As some of you may have heard, recently Senator Obama has been challenged about sermons the pastor of his church preached several years ago following the events of 9/11. As most of you know, my dad is a retired Lutheran pastor with a strong leftist bent. My dad, who only made up his mind to vote for Obama on Super Tuesday eve, has written an Op Ed piece (I think it could use some quality copy edit, especially around citations, but then it would be good for somehting like Newsweeks "My Turn" column):
Pastor Jeremiah Wright, Prophet
by Rev. Ted Schroeder
(short version)
An African American preacher in Chicago made the news this past week for being the pastor of Sen. Barak Obama’s church and for saying, “God damn America.” The media pounced upon the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright…..and on Senator Obama(!).
The commentators I heard on television, with one exception, took deep offense at Pastor Wright’s words. The pundits asked how someone who calls himself a ‘man of God’ could say such a thing. The church is supposed to pray for America, they said. Isn’t it supposed to sing ‘God bless America’? Even Sen. Obama was backed into saying that he rejected the harsh words his pastor had spoken.
I suggest that Pastor Wright’s words find a strong parallel in the words of Jesus in Luke 6:20-26. (It will require some serious word study, but it may protect us from a law suit, should Dr. Wright ever choose to file charges for defamation of character.)
[Should the media publish a Bible study? That is not for me to decide. But unless someone names the biblical and historical traditions which inform the call to be a prophet for the Lord, then Rev. Wright will continue to be vilified with no defense.]
In the middle of Luke chapter 6, Jesus preaches words which are very familiar: “Happy are the poor....blessed are those who weep.” Blessed and happy. How nice. God smiles on the poor, gives them a comforting pat on the head. But the word blessed in the original Greek (makarios) is a far more robust word than a warm smile or a touch.
A twentieth century Spanish translation used the word bienaventurado which literally means “good adventure.” “You, who are named makarios, are on the great adventure with God in the world.” Other biblical scholars suggest that makarios is to be translated “you are right where you need to be….where you would want to be,” namely you are with God. You have heaven now.
Then abruptly Jesus says (v 24), “Woe to you who are rich….sated.… laughing ….publicly praised.” Woe! Soon you will be hungry, mourning and weeping. Woe! The Greek word is ouai, the exact opposite of makarios. You are not on God’s great adventure. You are on the side of God’s opponent. You are precisely in a place opposite where you would want to be, if you were not so blinded. You have chosen to be apart from God. You have chosen damnation. You have hell now and you don’t even realize it. What must a prophet of the Lord say to persons such as these?
God warned the prophet Ezekiel, “If you do not warn those headed to destruction, then their blood is on your hands.” Someone must speak a word of warning, using words which penetrate to the heart of distracted hearers and change them into listeners.
Twenty-seven hundred years ago the prophet Amos preached to such a situation. He denounced the rich and powerful for oppressing the poor, the widow, the orphan, using a Hebrew word similar to ouai, woe, and got deported from Israel as an undesirable alien. Two hundred years later, Jeremiah in Jerusalem proclaimed woe and was imprisoned for sedition and lack of patriotism. However between the time of Amos and the time of Jeremiah, Israel was conquered and its people disappeared from history—the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel! And Jeremiah’s lifetime Jerusalem was destroyed and its people were taken away to Babylonian.
Years before, when Jeremiah had been challenged by state-sponsored prophets, his only defense had been, “time will tell which prophet is speaking the truth.” (There are no last laughs for faithful prophets.)
Chicago’s prophet Jeremiah is not the only preacher proclaiming divine wrath and judgment on the United States of America. Some are from minority populations—women, gays, blacks and other people of color. Some are white. All are struggling to speak a word which will be heeded, a word which clearly describes reality, a word which calls for God’s justice. This is the challenge for 21st century American prophets. Jeremiah of Chicago, called by God to speak for God, chose the words which every American can understand: “Damn you!”
Even a casual reading of the Bible reveals similarities between Biblical times and nations and these times and this nation. What would the Jesus of Luke chapter six say to the USA today? What would Amos and Jeremiah (and Habakkuk and John the Baptizer who also preached ‘woe’ and the wrath of God) say to us here and now?
God bless all who prophecy the truth. Courage to them!
Rev. Ted Schroeder
Kansas City MO
