Unpacking Ideas

If we are approaching maturity, we know that it’s hard to be Christian but it’s dull to be anything else.                                 — William Sloane Coffin, 1982 When reading a William Sloane Coffin sermon I expect to be challenged by the radical social demands of the Gospel of Christ.  I expect prophetic social disturbance.  I expect to squirm uncomfortably [...]

Coffin’s invites us to consider the divine nature of hope rather than the human nature of optimism — and it requires that we exercise our hope in the context of a realistic understanding of humanity’s limitations.

Today is Friday, which means I am pondering Sunday. On Sunday morning the folks in my congregation (including me) might be wondering, do I really want to change? Can I change? Or … do I only want to feel better?

The world of grace prefers showing mercy over demanding what is fair, which might be something for me to consider — a privileged, educated white guy — since for most of my life I have received more mercy than my fair share, and more blessing than I have earned.

“Activity rooted in pride can never unify, as pride is not accidentally but essentially competitive.”  – William Sloane Coffin, 1980 “Moral conceit is precisely what makes privileged groups so stubborn in the defense of their privileges.” — Reinhold Niebuhr, 1932. Real religion destroys moral conceit, as Niebuhr would explain it.  Whether one calls it moral conceit or [...]

As if not knowing how the parade ends, the people along that roadway were lifted “on a tide of hope and joy.” And so Coffin asks, “knowing what we know today, can we still join the parade?”

When death comes too quickly, tragically perhaps, to those we love, we are confronted again with the harsh truth that we are not autonomous. We do not have control. Yet one choice remains.

Today, connected across decades, continents, and crises we are connected as well by the good question: What is the point of Lent?

This “project” will highlight a series of Coffin’s sermons during the Riverside Church years (1977 – 1987). The primary purpose here will be to illuminate Coffin’s understanding and use of Scripture and the way he applies the text to social concerns of that day. I am especially interested in Coffin’s role as a prophet for the American Church.