“There was something about the way that Jesus talked that was very different from the way that other men talked,” Rev. Jeremiah Wright repeated over the course of his sermon on Sunday, December 20 at New Sunny Mount Missionary Baptist Church.
The same could be said of the internationally renowned pastor emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, the Obamas’ home church.
Wright stood in the pulpit of a Baptist church and never raised his voice beyond a conversational tone. Yet he elicited shout after shout as he preached from Luke 15: 1-8.
He came as a special guest of senior pastor Reverend Donald Hunter– who will soon be stepping down after 38 years of leading the church.
“I’m extremely excited because one of the greatest preachers in this nation is going to grace our pulpit on this day,” Hunter said as he introduced Wright. “Just to have him in our midst today is quite an honor for me.”
Wright made headlines for not mincing words during the presidential campaign of his parishioner Barack Obama. And New Sunny Mount would get a taste of his candor when he delivered his message.
“I find it fascinating that whatever the Pharisees had to say on a regular basis, these tax collectors and sinners did not come near to listen to them,” Wright said. “Maybe what church folk got to say ain’t what people in need of help need to hear.”
He essentially warned the “church folk” that condemnation, judgment and misinformation have continued to be barriers with respect to drawing more people closer to Christ.
“When you are saved, you wear your skirt below the knee … church folk. When you’ve got the Holy Ghost, you don’t go to the movies and you don’t listen to Jay Z, Kanye West, Beyoncé or Rihanna … church folk,” Wright said.
“Church folk say that slavery was ordained by God. Church folks say that white supremacy is God’s will. Church folk say that the Ku Klux Klan is a Christian organization – that’s why they burn the cross.”
He mentioned Rev. Jerry Falwell’s claims that the September 11 attack was “God’s punishment because of gays, lesbians and the American Civil Liberties Union” and right-wing Christians responses to Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Haiti to drive his point further.
“Church folk say that what the state of Israel is doing to the Palestinians is God’s will,” Wright said. “Church folk – who stole this country from the real Americans – say, ‘We are going to put up walls to take our country back.’ When we take it back, are we going to give it back to the people we stole it from? Maybe church folk need to just shut up and listen to Jesus.”
He returned to the sinners and tax collectors coming to hear Jesus speak and the Pharisees and scribes grumbling.
“When the folks who needed the Lord the most came to the Lord, church folk got upset,” Wright said.
“Tax collectors were equivalent to a drug dealer in our community today, dealing death to his own people for a few crumbs. These folks were coming to the savior. Folks ought to be shouting. Instead, they are grumbling. That still happens. Church folk too often don’t know when to shout – we shout on trash and get quiet on truth.”
