P. Wesley Aitken - "The Freedom to Fail" (March 28, 1971)

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-	He may be found and call ye upon him while he is near.	0:04
	To all who are weary and seek rest;	0:09
	to all who struggle and desire victory;	0:12
	to all who sin and seek forgiveness;	0:15
	to all who are idle and look for service,	0:19
	this hour is open with opportunity and with promise.	0:23
	Come then let us worship our Lord,	0:28
	for he is our maker and we are his people	0:31
	and the sheep of his pasture.	0:35
	Serve the Lord with gladness	0:37
	and come before his presence with singing.	0:40
	(uplifting music)	0:45
	(uplifting music continues)	1:00
	(uplifting music continues)	1:59
	(uplifting music continues)	3:00
	(uplifting music continues)	3:55
	(uplifting music continues)	5:00
	We are coming together in the presence of all mighty God	5:29
	and the whole company of heaven	5:31
	to make confessions of our sin,	5:34
	which is a part of the true worship of God.	5:37
	Let us remember the ancient promise of God	5:40
	to his people, Israel,	5:43
	who also turned aside after other gods.	5:45
	"If my people which are called by my name	5:49
	shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face	5:52
	and turn from their wicked ways,	5:57
	then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin	5:59
	and will heal their land."	6:04
	May we begin now to meet the conditions	6:07
	that will enable God to fulfill his promises, to hear,	6:09
	to forgive and to heal.	6:14
	As we offer unto him our prayers of confession	6:17
	and for repentance, let us pray together.	6:20
	Holy Father, we humbly confess that in kneeling,	6:25
	our hearts often are not humble.	6:30
	And that in praying,	6:33
	we often have felt no burden greater than our own strength.	6:34
	We confess that in naming Christ,	6:39
	our spirits have often saw the comfort of soul.	6:42
	We pray the to burn our hypocrisy	6:46
	with the fire of thy judgment,	6:48
	lest we be destroyed by our own conceit.	6:51
	We pray thee to forgive us through the sacrificial love.	6:55
	We ask this in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, amen.	7:00
	Let us hear and receive in faith these assuring words	7:07
	from the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah.	7:12
	"'Come now let us reason together' says the Lord,	7:16
	'though your sins are like scarlet,	7:19
	they shall be as white as snow.	7:22
	Though they are red like crimson,	7:25
	they shall become like wool.'	7:28
	Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:	7:31
	'I, I am he who blocks out your transgressions	7:36
	for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.'	7:41
	And these words from the gospel and the lips	7:46
	of Jesus, the Christ."	7:50
	Your sins are forgiven, go,	7:52
	forgive those who sin against you and sin no more, amen.	7:56
	(uplifting music)	8:09
	(uplifting music music)	9:00
	(singing)	9:18
	(singing continues)	10:18
	The lesson for this day is taken	11:47
	from the gospel according to St. Luke chapter 15,	11:49
	commencing at verse 11, continuing through verse 32,	11:53
	let us hear the word of the Lord.	11:58
	"And he said there was a man who had two sons.	12:02
	And the younger of them said to the father,	12:07
	'Father give me the share of the property	12:10
	'that falls to me.'	12:13
	And he divided his living between them.	12:15
	Not many days later,	12:18
	the younger son gathered all that he had,	12:20
	and he took his journey into a far country	12:23
	and there he squandered his property in loose living.	12:27
	And when he had spent everything,	12:30
	a great famine arose in that country	12:33
	and he began to be in want.	12:35
	So he went and joined himself	12:38
	to one of the citizens of that country	12:40
	who sent him into his fields to feed swine.	12:42
	And he would gladly have fed on the pods	12:47
	that the swine ate and no one gave him anything.	12:49
	But when he came to himself, he said,	12:54
	'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough	12:58
	'and to spare, but I perish here with hunger?	13:01
	'I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him,	13:06
	'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,	13:10
	'I am no longer worthy to be called your son,	13:15
	'treat me as one of your hired servants.'	13:19
	And he arose and came to his father.	13:22
	But while he was yet at a distance,	13:25
	his father saw him and had compassion	13:28
	and ran and embraced him and kissed him.	13:31
	And the son said to the father,	13:34
	'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,	13:36
	'I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'	13:40
	But the father said to his servants,	13:44
	'Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him	13:46
	'and bring a ring, put it on his hand and shoes on his feet	13:49
	'and bring the fatted calf and kill it	13:53
	'and let us eat and make Merry for this my son was dead	13:56
	'and is alive again.	14:01
	' He was lost and is found.'	14:03
	And they began to make merry.	14:06
	Now his elder son was in the field	14:09
	and as he came and drew near to the house,	14:11
	he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants	14:13
	and asked what this meant.	14:17
	And he said to him,	14:20
	'Your brother has come	14:21
	'and your father has killed the fatted calf	14:23
	'because he has received him safe and sound.'	14:25
	But he was angry and he refused to go in.	14:29
	His father came out and then treated him.	14:33
	But he answered his father,	14:35
	'Lo, these many years I have served you.	14:37
	'I have never disobeyed your command	14:41
	'yet you never gave me a kid	14:42
	'that I might make Merry with my friends.	14:45
	'But when this son of yours came,	14:49
	'who has devoured your living with harlots,	14:52
	'you kill for him the fatted calf.'	14:54
	And he said to him, 'Son, you were always with me	14:58
	'and all that is mine is yours.	15:02
	'It was fitting to make Merry and be glad	15:06
	'for this your brother was dead and is alive,	15:09
	'he was lost and is found.'"	15:13
	Here ends reading of the lesson.	15:17
	(uplifting music)	15:21
	The Lord be with you?	16:03
	Let us pray.	16:06
	Let us offer unto God our prayers of Thanksgiving,	16:16
	intercession and supplication.	16:19
	Almighty God and father of us all,	16:24
	though has made of one blood all the nations of mankind	16:28
	and has placed us upon this earth for home.	16:33
	We praise thee, oh God.	16:39
	And we acknowledged the to be the Lord.	16:41
	Thine is the providence by which age, after age,	16:45
	the families of men have been fed.	16:50
	Thine is the justice,	16:53
	which amidst the turmoil of history has given it a course	16:55
	and the direction.	16:59
	Thine is the mercy by which man has reached out to men	17:02
	with healing that binds up the broken heart,	17:05
	the torn body and the disturbed mind.	17:10
	Thine Oh Lord, thine is a love that brings light	17:15
	to every day of our lives	17:19
	and close friendships and associations	17:21
	where openness and trust enable us to speak comfortably	17:25
	to each other.	17:29
	And especially in our homes and in our families	17:31
	where love protects and sustains us against all our foes.	17:35
	As with each other, we share the love,	17:40
	which thou alone destined part to thy children.	17:43
	God, our father bless thy name for every gift of life,	17:48
	from humble things to holy grace, for earth itself,	17:52
	the bodies we wear, the universe in which we live,	17:58
	where all that sustains and supports us,	18:02
	we raise our prayers of Thanksgiving.	18:06
	For the spirit, by which all material things are in life	18:09
	and then fulfill;	18:12
	for the beauty of holiness and for the hope of wholeness;	18:14
	for the heart and mind man;	18:19
	for the miracles and mysteries of each day;	18:22
	for the companionship of love	18:25
	and all the weathers of the world,	18:27
	we give the thanks our God.	18:30
	Increase in us we ask the spirit of our Lord	18:32
	that we may share our joy and extend thy praise	18:37
	in all that we do.	18:41
	Oh God of love, who are both enabling spirit	18:47
	and faithful father send rescuers we ask	18:53
	into the rubble of our lives, our societies and our world,	18:58
	call forth those from among us,	19:04
	who are able to save, able to protect,	19:06
	able to give hope and able to free.	19:11
	Lord got heightened we asked the hope of the fearful	19:15
	who were lost and who were hurt,	19:20
	increased the hope of the fearful who wait for the lost	19:23
	and who wait for the hurt.	19:26
	Lengthened the hope of the fearful, who hunt, who help,	19:29
	who rescue and who free.	19:34
	Lengthened the days and the hours	19:37
	of finding and freeing we ask, oh, God.	19:40
	Shorten the hours and the minutes of waiting.	19:43
	Lord God, save the loss, free the oppressed rescue the hurt,	19:48
	receive the dying, comfort the grieving, hear the thankful,	19:57
	we asked them the name of Jesus, our Lord.	20:04
	Our father who art Creator and Redeemer,	20:10
	we have labored each of us in our own place,	20:14
	seeking to share in the work of thy world.	20:17
	We have known the anguish of incompetence.	20:21
	We have tasted the bitterness of failure.	20:24
	We have dream dreams and seen visions,	20:28
	lured by something beyond our failure	20:32
	and something beyond our small successes,	20:35
	we struggle onward that we may be accounted worthy	20:38
	of thy kingdom.	20:42
	Grant us gracious Lord, patience to endure our failures	20:44
	and humility to outgrow our achievements	20:50
	that we may increasingly serve thee and our fellow men.	20:53
	Almighty God, this day began for some of us joyfully,	21:00
	for others grimly.	21:04
	Some will spend the hours without anxiety	21:07
	and others will be caught in the web of living pain.	21:11
	Some will exalt in its gift of joy	21:15
	and others will carry a burden of heart too heavy	21:20
	to see very far beyond the moment.	21:23
	Some of us have known thy forgiveness and by strength	21:26
	and some of us still seek it.	21:30
	We are not alike, but all of us need thee.	21:33
	Minister in these moments,	21:39
	we ask to our particular and individual needs	21:41
	and grant us thy blessing in mercy and in wisdom.	21:46
	If Jesus Christ our Lord who taught us,	21:51
	we might be bold to pray together saying,	21:55
	Our Father who art in heaven,	21:58
	hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,	22:02
	thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	22:06
	Give us this day, our daily bread	22:11
	and forgive us our trespasses	22:14
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	22:16
	and lead us, not into temptation,	22:20
	but deliver us from evil.	22:23
	For thine is the kingdom and the power	22:25
	and the glory forever. Amen.	22:29
	If there is any one quality of healthy, righteous living,	22:49
	which I feel is a greater importance than others,	22:53
	it is the freedom to make decisions,	22:57
	the freedom to decide just for oneself,	23:01
	not necessarily anyone else, just deciding for oneself.	23:05
	This freedom to make decisions,	23:12
	it should automatically include the freedom to succeed	23:14
	as well as the freedom to fail.	23:18
	However, people of today,	23:21
	especially in our culture are having difficulty	23:23
	finding any freedom to make a decision,	23:27
	let alone succeed or fail on the basis of the decision made.	23:30
	Some of our youth tell us that we as a society are so locked	23:36
	into a particular system,	23:40
	a particular way of thinking about life	23:43
	and a particular style of living	23:46
	that it is virtually impossible to decide to be different	23:50
	on the basis of one's own inner yearnings and convictions.	23:54
	Traditionally, many have thought	23:59
	that once a young person left home	24:02
	and went into the world on his own,	24:05
	he was then free to make his own decision	24:07
	and experience the success or a failure	24:11
	that might result from them.	24:14
	This is seldom the truth.	24:18
	By the time young people leave home	24:21
	and attempt to assume adult responsibilities,	24:23
	they are so programmed to live a certain way	24:26
	that there are only glimpses of freedom	24:30
	in their decision-making.	24:32
	You might challenge me	24:36
	and asked how I explain all of the radical departure	24:37
	from the traditional style of living in this country	24:40
	that are being practiced today.	24:46
	My answer would be that the few radical departure	24:51
	thus far have been symptomatic ripples	24:55
	of discontent with the kinds of mental programming	24:58
	which compels us to feel uncomfortable and the ability,	25:02
	unless we live a certain way and embrace certain values	25:07
	and attitudes about living.	25:12
	Let me state quickly that I have no desire	25:16
	to lift up one mode of living and consider its merits	25:19
	over against the merits of another mode of living.	25:23
	My concern this morning is to identify the problem	25:28
	rather than evaluate the symptoms	25:31
	or manifestations of the problem.	25:34
	For example, let us take a look at religion.	25:38
	Many times when a person is asked,	25:43
	why he is a Methodist or Baptist or a Presbyterian,	25:45
	he thinks that he is one or the other	25:49
	because he was born into such a family	25:51
	and was brought up that way.	25:54
	He may give some other reasons,	25:58
	but the obvious and dominant answer is that	26:01
	he is a Methodist because he never really had the freedom	26:03
	to choose to be anything else.	26:06
	Some may say, what about membership vows	26:11
	and the opportunity for a person to join	26:13
	or not to join the church?	26:15
	The pressures I referred to earlier are felt so strongly	26:20
	by a child at that age,	26:24
	that he would probably feel that he had only two options:	26:27
	to join the church or be ostracized.	26:30
	Let me state it another way.	26:35
	A nine-year old child might be free to join a church,	26:38
	but I wonder whether he could decide what to join	26:42
	and perhaps not even to attend?	26:46
	Would his family or his friends permit that?	26:49
	I suspect his decision would be praised if he chose to join,	26:55
	but rejected as immature and irresponsible	27:01
	if he chose to stop attending.	27:07
	Let me turn to our educational system for another example,	27:13
	A10-year old child in the fourth grade	27:18
	has a math test the next day in school,	27:20
	his parents know this, that night the child announces	27:23
	that he has decided that for whatever reasons,	27:27
	he does not want to study for the test.	27:30
	How many parents would be able to say,	27:35
	we'll talk it over with you if you wish,	27:39
	but it is your decision.	27:42
	Will not most parents decide	27:46
	that a 10-year old is not old enough	27:48
	to make that kind of decision	27:50
	and that they would be forced to make it for him	27:51
	and require him to prepare for the exam?	27:54
	The pressure would be on and the disapproval of the child	27:59
	for making such a decision will undoubtedly be felt by you.	28:03
	For too many of the goal of education is achievement.	28:08
	Success in education is achievement.	28:12
	Failure in education is to not achieve.	28:16
	To illustrate further,	28:18
	let us suppose that the parents did grant their child,	28:23
	Joe, we'll call him, the freedom to act	28:26
	on his decision not to prepare for the exam.	28:29
	Once he went to school the next day,	28:34
	I wonder how much appreciation there would be	28:36
	for his risking of himself in a decision-making process,	28:38
	from which he could learn much.	28:44
	I fear that that vital life issue would get lost	28:48
	in the activity of taking the exam,	28:52
	completing it properly or improperly	28:54
	and experiencing the disapproval of his peers	28:57
	as well as his teacher, if he completed it improperly.	29:01
	And the examples I have given,	29:08
	no respectful consideration was given to the child's right	29:11
	to engage in adult type decision-making	29:16
	at a fairly early age.	29:20
	When I say adult type,	29:23
	I mean making a decision on the basis	29:26
	of one's inner yearnings, thoughts and feelings,	29:29
	and being willing to live with the consequences	29:33
	of that decision.	29:36
	This type decision making is	29:41
	too frequently reserved for adulthood.	29:43
	At least parents believe that they can withhold	29:48
	this type decision making freedom from their children	29:51
	until they are adult or near adult, such is not possible.	29:55
	A child by nature will begin risking	30:02
	fairly autonomous decisions at an early age	30:07
	and no one can actually prevent him from doing this.	30:11
	In fact, that person can not become a vital healthy adult,	30:14
	unless he does have repeated opportunities	30:20
	to engage in this process throughout his childhood	30:23
	in preparation for adulthood.	30:28
	Adults can not prevent children	30:32
	from making autonomous decisions.	30:34
	They can prevent a child from acting on the basis	30:37
	of the decision he makes and deprive him of deciding	30:40
	whether his action was a success or a failure	30:43
	or a combination of both.	30:46
	Why do adults resist and delay granting children the right	30:50
	to act on their decisions?	30:57
	It's the risk of a failure	31:00
	that accompanies any such decision	31:02
	and parents don't want to fail.	31:05
	Success is good and failure is bad.	31:09
	Failure is especially bad	31:14
	if the child's failure suggests in some way	31:16
	that the parents might have made a mistake	31:18
	with their children.	31:20
	Thus, if children are deprived of the freedom to fail,	31:24
	they are forced to rely on second hand information	31:28
	from adults to fill out their understanding	31:33
	of the experience of failing.	31:36
	Actually, failure never will become an experience	31:40
	for them except as one to dread and avoid at any cost.	31:43
	If a child is granted the freedom to fail,	31:51
	he will dare to act upon his decisions at an early age	31:54
	when he is vibrant and carefree	31:59
	and can give more realistic content	32:02
	to the experience.	32:05
	He can define for himself what it means to fail	32:07
	while he is in conversation with those people	32:12
	who are important to him.	32:15
	Failure need not be overloaded with feelings of pain,	32:19
	fear and destruction.	32:24
	A classic example of the freedom	32:28
	to fail is our scripture for today,	32:31
	The story of the prodigal son.	32:35
	What I have said thus far does not need to be validated	32:39
	by referring to the scriptures,	32:41
	but this particular parable serves vividly to illustrate.	32:43
	When the prodigal son asked his father for his inheritance,	32:51
	the father did not even voice an opinion other than	32:56
	by his actions.	32:59
	The father behaved as if the younger son	33:01
	had the inherent right to make this decision.	33:05
	And the father gathered his money and turned it over to him.	33:10
	The son then felt the freedom to leave and risk failure,	33:16
	and fail he did.	33:21
	And I'm not referring to failure as judged	33:23
	by those who observed the son.	33:26
	I am referring to the fact that he concluded on his own,	33:30
	that he had failed himself.	33:35
	When he returned home,	33:41
	his father still behaved as if the judgment	33:42
	of his son's action was his son's responsibility.	33:45
	He loved his son and obviously respected him very much	33:52
	and welcomed him back with open arms.	33:55
	I wonder how many fathers could behave	33:59
	in the same manner toward a son	34:01
	who today announces his decision	34:03
	to act in some unilateral way	34:06
	that would be completely independent of the father	34:09
	or the other members of the family.	34:14
	You can add your own contemporary words	34:19
	to the prodigal son parable.	34:24
	You might try it.	34:27
	I also wonder how many sons after failing miserably	34:31
	would feel the security of relationship with their father,	34:36
	that they could come home and not fear rejection.	34:40
	We are producing intellectually sharp young people	34:47
	who insist on decision making freedom	34:53
	that at an earlier age, alright,	34:56
	insist on decision making freedom at a much earlier age	35:00
	than ever before.	35:04
	The decisions they are insisting	35:07
	on making involve major life issues.	35:09
	I need not give many examples of this.	35:15
	Perhaps the most prevalent decision making responsibility	35:18
	that has been granted to people at a younger age	35:23
	than ever before, is the change in the voting age,	35:27
	Major decisions that were reserved for people	35:34
	of not too many years ago in their 20s now are being claimed	35:38
	by young people in their teens.	35:44
	I don't think we have helped them prepare well	35:47
	for this change and the accompanying responsibilities.	35:50
	I return to little Joe, the fourth grader	35:56
	who has decided not to study for his math test the next day.	35:58
	If he is courageous, he made there to cry out.	36:04
	What's wrong with flunking a math test?	36:08
	To tell him that someday he will understand,	36:14
	or that it is wrong because adults say it's wrong	36:18
	or that it is wrong because school teachers say	36:21
	that it is wrong, it's not a fair response.	36:24
	One answer that has been given is that there is not time	36:28
	in educating the masses to afford one student the privilege	36:32
	to explore such an issue by actually living through it	36:37
	and drawing his own conclusions about it	36:43
	while in conversation with people that are important to him.	36:47
	Opportunity to discuss failure	36:52
	and figure it out without being ridiculed is part	36:55
	of the healthy process of living.	37:00
	And to me, that is what education is all about.	37:03
	The freedom to fail in the strictest sense is an experience	37:09
	of the spirit, the emotional dimension of the person,	37:12
	not the intellectual or rational dimension of the person.	37:17
	To try to protect the child from this risk	37:24
	or deprive him of it is a stifling kind of experience	37:26
	for the child.	37:30
	Risking himself in a decision making process	37:32
	and assertion and discovering the consequences	37:40
	and how to live with them is a growth producing	37:45
	and healthy experience.	37:50
	Now make note, a gap is created between parents and a child	37:54
	when the child on several occasions asserts his freedom	38:01
	to make a decision and live with the consequences	38:05
	and the parents overrule him because they do not agree.	38:09
	If this situation is repeated many times the gap will widen	38:14
	because the child will begin to build a private life	38:19
	of his own, that he will not share with his parents.	38:23
	It is in that private life that he will risk his self	38:28
	in decision-making, which is a compelling natural process.	38:33
	This poses many problems.	38:40
	But the only one I want to point	38:43
	to this morning is the growing distance then	38:45
	between the child and his parents	38:49
	and the accompanying reduction	38:52
	of understanding and communication.	38:55
	If a child ever relinquishes his rather compelling,	39:00
	healthy need to risk himself in decision-making	39:04
	and yields completely to adults, he is in serious trouble	39:07
	and almost predictably will become ill.	39:13
	There are some exciting things	39:19
	that are happening in elementary education,	39:20
	which deal directly with the concern	39:22
	I have expressed this morning.	39:24
	I know of some of these innovations in our own city, county	39:27
	and private schools.	39:32
	These attempts, however, represent a drop in a bucket	39:34
	compared to the size of the problem.	39:38
	It is still an embarrassing fact	39:40
	that the weight of all educational funding,	39:42
	is that the adult end of the years	39:45
	as a person is in the process of education,	39:48
	not the childhood end of the educational process.	39:51
	The emphasis is still upon producing keen intellect	39:56
	who are thoroughly programmed to produce and achieve.	40:00
	If these adult products happen to be emotionally	40:06
	and spiritually mature,	40:10
	it is far more a result of chance than planning.	40:12
	I suspect there is more money invested	40:18
	in determining the numerical odds involved	40:20
	in decision-making	40:22
	than in providing an educational opportunity	40:23
	for small children,	40:26
	that would help them discover what it means	40:28
	to live through a decision-making process and understand.	40:31
	Of course, what I am claiming is	40:38
	that the healthy development and growth	40:41
	of the spirit of the small child is as much a responsibility	40:43
	of the adults who attempt to educate him	40:49
	as is the developing of a keen intellect.	40:53
	We have achieved great successes intellectually,	40:58
	but we suffer from a cycle of poverty	41:02
	with the emotional, spiritual development.	41:05
	Intellectually we have virtually gained the world	41:10
	and are reaching for the moon.	41:14
	And in the process perhaps, we are losing our own soul.	41:18
	And this spirit doesn't seem to have progressed	41:23
	in his capacity to live with one another,	41:26
	any further than he did centuries ago.	41:31
	If we merely take the position	41:41
	that the parents don't do a very good job	41:43
	of raising their children, I think that's a cop out,	41:44
	or that adult problems are merely evidence of sin	41:49
	and its manifestations.	41:52
	That's a cop out.	41:55
	There are many adults involved in helping little children	41:58
	from childhood into a productive and fulfilling adulthood.	42:01
	We have a great taskforce that haunts the intellect,	42:05
	but we allow the emotional-spiritual development	42:09
	to occur by happenstance.	42:11
	The result is that we have by necessity,	42:14
	another enormous task force,	42:17
	completely invested in helping the adult products	42:20
	with their emotional, spiritual problems	42:24
	in their middle years.	42:27
	There are several things that we could be doing now.	42:31
	We know what to do in many instances,	42:35
	but we're afraid to launch out into these new ventures	42:39
	because of our same old fear of failure	42:42
	as one part of the problem.	42:46
	I mentioned only two possible things that we could be doing.	42:49
	Many churches are involved in providing daycare	42:53
	and kindergarten opportunities for children.	42:56
	This could be expanded greatly	43:00
	and enriched with professional leadership	43:02
	to provide preschool children with a significant opportunity	43:04
	to develop and grow emotionally and spiritually	43:08
	before they ever begin their formal intellectual pursuits.	43:14
	Second, the church should provide discussion group	43:19
	opportunity on child rearing and child development	43:22
	for every young couple anticipating	43:27
	or involved in parenthood.	43:29
	Or if the church doesn't do it,	43:32
	it should be thoroughly invested	43:34
	in helping other community agencies to do it.	43:36
	And I'm not talking about friendly chitchat groups.	43:41
	Providing this kind of group opportunity would require money	43:45
	for professional leadership and guidance.	43:49
	Is this the business of the church?	43:54
	I think so.	43:58
	The Christian Church has become expert	44:01
	in teaching people of today,	44:03
	how people lived, loved, succeeded	44:05
	and failed 2000 years ago.	44:08
	That's a very safe subject.	44:13
	The church needs to invest itself in helping people discover	44:16
	what is required to live, love, succeed and fail now,	44:20
	not 2000 years ago, now.	44:28
	Yesterday, today and tomorrow, amen.	44:32
	(uplifting music)	44:44
	(uplifting music continues)	45:26
	(uplifting music continues)	46:12
	(uplifting music continues)	46:59
	(soft music)	48:02
	(soft music continues)	48:59
	(singing)	49:33
	(singing continues)	50:30
	(singing continues)	51:05
	(singing continues)	52:12
	(uplifting music)	53:08
	(uplifting music)	53:30
	Almighty and redeeming God, accept and use these our gifts	54:28
	for the ministries of thy church in the world,	54:35
	receive our resources, the offering of our whole being	54:39
	that we give to the one who gave his life to us.	54:42
	To the many who need the human touch of his life	54:47
	once again, made in Christ,	54:51
	through Christ our Lord.	54:55
	In fact now to continue God's works in the world,	55:02
	may the blessing of God, the Father, the Son,	55:06
	and the Holy Spirit be and abide with forever, amen.	55:10
	(bell ringing)	55:19
	(uplifting music)	55:35
	(uplifting music continues)	56:42
	(uplifting music continues)	57:15
	(uplifting music continues)	57:59

Item Info

Title:

P. Wesley Aitken - "The Freedom to Fail" (March 28, 1971)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4h130875

Date:

March 28, 1971

Speaker:

Aitken, P. Wesley

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0565
ref6333_pfe
uachapelsermaud
duke:628627
dcrau002552
ark:/87924/r4h130875
a6045d03-9577-4c78-bb6f-d8bccd4b253f

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Related Resources:

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

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

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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P. Wesley Aitken - "The Freedom to Fail" (March 28, 1971)

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1. P. Wesley Aitken - "The Freedom to Fail" (March 28, 1971)

Duke University Archives

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P. Wesley Aitken - "The Freedom to Fail" (March 28, 1971)

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Duke University Archives

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