But Joy Comes in the Morning: A Sermon on Hope Amid Our Fearful State of Race and Politics

But Joy Comes in the Morning: A Sermon on Hope Amid Our Fearful State of Race and Politics

Jim Wallis    Christian leader for social change; President and Founder @Sojourners

Politics will not be enough to confront this 2016 election. We will also need a spiritual message. There are gospel issues at stake here, particularly on the issues of race, with America’s original sin now being sold as a political strategy to angry white people. Racism is being incited and condoned, and now violence is being incited and condoned. So we will need to bring what Archbishop Desmond Tutu once called “a spirituality of transformation.” I remember when he preached that message from the pulpit of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. I had the blessing of preaching from that same pulpit this past Sunday, and I wanted to share the sermon I preached with you. Polls won’t be enough anymore for this election. We are going to need sermons. Here’s one.

What does the Word of God mean in our lives and our times? That is always the question for us as the people of God. How does the narrative of the Word of God change our narrative?

My wife, Joy Carroll was one of the first women ordained in the Church of England — she is a Brit! And in the U.K., she is well known as the Real Vicar of Dibley (after the hit television show in which she was the script consultant).

One summer we went to the Greenbelt Festival, where we had first met, with our 4-year-old son, Luke. Joy was up on the stage celebrating the Eucharist for 25,000 British young people. My young son, sitting on my lap, was watching his mom lead the service. She would speak and people would respond, “The Lord be with you … and also with you. She would ask them to do things and they would. After watching this for a while, Luke looked up at me and asked. “Dad, can men do that too?” Women in ministry are changing the narrative in the church, the society, and in our families.

Read the entire sermon HERE. Watch the video in the sidebar.

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