“Preacher as Subversive Sage”
Day Three
Hump day. Never really used that term. Maybe wall day works better. As in I hit one. I used to be younger. But then, it wasn’t just me. The opening worship had technical difficulties. PRUMC (Peachtree Road United Methodist Church) is not a screen oriented church. But when the Festival made the decision to go paperless, a screen was brought in. It stands on the floor, a huge thing, but kinda blocks the edge of the chancel. And because it sits on the floor, when we stand to sing it is hard to see the bottom of the screen through all the heads. Not ideal.
But this morning the computer was acting up, or the operator was dozing off, or the preacher took them by surprise and wandered off before they realized he was done, whatever! Yeah, you could download it on your phone, and lots of people did, but it was a distraction, blunted the Spirit.
Though I loved the preacher. Former Bishop Will Willimon, I always enjoy his preaching or teaching. He has that southern twang, coupled with a sardonic wit that keeps you guessing ... Did he really say that? His sermon title was “He Went His Own Way.” The text was Jesus proclamation in the synagogue in Nazareth. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to proclaim good news to the poor.” You remember the story. Jesus is a hit, everyone is impressed, until He went His own way in the sermon. Reminding them that being chosen isn’t a special privilege but a call to service and hospitality even of those we call enemies. Naturally that didn’t go well, and the crown gathered Him up and went to throw Him off a cliff, but again, Jesus passed through them and went his own way.
Willimon says that Jesus has that habit. Even when we want Him to go our way. Even when we want to claim Him for our pet projects, our pet beliefs. Jesus goes His own way. And the call to us is not to invite Jesus to go with us - Jesus is my co-pilot. Rather we are called to go with Him on His way. Our job is to figure out what is His way, to follow Him.
Selfishly, though, my favorite line was Willimon’s suggested response to the post sermon comment along the lines of “I didn’t get anything from your sermon today, Pastor!” “Well,” Willimon suggests, “I don’t know why Jesus didn’t have anything to say to you today. Sorry.” Jesus goes His own way. Let’s go with Him.
I couldn’t go with the last hymn, as it didn’t appear. There were snickers, and rolled eyes and people wandering out. Distractions. Lots of distractions.
Left there and went to Buckhead Theatre for the next lecture. Claudio Carvalhaes is a pastor who has served both in the US and Latin America. He wanted to stretch our minds a little bit. He spoke on metaphors for preaching. Actually for preachers. Who are we and what are we doing. Many of them are ones I have used both in teaching and in my own mind. But Claudio indeed stretched us into more images that could be fruitful. Like, the preacher as the shaper of language and reality. Shaper of language means that as preachers we can help people understand words in new contexts, and to understand the language of faith. He argued that since prayer is the language of faith, without being steeped in prayer we have no understanding of faith. We are not able to call on faith, to be faithful in our lives, to claim faith. If, he said, we see no need for prayer, then we see no need for faith.
Even more from Claudio ... the preacher as collective artist, not to do al the art but to collect it and collect artists and give them space to create within the context of the church. The preacher as Social Agitator, as Fire Igniter, as Signpost, as Screamer Against the Tide. Whew, I was worn out when he finished. At the core of all he presented was the liberation agenda. How do we turn the world upside down, the world of haves and have nots, when we are haves? How do we proclaim against colonialism, when we are benefactors of a colonial past and an economy that functions like colonialism? Hard words, big questions without easy answers.
Which was the thesis of Alyce McKenzie, that the one we follow was full of hard questions without easy answers. Her lecture was titled “The Preacher as Subversive Sage: Strategies for Wise Preaching in Foolish Times.” Alyce is a friend, she teaches in my alma mater, Perkins School of Theology, and she is a part of the new resource team for preaching instruction that was launched out of Discipleship Ministries in Nashville. I went with them to Rochester NY last month and Alyce was there.
Her argument is that people are distracted. She’s found a term for the preaching environment today: Continuous Partial Attention or CPA. With cell phones and wandering minds, few are focused for the long haul, they aren’t willing to by into the meta-narrative of faith. So, Alyce turns to wisdom literature and says we need to think of proverbs and proverbial language.
The culture is, she argues, distracted, story suspicious, but scene loving and wisdom hungry. The popularity of youtube says people want scenes, snippets of advice and suggestions. WE live in an age with a pile of information, but a paucity of wisdom. And what defines wisdom? Wisdom is the answer to the question “and how will you live today?” Alyce told the story of Leontine Kelley, the first African American woman elected bishop in the United Methodist Church. When Bishop Kelley was a little girl a woman appeared at the door and instead of the usual aren’t you cute kind of comment, the visitor said “and who do you plan to be? You must be somebody.” Kelley said she never forgot that question, it drove her throughout her life. The questioner on her porch that day was Mary McLeod Bethune.
Wisdom is about who are we going to be, in a world of distractions. I want to be a subversive sage.
Thought sage isn’t on my list of names today. I missed a few lectures because I misread a map, trying to find a place to buy a late birthday present for my daughter and ended up walking through a hot Atlanta afternoon until I was almost ready to collapse. I did get the item, but am still feeling the effects. I think I’ll go lie down for a while. Not feeling very sage-like right now, subversive or otherwise. Ow.
Shalom,
Derek
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