I’m back at the Festival. That crazy circus of preachers and preaching that I love so much. A week long total immersion into the living waters of proclamation. Or something like that. It is actually hard to describe even to preachers, let alone to the average lay person in the pew who hopes each week the preacher doesn’t go too long!
Normally I come for inspiration and for a time to reflect on the art and craft of preaching. This year there is that. But also a new dimension as I am on the threshold of a new calling as the Director of Preaching Ministries. I have been telling folks that my responsibilities will include equipping and inspiring preachers across the denomination and beyond. Certainly, being a part of the Festival will continue to be important.
This year we’re in Minneapolis, the venue where I first attended the Festival almost 20 years ago. The theme is “Preaching as Moral Imagination” which has more layers of meaning than I can even begin to describe. But we got a good start at tonight’s opening sessions.
We began with worship at Central Lutheran Church, one of the very few venues that can host the approximately 1,600 preachers from all over the world. I walked into the magnificent sanctuary while the organ was playing powerful pre-service music. It was barely heard, however, over the buzz of preachers trying to be heard by their colleagues known and unknown. Eventually we did settle down and after some welcomes from the host pastor and the conference organizers, worship began.
We sang “Christ Is Alive” (from the cranberry Lutheran Hymnal - Not red, but cranberry) and in that space, with all those voices, no one could doubt that Christ was alive. Alive among us, Alive within us. And we were alive, more alive because of it. The music was led by a team of White Minnesota Lutherans who could sing the blues and gospel and African rhythms with passion and power. My favorite was Bambelela, a Zulu word that translates as Never Give Up. And those were the lyrics! But we sang, and we promised, never give up.
This was sung in response to the sermon. Our preacher was the Rev. Dr. Barbara Lunblad, who is the “Joe R. Engle Professor Emerita of Preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. I’m not sure what emerita means in this case; she’s still teaching, but maybe not as much? Or she simply has more authority than she used to? Better pay attention! And we did. Her sermon title was “Nevertheless, She Persisted,” signaling to us all that politics was going to be a part of the proceedings. But never once did she mention to origin of the quote, perhaps assuming we all knew. Instead she talked about the persistence of the widow in her pleading for justice from the unjust judge. Barbara led us to listen to the text again, and pay more attention to what Jesus says than how Luke frames it. Luke 18:1-8 is the passage and in verse one, Luke tells us this is a parable about prayer. Indeed it is, we can agree, and to keep praying. But Jesus seems to imply there is something more, that perhaps this is a parable about justice. In the short parable Jesus uses the word justice four times. He doesn’t say prayer at all, though He does encourage us to cry out for justice to the Lord. But then at the end, Jesus gives us the moral. The moral? “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” So, is Jesus saying the parable is about faith?
And of course the answer is yes. Yes, this is a parable about prayer. Yes, this is a parable about justice. Yes, this is a parable about faith. Lunblad said if we forget prayer we think change is all up to us and our efforts alone. If we forget justice, then our prayers are empty words in violent and tragic circumstances. And if we forget faith, then we’re likely to give up when justice is slow in coming. They weave together these three. All are needed. Nevertheless, we should all persist.
After the sacrament of holy communion and much more powerful singing (including the Canticle of the Turning, one of my favorite Celtic music hymns) we turned the evening over to the Rev. Dr. James Forbes, who is Senior Minister Emeritus of Riverside Church in New York City. An evening of emeritus, it seemed. Forbes was there to lecture to us ... No, he was there to recruit us for God’s Dream Team. After a sweet tribute to his wife of 55 years, where he (like me) admitted to marrying an older woman (she was born in March and he was born in September - he’s only 83 and she’s 84. He said he had to yes ma’am her for a few more months), he then gently began presenting his invitation.
He reminded us of the decision of the US Olympic Committee in 1992 to move from an all college level basketball team to a roster of NBA All Stars to represent the state of the game in our country. Forbes said God told him there were 1,600 preachers who needed to be signed up for the team. For God’s Dream team. He began the appeal by talking about how some have been asking whether these were the last days, with all that’s going on in our nation and world, are we about to come to an end? When we think of the last days, we often turn to the trouble, all the brokenness that surrounds us, the despair and violence. And that is a description of the last days. But there is another description. It comes in the Acts of the Apostles, on the day of Pentecost, when Peter stands us to declare that God promised in the last days God will pour out the Spirit all flesh, men and women, youth and aged, free and slaves. And Forbes says, we need that Spirit. We need those proclaimers. We need a new dream team.
I’m in. How about you?
Shalom,
Derek C. Weber
#Homiletics2019
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