Faith has a place in the good times, too
While watching Prince Harry take Meghan Markle as his bride Saturday morning, lots of thoughts popped into mind here, especially when the Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry turned loose the preacher within him, mesmerizing that stodgy white-bread congregation with a stemwinding sermon unlike any ever heard in the stately Windsor Castle sanctuary, at least not with the royal family looking on.
For 13 riveting minutes, the Chicago-born leader of the Episcopal Church let it rip, infusing his words with a passion usually found in black and evangelical houses of worship where “church” is a verb as well as a noun.
At first his listeners seemed taken aback, but then as heads began nodding affirmatively you could sense the emergence of an appreciation that assured Curry his message was right on target and quite appropriate for the occasion.
Did he get to you, too? Not since the stirring days of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has a worldwide audience been publicly exhorted from Scripture in such spellbinding fashion.
It would be hard to suggest anyone stole the show from the breathtakingly beautiful bride, especially with that jarring history of mixed heritage and family dysfunction she brought to the altar.
But Curry sure came close. If you found yourself remembering King’s oratorical brilliance, you were not alone. He even invoked King’s favorite verse of Scripture in which the lowly prophet Amos envisioned a day when judgment would run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Given that these were the nuptials of the toniest clan on earth, the only thing more surprising would have been hearing the queen shout “Hallelujah!”
And maybe that’s the point.
Since King, can you think of any political or cultural leader in American public life who directs our attention to Scripture, other than those who offer mawkish assurance of “thoughts and prayers” when evildoers break our hearts?
And that doesn’t count because almost everyone “gets religion” when savagery or natural disasters traumatize our everyday lives.
Perhaps it also occurred to you that while this handsome couple was swapping “I do’s” across the pond, Americans were once again preparing to bury innocent high school kids, this time in Texas.
Make no mistake, Curry was speaking to us, too.
Like King, he was reminding Harry, Meghan and the rest of us that faith has a place in the good times, too, and that it’s OK to proclaim it.
We seem to have forgotten that in today’s America.
How wonderful it was to have been reminded by a black pastor in a British church of all places.