What Michael Curry (The Royal Wedding Preacher) Failed To 'Drive Home'

It was the sermon, 'heard round the world.'

I'm referring, of course, to Michael Curry's sermon at Saturday's royal wedding uniting Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.  

As you'll remember, Curry spoke on the power of love, a theme he applied not only to the royal wedding, but to a global hunger for compassion.  The result: Curry's words captivated, lifting not only those assembled in Windsor Castle, but a radio and television audience numbered to be over two billion people. 

Pretty amazing congregation, for a sermon, that turned out to be pretty amazing -- marked by soaring rhetoric.  A sampling follows:   

"...Jesus began...a movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world - and 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 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... 'There is a balm in Gilead...' a healing balm, something that can make things right...And 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...' 

...Love is not selfish and self-centered...[The] way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love changes lives, and it can change this world...[And so]...When love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again. When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook...When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all, and we are brothers and sisters, children of God..."  https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/20/612798691/bishop-michael-currys-royal-wedding-sermon-full-text-of-the-power-of-loves

Praise for Michael Curry's sermon was universal.   And rightfully so!  It was outstanding, in so many ways.  

But Curry failed to underscore a required emphasis.  Though love is a wonderful, required expression of Jesus, rightfully commanded by Jesus (as Curry points out in referencing the two great commandments, e.g. Matthew 22:35-40, Mark 12:28-34) -- it is not love, that changes lives and the world.  Only Jesus Himself changes life and the world -- as we graft ourselves into his very Being (e.g. the Vine, John 15:1-11) -- living 'in Christ' (Galatians 2:20).

Sure, this is suggested in Michael Curry's wonderful message.  But I am discovering -- the hard way -- that you can't just suggest -- or -- assume -- persons will connect the attributes of Jesus (e.g. love, peace, justice) back to Jesus and the necessity of being one with Him (e.g. 'in Christ').   

I referred to this in a blog post earlier this year, quoting a prime mentor, Myron Augsburger. Reflecting on our tendency to proclaim the attributes of Jesus, without proclaiming Jesus, Myron concluded:

"...I believe in justice, but I am not a preacher of a gospel of justice, but the gospel of Christ, who calls us to justice.  I believe in love, but I am not a preacher of a gospel of love, but of the gospel of Christ, who calls us to love.  I am committed to peace; but I am not a preacher of peace, but the gospel of Christ who calls us to peace...We must beware of the ultimate plagiarism, that of borrowing great concepts from Jesus, proclaiming those concepts to others, but not proclaiming the Christ who empowers those concepts..."  [Myron Augsburger.  The Peacemaker.  Nashville:  Abingdon Press, 1987, p. 203] 

Michael Curry did connect justice, love, and peace back to God.  But beyond a stanza in the slave spiritual 'There Is A Balm In Gilead' there was not an explicit connection back to Christ, declaring, that the only way we fully claim and comprehend the love of God -- and our status as children of God -- is by grafting ourselves to God -- through -- the God who is in Christ -- becoming 'in Christ' ourselves.  

This is a controversial nuance.  In fact, many reading my words will conclude I am 'splitting hairs,' over-critical, quibbling over non-essential details.   

Fair point.  I mean, if people would just commit to love -- and the God of love -- that would be a huge breakthrough -- right? 

Sort of.  But...more accurately -- it would only be a huge starting point.  For it is only as graft ourselves to God -- through the God in Christ - becoming 'in Christ' -- that we achieve a breakthrough -- and life finally changes.

Jesus is rather blunt in this regard, in John 15:  "If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; [but] apart from me you can do nothing."  (John 15:5).

A while back, Maxie Dunham reflected on visiting one of the best known United Methodist congregations in the U.S.  

"...The people were friendly and welcoming. The music and worship were lively and uplifting. The church is known...for its outreach...to the poor and homeless...I was moved deeply by the diversity of the congregation and the seeming breakdown of barriers. I was shocked, however, when one of the ministers, in the midst of the service, gave an invitation to church membership. He said something like this: “We are family and we want you to belong. We welcome you to our membership. Join us downstairs after the service and we will welcome you. Come all. It doesn't matter whether you are young or old, black or white, [straight] gay or lesbian or transgender, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist. None of that matters. Come on and join us.”

I've wrestled with that experience in my mind because I am thrilled by the outreach ministry. But I'm puzzled about such a deliberate expression of no conditions for church membership, no distinctive Christian claims...Never mind questions about conduct and the call to holiness, or what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ...

...Jesus' claim is exclusive. [Yet His invitation to be bound to Him, is inclusive; anyone can come and find rest].  [And so we affirm with N.T. Wright, that our proclamation of Jesus as Lord and Savior of the World], "...constitutes a summons to all people to discover the true fulfillment of every human...dream by the paradoxical route of ...following Jesus. This will mean giving up the idols that promise the earth, and embracing the God who promises new heavens and a new earth as the true fulfillment of the present creation.” (emphasis added). https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/401/the-exclusive-claim-of-jesus-the-scandal-of-particularity

This is what is 'technically' called the particularity of Christ.  Simply put, the particularity of Christ is the Scandal of the Gospel/Cross, that affirms the counter-cultural -- apparently intolerant belief -- that Jesus alone is "...the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through [Him]..."John 14:6.  Paul expands on this 'extreme,' 'narrow,' world-view in 1 Corinthians: 

“…The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness…[But] this   is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It’s written, I’ll turn conventional wisdom on its head, I’ll expose so-called experts as crackpots. So where can you find someone truly wise…Hasn’t God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense? Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb...to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.  (1 Corinthians 1:18-21, The Message).

A Royal Wedding brings out the wisest and the best.  In fact, a Royal Wedding brings out the fancy wise and best -- in line with Paul's words.  And so, I am guessing, as Michael Curry brushed against the gospel, proclaiming in the words of the slave spiritual,  "...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...' -- there was an affront at the simplicity and 'dumbness' of such an exclusive proposition.   

At least the body language and facial expressions of some in the room seemed to suggest puzzlement/offense (though apparently, the Queen did enjoy Curry's message, in spite of her 'look'!).

Yet, Michael Curry was 'headed in the right direction,' in spite of the offense.  For only as we tell the love of Jesus, and how he died to save us all, will we ever truly change the world.  

Sure, Curry didn't drive home that message (in my estimation) -- suggesting in the end -- that redemptive love is the true fire -- that if harnessed -- "...will make of this old world, a new world..."

But Curry got close enough to the Gospel, that I am confidant that the majority assembled in Windsor Castle -- and those listening -- are now more curious (in spite of initial puzzlement/offense) than ever, about a spiritual reality beyond their own self-centered means and ends. 

And so, I'm trusting that the Holy Spirit will now 'drive home' the connection to Jesus and His scandalous claim to be the only true source of justice, freedom, love -- and ultimately, life!  

Last year, a Christian song-writer, Keith Getty was honored as an 'Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The recognition was in response to Getty's contribution to 'Music and Modern Hymn Writing,' marking the first time a contemporary church music artist was so honored.  

Ironically, in light of the Spirit's continuing, convicting work, among the Royals (and others), Getty's most famous and acclaimed hymn (co-created with Stuart Townend), is entitled:  'In Christ Alone.'  It's lyrics highlight the Gospel of Jesus, and Jesus' identity as the only cornerstone, the only firm foundation.  

“...In Christ alone my hope is found; He is my light, my strength, my song; This cornerstone, this solid ground, Firm through the fiercest drought and storm. What heights of love, what depths of peace. When fears are stilled, when strivings cease! My comforter, my all in all— Here in the love of Christ I stand..."

Christ alone.  Light.  Strength.  Song.  Cornerstone.  Solid ground.  Firm.  Heights.  Depth. Fears stilled.  Strivings cease.  Comfort.

...Love!   

In Christ alone -- we stand.