Jesus beyond tribe (midweek message)

Jesus Beyond Tribe

Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message

February 20, 2019

At our monthly deanery clergy meeting yesterday, we discussed the ethics and theology of preaching as it relates to issues of social justice:  when are preachers giving a clarion prophetic call for the Reign of God and the justice and love Jesus  demands, and when are they simply “preaching politics”?   The consensus seemed to be that Jesus calls us to proclaim the truth of the Gospel in prophetic tones, and that this on occasion can be perceived as treading into the danger zone of partisan politics.  Preachers must “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”  Sometimes, it is easier for those afflicted by prophetic preaching to discount the message as having a partisan motive.  Part of the skill of a good preacher is finding a voice and selection of stories that speak the Gospel truth to a broad range of people regardless of their class background and political ideology.  Knowing one’s audience and preaching in the context of a shared life of mutual trust is essential if one wishes to avoid throwing up partisan obstacles to hearing Jesus’ word. 

This does not mean avoiding difficult subjects, or maintaining a studied silence on controverted issues.  For the last 100 years, an often heard commonplace in the United States has been “don’t talk about religion or politics—they're too divisive and controversial.”  The result is that we have little common ground in our society for evaluating religious or political claims.   There is no common vocabulary, and few shared values, and, increasingly, lack of enough commonly accepted facts and truths to allow us to help each other self-correct.    Perhaps the trope we should have been reciting is: “religion and politics are so important, that we must learn to talk about them with each other civilly and with respect.” 

For me, the heart of the matter is allowing each other mutual respect and enough room to differ with one another without recrimination or name-calling:  learning to differ without being disagreeable. 

   

Today is the feast day of Frederick Douglass, run-away slave and abolitionist.  He certainly was a divisive figure in his own day, but almost all of us have come to see in recent years that his was a prophetic voice.  A key in the effectiveness of his witness (which included strong early support of the women’s rights movement) was his unwillingness to judge matters purely on the basis or partisan advantage.  One of his most common sayings was, “I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.”  This approach is echoed in the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s teaching that love is more powerful than hate, “that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word… We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”

A preacher has a special ethical obligation due to the fact that the pulpit is unidirectional: a preacher is addressing a captive audience, one with little or no chance to respond.  A preacher thus must be careful always to seek to preach the message of Jesus as he or she understands it, not simply spew his or her own opinions.  Sometimes members of the congregation will find the message uncomfortable, or possibly unwelcoming to whole groups of people.  When this happens, it is their responsibility to let the preacher know.  At minimum, this will give preacher and congregant the chance to discuss these important matters and deepen their understanding.  At most, the preacher or the distressed congregant—or perhaps both—will be called to repentance and amendment of life.  

Grace and Peace, 

Fr. Tony+