Overcoming The Anxiety Of An Inadequate Background
Sermon
A God For This World
Gospel Sermons For Advent/Christmas/Epiphany
Americans are increasingly concerned about backgrounds. In the old days when immigration was fresh in our minds, we often were ashamed of our background and saw it as a hindrance to advancement in the new world. We wanted to throw off the old language, the old dress and cuisine, and the old culture, in our effort to be accepted in the new world.
Today, however, there is renewed interest in backgrounds. A sociologist has summarized the phenomenon in a "law" which says, "What the son wishes to forget, the grandson wishes to remember."ÊThe son, still concerned about old world vestiges in his personality and behavior patterns, and worried about total acceptance in the new world, in some ways envies the grandson, who feels totally accepted, totally Americanized, and delights in old world dances, language, clothing, cooking, stories, and customs.
Consequently, many Americans are turning to ethnic cooking, ethnic festivals, and ethnic languages. Others research their family tree and brag about their background until they find a skeleton in the ancestral closet! Someone even quipped lately that Alex Haley, author of Roots, discovered he was adopted!
Americans are also upward achievers. Thousands of people move from one economic class to another, one cultured educational group to another. Unlike England where class destinations seem to be inherited and frozen, Americans are upwardly mobile. Thankfully so, for this freedom of upward mobility, or for that matter downward mobility, may be one of the great factors of continuing democracy and creativity.
Nevertheless, as Americans ascend into new socioeconomic-educational classes, they become increasingly anxious about their inadequate backgrounds. It is sometimes with difficulty they confess that their father was a farmer, or an appliance repair man, or a factory worker, or a trucker, or a shoe salesman, or a carpenter, or a bus driver. And even if he was a lawyer or a doctor, there is always the question of whether he went to the right schools, or practiced with the right firm in the right city, or whether he was prestigious and successful.
There is an ironic twist in the American psyche today. Upward achievers, who naturally pride themselves on their accomplishments, seem now to want an adequate background to justify their achievements and to give assurance in the new social atmosphere.
In some places it is improper to ask about one's background. In Australia, for example, backgrounds are never brought up. That is because England used to exile all its rabblerousers, ne'er-do-wells, and criminals to Australia. Everyone was assumed to have a very inadequate background, and so no one inquired about what they already knew.
But not so in this country anymore. We are concerned about backgrounds because we feel so rootless, so lacking in continuing identity in this age of transition and rapid change. In an effort to know who we are, we seek an adequate background to establish our security and identity and to allay our anxiety.
In Jesus' time, those with "adequate" backgrounds were the Pharisees. Devout, disciplined, and thoroughly committed to their religious beliefs and practices, they were regarded as insiders, as people who had arrived, as persons who were "in" with society and especially "in" with God.
But Jesus was criticized for associating with tax collectors and sinners, with "outsiders," with those of an inadequate background. In answer, he said, "Those who are well," that is, those with adequate backgrounds, "need no physician, but those who are sick. I came," said Jesus, "not to call the righteous, but sinners; not to help the 'insiders' but the 'outsiders.' I came," said Jesus, "to help those who feel they have inadequate backgrounds."
I
For one thing, Christ helps us overcome the anxiety of not being accepted.
Young people are concerned about being accepted. Recently a student returned from college, informing her parents she desperately needed a pair of the latest "in" shoes. "But you would never be seen in those at your high school," said her mother. "Yes, but everyone wears them at college," said the daughter. "You're a 'nobody' if you don't wear these shoes."
If high school and college students are concerned about not being accepted, so are important Americans. President Nixon used to express anxiety over his not being included in the Eastern Establishment of breeding, education, money, and aristocracy. But commenting on Nixon's anxiety, Eliot Richardson, a former Attorney General, a typical representative of the Eastern Establishment, once said that when you are President of the United States, you are "in" and you decide who is "in."
Nixon had difficulty accepting his own acceptance by the American people. He was so anxious and insecure he went overboard with his Committee to Reelect the President, to make sure he would win by a landslide, and thus be more "in" than anyone in history. And yet soon he was "out."
Nixon's anxiety over his inadequate background also made it impossible to confess any wrongdoing. Upward achievers always are anxious to be accepted by the group just above them. In order to be accepted they must prove to themselves and to the group "above" them that they are worthy. This may include wearing the right clothes, going to the right plays or concerts, serving on the right community boards, behaving with a certain set of manners, referring to the right books or periodicals, making lots of money, or political success.
All that is common enough. But upward achievers cannot admit to any wrong, because the group above them might thereby exclude them. Upward achievers make no public confessions, because cynically they know those already included have done their share of wrong and just have not been caught; and idealistically, they think of themselves as just as good as the guy or gal above them.
Such was the case with Nixon. He and his defenders pointed out the shady dealings of previous presidents and politicians. Undoubtedly they were right. We are now learning as fact what long was rumored, that President Kennedy regularly was visited by prostitutes, in the White House, no less. There was no public outcry, no clamor from the press, no confession of wrongdoing. But Nixon was caught, the evidence did seem to support impeachment, and when support eroded in the Senate, he was forced to resign.
Instead of a cover-up, Nixon might have confessed and asked forgiveness. He might have relaxed into the grace of God, knowing he was included in something so much greater than our own country. In the house of God, he might have quieted the anxiety of his inadequate background, knowing God looks into the heart, not on external accoutrements. The power and prestige of men means little to an omnipotent God. Nations to him are a drop in the bucket, as dust on grocer's scales, says Isaiah. God seeks the man of humble heart, the woman of contrite spirit, the young person of genuine character. The release from the anxiety of an inadequate background could have been there for President Nixon.
Upward achievers are tempted to believe they can storm the kingdom of God the same way they storm the socioeconomic class above them. They are deluded by the idea that their anxiety is primarily sociological and economic, and that the cure for the anxiety is the next step on the rung. But experienced upward achievers know that is something like drinking salt water to quench your thirst. It only makes you thirstier.
The apostle Paul recognized that his anxiety was something deeper than social class, economic standing, or academic credentials. It was the anxiety of the self, the anxiety of identity, the anxiety of death and immortality. His was the anxiety of attaining life, of making a name for himself, i.e., of ensuring his immortality. Like the first Adam, he was anxious because he recognized he was outside Eden, outside Paradise, away from the tree of life. Thus, he attempted to achieve his way back to Eden, back to Paradise, to assure his immortality and allay his anxiety. But to no avail.
That is when he discovered the grace of God in Christ, i.e., God's acceptance and inclusion of those who have the humility to confess their ultimate anxiety, who have the wisdom to put aside all their anxiety-produced credentials for earned acceptance into Paradise, and to believe in God, to trust in him and his grace. After all, the cause of the ultimate anxiety was lack of faith and trust in God.
II
Christ also helps us to overcome the anxiety of having to succeed.
The goal toward which most upward achievers work is success. Success is the reward for diligent preparation, hard work, and clever maneuvering. Success, for upward achievers, symbolizes salvation. Salvation means wideness of life, wholeness of life. It comes from the same root as "salve," an ointment used for healing. Thus, salvation is the state of being healed, of good health and wholeness. It is the enjoyment of the fullness of life.
Many upward achievers think success is the key to salvation, or is in fact salvation itself. It rescues the self from anonymity and gives it freedom to ski in Aspen, to vacation in the Bahamas, or to tour the world in leisure or luxury. Others have a more modest view of success -- a view that sees themselves as comfortably well off, with good health, a good name, and no financial worries.
Nevertheless, success, in whatever package, is seen as salvation. It gives one the fullness of life. Thus, in a nation of upward achievers, the most prevalent anxiety is that of success -- the anxiety of getting it and keeping it. The anxiety becomes compulsive and obsessive if one attaches one's total identity to the goal of success. How can one be saved from an inadequate background? By achieving success, says our upwardly mobile population.
Paul says the grace of God releases us from the compulsion to succeed because we discover that we are acknowledged, recognized, and loved in spite of our inadequacies. In fact, when we confess our inadequacies, instead of trying to cover for them in the success syndrome, we discover a new kind of wholeness and contentment and release. The humble acknowledgment before God of our inability to achieve all we know we ought to achieve counts in effect as achievement for us, because it is the "achievement" of faith, the achievement of a humble and contrite heart, so essential to salvation, to wholeness and healing, to the release from anxiety and the inward peace and connectedness God gives. To their great surprise, the "sinners" and "outsiders," those who had not achieved religious "success," were precisely the ones Jesus invited to his table.
The experience of God's grace calms the ultimate anxiety of upward achievers over their inadequate background. After all, if the Son of God says you have "arrived," you have "arrived."
III
Christ also helps us overcome the anxiety of mortality.
Philosopher Bertrand Russell once observed that every man wants to make himself god. And we might add every woman wants to make herself goddess. That is, we all want to ascend in self-importance to the place of omnipotence and immortality.
The ultimate anxiety is that of death. Will we be annihilated forever? Will we be forgotten in the dust of the universe? Is death the end of everything? And if so, what meaning does life have? Are we here for this brief flash of time for no purpose other than to produce, consume, procreate, and die?
Many people today believe that to be the case, that this is the only life, that there is nothing beyond. Consequently, they are resolved to make the good life the substitute for the heavenly life. In the New York area, a lush residential area developed around Lake Success and was regarded by some as entrance to the good life, as was residence in Westchester or shoreline Connecticut, or summer residence in the Hamptons of Long Island. In the Minneapolis area people settled in a place called Paradise Valley, and they thought it was. And in Grand Rapids, Michigan, there were people who lived around Paradise Lake. But I've been to all these places, and I'm not convinced they are Paradise!
Nevertheless, much of our obsession with the good life, the life of paradise on earth, arises out of our anxiety over death and mortality. If this life is all there is, we have to make the most of it. Pity those who are poor or who have cancer or arthritis or heart disease or insanity.
Connected with this anxiety is our obsession with hedonism -- the love of sensuous pleasure. Hedonism is the bodily interpretation of life. Its goal is to achieve the ultimate bodily experience in comfort, sex, wine, food, travel, music, theater, and possessions. Pleasure is the freedom to feel what you want when you want. Thus the self acquires all the accoutrements essential to hedonism, to sensuous pleasure, to allay the anxiety of dying without ever having experienced the totality of life. In this context how strange Jesus' words: "Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me." But of the hedonists Paul says, "Destruction is their fate, the belly is their god. They glory in their shame, those men of earthly mind" (Philippians 3:19 Moffatt).
"We, by contrast,"Êsays Paul, "are citizens of heaven, and from heaven we expect our deliverer to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transfigure the body belonging to our humble state, and give it a form like that of his own resplendent body ..." (Philippians 3:20-21).
Therefore, we can be released from the ultimate anxiety of having to make a name for ourselves and of thus assuring ourselves we will be remembered in history. Some people believe the only immortality we have is what lives on in the memory of those who survive us. One of the saints of my church remarked that, knowing how short some people's memories were, he hoped his immortality rested on something more than that. It does, says Paul. Do not be anxious. God remembers.
And if in this body you have missed out on the ultimate bodily experience, or if you are handicapped, or if the life of one you loved was short, take heart, because God will transform this present body and give it a form resplendent and immortal like Christ's.
Know then that Christ has overcome the anxiety of an inadequate background, an inadequacy possessed by the whole human race since the fall of Adam. He has, by his grace and love and acceptance, overcome the anxiety of acceptance, the anxiety of having to succeed, the anxiety of immortality. "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick," said Jesus. "I came not to call the righteous, the insiders, but sinners, the outsiders, those anxious about their inadequate background."
Prayer
Lord of the light of the new day, who blesses the world with the presence of your shining favor, and who upholds the world with your faithful word of power, we, your humble servants, praise you for your life and power.
As creatures of time and sense, we come to you to gain perspective on the world and ourselves. Caught up in the onrush of time's ever-flowing stream, we draw aside to you for reflection, for insight, and for help with life's most puzzling questions. Be pleased to grant us the help we most need.
In this season we pray for clarity of vision. Help us to see the truth about ourselves and to amend our ways. Expose our flaws of character, which we have covered with rationalizations. Deliver us from eyes filled with lust and greed, so that we might treat our neighbors as persons, not as things.
Release us from fixation on the present moment, the immediate circumstance, the pain or pleasure of the hour, to see beyond into your larger purposes for our lives. Help us remove the wooden beam in our own eye before we try to remove the splinter in our brother's eye.
Lord God, you have promised to give strength to the faint and exhausted, a new heart to those weary of the world. Grant us strength in this season to break out of schedules, habits, and routines which limit us and bring us down. Give us power to break out of old ways of thinking which embrace a narrow view of the past and which screen out the most impressive realities of present and future. Endow us with new strength to love in those places where we have entrenched ourselves behind walls of hate or indifference or revenge.
In a day when so much of our life is determined and regulated by institutions, we ask for their new birth. Enable the family to gain control of itself and to impart noble values and personalized ideas. Curb the excesses of government at all levels, that it may again see its purpose to serve people, not to harass them. Enlighten national leaders throughout the world, that exploitation and bloodshed might cease, and peace and prosperity for all ensue. For the institutions of law and medicine call to remembrance the basic need to do justice in the land and to heal and help.
Endow the Church here and throughout the world with a new birth of purpose and power, that her apathy and impotence might be replaced with energy and joy and the confidence of victory over evil. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Today, however, there is renewed interest in backgrounds. A sociologist has summarized the phenomenon in a "law" which says, "What the son wishes to forget, the grandson wishes to remember."ÊThe son, still concerned about old world vestiges in his personality and behavior patterns, and worried about total acceptance in the new world, in some ways envies the grandson, who feels totally accepted, totally Americanized, and delights in old world dances, language, clothing, cooking, stories, and customs.
Consequently, many Americans are turning to ethnic cooking, ethnic festivals, and ethnic languages. Others research their family tree and brag about their background until they find a skeleton in the ancestral closet! Someone even quipped lately that Alex Haley, author of Roots, discovered he was adopted!
Americans are also upward achievers. Thousands of people move from one economic class to another, one cultured educational group to another. Unlike England where class destinations seem to be inherited and frozen, Americans are upwardly mobile. Thankfully so, for this freedom of upward mobility, or for that matter downward mobility, may be one of the great factors of continuing democracy and creativity.
Nevertheless, as Americans ascend into new socioeconomic-educational classes, they become increasingly anxious about their inadequate backgrounds. It is sometimes with difficulty they confess that their father was a farmer, or an appliance repair man, or a factory worker, or a trucker, or a shoe salesman, or a carpenter, or a bus driver. And even if he was a lawyer or a doctor, there is always the question of whether he went to the right schools, or practiced with the right firm in the right city, or whether he was prestigious and successful.
There is an ironic twist in the American psyche today. Upward achievers, who naturally pride themselves on their accomplishments, seem now to want an adequate background to justify their achievements and to give assurance in the new social atmosphere.
In some places it is improper to ask about one's background. In Australia, for example, backgrounds are never brought up. That is because England used to exile all its rabblerousers, ne'er-do-wells, and criminals to Australia. Everyone was assumed to have a very inadequate background, and so no one inquired about what they already knew.
But not so in this country anymore. We are concerned about backgrounds because we feel so rootless, so lacking in continuing identity in this age of transition and rapid change. In an effort to know who we are, we seek an adequate background to establish our security and identity and to allay our anxiety.
In Jesus' time, those with "adequate" backgrounds were the Pharisees. Devout, disciplined, and thoroughly committed to their religious beliefs and practices, they were regarded as insiders, as people who had arrived, as persons who were "in" with society and especially "in" with God.
But Jesus was criticized for associating with tax collectors and sinners, with "outsiders," with those of an inadequate background. In answer, he said, "Those who are well," that is, those with adequate backgrounds, "need no physician, but those who are sick. I came," said Jesus, "not to call the righteous, but sinners; not to help the 'insiders' but the 'outsiders.' I came," said Jesus, "to help those who feel they have inadequate backgrounds."
I
For one thing, Christ helps us overcome the anxiety of not being accepted.
Young people are concerned about being accepted. Recently a student returned from college, informing her parents she desperately needed a pair of the latest "in" shoes. "But you would never be seen in those at your high school," said her mother. "Yes, but everyone wears them at college," said the daughter. "You're a 'nobody' if you don't wear these shoes."
If high school and college students are concerned about not being accepted, so are important Americans. President Nixon used to express anxiety over his not being included in the Eastern Establishment of breeding, education, money, and aristocracy. But commenting on Nixon's anxiety, Eliot Richardson, a former Attorney General, a typical representative of the Eastern Establishment, once said that when you are President of the United States, you are "in" and you decide who is "in."
Nixon had difficulty accepting his own acceptance by the American people. He was so anxious and insecure he went overboard with his Committee to Reelect the President, to make sure he would win by a landslide, and thus be more "in" than anyone in history. And yet soon he was "out."
Nixon's anxiety over his inadequate background also made it impossible to confess any wrongdoing. Upward achievers always are anxious to be accepted by the group just above them. In order to be accepted they must prove to themselves and to the group "above" them that they are worthy. This may include wearing the right clothes, going to the right plays or concerts, serving on the right community boards, behaving with a certain set of manners, referring to the right books or periodicals, making lots of money, or political success.
All that is common enough. But upward achievers cannot admit to any wrong, because the group above them might thereby exclude them. Upward achievers make no public confessions, because cynically they know those already included have done their share of wrong and just have not been caught; and idealistically, they think of themselves as just as good as the guy or gal above them.
Such was the case with Nixon. He and his defenders pointed out the shady dealings of previous presidents and politicians. Undoubtedly they were right. We are now learning as fact what long was rumored, that President Kennedy regularly was visited by prostitutes, in the White House, no less. There was no public outcry, no clamor from the press, no confession of wrongdoing. But Nixon was caught, the evidence did seem to support impeachment, and when support eroded in the Senate, he was forced to resign.
Instead of a cover-up, Nixon might have confessed and asked forgiveness. He might have relaxed into the grace of God, knowing he was included in something so much greater than our own country. In the house of God, he might have quieted the anxiety of his inadequate background, knowing God looks into the heart, not on external accoutrements. The power and prestige of men means little to an omnipotent God. Nations to him are a drop in the bucket, as dust on grocer's scales, says Isaiah. God seeks the man of humble heart, the woman of contrite spirit, the young person of genuine character. The release from the anxiety of an inadequate background could have been there for President Nixon.
Upward achievers are tempted to believe they can storm the kingdom of God the same way they storm the socioeconomic class above them. They are deluded by the idea that their anxiety is primarily sociological and economic, and that the cure for the anxiety is the next step on the rung. But experienced upward achievers know that is something like drinking salt water to quench your thirst. It only makes you thirstier.
The apostle Paul recognized that his anxiety was something deeper than social class, economic standing, or academic credentials. It was the anxiety of the self, the anxiety of identity, the anxiety of death and immortality. His was the anxiety of attaining life, of making a name for himself, i.e., of ensuring his immortality. Like the first Adam, he was anxious because he recognized he was outside Eden, outside Paradise, away from the tree of life. Thus, he attempted to achieve his way back to Eden, back to Paradise, to assure his immortality and allay his anxiety. But to no avail.
That is when he discovered the grace of God in Christ, i.e., God's acceptance and inclusion of those who have the humility to confess their ultimate anxiety, who have the wisdom to put aside all their anxiety-produced credentials for earned acceptance into Paradise, and to believe in God, to trust in him and his grace. After all, the cause of the ultimate anxiety was lack of faith and trust in God.
II
Christ also helps us to overcome the anxiety of having to succeed.
The goal toward which most upward achievers work is success. Success is the reward for diligent preparation, hard work, and clever maneuvering. Success, for upward achievers, symbolizes salvation. Salvation means wideness of life, wholeness of life. It comes from the same root as "salve," an ointment used for healing. Thus, salvation is the state of being healed, of good health and wholeness. It is the enjoyment of the fullness of life.
Many upward achievers think success is the key to salvation, or is in fact salvation itself. It rescues the self from anonymity and gives it freedom to ski in Aspen, to vacation in the Bahamas, or to tour the world in leisure or luxury. Others have a more modest view of success -- a view that sees themselves as comfortably well off, with good health, a good name, and no financial worries.
Nevertheless, success, in whatever package, is seen as salvation. It gives one the fullness of life. Thus, in a nation of upward achievers, the most prevalent anxiety is that of success -- the anxiety of getting it and keeping it. The anxiety becomes compulsive and obsessive if one attaches one's total identity to the goal of success. How can one be saved from an inadequate background? By achieving success, says our upwardly mobile population.
Paul says the grace of God releases us from the compulsion to succeed because we discover that we are acknowledged, recognized, and loved in spite of our inadequacies. In fact, when we confess our inadequacies, instead of trying to cover for them in the success syndrome, we discover a new kind of wholeness and contentment and release. The humble acknowledgment before God of our inability to achieve all we know we ought to achieve counts in effect as achievement for us, because it is the "achievement" of faith, the achievement of a humble and contrite heart, so essential to salvation, to wholeness and healing, to the release from anxiety and the inward peace and connectedness God gives. To their great surprise, the "sinners" and "outsiders," those who had not achieved religious "success," were precisely the ones Jesus invited to his table.
The experience of God's grace calms the ultimate anxiety of upward achievers over their inadequate background. After all, if the Son of God says you have "arrived," you have "arrived."
III
Christ also helps us overcome the anxiety of mortality.
Philosopher Bertrand Russell once observed that every man wants to make himself god. And we might add every woman wants to make herself goddess. That is, we all want to ascend in self-importance to the place of omnipotence and immortality.
The ultimate anxiety is that of death. Will we be annihilated forever? Will we be forgotten in the dust of the universe? Is death the end of everything? And if so, what meaning does life have? Are we here for this brief flash of time for no purpose other than to produce, consume, procreate, and die?
Many people today believe that to be the case, that this is the only life, that there is nothing beyond. Consequently, they are resolved to make the good life the substitute for the heavenly life. In the New York area, a lush residential area developed around Lake Success and was regarded by some as entrance to the good life, as was residence in Westchester or shoreline Connecticut, or summer residence in the Hamptons of Long Island. In the Minneapolis area people settled in a place called Paradise Valley, and they thought it was. And in Grand Rapids, Michigan, there were people who lived around Paradise Lake. But I've been to all these places, and I'm not convinced they are Paradise!
Nevertheless, much of our obsession with the good life, the life of paradise on earth, arises out of our anxiety over death and mortality. If this life is all there is, we have to make the most of it. Pity those who are poor or who have cancer or arthritis or heart disease or insanity.
Connected with this anxiety is our obsession with hedonism -- the love of sensuous pleasure. Hedonism is the bodily interpretation of life. Its goal is to achieve the ultimate bodily experience in comfort, sex, wine, food, travel, music, theater, and possessions. Pleasure is the freedom to feel what you want when you want. Thus the self acquires all the accoutrements essential to hedonism, to sensuous pleasure, to allay the anxiety of dying without ever having experienced the totality of life. In this context how strange Jesus' words: "Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me." But of the hedonists Paul says, "Destruction is their fate, the belly is their god. They glory in their shame, those men of earthly mind" (Philippians 3:19 Moffatt).
"We, by contrast,"Êsays Paul, "are citizens of heaven, and from heaven we expect our deliverer to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transfigure the body belonging to our humble state, and give it a form like that of his own resplendent body ..." (Philippians 3:20-21).
Therefore, we can be released from the ultimate anxiety of having to make a name for ourselves and of thus assuring ourselves we will be remembered in history. Some people believe the only immortality we have is what lives on in the memory of those who survive us. One of the saints of my church remarked that, knowing how short some people's memories were, he hoped his immortality rested on something more than that. It does, says Paul. Do not be anxious. God remembers.
And if in this body you have missed out on the ultimate bodily experience, or if you are handicapped, or if the life of one you loved was short, take heart, because God will transform this present body and give it a form resplendent and immortal like Christ's.
Know then that Christ has overcome the anxiety of an inadequate background, an inadequacy possessed by the whole human race since the fall of Adam. He has, by his grace and love and acceptance, overcome the anxiety of acceptance, the anxiety of having to succeed, the anxiety of immortality. "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick," said Jesus. "I came not to call the righteous, the insiders, but sinners, the outsiders, those anxious about their inadequate background."
Prayer
Lord of the light of the new day, who blesses the world with the presence of your shining favor, and who upholds the world with your faithful word of power, we, your humble servants, praise you for your life and power.
As creatures of time and sense, we come to you to gain perspective on the world and ourselves. Caught up in the onrush of time's ever-flowing stream, we draw aside to you for reflection, for insight, and for help with life's most puzzling questions. Be pleased to grant us the help we most need.
In this season we pray for clarity of vision. Help us to see the truth about ourselves and to amend our ways. Expose our flaws of character, which we have covered with rationalizations. Deliver us from eyes filled with lust and greed, so that we might treat our neighbors as persons, not as things.
Release us from fixation on the present moment, the immediate circumstance, the pain or pleasure of the hour, to see beyond into your larger purposes for our lives. Help us remove the wooden beam in our own eye before we try to remove the splinter in our brother's eye.
Lord God, you have promised to give strength to the faint and exhausted, a new heart to those weary of the world. Grant us strength in this season to break out of schedules, habits, and routines which limit us and bring us down. Give us power to break out of old ways of thinking which embrace a narrow view of the past and which screen out the most impressive realities of present and future. Endow us with new strength to love in those places where we have entrenched ourselves behind walls of hate or indifference or revenge.
In a day when so much of our life is determined and regulated by institutions, we ask for their new birth. Enable the family to gain control of itself and to impart noble values and personalized ideas. Curb the excesses of government at all levels, that it may again see its purpose to serve people, not to harass them. Enlighten national leaders throughout the world, that exploitation and bloodshed might cease, and peace and prosperity for all ensue. For the institutions of law and medicine call to remembrance the basic need to do justice in the land and to heal and help.
Endow the Church here and throughout the world with a new birth of purpose and power, that her apathy and impotence might be replaced with energy and joy and the confidence of victory over evil. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
