Power to change the world
No I didn’t watch the RoYal WedDing, and I was pretty staggered last night to see CNN “covering” it (to the exclusion of anything else) at 5 a.m. London time when all there was to say was “Well the sun is coming up and the crowds aren’t here yet but THEY WILL BE by god”…but all the same I’m getting a kick out of the sermon the royal stiffs got to listen to.
The sermon-giver was Michael Curry, the presiding bishop of the US version of the Anglican church, aka the Episcopalian. (I was dragged to Episcopalian church a few times as a kid. It didn’t take.) He’s the first African-American head of the church. His sermon was a stem-winder. Even a non-believer can appreciate it.
Jesus of Nazareth on one occasion was asked by a lawyer to sum up the essence of the teachings of Moses. He went back and reached back into the Hebrew scriptures, to Deuteronomy and Leviticus, and Jesus said you shall love the lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.
This is the first and great commandment and the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. And then in Matthew’s version, he added, he said, on these two Love of God and Love of Neighbor, hang all the law, all the prophets, everything that Moses wrote, everything in the holy prophets, everything in the scriptures, everything that God has been trying to tell the world. Love God, love your neighbors, and while you’re at it, love yourself.
Now someone once said that Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in all of human history, a movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world. A movement mandating people to live that love. And in so doing, to change not only their lives but the very life of the world itself.
I’m talking about some power, real power. Power to change the world. If you don’t believe me, well, there were some old slaves in America’s antebellum south who explained the dynamic power of love and why it has the power to transform. They explained it this way. They sang a spiritual, even in the midst of their captivity, it’s one that says there’s a balm in Gilead. A healing balm, something that can makes things right.
There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole. There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. One of the stanzas actually explains why: they said, If you cannot preach like Peter and you cannot pray like Paul, you just tell the love of Jesus how he died to save us all. Oh that’s the balm in Gilead. This way of love is the way of life. They got it, he died to save us all. He didn’t die for anything he could get out of it. Jesus did not get an honorary doctorate for dying. He wasn’t getting anything out of it. He gave up his life, he sacrificed his life for the good of the others, for the good of the other, for the well-being of the world. For us, that’s what love is.
Yep, I’m still not going to watch so much as a second of the wedding or the supra-wedding carry-on, but I do like that sermon and who gave it and who heard it.
Is it over yet? Please tell me it’s over.
Hahaha well I don’t know because not watching.
Speaking of priests scoring some points this weekend:
Lachlan Markay (somebody I’m not familiar with, but has a blue checkmark) tweeted regarding Trump’s “animals” comments: “‘Actually MS-13 gangbangers are still human beings’ is not the hill to die on imho”
Some priest named William Dailey responded “Golgotha was the hill to die on, and the fella who did was making that point, among others.”
(I’ve only seen screenshots, not direct links.)
I try to be charitable about things like this. As I saw someone write on Twitter this morning, if someone else derives joy from something you find trivial, let them. (I’m aware that there are those with deeper objections to the institution of royalty.)
I’m just hoping for some media discussion that can live up to the — oh, what’s the right word? — profundity of the “did one of the bridesmaids upstage the bride by having too nice an ass?” topic from the last royal wedding. That was simply *chef kissing fingers* magnificient. (The discussion, I mean.)
But on the other hand giving all of CNN over to it? When there was quite a lot of REAL NEWS to talk about? And the wedding was literally hours away in any case? I don’t feel much need to be charitable about that.
Ah, well, I guess I’d sort of given up on CNN a while ago. Some individual shows might be ok, but it would never occur to me to just tune it in on a Saturday afternoon. You’re right, of course, that such coverage more properly belongs on Bravo or Lifetime or E! than an actual news channel.
Ugh, no, not afternoon – this was yesterday evening. When I have access to cable I look to see what it has to say about TrumpNews, but never in the daytime. (Except when Comey testified. Just that one time.)
That’s why it was so weird. They’re normally serious in the evening, plus as I said it wasn’t even dawn yet in the UK so why why why?
While we’re sort of on the subject of Christians worth listening to/reading:
https://johnpavlovitz.com/
I managed to avoid most of it by locking myself in my office all day (which is what I do every day anyway). I read a book on Threat Modelling instead. It wasn’t a particularly good book, but I’m willing to bet it was a damn sight more entertaining that the wedding nonsense.
I feel I must apologise for the conduct of our people… Sorry you had to endure it over there, too. If it’s any comfort, the ‘news’ over here is still full of it. There are endless interviews with every single person even peripherally involved with every aspect of the thing. I don’t see it dying down any time soon.
Also not a believer, but I really did enjoy the Rev. Curry’s sermon. Partly because he said some things that should be said, partly because of the beauty of the performance, but also because of the reaction it engendered from the congregation. It’s worth spending 14 minutes to watch (and listen to) the whole thing. It’s clear that many members of the congregation didn’t know what had just hit them.
It is. I did end up watching it because channel 9 had bumped the Calder Valley police procedural I’d intended to watch for Royal Wedding so I decided to catch the sermon. The performance is indeed worth it. If all priests were like him…
I also loved the hell out of “Stand By Me.”
I take back some of my complaints about the wedding because it really pissed off a lot of people I want to be unhappy. White supremacists, MGTOWs, incels, plain old-fashioned racists and misogynists… Their displeasure pleases me no end, so grudging applause to those royal people for that.
We Hunted the Mammoth has some posts about how unhappy those terrible people are. The racist sexist terrible people, not the roya…. wait… Well anyway, there’s that.
latsot@13,
Well, I hope I’m not treading into the misogynist turf when I say that I’m a little uncomfortable with hearing some of the praise that has been lavished on Megan Markle. I mean, she seems like a decent person inasmuch as I’m able to tell, and has a respectable acting career going, but a lot of the coverage seems to be treating this marriage like its something she accomplished. Which technically it is, I guess, but I get a little nauseous at the thought that we’re still praising women for “bagging a famous, rich husband” in 2018.
(That’s the collective, societal “we,” not any person here.)