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Wrestling for Blessing

Reviewed by John Matthews.

This book, by the Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University, comprises eighteen sermons preached to various American congregations, but be warned - or be encouraged - this is no ‘run of the mill’ collection. The Introduction which prefaces the sermons begins by stating that they “were preached for those who find God’s Goodness problematic” (p.8), including survivors of abuse, gays, lesbians and bisexuals, Vietnam veterans and AIDS sufferers, some of whom have suffered at the hands of the church.

The Introduction is also valuable for spelling out the author’s approach to the Bible, which is “to break open the text from many angles and eagerly welcome a variety of interpretative tools” (p.19). Rather than expecting her congregations to swallow the Bible whole like “some giant doctrinal pill”, McCord Adams seeks to set their experiences against the biblical texts. For those who have known both horrendous evil and the Goodness of God, she seeks to articulate the gospel “in a different tone of voice” (p.21) by sounding three recurrent themes: an appreciation of the ‘size-gap’ between God and his creatures; that God can turn anything to blessing because in the crucified Christ he identifies with the worst that we can suffer; and utter candour as a strategy for wrestling with God (hence the title of the book).

Some of the sermons bear intriguing titles, like ‘Holy Trinity: Divine Comedy’ (based on Exodus 3 and John 3), ‘Fraudulent Forgiveness’ (Matthew 18.21-35) and ‘Gay Pride, Humbled Church’ (Galatians 5.1, 13-25).

If you are looking for sermons which you can use as they are, you will (probably) need to look elsewhere, but if you are willing to be stimulated and challenged, there is much food for thought (and also for preaching) here, although it may need to be prepared and served rather differently for your congregation.