come.	9:20
	The chain of complicity linking our lives to pasted guilt	9:26
	and sin has been snapped by the forgiving love of God.	9:30
	The door of our freedom is open	9:36
	and we may walk forward in hope.	9:38
	In the words of our Lord, himself, to a repenting sinner,	9:42
	"Be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven.	9:47
	Go and sin no more."	9:53
	It's an expression of our thanks unto the God	9:58
	who has given us	10:01
	the possibility of forgiveness and free grace.	10:02
	Let us join in our unison prayer of thanksgiving.	10:06
	Let us pray.	10:10
	We call to you Lord out of our distress and you answered us.	10:13
	You heard our voices.	10:19
	We said, we are cast out from your presence.	10:22
	How shall we again, look upon your holy temple.	10:26
	The waters closed in over us.	10:30
	The deep was round about us.	10:33
	Yet you brought up our life from the pit.	10:36
	Oh Lord, our God.	10:39
	When our souls fainted within us,	10:42
	we remembered the Lord	10:45
	and our prayers came to you into your holy temple.	10:47
	With the voice of thanksgiving, we will sacrifice to you.	10:52
	Deliverance belongs to the Lord.	10:56
	Amen.	11:00
	(serene organ music)	11:04
	(serene organ music continues)	12:18
	(choir sings)	12:50
	(women sing)	14:12
	(men sing)	14:25
	(choir sings)	14:29
-	The scripture lesson for the day is taken from the Gospel	15:15
	According to Saint John 17:20-26.	15:18
	Let us hear the word of God.	15:25
	"I do not pray for these only,	15:30
	but also for those who are to believe in me	15:34
	through their word, that they may all be one.	15:37
	Even as thou father art in me	15:42
	and I in thee that they also may be in us	15:45
	so that the world may believe	15:49
	that thou has sent me.	15:52
	The glory which thou has given me,	15:55
	I have given to them that they may be one,	15:57
	even as we are one.	16:01
	I in them, and thou in me	16:04
	that they may become perfectly one	16:07
	so that the world may know	16:10
	that thou has sent me and has loved them,	16:12
	even as thou has loved me.	16:15
	Father, I desire that they also, thou has given me,	16:19
	may be with me where I am to be hold my glory,	16:24
	which thou has given me and thy love for me,	16:30
	before the foundation of the world.	16:33
	Oh, righteous father,	16:36
	the world has not known thee, but I have known thee.	16:38
	And these know that thou has sent me.	16:43
	I made known to them thy name.	16:47
	And I will make it known that the love	16:51
	with which thou has loved me,	16:54
	may be in them and I in them."	16:56
	Here ends the reading of the lesson.	17:01
	(serene organ music)	17:04
	(choir sings)	17:15
-	The Lord be with you.	17:50
	(congregation calls)	17:52
	Let us pray.	17:54
	Oh God of mercy, and God of love	18:07
	who has commanded us to care for one another,	18:12
	as you care for us.	18:15
	Hear are intercessions for our brothers, we ask.	18:17
	With this offer unto God,	18:23
	our prayers for the church, universal.	18:25
	Lord, we intercede for your church in all its branches	18:30
	and members throughout the world,	18:35
	be with and help those who seek to live across	18:38
	the reconciliation and the great cities of this world,	18:42
	where men congregate.	18:46
	Empower those who carry the concern of Christ	18:49
	to lonely homes, far apart and scattered hills and valleys.	18:53
	Animate your church, in this land we ask, oh God,	19:00
	make it worthy of the great gifts it has received from you.	19:06
	Purge from it all that is self seeking	19:10
	and subversive of faith, of love and of purity.	19:14
	God, whose son has taught us that we're members of one body,	19:23
	hear now our prayers for our sisters' and brothers' needs.	19:28
	Each of us brings before in and holy remembrance,	19:35
	our Heavenly father loved ones and friends,	19:38
	our brothers whose faces and names we know.	19:44
	And our brothers, when we know not.	19:48
	Some are in far lands,	19:52
	some in barren places, enduring loneliness,	19:55
	hardship and peril, some are facing pain and suffering,	19:58
	and perhaps even death this day,	20:03
	some are confronted by perplexities	20:08
	or wearied by monotonous duties,	20:11
	all bearing the burdens of this world.	20:15
	Struggle and striving everywhere to live	20:17
	and to be found worthy of their fellow men	20:21
	on those who stand in the circle of our hearts concern,	20:25
	oh God, we pray the outpouring of your life giving spirit.	20:28
	May your love penetrate their condition	20:36
	and quench their hunger and bring peace.	20:40
	Oh, God from whom the whole family	20:46
	in Heaven and earth is named,	20:48
	let your fatherly blessing descend upon the family of men.	20:51
	On this day, when we honor our fathers,	20:57
	we remember that you uncovered your face to us	21:01
	in Jesus the Christ, and call us to be your sons.	21:05
	We remember that we had no face until we reflected the face	21:13
	of our fathers, our loved ones and our friends.	21:16
	It was through them that we became human.	21:22
	Oh God, hallow, and strengthened	21:26
	to all fathers and children,	21:30
	the joys and the cares that are the gift of their special	21:32
	relationship to the end that each may become even more	21:36
	deeply, rightly, and richly human,	21:42
	after the fashion of Christ.	21:47
	Lord, we come to you with our needs and our petitions,	21:53
	strange mixture of common men and women.	21:58
	A few among us are good people.	22:05
	Some are evil who bear your name,	22:09
	but most are never either, like most men in most places,	22:12
	some of us are here for love of you and our brothers,	22:19
	but many of us out of a restless curiosity	22:24
	for want of a better temple.	22:27
	We are men of moderation in both virtue and vice,	22:30
	which is to say, we maintain a pale neutrality, oh God,	22:34
	we have an allergy to risk.	22:39
	We don't often fail, but then we don't often try.	22:43
	We are a safety first people	22:47
	more concerned with the state of our stocks than our souls.	22:50
	We are drab strangers.	22:55
	Oh, God, help us to reach out in our need of new life.	22:58
	Out of the mud of first chaos,	23:06
	you brought meaning and creation,	23:08
	out of the dark smells of a tomb,	23:12
	you brought joy in the morning,	23:13
	out of a confused babble folk,	23:16
	you brought a Pentecostal people of joy.	23:19
	Out of us, surely you can do it all again.	23:24
	Take our commonness our curiosity, our restlessness,	23:29
	our indecision, our neutrality, our musty moderation,	23:36
	and pour into us, even us,	23:43
	the life giving spirit of our Lord.	23:48
	Teach us, oh Lord, the song of the Pilgrim community,	23:53
	which was a song filled with courage and questions,	23:58
	but also filled with joy and with faith,	24:02
	teach us to be free and human men and women,	24:06
	to embrace lived values, diverse styles,	24:10
	and loving conflicts through Jesus thy son,	24:14
	our brother and Lord taught us to pray together	24:20
	as Christians saying, "Our father who art in Heaven,	24:23
	hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,	24:29
	thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.	24:33
	Give us this day, our daily bread	24:38
	and forgive us our trespasses	24:41
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	24:43
	and lead us not into temptation,	24:47
	but deliver us from evil	24:50
	for thine is the kingdom and the power	24:53
	and the glory forever."	24:56
	Amen.	25:00
-	I greet you in the name of Christ	25:22
	and I'm happy to be sharing	25:27
	a service of Christian worship with you.	25:29
	And in the context of this worship,	25:33
	I would like now to offer some thoughts,	25:36
	which I hope will be helpful to us in our life	25:39
	and the various communities of which we are a part	25:44
	and in which we move.	25:49
	The unexamined life is not worth living.	25:54
	That familiar statement is not a verse from the Bible	26:01
	to be used as a text for this sermon.	26:05
	We'll get to the biblical text in a little while.	26:10
	Let's first look though at this sentence,	26:14
	which I have quoted,	26:17
	which has come down to us from ancient Greece	26:19
	rather than from the Hebrews.	26:23
	Many of you I'm sure recognize it as a dictum of Socrates	26:26
	recorded by his famous student Plato in the "Apology."	26:32
	When Plato quoted Socrates,	26:40
	as having said that the unexamined life is not worth living,	26:43
	he preserved a statement	26:48
	which was destined to be repeated millions of times	26:50
	in halls of learning across 22 centuries.	26:54
	The assumptions inherent in this statement	27:00
	and in its implied positive counterpart.	27:04
	Namely the examined life is worth living,	27:08
	are very basic to the whole academic enterprise,	27:13
	not only of Duke University,	27:16
	but all other schools.	27:18
	Indeed with justification,	27:21
	it might be said that college and university	27:23
	existence is the examined life.	27:25
	Someone has said that it is the business of universities	27:31
	to examine and correct the teachings of common sense	27:35
	and appearance, if you get in your car	27:40
	and drive a days journey, and if at the end of the day,	27:47
	you have only common sense to guide you,	27:51
	it's almost inevitable	27:55
	that you will assume the earth to be flat,	27:57
	but the university examines that assumption	28:01
	and declares it false.	28:04
	Long before the astronauts circled the earth,	28:07
	the university scientists	28:10
	had chartered a world that is round, not flat.	28:11
	In like manner, the academic life constantly	28:18
	corrects the errors of appearance.	28:23
	If you were to rise very early tomorrow morning	28:28
	and take a lawn chair with you	28:31
	and sit all day from dawn to dark in the middle of the quad,	28:33
	it would appear to you that the sun rose in the east,	28:38
	that it passed over your head, moving ever westward.	28:44
	And finally it sank below the horizon.	28:49
	And as Thomas Gray would phrase it,	28:53
	"Left the world to darkness and to you."	28:56
	But if you then picked up your lawn chair	29:01
	and consulted the accumulated discoveries of the university,	29:04
	it would become clear to you that what you learned	29:08
	by trusting appearances was false, completely false.	29:12
	The sun had not been on any such journey at all.	29:20
	You were the one making the trip.	29:24
	While sitting all day in that lawn chair	29:27
	in the middle of the quad,	29:29
	you had actually traveled many thousands of miles.	29:30
	Now it is precisely because the inquiring mind has corrected	29:35
	an uncountable number of such errors that the examined life	29:40
	has come to be evidently referred above common sense	29:46
	and appearance.	29:51
	In our culture today,	29:54
	the examined life is in and common sense is out	29:55
	Indeed, the examined life	30:02
	has come to be the intellectual establishment	30:03
	and the priests of the cult	30:07
	have generally accepted societies appraisal of them	30:09
	as being among the most valuable man in the world.	30:12
	Now, the reason why all of this has crept into a sermon	30:19
	is that there is a tendency for corruption to beset	30:23
	everything which gains on critical acceptance.	30:27
	However healthy and sound,	30:32
	the main body of the establishment may be,	30:34
	there is always a tendency	30:38
	for some of its members to become corrupt	30:40
	and to take unhealthy advantage of the favorite position	30:44
	which they hold.	30:49
	Sometimes this corrupted form of the establishment threatens	30:51
	to invalidate and to discredit the central reality	30:56
	of which it is a distortion.	31:00
	This must not be allowed to happen.	31:04
	And it is the desire to prevent its occurrence,	31:11
	which prompts this sermon today.	31:15
	What am I talking about? And why is it so important?	31:18
	Well, I'm talking about the concept of examination,	31:23
	which many people hold today.	31:29
	The difficulty is that in some circles,	31:32
	examination has come to mean criticism exclusively	31:36
	and criticism has come to mean negative criticism	31:44
	and negative criticism	31:51
	has scorned the companionship of positive support.	31:55
	That's what I'm talking about.	32:02
	The end result of this downward spiral	32:05
	is the production of a steady stream of negative criticism,	32:10
	devoid of any tangible evidence of endorsement,	32:17
	but a criticism which claims for itself, all the prestige,	32:22
	the status, the justification	32:28
	and the protection of the establishment.	32:30
	In the circles, therefor,	32:36
	the examined life has come to mean,	32:38
	let's face it, the negatively criticized life.	32:41
	One of the most obvious characteristics of this trend	32:49
	is its failure to examine itself.	32:52
	It examines all assumptions except its own assumptions.	32:58
	It criticizes everything except criticism.	33:04
	It has a completely positive attitude	33:09
	toward negative examination	33:12
	and its chief affirmation is denial.	33:16
	Today I am here to say	33:23
	that this kind of criticism needs to be criticized	33:26
	and this concept of examination needs to be examined.	33:30
	To be sure that what I am saying is understood	33:36
	and not misunderstood, let me attempt an illustration.	33:40
	Suppose that we were to change the arena of our thoughts	33:46
	this morning,	33:50
	so that instead of considering the so credit thesis	33:54
	that the unexamined life is not worth living,	33:57
	we were to consider the engineering thesis	34:01
	that the unexamined bridge is not worth driving over.	34:05
	I believe such a thesis as that	34:11
	could be successfully defended.	34:13
	Here's a bridge spanning a mighty gorge.	34:17
	Both ends of the bridge	34:21
	are connected to ribbons of concrete,	34:22
	which stretch to the horizon and either direction.	34:24
	The construction crew has completed its work	34:28
	and is preparing to depart.	34:31
	All of a sudden a huge tractor trailer truck	34:35
	comes rolling along one of those ribbons of concrete.	34:38
	And as it approaches the bridge,	34:43
	the driver brings his truck and its cargo to a halt,	34:44
	knowing that the bridge is new.	34:48
	He asks the contractor if the bridge has been inspected	34:52
	by an authorized and competent examiner.	34:56
	And let us suppose that in reply,	35:01
	the contractor invites the driver	35:02
	to look at the bridge for himself.	35:04
	And although the driver admits that it appears to be sound,	35:07
	he insists he wants more assurance than mere appearance.	35:13
	So the contractor appeals to common sense	35:19
	and asked the driver if he thinks a licensed contractor	35:22
	would want to build an unsafe bridge.	35:25
	Again, the truck driver's dissatisfied	35:28
	with common sense demands,	35:30
	a rigorous examination of the bridge.	35:32
	He will not trust his cargo and his life	35:35
	on that bridge without it,	35:38
	he says the unexamined bridge is not worth driving over.	35:41
	Finally, a certified examiner comes,	35:47
	gives the bridge a rigorous examination using instruments,	35:50
	standards, as critically accurate as can be devised.	35:54
	And let us suppose that he finds the bridge to be completely	35:59
	sound and entirely safe and he so announces.	36:03
	Thus opening the bridge to traffic.	36:10
	Now, if you have followed me up to this point,	36:13
	I have a question.	36:17
	Does this certified examiner	36:20
	in order to approve his competence	36:24
	and to establish his usefulness to society	36:27
	have to stand there by the bridge day in and day out,	36:31
	pouring forth a steady stream of negative criticism	36:37
	directed first at the bridge, next at the builders,	36:42
	and now at the architect?	36:45
	Does he?	36:48
	Indeed were the examiner to behave in this way	36:53
	for only a few days,	36:56
	his family would call the hospital and asked the men	36:59
	in white coats to go for it father's day or no father's day.	37:03
	By means of this analogy,	37:10
	I hope to suggest the truth that rigorous examination	37:12
	and honest inquiry do not of necessity lead to denunciation	37:18
	and to suggest the concept	37:25
	that the negatively criticized life,	37:30
	that concept is a perversion of the true concept	37:36
	of the examined life.	37:40
	A perversion of it.	37:44
	Moreover, when we find an individual engaging	37:47
	in the production of nothing but negative criticism,	37:50
	we have to call into question his objectivity,	37:54
	his balance and his motivation.	37:57
	Were this chronic critic to be a single man living alone	38:03
	on an otherwise deserted island in the south seas,	38:10
	his negative bias might be the least one of his problems.	38:14
	But if instead he is a member of a group,	38:19
	if he is a participant in community,	38:22
	and if his negative criticisms are directed	38:25
	from week to week	38:28
	toward the community of which he is a member,	38:29
	then his negative bias	38:33
	becomes a source of inescapable concern	38:34
	to the community off which he is apart.	38:37
	The community may be a family, a fraternity,	38:41
	a church or a university.	38:44
	In any case, I think the principle is the same.	38:47
	The person who is seeking to live the examined life	38:53
	in any given community must ask himself	38:56
	whether he is a responsible member of that community.	39:01
	Whether on the one hand,	39:06
	his negative criticisms of it constitute enmity, disloyalty,	39:07
	or a paranoid type of sickness,	39:13
	or whether on the other hand,	39:17
	they represent the intelligent efforts	39:18
	of a loyal member of that community to improve it.	39:21
	There is one sure way by which he can convince	39:27
	both himself and the members of his community,	39:30
	that the purpose	39:32
	and the effect of his fault finding is constructive.	39:34
	And here it is,	39:39
	if prior to and along with his negative criticism,	39:41
	he offers tangible,	39:47
	sincere, and convincing evidence of support.	39:49
	His community can likewise accept his fault finding	39:56
	as being sincere.	40:00
	Otherwise he must,	40:04
	the community must look upon the chronic carping critic	40:05
	as being an enemy of the community,	40:10
	operating from within it.	40:12
	As a disloyal member of the community,	40:15
	or as a sick person, knowing this,	40:20
	the enemy and the disloyal member	40:26
	are often prone to pretend just enough endorsement	40:29
	to escape the accusation that they never give support.	40:33
	But when the chronic critic praises the community of which	40:39
	he's a part, it is with such faint praise,	40:42
	that the effect is damning rather than supporting.	40:45
	When he does give as sent to his community,	40:50
	it is with a civil leer.	40:53
	And if he manages to avoid snaring,	40:56
	he at least teaches others to sneer.	40:58
	For a few moments	41:04
	let us look at some of the communities	41:05
	of which we are members.	41:07
	First think of that community of learning	41:11
	known as Duke University.	41:14
	Like every other vital group,	41:19
	this one needs to be examined.	41:22
	And often the examination will lead to criticism.	41:25
	But again, like every other group,	41:30
	this university has a right to expect that it's critics,	41:31
	especially if they are personally benefiting	41:36
	from the university, shall give tangible,	41:39
	sincere and convincing evidence of support.	41:43
	Let me cite an example of what I mean,	41:49
	in the academic year, 1965, 66,	41:53
	a coed by the name of Libby Faulk	41:57
	was editor of the Duke Chronicle.	42:01
	She contributed through the pages of the Chronical	42:04
	her full share of negative criticism	42:07
	of this academic community.	42:10
	I paid attention when she criticized,	42:14
	because I could not forget the editorial she wrote	42:18
	in the very first edition she published	42:23
	when school opened in September,	42:26
	let me read you just a part of that editorial.	42:29
	"The walls have opened again," she wrote,	42:35
	"to let in 1,217 new pairs of feet.	42:37
	You come here as a freshmen	42:42
	as the next month stretch into years,	42:46
	you'll hear criticisms of practically	42:48
	every aspect of this university.	42:51
	Everyone will be pointing out problems,	42:53
	objecting to things that seem wrong,	42:56
	complaining of various lacks.	42:58
	Soon, you too will be one of the critics,	43:02
	but realize this now while your enthusiasm is still intact.	43:05
	Most of us who criticize are working to improve something	43:13
	we think is worth improving.	43:19
	This is a good school."	43:22
	Exclamation point on unquote.	43:26
	Libby Faulk had earned the right to criticize	43:31
	and both her criticism and her support	43:35
	should be taken seriously.	43:38
	Each made a contribution that year	43:41
	to the strengthening of the university.	43:44
	Think next about this principle, if you will.	43:49
	And the life of that community,	43:52
	which we call the United States,	43:54
	our nation and particularly its government	43:57
	needs to be examined rigorously.	44:01
	That examination will often lead to criticism.	44:05
	The late President John F. Kennedy	44:10
	was one who never shrank from honest criticism.	44:13
	He often made jokes even out of the criticisms	44:17
	which were directed personally at him.	44:20
	And yet even this unusually tolerant man	44:23
	understood the depth and the width of the chasm,	44:27
	which separates supportive criticism,	44:31
	from irresponsible denunciation.	44:34
	On November 22nd, 1963 President Kennedy	44:38
	rode through the streets of Dallas, Texas	44:42
	taking with him in his hand, a speech,	44:46
	which he was on the way to deliver.	44:50
	The bullets of an assassin cut him down,	44:53
	as we all know, before he could deliver that address.	44:56
	But the world now has a copy of what this great man	45:00
	was planning to say on that day.	45:03
	One sentence from that speech is lodged in my consciousness,	45:07
	and here it is.	45:12
	"There will be dissident voices heard	45:14
	in our land finding fault,	45:17
	but never favor, perceiving gloom on every side	45:20
	and seeking influence without responsibility.	45:27
	Well, the loyal citizen who loves his country,	45:33
	will offer it the best fruit of his intellect.	45:35
	He will examine its policies	45:38
	in the light of his keenest judgment.	45:40
	Sometimes this examination will lead him to criticize.	45:44
	Sometimes it will lead him to approve,	45:48
	but he will be just as ready to approve as to criticize.	45:51
	And he will both realize and acknowledge	45:57
	that his own personal destiny	46:00
	is involved with the health of his national community.	46:02
	If he is wise, as well as perceptive,	46:07
	he will know that negativistic and chronic	46:11
	and carping criticism does not contribute to that health."	46:14
	Well, third and finally,	46:20
	let's look at the relevance of all this	46:22
	to the community of faith.	46:24
	Is there a place for an examining mind in the church?	46:27
	Is criticism valid in a religious group?	46:35
	Our Lord Jesus Christ, commended childlike faith,	46:41
	and declared that only those who are like children	46:46
	shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven.	46:49
	And yet it does not seem that the Socratic proneness	46:52
	to examine all things,	46:56
	isn't any kind of necessary conflict with childlike faith.	47:00
	If in the church,	47:06
	the emphasis is upon examination with open,	47:07
	willingness to criticize or to endorse such examination can	47:11
	be a useful companion to the trusting faith,	47:16
	which Jesus called for.	47:20
	On the other hand, if in a religious group,	47:24
	examination becomes criticism exclusively	47:26
	and criticism becomes negative criticism	47:29
	and negative criticism scorns any meaningful support.	47:32
	Then we have a situation in that religious group,	47:36
	which is as disloyal or sick as is the case in any other	47:39
	type of community in which negativistic bias operates.	47:44
	When the examined Christian life	47:50
	becomes the negatively criticized Christian life,	47:53
	it stands in danger of ceasing to be community at all.	47:58
	From the very beginning of the Christian Church,	48:05
	it has been criticized and rightly so	48:08
	and would have been extremely unhealthy without it.	48:11
	But it is interesting to observe that it's most penetrating	48:15
	critics have always been members of the church	48:19
	and its most helpful critics	48:24
	have always been those who have given tangible,	48:26
	sincere and convincing evidence of support	48:29
	to the community they criticized.	48:33
	There are two contemporary religious writers	48:39
	who illustrate how constructive and destructive criticism	48:42
	work within the community of faith.	48:46
	One is the German academic preacher Helmet Thielicke.	48:50
	The other is an American seminary professor,	48:54
	Peter Berger.	48:57
	Thielicke has a quarrel with the church,	49:00
	but it is a lover's quarrel.	49:03
	Berger has a quarrel with the church,	49:07
	but it is no lover's quarrel.	49:09
	Thielicke criticizes the church	49:13
	in such fashion that his readers	49:14
	become very interested in the criticism	49:16
	and they recognize the accuracy	49:21
	of the criticism he is making.	49:23
	They are inspired to renew the church, to correct it,	49:25
	to discipline it and to join with Thielicke in	49:29
	making it responsive to its Lord.	49:32
	Berger on the other hand,	49:37
	distorts the weaknesses of the church,	49:38
	pretends that exceptionally bad situation are normative,	49:42
	seems to delight in finding fault with the church.	49:47
	And as a result inspires his readers to sneer at it.	49:52
	I think there's great wisdom in the kind of balance	49:57
	suggested by the late Dr. William Preston Few,	50:00
	the first president of Duke University,	50:04
	who declared in a 1937 baccalaureate address	50:07
	while standing in this very pulpit, these words.	50:11
	"Our ancestral religion is our richest inheritance,	50:15
	but it must be constantly touched by the spirit of progress.	50:20
	The problem is to take the good	50:26
	that has come to us out of the past	50:28
	and adjusted to the conditions of the present	50:32
	and the needs of the future."	50:35
	End of quote.	50:38
	What it's fashionable these days	50:41
	for some campus religious groups all across America	50:42
	to spend the majority of their time in bad mouthing	50:47
	the institutional church,	50:50
	sobering thought is that	50:53
	these campus branches of the church would cease to exist	50:55
	if the institutional church where as critical of them,	51:00
	as some of them are of it.	51:04
	Because if it were,	51:07
	it would terminate its financial support of them,	51:09
	and that would be the end.	51:12
	Fortunately, the institutional church is more tolerant	51:15
	and supportive of its perfect critics than they are of it.	51:19
	So the church moves ahead in dialogue,	51:25
	but what the carpet critic is	51:30
	and what he is in a religious group,	51:34
	is a person who must remember that negativistic criticisms	51:38
	without convincing evidences of support,	51:44
	destroy community by destroying personal relationships.	51:47
	And when these are gone, there is very little left.	51:52
	The presence of a given number of warm bodies in a group	51:58
	does not guarantee community.	52:02
	There is not some trust, some mutual acceptance and support.	52:05
	The chronic critic destroys Christian community.	52:12
	And when one does this,	52:16
	he assumes a very heavy responsibility.	52:20
	I am very happy to say this morning	52:24
	that there is a more excellent way.	52:26
	It is the way of love, when there is charity,	52:30
	when there is genuine care and concern,	52:35
	even sharp criticism	52:40
	is not really painful and destructive.	52:43
	For we speak the truth to each other	52:48
	in love as Paul wrote to the Ephesians.	52:50
	In Jesus Christ's high priestly prayer,	52:57
	which was read as our scripture lesson today,	53:01
	Christ prayed that his disciples might be one O-N-E	53:06
	so that the world might believe in him.	53:13
	Now, even before Christ came,	53:17
	the Psalmist knew that it was both good and pleasant	53:20
	for brothers to dwell together in unity.	53:25
	Our Heavenly father,	53:30
	it is still good for brothers to dwell together in unity.	53:33
	Still on this Sunday,	53:38
	we pray that the disciples and followers of Jesus,	53:42
	may be one in his name, we ask it.	53:46
	Amen.	53:50
	(serene organ music)	53:56
	(choir sings)	54:29
	♪ Amen ♪	55:33
	(slow low organ music)	55:49
	(lively organ music)	57:40
	(choir sings in foreign language)	57:46
	(women sing in foreign language)	58:37
	(choir sings in foreign language)	58:57
	(serene organ music)	59:29
	(choir sings)	59:35
	(choir singing swells)	1:00:46
	(serene organ music)	1:01:19
	(serene organ music)	1:01:33
	(choir sings)	1:01:57
-	Oh Lord, our God,	1:02:56
	you have given us life and earth and freedom.	1:02:58
	Receive this, our response of thanksgiving and praise,	1:03:03
	we ask, send your holy spirit	1:03:07
	to hollow our gifts to perfect the offering of ourselves	1:03:11
	and in the service of your love.	1:03:16
	Go forth now to do God's work in the world.	1:03:22
	May the love of God,	1:03:27
	the father almighty, the son, and the holy spirit	1:03:28
	rest and abide with you now and forever more.	1:03:34
	♪ Amen ♪	1:03:43
	♪ Amen ♪	1:03:48
	♪ Amen ♪	1:03:54
	♪ Amen ♪	1:03:59
	♪ Amen ♪	1:04:10

Item Info

Title:

Howard C. Wilkinson - "Can Examination Endure Examination?" (June 20, 1971)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r43f4qp90

Date:

June 20, 1971

Speaker:

Wilkinson, Howard C.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0577
ref6357_qhf
uachapelsermaud
duke:628659
dcrau002564
ark:/87924/r43f4qp90
dcf2897f-c7cd-482a-ab48-69d91833ac62

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Educational Use Permitted

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Howard C. Wilkinson - "Can Examination Endure Examination?" (June 20, 1971)

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1. Howard C. Wilkinson - "Can Examination Endure Examination?" (June 20, 1971)

Duke University Archives

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Howard C. Wilkinson - "Can Examination Endure Examination?" (June 20, 1971)

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Duke University Archives

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