NBUILT AND PATH! BETHANY PRESBYTERIAN @HURCH
LUKE 3:7-21 LAFAYETTE, INDIARS
FEBRUARY 24, 1974 JOHN M. BUCHANAN

One of the most important, althougn disturbing, experiences in my
academic preparation for ministry came in a class called Religion and Per-
sonality. Part of the agenda of that particular class was to expose the
Student to the disciplines of Medical Science and Psychiatry. The exper-
jence I remember occured when a teading Chicago Psychiatrist and Professor
in Psychiatry in the Hedical School met with us. He began his presentation
by calling most ministers “guilt-mongers", and went on for one hour to score
the institutional church for implanting, cultivating, nuturing and even
creating a@ sense of guilt in the hearts of men. He pointed out that quilt
has always been the laver used by Christian faith te pry men into the
Church. He pointed out that Christian faith begins with an insistance on
Man's sin: and thatmany, if not most, pulpit utterances depend on the Tis-
tener's sense of personal rotteness. And it's nat just petty wrong-doing,
he pointed out. Rather the church seems to be telling a man that he is an
offense to God simply by being a man: and worse yet, he was born that ways
there is nothing he can do about it.

The good Doctor suggested that it amounted to psychological black mail:
that if a thoughtful man bought it, he really fad no option but to join the
church, For having convinced him of his terrible guilt the church then
modestly offors itself as the only way to be free of that quilt.

It was disturbing because, frankly - at that point in time, it felt
tike a rather righteous thing - to be studying for the ministry. But here
was a man suggesting that the faith itself was somehow injurous to the
mental health of people: criticizing the church ~ not for all the typical
reasons, but out of a deep commitment to the welfare and peace and happiness
of individual men and women.

ft was a disturbing experience, precisely because the Doctor had hold
of something terribly true about roligion. Consider the fiddle Ages, for

instance. The whole elaborate structure of midieval Christianity depended

"GUILT AWD FAITH ~2~ FEBRUARY 24, 1974
on pecpte feeling guilty ~ and, of course, trusting that the rites and
Sacraments of tne Church were the only means of elleviating that guilt.

The story of Martin Luther is the story of a man spending half his life
desparately trying to be free of guilt: going through the motions, praying,
fasting, making pilgrimages, doing penance, even whipping himself in order
to find peace and freedom from his heavy load of guilt.

And today, today it is still with us. Ina rather classic sense
Christian preadiing and teaching is still identified with convicting statements
Such as: "You are a sinner ~ you are guilty - you are no good at:all." In
fact, the masochist in a lot of people seems to rather enjoy it: to measure
the quality of preaching by the amount of guilt it heaps on the shoulders
of its hearers.

Paul Tournier, Psychiatrist and Theologian, points out that no man is
without guilt, and that guilt is, finally, a religious problem. We do carry
a lot of guilt around with us. Think about it for a minute: Guilt that we
did something wrong in the past, the memory of which continues to haunt us:
Guilt that somehow we're not living up to our expectations: guilt that we're
not better parents, better husbands and wives, better professionals, better
citizens, better Christians. John Ruskin once noted that “life without
industry is guilt", and I know the truth of that. If I sit around the house
very long doing nothing I begin to feel guilty. And then beneath it all
is this underlying religtous guilt, this universal sense that something 7s
wrong: I'm guilty: this feelting that the theologians call “original sin",
which tells me I'm not what I ought to be: I'm separated and estranged from
that which is fundamental and good and pure.

All of this ought to bother us for two reasons. In the first place
guilt is not a good motivator. We know that people don't ordinarily become
better people as a result of feeling bad. In all area of life, people are
motivated to do more - to be more ~- not by being told how guilty they are for

doing and being less, but by being supported and accepted and loved. Go00d

"GUILT ANDO FAITH" =3e FEBRUARY 24, 1974
teachers know that: business executives know it: football coaches know it.

I joke about guilt. People say to me: "I feel so guilty for not coming to
Church", Ordinarily I laugh about that and allow as how a healthy sense of
guilt never hurt anybody. But I raally don't mean that because it's not true
GUiT€ #s not a good motivator - and it does hurt,

The second wason it ougnt to bother us, however, is that playing on
guilt is so contrary to Jesus! metnod of dealing with people - contrary,
that is to say, to the Gospel, regardless of how it is and has been in the
church. For example, consider the stark contrast between the two types of
religion expressed by Jonn the Baptist - and Jesus of Nazareth. Consider
what transpired when tuey met one day.

John the Baptist is an intriguing figure. He came out of tne desert
around 30 A.D. preaching that the Kingdom of God was at hand. He used the
words of the Prophet Isaiah:

"Prepare ye the way of the Lord.
Make straight in the desert
a highway for one God,"

In days of old messengers were sent ahead of the King to tell the people
to make the roads ready.

So John saw his mission to prepare men's lives for the coming of the
Bessiah. He told people to repent and be baptized in order to get ready. He
told them about a day of fire and judgment: when the wheat would be separated
From the chaff: and when he sa Jesus of wazareth he said: "This is the one."

Who was he? We don't know really. Apparently he was related to desus.
Some scholars believe that he was orphaned y his elderly parents and then
adopted by one of rigid, ascetic desert religious communities of the day.

The Essenes, for instance, who rigidly adhered to the moral law, whe prac-
ticed ritual bathing, who were celibate and supported their community by
adopting and raising orphans, and who were quite intense in their conviction

that the time had come for the Hessiah.

GUILT AND FAITH ~4- FEBRUARY 24, 1974

The suggestion that don the Baptist was an Essene makes some sense.

He was, apparently, a wild-Tooking man, dressed in the rough garb of the
wilderness, eating locust and wild honey. And the people saw in him a
prophet: they flocked out from the towns and Villages to hear him thundering
on the banks of the Jordan River,

His approach was guilt. John had a black list that included almost
everyone from Rome to Jerusalem. When the people came to hear him he
compared them ta snakes that scurry out from under the rocks in order to
excape fire. He made them feel bad - remorseful - angry with themselyes -
guilty. |

One of the ones who came to the banks of the Jordan to hear John Was
Jesus. There is an endless debate about why he wanted to be baptized by
Jonn. The best explanation, I think, is that he appreciated John's integrity
and courage , and that he Saw in John the beginnings of a movement toward
God and toward a renewal of morality and justice and righteousnéss~a -movement
with which he wanted to identify.

And so ane day, he walked into the waters of the Jordan River to be
baptized - to make himself ready for God's mighty act - and what fappened
then is most Significant: in fact, set against the backdrop of John's fierce

harangues, most Startling. He was hantized: he prayed: and a voice came to

‘nim, personally, Saying "You are my Son. With you I am most pleased". The
experience is devoid of guilt, remorse, repentance, ~ Granted, it was JeSUS
and not just any man. Hevertheless the experience is positive - supporative -

loving - inspiring - and not Frightening, negative, threatening. It stands
in stark contrast to the message and vision of Jonn the Baptist.

His ministry, likewise, contrasts with John. No where do you find him
playing on guilt. He didn't put people down. His rare anger seems to have
been reserved for religious nypocricy ~ nev er for those who were made to feel
Quilty by their religion. Those people - Mary the prostitute, for instance -

who cauld not have been more guilty in the context of ner religion - he

"GUELT AWD FAITH" aS , FEBRUARY 24, 1974
supported and helped and lifted/up and loved. Rather than convict men on
the ba sis of tneir obvious failings and frailties - he held up before them
what they could become - and theybecame it. He treated men not as eye-
sores to God, but as children of God: and they began to act like it. He
tock a man by the name of Peter, a rougn, outspoken, vascillating fisherman
and called him a Rock. And Peter became a Rock.

His motivational power was the power of positive, accepting love. And
there was no guilt in it at all - at least none that he put in.

We know today tne importance of a sense of self-worth; self-esteem.
We know that you can't really love anybody until you love yourself. We
know that few peole seem to have it - this rare, confident sense of my own
worth: and we know that guilt - a sense of guilt - stands in the way.

We come to some conclusion about our own worth as persons quite early
in life. Our self image is ‘intact by the age of six or so. Some psycholo-

gists maintain that it happens much earlier. Cecil Osborne observes that

“If the child does not grow up with a strong sense of self worth, he may be

limited in his capacity to relate creatively to others." (The Art of Self

Understanding, P. 213) "A young child has no clear image of himself. He

sees himself only in the mirror of his parent's evaluation”. (Ibid.P.162)

How, before we find ourselves feeling guilty for making our children
feel guilty let it be said again that no man is without guilt. Tournier
says flatly: "....a guilty conscience is the seasoning of our daily life.
All upbringing is a cultivation of the sense af guilt on an intensive

scale”. (Guilt and Grace, P.10}) Only the naive, it seems to me, will talk

about total freedom from all feelings of guilt. We don't even know what
that would mean.
And yet, it seems to me, that we might begin to learn about the effects
of some of the things we do and say fo..each other, and to our children.
"Nama won't love you if you do that" - means I am not lovable as me.

That is not how we intend it, but that is how it gets heard,

“GUILT AND FAITH" ~G- FEBRUARY 24, 1974

"Get an A in “lath and 1/11 Pay you a dollar" - means your love for
me depends on my ability to got good grades.

"You'll never amount to anything: you're just lazy: look at the mess -
can't you do anything right? You'll never succeed..." The litany of welts
meaning, performance oriented parents, and it all adds up to guilt. And if
we understand that the emotional Super-structure is in place by the age of
Six - we're going to carry that guilt, that low estimation of self right
into adulthood. We live out of it in one of two ways. We can live our lives
trying to prove our worth, trying to work off the guilt at having disappointed
Our parents: and no success, no achievement will ever be adequate. Every
new day - is a new battle to feught with the prize a sense of personal worth.
Or we will act out literally our guilt. If we feel lazy - we will be lazy.
If we feel lke we can't accomplish something, we will not accomplish it.

If we were told that we wre good for neathing - we will be good for nothing.

The implications are immense. We've .been thinking in terms of parent-
ing because all of us had parents ~ and ali of us live out of that relation-
Ship. But equally significant are the implications of our relationships
with others - friends, empbyees, neighbors. And finally, consider what
happens in context of society. Beyond any point of rationale debate it has
been proven that penal institutions don't work. Emphasizing guilt, treating
a ian on the basis of his guiit, reminding him of his guilt, allowing him to
wallow in his guitt, simply makes him unfit - ever - for a creative relation-
slitp witn the rest of society. Something like 80% of the people incarcerated
today will break the law, get caugnt and return to prison ~- after they are
released. Tae mystery is why it is still an issue: why so glaring a failure
is allowed to continue: why we still nod in approval when politicians talk
about cracking doem on crimminals and getting tough. It doesn't work and
never has.

Guilt is, finally, a religious problem. And the importance of all this

is that we cannet Tove, fully, openly, honestly, until we sense that we are

"GUILT AND FAITH -7~ FEBRUARY 24, 1974
lovable that we are worthy. We cannot, Simply stated, love our spouses, our
children, our fellow man, our God, if we are all tied up with guilt.

Jesus knew that: the 19th century Banish Theologian, Soren Kierkegaard
observed that:

"When the commandment to love one's neighbor is rigntiy understood, it
also says the converse, ‘Thou shalt love thyself in the right wy: If anyone,
therefore, will not Tearn from Christianity to love himself in the right way,
then neither can he love his neighbor. He may perhaps..cling to one of
several other human beings, but this is by no means loving one's neighbor.
To love oneself in the right way, and to Tove one's neighbor, are absolutely

analogous concepts, and are at the bottom one and the same.” (Works of Love}

How shall we love ourselves? How shall we rise above whatever guitt
we are carrying around? It helps, obviously, if there is someone who loves
and accepts us as we are: someone fer whom we don't have to perform. And
that we can do for each other in the churc - in our relationship with friends
tn our families. Beyond that we can walk to the banks of the Jordan River
with our guilt in tow and there listen for a voice that says to all who
com7: “You are my Son" You are my daughter: I am pleased with you."

That is tne difference between Jesus and John: between Christian faith
and guilt-ridden religion: that -~ it is my deepest conviction - is the
incredible nature of the Good Hews. Jesus' experience at Baptism can be ours.
It was not, I betieve, reserved for him atone. Rather it was the disclosure
of a God who loves and accepts us as we arc: a God wie knows how much more
we could love and live and be; a God whose power is not wielded in the form
of guilt-inducing judgement - but in the form of accepting, forgiving,
creative love.

To know that God - to lay bare one's heart and soul to that love is the
only conversion experience we ever need. It is ~ and always will be -
intensely personal - as it was for Jesus. flo one heard that voice but him.

It will happen - nat once - but again and again in life: moments of pure

“’GUILT AMD FAITH" ~§- FEBRUARY 24, 1974
revelation, in which we know ourselves to be known: moments when we know
that there is no need for guilt because we are loved by a God who is pleased
with us: Moments that free us to love him in return. AME

FATHER: the good news is so good that wa have trouble believing it. Help

us to love ourselves: to understand that you love us: and free us, then,

to Tove - even as we awe loved. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. ANE