Private investigators are routinely hired to research a political candidate’s virtues and vulnerabilities before she or he announces a run for public office. Sometimes we need help uncovering the good we’ve forgotten. But imagine hiring someone to investigate what you’ve tried to forget about those less-than-admirable decisions and habits of your past: financial missteps, moral transgressions, passionate but uninformed accusations.

Now comes along another potentially embarrassing indiscretion: Listening to your pastor preach an outrageous sermon.

As I write this column, Senator Barack Obama is responding to criticism that his recently retired pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, is anti-American and a black separatist. Senator Obama has strongly condemned some of the statements made by his former pastor while also acknowledging these statements represent only a fraction of the sermons preached in Wright’s thirty-year career.

Like most matters involving race and religion in America, this controversy deserves more than the histrionics posing as analysis I’ve heard on television. To be sure, Pastor Wright has made statements I consider inflammatory. He also has an astonishing record of courageous ministry to some of the poorest and most exploited people in our day. The entirety of his ministry and the ministry of Trinity UCC in Chicago deserves our attention.

But back to my original thought: Is Barack Obama’s relationship with Pastor Wright and Trinity UCC a fair measure of Senator Obama’s qualifications to be President? My hunch is some will consider the association a fair but relatively insignificant factor of appraisal. Most voters will consider other issues and opinions when casting their ballot.

So, let me try another angle: Would you want to be judged by the sermons you hear, the company you keep, and the ministries that take place here at North Church? You may not be seeking public office but what do our relationships and ministries here tell others about you and about our life together?

Senator Obama wrote, “Rev. Wright preached the gospel of Jesus, a gospel on which I base my life. In other words, he has never been my political advisor; he’s been my pastor. And the sermons I heard him preach always related to our obligation to love God and one another, to work on behalf of the poor, and to seek justice at every turn.”

Loving God and one another, working on behalf of the poor, seeking justice at every turn. At the end of the day, there are people who rightly judge whether they want anything to do with Christ’s church by how well we individually and collectively live out those Gospel principles.

This Easter season we’ll hear again how the Holy Spirit worked through the lives of the early disciples. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. (Acts 2:43) Even if you don’t agree with every statement made by one of the preachers here, there are some awesome wonders and signs among us. I hope you’re willing to let others discover you’re part of that kind of church.

Shalom,