History: “Don’t Make Me Repeat Myself”

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. – Romans 15:4 (ESV) 

A while back, a Sunday Detroit doubleheader took me to Fellowship Chapel for an afternoon program on Bonhoeffer. Visiting scholar and theologian Dr. Reggie Williams, author of Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance, talked about a time back in Germany when a small man was trying to make his country “great again” in the worst possible way. His theologically thin gruel was slurped up by the cringiest Christian leaders of his day, lapping the poisonous milk of institutional respectability that always kills the church. They may have survived politics of their day back then but they do not look good in the history of this one. I didn’t need a recap of the latest newsfeed that day. The history of the resistance of the confessing church in Germany, as told in a Black church in Detroit, told the same story I had heard earlier that morning at another church across the state.  

Preachers, I know it’s hard out there.  

Travel with others. You are not alone.  

Pack light. You are not your stuff, your résumé, or your pulpit.  

Preach like you don’t have to be perfect. You are called as you are.  

Preach in place. You know your context. 

Preach to the moment. God knows our words are not permanent. 

Preach like you believe that God is still speaking. It might possibly be through someone else this week! Keep preaching anyway.  

Keep praying, keep protesting, and keep singing, as a choir of angels sings with you.

Prayer
God, bless the faithful across the generations with the clarity that church history brings when we study it in faith, hope, and repentance. Amen.

About the Author
Lillian Daniel serves as Michigan Conference Minister, UCC. Her newest book, Defrocked: Good News from a Bad Pastor for a Better Church, is now available at bookstores.