There are a lot of important things happening in the real world this week. Still, you should forward the following to whoever delivers sermons in your place of worship, whatever their title and whatever scripture they preach about.
It's a scene from the West Wing TV show, and it's a withering critique of sermons. I post this in a spirit of self-flagellation, for the many times I have been what President Bartlet calls a "hack", not living up to the gift of a willing audience every week in the synagogue.
Thanks as always to Joshua Malina and Hrishikesh Hirway for their podcast, The West Wing Weekly. This week they discussed the episode of which this scene is a part. The whole episode, of the show and of their podcast, is amazing.
Copied from http://www.westwingtranscripts.com/search.php?flag=getTranscript&id=50:
The doors open. Bartlet and Abbey walk inside.
CHARLIE
Good afternoon.
ABBEY
Hi, Charlie.
CHARLIE
How was church?
BARTLET
[mumbles] It sucked.
ABBEY
It was fine. [to Bartlet] Stop it!
BARTLET
It sucked!
ABBEY
[sighs] You're talking about church.
BARTLET
Oh, like I'm not already going to hell.
CHARLIE
[follows them a pace behind] What was the problem?
ABBEY
He feels the homily lacked penache.
BARTLET
It did lack penache.
ABBEY
It was a perfectly lovely homily on Ephesians 5:21. "Husbands, love your
wives, as Christ
loved the church and gave himself up for her."
BARTLET
Yeah. She's skipping over the part that says, "Wives, be subject to your
husbands as to
the Lord, for a husband is the head of a wife as Christ is the head of the
church."
ABBEY
I do skip over that part.
BARTLET
Why?
ABBEY
Because it's stupid!
They walk in THE OVAL OFFICE.
BARTLET
Okay.
ABBEY
"Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up
for her, that
he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by washing of water with the word
that he
might present the Church to himself in..." something.
BARTLET
[behind his desk, puts on glasses] "In splendor." And I have no problem with
Ephesians.
And any time you want me to cleanse you with the washing of water, you know
I'm up for it.
ABBEY
Then what is your problem?
BARTLET
Hackery!
Abbey waves her arms at him and walks out to the PORTICO. Bartlet follows.
BARTLET
This guy was a hack! He had a captive audience! And the way I know that is
that I tried
to tunnel out of there several times. He had an audience and he didn't know
what to do
with it.
ABBEY
You want him to sing "Volare?"
BARTLET
Couldn't have hurt. Words...
ABBEY
Oh, God, no.
BARTLET
Words, when spoken out loud for the sake of performance, are music. They
have rhythm,
and pitch, and timbre, and volume. These are the properties of music, and
music has the
ability to find us and move us, and lift us up in ways that literal meanings
can't. Do
you see?
ABBEY
You are an oratorical snob.
BARTLET
Yes, I am. And God loves me for it.
They stop and face each other.
ABBEY
You said he was sending you to hell.
BARTLET
For other stuff, not for this. You can't just trod out Ephesians, which he
blew, by the
way, it has nothing with husbands and wives, it's all of us. Saint Paul
begins the
passage: "Be subject to one another out of reverence to Christ." [passionately]
"Be
subject to one another." In this day and age of 24-hour cable crap, devoted
to feeding
the voyeuristic gluttony of the American public, hooked on a bad soap opera
that's
passing itself off as important, don't you think you might be able to find
some relevance
in verse 21? How do end the cycle? Be subject to one another!
ABBEY
So... This is about you.
BARTLET
No, it's not about me! Well, yes, it is about me, but tomorrow it'll be
about somebody
else. We'll watch Larry King and see who. [shouts] All hacks, off the
stage! Right now!
That's a national security order.
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