A GREAT ORDEAL
Robert Michael Franklin
A sermon delivered at the Fall Convocation of Candler School of Theology,
Emory University on September 2, 2003.
Rev. 7: 9-17
President Wagner, Dean Richey, faculty, administration, students, my wife, Cheryl, and friends. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all you who made possible my return to this very special community of faith and inquiry. It gives me special delight to return to the collegiality of this beloved faculty. It’s good to be ‘the prodigal professor’ but even better to come home where the lights are on and the music continues to play.
A word about the text from the Apocalypse, commonly known as the Revelation. I love this passage but the book is not one of my favorites. Reading this book I always feel as if I’m reviewing a script for the next Lord of the Rings trilogy. But, here in this wonderful pericope there is a vision of the church at the end of time. It is a universal, multinational, multiracial, and who knows (after peering out at Mars last week) maybe even, intergalactic gathering of believers. What they share in common is a faith tested by adversity and ordeal. They endured the great ordeal (tribulation) and are now ready to look back, look up, and celebrate. You can understand why African American slaves would have been attracted to this passage especially the part that declares, ‘and He that sits on the throne shall dwell among them, they shall hunger no more, neither thirst, For the Lamb shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” (15-17)
Standing before this passage, I am a bit daunted. I am reminded of the story of the two PKs (preacher’s kids) arguing about their respective parents preaching prowess. The little boy said my mother is the greatest preacher in the whole world. She can preach a hundred different sermons from one Bible text. The little girl responded, ‘that’s nothing. My daddy can take a hundred different passages, and preach the same sermon.
I’ve been away for ten years, and I’ve found many new texts, but I bring the same sermon. My one big idea can be stated simply. Western Christianity, especially its American version, has a global public relations problem. But, we can be part of the solution.
Perhaps you have seen the Internet thought exercise titled, “Something to think about.” My friend and Union Theological Seminary professor Emilie Townes introduced me to this. It asks the reader to shrink the earth’s population to 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same. This is not what we might look like or could look like but what there actually would be:
* 57 Asians
* 21 Europeans
* 14 from North and South America
* 8 Africans
* 52 would be female
* 48 would be male
* 70 would be darker skinned people, 30 white people
* 70 would be from a religious tradition other than Christianity
* 30 would be Christian
* 89 would be heterosexual
* 11 would be homosexual
* 59% of the entire world's wealth would belong to only 6 people and all 6
would be citizens of the United States
* 80 would live in substandard housing
* 70 would be unable to read
* 50 would suffer from malnutrition
* 1 would be near death
* 1 would be near birth
* Only 1 would have a college education
* 99 of them would not see this message,
* Because only 1 would have a computer.
* and then it ends:
When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for both acceptance and understanding becomes glaringly apparent
The metaphor of compression is an apt way to name a set of processes commonly known as globalization.
This is how sociologist Peter Berger frames the challenge:
There is an emerging global culture, most of it of Western and indeed American provenance, penetrating the rest of the world on both elite and popular levels. By far, the most visible manifestation of the emerging global culture is in the vehicle of popular culture. It is propagated by business enterprises of all sorts (such as Adidas, McDonald’s, Disney, MTV, and so on.)
You have seen this phenomenon in your travels. And I had ample opportunity to observe it during nearly a year of sabbatical travel. From the favelas or slums of Rio de Janiero, to the bustling streets of Hanoi and Bangkok; from the crowded markets of Istanbul and Cape Town to the dusty sidewalks of Cairo and Casablanca, America is there. They watch our movies, tragically without context or reality testing. They consume CNN and Coca Cola, and they love our tennis shoes that, by the way, are made by them, shipped to us where we slap on a value-adding label, and then sell them back to their makers.
For the most part, citizens of the world regard America as a benign or positive presence. But, something is happening. And the stakes of a negative outcome to this process are exceedingly high, as we witnessed on 9/11.
Consider the unfolding of a drama of which we are all now a part. The current unpleasantries in Iraq. Recently, the world witnessed a U.S.-led coalition to unseat a ruthless dictator. I suspect that most of us regard this outcome as a good consequence for the people of Iraq and the cause of human rights in the global community. That, despite the fact that the evidence and moral warrants for justifying this action were problematic and widely unpersuasive.
But, the sharp edge of our PR challenge lays here. One of the most distressing dimensions of much pre-war discourse was the series of anti-Islamic comments made by a few highly visible American church leaders. Some of these same leaders are associates of our president. And, our president also employed language that could easily be construed as suggesting that particular Islamic nations are part of an axis of evil. Unwittingly or not, by invoking explicitly religious and theological rhetoric to fortify the case for military action, our political leaders presented U.S. foreign policy, fortified by American Christianity, as the morally superior alternative to Islam. This is a lethal calculation for the church as well as the nation. This comes very close to an ideological use of the gospel to support a particular and fallible analysis of world events. And, the goal of achieving strategic military advantage is easily conflated with advancing American economic interests in the marketplace of nations.
Political boosterism and product placement may be legitimate tasks of the state and the market. But, not the church. The church of Jesus Christ does not carry a portfolio for any partisan political organization or for McDonalds and Microsoft. Why would it stoop so low? As the church, we have an obligation to God and to the global community to differentiate our faith from our country’s foreign policy and market designs. And, we have a moral obligation to build bridges of inter-religious understanding and dialogue here on this campus and in this city. We must not permit the Muslim world to think that secular political and business officials, who may happen to be earnest Christians, represent the vision and ethical values of the Christian churches. Our voice must be distinct and it must be clear. And, church leaders must not rely on our usual passive approach of issuing soporific resolutions and press releases. The people in Tikrit never see those. We must go on the offensive and creatively communicate our message, our witness, through every channel available from MTV to Al-Jazeera.
We can say this and still love our country, respect our president, support our troops, and stand tall as American patriots in the tradition of Patrick Henry, Susan B. Anthony, and Frederick Douglass.
But, this is work for a particular kind of religious leader. Since the time of Reinhold Niebuhr, we have called them public theologians. They are women and men who take their faith out of the comfort of the sanctuary into the public square, of the nation and the globe. In times of stress and uncertainty, they ‘go public’ not to impose their faith upon other people, but to give voice and to give body, yes to embody, a radical idea. The idea that love is the greatest force available to humanity for solving its ills. Not the weak and superficial sentimentality that passes for love in our time. But, love as a force of the soul. Love as a movement of the Spirit. A radical agapic ethic that forgives enemies. Love that insists upon reconciliation. Love that marches nonviolently down public streets even while dogs are biting and fire hoses are piercing. Public theologians show before they tell the world the meanings of faith, hope, love, justice, and reconciliation. As one theologian put it, preach the gospel always, use words when necessary.
Our world needs public theologians who will call the church forward to its unrealized identity. Every congregation in America should be a community of worship and prayer to be sure. But, they must grow into communities of cultural discernment, moral deliberation, and courageous action. They cannot do it on their own. They need leaders. And, so you are here.
And, here is a clue to what this faculty is trying to nurture in each student. Public theologians need sharp minds and pastoral hearts. But, in a political milieu riven through with seemingly intractable standoffs and unresolvable conflicts something specific is required. It is a capacity and a habit. It can be learned. It may be taught. Biblical scholar, Walter Breuggemann, calls it “prophetic imagination.” It is the gift to perceive possibilities in every situation where the Holy can disclose itself. When everyone around you sees an fog and rain, the public theologian employs prophetic imagination to see through the darkening clouds of our present time and apprehends the glimmering opportunities ahead.
Prophetic imagination must not be the product of an overactive ego in the service of individual inflation and mobility. But, rather, a habit born of intellectual discipline, of study, research, and conferring with other smart and not-so-smart ‘wise’ people. Prophetic imagination draws its intellectual capital from the knowledge of biblical studies, church history, systematic theology and ethics, practical theology, the social sciences and philosophy. In the mind of the public theologian, these resources are in constant dialogue and creative tension.
Candler School of Theology has a distinguished history of preparing generations of public theologians with prophetic imagination. We hope that you have come here to join that tradition and to take your place in the ranks of learned and prophetic Christian leaders. These are the leaders Dr. King spoke of in his sermon titled “Transformed nonconformists.”
This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. The saving of our world from pending doom will come not from the action of a conforming majority, but from the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.
By the way, in our earlier vision of earth’s 100 people, I do hope that at least one of them is a public theologian.
A final note from the Apocalypse. No wonder this book almost didn’t make it into the New Testament canon. It is a veritable forest of wild allegory and magical metaphor. Mystifying, haunting, dense, and elusive. Just the kind of language one might use when an oppressive power is looking over your shoulder or trying to extinguish your faith community. Oppressed folk know how to tell a story and sing a song that eludes the hermeneutical radar of the oppressor.
But this pericope offers us a gift. It is a vision of how we appear from the other end of history. It is a great gathering, a convocation of sorts. The gathering occurs in the presence of God. Worship and music and adoration are the order of the day. But, an elder interrupts the flow to ask a rhetorical question. Intrigued with a particular group of worshippers adorned in special garments, singing a special song, he asks. Who are these? They are the survivors. They are the wounded healers. They are the public theologians who never gave up the fight. And, that bunch over there is from Candler.
As we convoke a new academic year, we note the predicament of vocations in our society. Our friends in the medical school have a noble calling to fight disease and promote wellness. But, they don’t have much reason to celebrate these days. There seems to be an inverse relationship between the cost of health care and malpractice insurance and the status of physicians.
Our friends in the law school have devoted their lives to fighting crime and promoting order and justice. But, they are in the unenviable position today of being blamed for the mean-spirited, litigious character of our society. Sooner or later, everybody needs one, but no one likes to see them coming.
Our friends in the business school are called to meet human need and want through the effective management, production, and delivery of goods and services. But, in the post-Enron era, it will be a long time before most people regard business leaders as paragons of morality.
As for engineers…they’re doing just fine.
And, what about here at the theology school? We’ve seen our share of clergy scandals and bad behavior in the name of that which is pure and good and lovely. But, no matter how difficult things get for us, we have reason to look up with hope. For it seems that the greater the crisis in health care, criminal justice, the economy and international relations, the greater the spiritual hunger. People will continue to seek meaning, purpose, and community. And, most will continue to search within the communities that you will lead.
But there is another reason for hope, the hope of those endure adversity. For there is an explicit clause in our contract that reads, ‘blessed are you when people persecute you and speak evil of you for my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven’
There’s another explicit clause in the contract reads, ‘the troubles of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us.’
But, there are some hidden clauses in the contract. Unknown things.
We don’t know why the race is not given to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. We don’t know why the good die young while the evil flourish. We don’t know why bad things happen to good people, or why no good deed goes unpunished. We don’t even know how many angels can dance on the tip of a needle, or which came first, the chicken or the egg.
But, this one thing we know. ‘They that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like an eagle. They shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint.’
We know that ‘Time is filled with swift transitions, naught on earth unmoved can stand. So build your hope on things eternal and hold to God’s unchanging hand.’
Let’s have a great year!