May 2, 2008

    ther               My brother in law asked for my perspective on the series of events surrounding the playing of sermons from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his most recent comments while speaking at the National Press Club.  Since Wright is the retired pastor of the largest church in the United Church of Christ and the former pastor of a presidential candidate his views have been particularly well covered.  These are my interim thoughts on the matter.

            Jeremiah Wright had a long, distinguished ministry as the pastor who brought Trinity United Church of Christ from 80 members in 1972 to over 8,000 members in 2007.  He has stood on the side of the dispossessed and distraught, inspired many people to enter the ministry, and established many worthwhile programs near his south side Chicago church.  Through his ministry he has brought sense into often senseless situations in his neighborhood and our world.

            Wright is a fiery, even incendiary, prophetic preacher.  Sometimes he has “gone over the top” in condemning injustice and speaking on behalf of the downtrodden and disfranchised.  Like the Old Testament Jeremiah he is passionate in his crusade for holiness and wholeness.

            Unfortunately, Wright’s passions seem to have taken him beyond the pale last Monday.  In his speech before the National Press Club he made much sense, speaking, for instance about how God has created us as a wonderful variety of peoples with different but not deficient gifts.  However, during the question and answer period he, in my opinion, lost control of his better senses and gave in to some nonsense.  This was sad and harmful to him, our church, and of course, his preferred presidential candidate.

            What can we learn from this situation?  I believe that Wright allowed past hurts, slights, and attacks to overwhelm his better judgment.  He allowed pride to take over from prudence.  When he should have turned the other cheek he lashed out, sometimes with annoying flippancy.  Jeremiah Wright suffered from the sin of pride.  For that matter so do I.  The challenge for him and all of us is keep that ugly pride in check, thicken our skin a bit, and allow the light of Christ to shine through us.

            On the Today Show, the Rev. Eugene Rivers, another successful African American pastor, was asked why he thought Wright had acted as he did.  Rivers’ response was “trippin”.  By this he meant that Wright had gone off on an ego trip and allowed his own pride to get in the way of his ministry.

            I don’t believe an ego is always bad.  It takes people with a strong ego to build a church such as Wright’s Trinity in Chicago and a strong ego is certainly what drives three people in 2008 to run for the presidency.  However, those of us who claim to follow Jesus Christ know that all glory goes to God.  Whatever we do flows out of the graceful love of God shown through the one whom we call both savior and prophet.  As we live out our lives through the Triune God we always need to remember that we are called as a servant people.  Doing so may bring us accolades, but it may also bring us suffering.  One of our challenges is to have enough sense to avoid the nonsense.