What's wrong with Wright?

America has recently become familiar with the controversial sermons of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr., former pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ, in Chicago, Illinois and long time friend and mentor to presidential candidate Barack Obama. The controversy surrounding the sermons stems from televised clips in which Wright claims that God has damned America for her wanton killing around the globe, her culpability in the attacks of 9-11, the worldwide spread of the AIDS virus, and his use of vulgarity and racial epithets from the pulpit. Regrettably, most of the commentary surrounding his sermons has been rooted in a political framework rather than a biblical one. When we strip away the political backdrop and inflammatory language, Wright’s sermons typify a broadly accepted biblical error that I refer to askingdom confusion.

Kingdom confusion arises when the church becomes distracted from her primary mission to preach and manifest the Kingdom of Heaven, a kingdom that is not of this world (John 18:36). Instead of proclaiming a Kingdom for God’s people where there is no pain or sorrow, a place where righteousness reigns and all needs are met, kingdom confusion insists on redeeming man’s culture to build or restore a sense of God’s kingdom here and now. We don’t have to groan for heaven and eagerly anticipate our final redemption if we only try hard enough (Romans 8:18-25).

Kingdom confusion distorts the purpose of the cross as Jesus becomes a political leader whose death was the result of a failed attempt to challenge a repressive government, rather than a nail-scarred Savior who died as a personal sin substitute (2 Corinthians 5:21). Instead of looking to a once-for-all death to purchase a Kingdom that has no end, kingdom confusion distracts God’s people by looking to an earthly kingdom that requires a continual blood sacrifice to maintain but never actually fix.

Kingdom confusion becomes infused into the living theology of God’s people when it’s preached from the pulpit and applauded in the pews. In this season of debates, primaries, and delegate counts, pulpits across America are filled with political commentary rather than the gospel. Pastors lobby their congregations like constituents rather than lead them as shepherds. John Piper addresses the cure for kingdom confusion preaching when he writes,

 

God himself is the necessary subject matter of our preaching, in his majesty and truth and holiness and righteousness and wisdom and faithfulness and sovereignty and grace. I don’t mean that we shouldn’t preach about nitty-gritty, practical things like parenthood and divorce and AIDS and gluttony and television and sex. What I mean is that every one of those things should be swept up into the holy presence of God and laid bare to the roots of its Godwardness or godlessness.

 

It is not the job of the Christian preacher to give people moral or psychological [or political] pep talks about how to get along in the world; someone else can do that. But most of our people have no one in the world to tell them, week in and week out, about the supreme beauty and majesty of God.[1]

 

Whatever one thinks about the substance of Rev. Wright’s controversial sermons, the central issue for God’s people is to live for, proclaim, and eagerly anticipate the Kingdom which Jesus procured with his own blood. When we get distracted by this earthly kingdom, we lose our ability to be distinctly Christian. America’s elections will come and go, but the body of Christ must not be distracted from the gospel that draws our attention back to the cross and the benefits that it secures.

 

Always in pursuit,
Pastor Hirsch