Will Power

Mark 8:27-38
May 2, 1971

John M. Buchanan

I talked last wock with a gontlo, strong old man. I was callod at night
because he had jan lost his wife of many years. Her death was preceeded by
a very sad and agonizing sequence of events; and this amplified the normal pain
of grief. is I apeve ft thought about, what I might say ~ what does one say in
a situation like this? Words are not adequate. I tried to say, simply, "I'm
sorry": but before I could speak the carefully chosen words he said, "Tt's
inevitable: we all must face it sometime: I shall miss her," almost as if he
wags somehow trying to comfort me - as if he sensed my anxiety and wanted to
allay it.

ie talked about her, what she had meant to him. We laughed about good
times and talkea about fishing and mountain streams and coal mining. We read
the 23rd Psalm and prayed together and I left. 4nd back in the car on the way
home I felt lifted up by what had transpired. I concluded that I had just
met an exceptional man, a man with deep faith and tremendous personal tien ie
I identified the resource from which he was drawing in his grief as will powor.
Or power of will. In a situation that well could have prompted the collapse
of a normal personality, this gentlemen was not letting go. Grieving to be
sure: but he was in control. The event of his wife's death was not managing
him, He had incorporated it, integrated it and was still very much a respons-
ible human being, ‘That's will power.

This is a sermon about will power, or power of will. But unlike many
sermons on the topic which come across as righteous indictments of weak-
willed laymen, let it here be acknowledged that this one comes from one who
attempts, at least twice annually, to quit smoking, and who so far has
ignominously failed.

Be that as it may, we are in, I believe, a crisis of will, as a civili-

zation, as a culture, and as a church. ind the will power I am talking about

is something infinitely more profound than steeling oneself for quiting smoking
or avoiding between meal snacks.

Do you remember the excellent motion picture Marty from several years
ago. It was widely acclaimed for its honesty and its penetrating analysis
of life. Marty was what our culture calls "a nice guy"; i.e. the kind of
person Leo Durocher said finished last. He was a person to whom things happen
but who never makes things happen, the eternal victim of circumstance. In
one particular sequence Marty phoned a friend for the purpose of deciding what
+o do that evening. The conversation went something like this "What do you
wanna do tonight?" "I don't know, Marty. What do you wanna do?" *I don't
know, what do you wanna do?" etc. ete. They ended up drinking beer in the
tavern, which is what they ended up doing every other night of their lives.

Marty found self-esteem and responsibility and power of will in a woman
he loved and who returned his love. But the significance of the film was in
the fact that contonmorary American life is like that phone conversation for
a lot of people. Rather than the master of all he surveys modern man is one
to whom things happen but who rarely has any sense of making them happen;

a leaf perennially floating in the stream of life, a stream that can get a
pretty turbulent, constantly drifting, buffeted to and fro by the currents

and eddies, never in control of his destination. In fact, the matter of
responsibility for the destination seems to have been given over entirely to
the curzent, to the large, impersonal forces of our society. That is the
crisis of will in which we find ourselves.

It wasn't always like that, of course. The Victorian concept of will
power that informed Western civilization so significantly was a rigid self-
discipline that was the last guardian against immorality. In the Victorian
gense a man was totally responsible for his behavior and his destiny.

But along camc Sigmund Froud who studied the ill effects of Victorian
will power and concluded that there is a lot going on in the individual over

which he has no control. And that classical will power involves a whole lot

ie.

of self deccit and consequently a lot of guilt. Freud was led to conclude see

that man is driven by his "unconscious"; that free will, and therefore will
power, are illusions. ind that personal responsibility for who one is and
what one does and where one goes in life is pure mythology. eg

Now, Sigmund Freud contributed brilliantly to man's self understanding,
and it is impossible to contcmplate the disciplines of psychology and psych-
iatry apart from his work. But he also helped lay to rest a very important
concept, namely, will power, perhaps inadvertantly, but nevertheless it
happened.

Add to Freud's impact on the personality sciences, Karl Marx's influence
in the social sciences and you have the class 7608 analysis of how we got
into a crisis of will. Marx suggested that who a man is and what he does and
where he gocs are determined by economic motives and forces. Dialectical
materialism tial paled it. ind like the theories of Freud the result is the
removal, of personal responsibility - power of will - leuk; stock and barrel,

a

from the individual and his rationale thought processes, and the depositing
of the samo out there somewhere or in here somewhere; which in either case
means it is inaccessible to you and me, and that we are pretty helpless.

Rollo May, immenent psychoanalyst, in his book "Love and Will" puts it
this way talking about the influcnce of Froud: “eee. It reflected, rational~
ized and played into the hands of modern man's most pervasive tendency -
which has become almost an endemic disease in the middle of the twontieth :
century - to sec himself as passive, the willy-nilly product of the power
ful. juggernaut of psychological drives." [p. 183] "The inherited basis of
our capacity for will and decision has been irrevocably destroyed." [p. 182]

That's where we are today, and I would suggest that all of us, at times,
have expericnced in a very personal way, a feeling of helplessness and powor-— '
lessness: a feeling that we are not at all in control of our lives: that our
power of will is simply non-existant. :

Let's think ss cea iat Let's think about will power, not as self-

? pace NA yas esa A

—

restraint, but as personal strength to exercise control, to make decisions
and to make thom matter.

There is no denying that we are up against large and powerful and im-
personal forces. Consider something as simple as a trip to the doctor's
office - or a stay in a hospital. If you've ever had an appointment for
one o'clock and secon your doctor at four o'clock, you have experienced the
total negation of your power. In a recent conference at St. Blizabeth hospital
the whole problem of the patient's feeling of powerlessness was identified as
a major problem in health care. The process of being admitted to the hospital
and undergoing treatment is, in fact, a handing over of personal responsibility
for one's sclf to someone else: often to a mysterious, impersonal institution
represented by doctor's who don't spend enough time with you and the dietician
Somewhere deep down in the basement who never hears your plaintiff cry for
sugar in your coffee. In -that setting your will. power just doesn't exist.
ind slowly we're coming to see that this is why many patients complain about
service and food and bed linens. It's simply a last diteh effort to salvage
a little power of will and to say "I'm still me."

Consider what it's like to be old and poor ~ a devastating combination
in this community. One elderly couple sent their aiteonditioner in for
repairs and the repair shop kept it for two months, then lost it, and finally
came up with a replacement model that didn't work. No amount of phone calls
from them worked: they had will but no power and then, subtly, no will. They
just gave up.

Consider the invasion of your privacy by the whole complex of businesses

involved in consumer credit. In a recent article in Saturday Review, Relph

Nader documented the whole frightening business and pointed out that you and
I have no control. Miss one payment, or refuse payment because of a faulty
product, or worse yet - offend your neighbor whose assessment of you will be .

on your credit dosseir, and you may be done for life.

rok |

~~.

ry

There is no denying that the individual who wishes to be in control is aS .
up against it. ind through it all, more and more people accept their passive
role, their powerlessness as inevitable. Through it all, I believe, we learn,
to be indecisive, we learn not to make decisions, and when we do, not to
expect them to matter, Through it all I see an abdication of personal respons—
ibility, a surrender of personal power of will. ind the confession — "My
decisions don't matter: my opinions don't matter: I don't matter."

Now, in all of this, and I apologize for the length of time it took me
to get here, there is emerging a very low doctrine of man. Excused from
responsibility for my behavior by Dr. Froud: absolved of responsibility for
the body politic by Mr. Marx: and stripped of any power and control by the
large, impersonal forces of society, I really don't amount to very mich. I
have no power of will.

But over against this view, which I would define as the orisis of will,
ig the Biblical view of man. This view elevates man to a position a little
lower than God himself, and.a whole lot above the rest of creation. The
Bible sees man as the responsible agent in the whole created order, the
decision maker, the one with dominion and power and authority. In terms of
nature, the first chapter of Genesis makes man “coscreative" with God, and
thereford very mich responsible for the state of the ecology. I+ suggests
that you and I — and no one else — are the ones whose dpoi bons determine the
future. The Bible suggest that man is a free agent in creation, regardicss of
what Freud and Marx said, and that ultimately we do bear responsibility for
who we are and what we do and where we go.

It's interesting, along these lines, that the whole area of psychiatry
and psychoanalysis is slowly moving back in this direction.

In Rollo May's book that I cited carlier he describes the dilemma:

"Toward the ond of analysis the therapist may find himself wishing that
the patient were jenabks of more 'push', more 'determination' a greater
willingness 'to make the best of it'. Often the wish even tuates in remarks

to the patient; 'People mst help thomselvest; ‘Nothing worthwhile is achieved

without effort'; 'You have to try’. » « Often an analyst feels uncomfortable
about such appeals, as though he were using something he didn't believe in." 8
[p. 197] 7
liell, however hesitant and apologetic it may be, it is a move in the
right direction. For in the final analysis we are peieaalbite — and we mist
exercise that power of will. ind if you want to put the academic argument in
the context of something very immediate and very relevant, think for a minute
about sexual morality. Young people today are living in a cine when human
sexuality is rightly and openly celebrated. They are also living in a time
when all the old prohibitions are being eliminated. Theoretically, one can
do what one ploases without all those terrible things happening that our
parents warned would occur. ind if ever there was a need for people who have
real power of will, real strength, real ability to make a decision: real control
over the situation, it is right now. Young people have been forced into a
situation in which they must make decisions daily, that were made for us.
ind they nced, more than anything the self esteem and confidence that will
allow them to make those decisions oappemashias. 213. .
One day Jesus and his disciples were walking along hates villages. He
asked them what appeared to be an innocent question: ‘Who do men say I am?"
whet are people saying about me?" «nd to that academic question they gave
an academic reply: "Some are saying you're John the Baptist, others Eljiah
or one of the prophets." But then he turned the beacon of responsibility on
them personally. "ind you," he asked, ‘who do you say that I am?" They had
the power, they had to decide, they had the power of will to determine who
they would be in relation to this man. ind Peter judtcived it: "You are the
Messiah."
That's when it all comes to a head. President Harry S. ‘Truman had a
sign on his dosk that read, "The Buck Stops Here’. Well, in terms of the \

life and death decisions we are called to make; in terms of who we are and

“tho we D1 oy the Mok stope HIM ca one OF ue nd wally.
- religious the most tragic ‘thing of all is jeatlnms poopie pend oe Be
‘They are passive about Jesus: Christ. Faith, ait is assumedy is another of those

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powerful, outside forces: that comes to a man. Me. room wim

But here, in this brief sranalesion between oo and his Seeetn we
"whe that it isn't B06 Christian toi beeen a when r thane my powers of

will oe say - "This man is my Lora." That ie what Petar aia: and ‘that ee f

the Rice of will to aaah oh cach one of us is called.
{

How is it with you? Is your faith in Jesus Christ a. tukowarn serbian’ : os ;

dependent tie and whimsy? Or can you stand ‘tall and say: — aay I
decide. Jesus Christ is my Lord"? ; y

j Our father, you have given us the precious but troublesome gift of

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freedom. Help us to be men - as you areates us 7 be. Grant us the moral,
_ courage to bear responsibility for jhe wo apes ind grant us grace to will

to become disciples of Jesus Christ.