Thanks for setting the scene Thabiti. My memories of those times consist largely of trying to follow the Sunday Night Football game using the internet on Ryan Townsend's cell phone. Fortunately, Ryan's sermon critiques were usually about 20 minutes long, so he never noticed I was running up his bill.

I'll admit, this wasn't at all what I expected. Given the recent media coverage, I was not prepared for how... well, winsome and warm Rev. Wright was in this sermon. The message was really easy to listen to, very literate, and even inspiring at points.

Things I appreciated:

1. He is obviously outraged at sin in the world. He is bold in speaking against institutionalized injustice and racism. He decries a world which cares about more bombs for the enemy than it does about bread for the hungry. A world that is still more concerned about the color of skin than it is about the content of character. A world more finicky about the texture of hair or what is on the outside of your head than it is about the quality of education or what is on the inside of one’s head.

2. He obviously cares deeply for his people. He is sensitive and pastoral in his sympathetic acknowledgment of his congregation's pain.

3. He encourages his people to trust in God and his love and care.

4. As Thabiti mentioned, Rev. Wright had an outstanding summary of the problem the text is dealing with: how do you continue to hope when the love of God is not plainly evident. That's both a sharp analysis and a well turned phrase.

I agree with everything Thabiti said in terms of a critique. This was a "synagogue sermon", as they say. It could have been preached in a synagogue because there was no mention of the cross or the gospel. Nothing made it a uniquely Christian sermon.

I was also surprised by the lack of a clear doctrine of sin in the sermon. As I mentioned, Rev. Wright clearly identifies institutionalized sin. He even mentions the slings and arrows that come to us from people like Peninnah. But there's no sense that the problems we face are the result of sin and the curse. Even more importantly, there is no encouragement for the listener to see (and repent of) his own sin, both in the way he responds to sin and the way he sins against others. As a result, it's never clear how God will save us or what that salvation will be like. We're just told to "hope".

OK, who's up next?