Among the lasting memories of the “Festival of Homiletics” in my first week of sabbatical are the presentations of some well-known speakers.
Well-known to some at least. One speaker was Walter Wangerin, Jr., a friend of mine from high school and college days, an accomplished author and story teller, former speaker for Lutheran Vespers, writer for The Lutheran, and currently a professor at Valparaiso University. Some of you know that he has had health problems recently, but his health has stabilized and he is able to take speaking engagements again. One of his gifts is to tell stories with deep emotional impact, even for children. It was a privilege to witness that gift in action.
Garrison Keillor is not a preacher exactly — at least not the ordained variety — but he is a story-teller par excellence. He couldn’t speak to the conference in person, but he agreed to a video interview that was shown exclusively for the Festival. The interviewer asked him if he thought there is a parallel between the stories he tells from Lake Woebegone week by week and preaching. I was surprised when he said “No!” His stories, he said, are for entertainment. Garrison expressed a high regard for the more serious purpose of preaching. But, he added, a good story will make a good sermon. I was also surprised when he said that he often feels depressed after a performance, feeling that his story telling was inadequate. Yet he knows that many people find them engaging, even inspiring, which he attributes to grace. Many preachers, myself included, can identify with that sense that whatever impact or inspiration comes from our words is due to God’s grace.
The presentation that has stayed with me most specifically was one by Barbara Lundblad. I knew Barbara twenty years ago through campus ministry connections. She has become known as a preacher nationally and now teaches homiletics/preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Her presentation was entitled, “Jeremiah, Martin, and Me.” The “Jeremiah” part of her title is a play on two “Jeremiahs” — the prophet Jeremiah and Jeremiah Wright. I thought she used the prophet Jeremiah skillfully to address the issue of racism in our society today. (I suppose the “Martin” in the title could have been a dual reference to Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr., but in this ecumenical context she meant to refer only to the latter.) Her perspective has been influenced in part by having an office at Union Seminary next door to James Cone, one of the most prominent black theologians in our country. Reflecting on the issue of racism raised by the controversy over Jeremiah Wright, retired pastor of Trinity U.C.C. Church in Chicago, she suggested three responses based on the prophet Jeremiah: Learn to blush — the prophet called on the people of his day to repent of their faithlessness to their covenant with God; today we might respond by “blushing,” by shame over the racism that remains within us and our society. I surely have reason to confess that my growing up in central Wisconsin surrounded me with examples of racism and that I have prejudices and racist sterotypes that bubble up from within me. Honor outrage – The prophet Jeremiah expressed outrage over the faithlessness of his people. People today express outrage over the persistance of racism today. Barbara talked about Martin Luther King, Jr., and his outrage that discrimination against African Americans persisted 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Yet honoring outrage and accepting anger are difficult for many of us. “Can’t we all just get along together?” we often ask aloud or silently. I suspect that the most difficult aspect of the Jeremiah Wright incident was witnessing the anger and outrage. The truth is, however, that we may not be able to move forward in race relations without “honoring the outrage” on all sides of the issue. Buy a field — That doesn’t mean, however, that we remain fixated at that stage. One of the surprising aspects of the prophet Jeremiah who repeatedly prophesied that Babylon would conquer and destroy Judah is that he bought some property in his hometown. Why buy property when the country would be destroyed? His purchase was an indication of hope for the future. Barbara Lundblad encouraged us to follow the prophet’s example by moving forward — not ignoring the first two steps, but moving onward beyond them, building a positive future based more on hope than fear. I appreciated her clear and thoughtful presentation that faced a current issue head on and offered a hopeful way to move forward.
