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Jeremiah 6:
13-16
August 23, 2009 THE SERENITY PRAYER: This summer I had the pleasure of reading a book about "The Serenity Prayer", a book that was written by the daughter of one of the great theological giants of the 20th century. Many of us no doubt are familiar with the Serenity Prayer or some version of it, but perhaps not too many of us are aware that this beautiful prayer was written by Reinhold Niebuhr. His daughter Elisabeth Sifton has written a touching and very personal account of her father and this prayer and the context in which it was written.
God, give us grace to accept with serenity That's how it was written by this man who has written such important works of theology as Moral Man and Immoral Society, The Children of Light and The Children of Darkness, and his most weighty volume, actually two volumes, The Nature and Destiny of Man. These were all required reading back when I was at Yale Divinity School in the early 1970's. Reinhold Niebuhr died in June of 1971, just as I was graduating from college and getting ready to start my theological education, and so, as you can imagine, with his so recent death, the legacy of this man was on everyone's mind and was just beginning to be documented. A portrait of Reinhold's brother H. Richard Niebuhr hung in the common room of the Divinity School, and there was hardly a student or a professor that wasn't influenced by the wisdom of these two remarkable brothers, but among all these great works of theologies that we were required to read, in retrospect, it would have been good for our souls if we had also been exposed to their personalities, the biographies, the faith and the struggles of these theologians, the situation in which they lived, the challenges to faith that they confronted, the world in which they inhabited, and indeed the prayers that they offered, for if we had looked at these things and not just the more philosophical words on the page, we would have come to see that their theologies were not just bland, abstract, esoteric treatises, but indeed statements of faith, evidence that these great theologians lived and cried and laughed as the rest of us do -- believed and sometimes did not believe either in themselves or in God, that they sometimes soared to the heights of joy but also sometimes wallowed in the dark valleys of depression. Theologies and philosophies of religion unfortunately are sometimes rather opaque, more like a wall with an insulation value of R-30, offering very little in the way of light or warmth to pass through them, but a prayer on the other hand is much more translucent, more like a window, more like what the Quaker George Fox called "an opening", a window on the soul. And so this morning I would have us take a closer look at the Serenity Prayer and the man who composed it and the context, the situation, the existential condition in which it was written. Reinhold Niebuhr was born in Wright City, Missouri in 1892. After his studies at Yale Divinity School, he served as the minister of a church in Detroit for thirteen years, at a time when Henry Ford was king. In 1928 he joined the faculty of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and given his outspoken advocacy for the ordinary workers in Detroit, I wouldn't be surprised if Henry Ford himself didn't drive him all the way to New York City in one of his Model A's, just to get rid of him! But that's only my supposition. In any event, he remained at Union Theological Seminary until his retirement in 1960. He had a remarkable community of friends and associates, including Paul Tillich, the Jewish philosopher Abraham Heschel, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Henry Sloane Coffin, W.H. Auden and T.S. Eliot, and among the many that were influenced by his wisdom Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King, Jr. Now, you don't need to be too much of a student of the 20th century to understand the tumultuous era in which he lived, and with a name like Reinhold Niebuhr obviously of German descent I think you can easily imagine what a painful and difficult era this was for him to be a preacher and a theologian, but this was the cauldron, this was the crucible in which he wrote. Being German and having family members who lived in Germany and belonged to churches and had ministers that were at least passively if not actively in support of Adolf Hitler in his rise to power, for a man of conscience, you can only imagine how painful this must have been, and so this is the context in which we can understand his not so optimistic theological anthropology, his doctrine of humanity. Yes, we are born in the image of God, but there must be a dark side, a shadow side to our nature that gives rise time and time again to such inhumanities as the Third Reich. In our all too "progressive" theologies, it's almost become a sin to talk about sin nowadays, but if Niebuhr were here, and in a deeper, spiritual sense, he is here, he would say that if we abandon the word "sin" we do so at our own peril. He would say that daily we need to be reminded not only of our great capacity to do good but our almost uncanny ability to be self-centered or ego-centric and how all of our inhumanities are deeply rooted in the sin of selfishness. I've always liked how Paul Tillich, a contemporary of Reinhold Niebuhr, argued that Sin is not so much something one does or does not do, but rather a State of Being in which we are separated or alienated from God, separated from each other and from our true identities as children of God. Living in such a state a State of Sin certainly gives rise to many deeds and misdeeds that would be characterized as being "sinful." Through Niebuhr, Tillich was able to secure a position at Union Theological Seminary, and the two of them together became a voice of conscience for their generation, speaking out about the sin of selfishness and isolationism, working in partnership not only in their opposition to Adolph Hitler and other proponents of fascism in Europe and in America (for remember, this was at a time when such people as Charles Lindbergh admired Hitler and Mussolini) -- but also these two great theologians were united in their opposition to the overly pietistic indeed sinful -- quietism and provincialism and escapism of the Christian church and its over emphasis upon individual salvation. From their perspective, they had lived through the horrors of World War I; they had seen the rise of fascism, the coming to power of Adolph Hitler, the burning of books, Anti-Semitism, and they were deeply distressed not only by how silent the church was on these matters but also they were indignant and ashamed of how churches and Christian theologies were passively and at times actively in support of these horrendous developments. And as theologians and as members of the Christian church, they were not afraid to say that this was a sin. Like the prophet Jeremiah, they walked "the ancient paths" of wisdom and they were in touch with the ancient verities, as in John Dunne's prophetic words: No man is an island, entire
of itself
any man's These men of conscience knew that from a scientific, biological, economic perspective it was absolutely foolish to think that was happening in Europe or Africa or the Far East or the Middle East was of no concern of ours, but also in a deeper sense they knew that it was a sin, for sin, again, is a state of being in which we live our lives as if we are somehow separate from everyone else. Anyway this was the context in which the Serenity Prayer was written. Think again of the tumultuous time in Reinhold Niebuhr lived as you listen again to this beautiful prayer: God, give us grace to accept
with serenity Now listen to the more popularized version of this prayer and see if you can notice a few critical differences: God grant me the serenity Did you notice the shift in the voice of this prayer from the first person plural to the first person singular? Niebuhr and Tillich might be rather hard on us, saying that this is the inevitable consequence of our sinful condition. "What does it mean for me?" "What's in it for me?" The great wisdom teachers of all spiritual traditions are forever trying to move us toward self-transcendence, to move away from narcissism and selfishness, but in spite of ourselves, the first person plural too often becomes the first person singular "God grant me the serenity." Too often we forget that the first word of the Lord's Prayer, that we say each and every week, is the word, "our" "Our Father" perhaps a linguistic reminder that Jesus gave us to help us to remember that we are closer to God when we move beyond our selfishness and live in the first person plural. Did you also notice that the more popular version leaves out the word "grace?" Perhaps it is implied in the words, "God grant me the serenity", but being a long-winded preacher I prefer the more long-winded version, for I think we need that word "grace." "God, give us grace to accept with serenity." Left to our own devices, we may or may not be able to summon up that serenity; we may or may not be able to extricate ourselves from whatever spiritual or emotional or psychological quicksand we may be in; in the face of all the troubles of this world we may or may not be able to live our lives with cool equanimity or serenity, but the word "grace" is so very important, for it reminds us that God is far more than just a spectator in human affairs but comes into the world in the form of grace, touching us in ways that defy the imagination, not just Amazing Grace, but inexplicable, mysterious grace, far more powerful than anything that can be bought over or under the counter. Reinhold Niebuhr had great intellectual capacity, but he knew that something else, something beyond himself was required if he was going to be able to fight the good fight against cruelty and injustice and the damnable, inexcusable silence of the church. Not only in his academic philosophy but also in his own personal life, he knew how important it was to be on the receiving end of Grace. Finally, there is one more critical difference between the original and the more popularized version. What is the difference between saying, "the courage to change the things I can" which is the more popularized version and Niebuhr's version, "the courage to change the things that should be changed?" As a church we don't or at least I hope we don't do what we do simply because it is "doable"; "Can" isn't the operative word, or, at least it shouldn't be. Before we embark on a mission project, we don't run ourselves through a cost-analysis, extensive feasibility study, trying to find out where the line is between "can" and "cannot". No, God forbid! Rather, we do what we do or at least I hope we do what we do because it's the right thing to do. Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was a student of Reinhold Niebuhr at Union Theological Seminary chose to go back to Nazi, Germany to do all that he could to rally the churches in opposition to Hitler, and he did this not because he conducted a survey, not because he did a statistical analysis and found that he would probably, most likely, in all likelihood be successful in such a mission. No, he did what he did, even though he knew the cards were stacked against him. So, not "courage to change the things I can" but rather "courage to change the things that should be changed." .. regardless of the consequences. I would hope that the churches of today as we face our own legion of evils and injustices and inhumanities might keep the wisdom of such people as Reinhold Niebuhr in front of us, that our prayers might be more often than not in the "first person plural", and that touched by God's Grace we do what we do not because it's doable or practical or feasible but because it is the right thing to do, sustained by the serenity that comes and only comes -- from knowing that we are working together in partnership in the first person plural not only with each other and those who have come before us, such giants of the faith as Reinhold Niebuhr, but also we are working in partnership with those who will come after us, those who are even now in our Sunday School and also their children and their grandchildren, or, to borrow again from the wisdom of Reinhold Niebuhr: Nothing worth doing is
completed in our lifetime; Nothing we do, however
virtuous, can be accomplished alone; Amen.
David W. Good Old Lyme, Connecticut
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