Otis Moss III - Blue Note Preaching in a Post-Soul World: Finding Hope in an Age of Despair

2015 Otis Moss III

First edition
Published by Westminster John Knox Press
Louisville, Kentucky

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Moss, Otis.

Blue note preaching in a post-soul world : finding hope in an age of despair / Otis Moss III. First edition.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-664-26160-3 (alk. paper)

1. African American preaching. I. Title.

BV4221.M67 2015

251dc23

2015031927

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.

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For Monica, who has been my muse
and the metronome of my heart.
You keep my heart beating to the rhythm of love.

CONTENTS

There are several key people I must thank and give acknowledgment: Dean Gregory Sterling for the kind invitation to present the Lyman-Beecher lectures at Yale Divinity School. I cannot thank you enough for this grand and wonderful opportunity.

To my listening partner and spouse, Monica Moss. She read and listened to these lectures numerous times. She joked one day and said, We gave the Beecher Lectures! And it is true, we did! Thank you, Monica, for your hours of input, editorial suggestions, and love. None of this could have been possible without your support, your love, your kindness, and your humor.

I want to also thank my mother and father, Otis and Edwina Moss. My exposure to the voices of Gardner C. Taylor, Henry Emerson Fosdick, Howard Thurman, Sandy Ray, Samuel DeWitt Proctor, and many others came through their love of great preaching and, on road trips across the country, from hearing tapes of these marvelous ministers.

Thank you to my executive assistant, Melody Morgan, a woman who loves great writing. The conversations about Toni Morrison and Gloria Naylor were invaluable for this project. Not only the conversations, but your dedication to transcribe into a readable format my crazy notes and the pictures I created for this lecture.

I also want to thank two brilliant young preachers, the Rev. Neichelle Guidry-Jones and the Rev. Aaron McLeod. Rev. Neichelle offered phenomenal editorial work for the lecture, placing the lecture in Pages and Word with special notations for my review. Rev. McLeod, our director of Special Projects at Trinity United Church of Christ, made sure our Trinity community was plugged in, praying and joining the pastor physically and virtually for these lectures.

Finally, I want to thank the people of Trinity United Church of Christ, a church with a long tradition of prophetic preaching solidified by my predecessor, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. To the village of Trinity, I thank you for loving Monica, Elijah, Makayla, and myself and supporting us not only as we prepared for this event but also for the last seven years of ministry. You have taught me the power of grace, humor, and joy, and I thank you.

The work and art of the preacher is a peculiar enterprise, often misunderstood and misinterpreted. The preaching art has been satirized in popular culture and shaded with demonic overtones by literary mavens who do not recognize the work of the preacher as a discipline and an art. Preaching has faced the judgment of academia and been marginalized by western culture, yet the word continues to go forth in various forms.

I grew up in a faith community where preaching and the preacher were respected as artists and academics, weaving together poetry and pragmatic wisdom for daily living. On Sunday mornings, I witnessed my father and pastor of the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church shape a new reality with metaphor, poetic rhythm, and intellectual engagement of philosophers. He stood week after week and dialogued with a text while he referenced Howard Thurman, Reinhold Niebuhr, Abraham Heschel, Fanny Lou Hamer, Khalil Gibran, Benjamin Elijah Mays, Constance Baker Motley, and Dorothy Day.

Each Sunday was a full meal of word, current affairs, Southern storytelling, and humor. Each week, my father created a message in which he struggled with great ideas and challenged us to question the world. He was raised in the segregated South, a pioneer in the Civil Rights Movement, organizer with the Atlanta Sit-In Movement, and a pastor. His theology and preaching introduced me to the importance of Blues and Jazz to the preaching project.

Black preaching, I believe, is more than preaching with a Black face; it is a unique cultural narrative and theological enterprise where African motifs meet diverse western influences of North America. A beautiful, bold, homiletical voice, poetry, prophetic witness, southern storytelling, lament, blues, and celebration are born out of this tradition.

Before his passing, I spent several consecutive summers with Dr. Fred Craddock, without a doubt, one of North Americas homiletical luminaries. He served as Bible study teacher and theologian-in-residence for the Childrens Defense Fund, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference of Child Advocacy at the Alex Haley Farm in Clinton, Tenn. A bunch of preachers, young and old, gathered around the lunch table daily to ask Dr. Craddock questions. He was gracious with his time and patient with us. I remember him remarking about the importance of Black preaching; All preachers will do well to study the history, structure, and theology of the preached word that is birthed from the Black church. It was a quiet matter-of-fact comment coming from this intellectual giant, but it spoke to the yearning in my heart.