The Comma

What a time of painful and difficult conversations – over the words of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright from Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and the firestorm the youtube excerpts of a couple of his sermons. 

And I find myself in an interesting position. As a lay person, I was troubled by some of the words of Rev. Wright.  And I’ve also glimpsed a perspective from pastors, as the colleague of pastors and the partner of a pastor, all of whom take seriously their call to pastoral and also prophetic preaching.

I can sense the pain of seeing a clergy colleague’s lifetime of ministry and service reduced to a couple of minutes of soundbites, taken out of context and without perspective.  I have seen way they each struggle with building a sermon that has depth and moves through a progression of thought, context, biblical interpretation and focus on the human condition.  I know the way they work at crafting the right phrase or example in order to make the complete sermon more whole, and the way they work on a sermon series that builds and is informed through the progression.  And I think I get how painful it can be to have one particular part of a sermon dissected and critiqued, without the context, without a sense of how it ties into the whole and moves us through.  And they see that happening to their clergy colleague and how easy it is to critique and condemn a lifetime of work for a small portion of one sermon. 

I know me how frustrating it would be to not be able to have that context in my work.  Maybe for example, if I were criticized for a large balance in the church’s checking account on the 28th of the month, that I should do better at investing the church’s funds and increasing the rate of return.  It’s easy look at the 28th in a snapshot and critique, not knowing that payroll comes out on the 29th. 

I also know how easy and natural it is for all of us to look at something though only one lens. And worship outside of our own context can easily be outside our comfort zone.  When I was on the national UCC Executive Council, we had a full worship service at the beginning and end of our 5-day meetings.  We also had morning prayers and evening vespers each day during the meeting period.  And that worship reflected wonderfully the diversity of the United Church of Christ. 

I remember one meeting where opening worship was led by the director of the UCC Coalition for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns.  Worship had some wonderful gay and gay-affirming imagery, named some of the struggles of GLBT people, and included the hymn from our New Century Hymnal “In the Midst of New Dimensions:”  “We are man and we are woman, all persuasions, old and young, each a gift in your creation, each a love song to be sung” Worship was quite moving and powerful. 

Four days later the closing worship led by the representative of the Calvin Synod.  The Calvin Synod is a very conservative branch from the Hungarian Reformed Church tradition.  It was very different from the opening worship in some ways, with very traditional, even orthodox, imagery and language, named some of the struggles in their story, including those of the Hungarian galley slaves and sung of in the hymn, “Lift Your Head, O Martyrs, Weeping,” also found in our New Century Hymnal.   That worship was also quite moving and powerful. 

I also remember worship led by African American pastors.  Black liberation theology was named affirmed, and celebrated. The God of all creation and Saviour of all was worshipped.  And in ways that were intense powerful, core-of-my-body-and-being moving.  We sang of the need for God’s presence and for release from bondage, and we heard powerful preaching and the call to repentance and a new day and a new way of being.

All those worship services were powerful, faithful, and authentic.  And they were not wrong just because they weren’t all a part of my tradition, childhood Presbyterian.  Indeed that was the gift and grace of those settings: the Holy Spirit was alive and at work in all those settings, and authenticity and honesty were appreciated.  And affirmed.

I believe God calls us to community.  And that implies a commitment to listen, to try to understand, and to be vulnerable and open.  So who am I to transfer my discomfort with a few minutes of youtube of a worship service into an expectation of how it “should be?”  I think such snapshots and soundbites defeat the possibility of dialogue rather than invite it.

In a culture that values one-upmanship, I believe we are called to be counter-cultural. Sermons, the church’s ministry, and our relationships as people of faith – are about the journey.  About staying in touch, listening and discerning, talking and hearing.  I believe God calls us to listen through the pain and agony of each other’s stories, not to turn away. And I believe God understands when that pain is expressed in words and tones hard to hear.  I believe God wants us to bring our whole complete true selves to worship and life, not a sanitized and sterile façade.

That is the church at its most faithful and fullest.  And I am grateful for the ways the United Church of Christ honors, acknowledges and affirms that hope and vision.  Easy? No.  Perfect?  No. Faithful?  Please God, may that be so.  To God be the glory.