Werner Herzog’s film, Huie’s Predigt (Huie’s Sermon)—in English with some German subtitles—shows an urban black church service. Even for a one who is familiar with the maturity and wisdom of a great black preacher—Dr. Anthony Gatewood was for me the best preacher in my area—the film seems to drag on; it runs 40 minutes, with a lot of repetition and little outward drama. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDoTEKKHgHE.
The film shows us the congregation coming in before the beginning of the service, with some singing, then the long sermon, and finally the look of people as they leave the service. Perhaps the most repeated theme in the sermon is that God is in control. We see and hear that sermon as it rises to the height of emotional fervor, sustains that level at length, and then comes to an end. A couple of times in the film, for about a minute, we see a still scene of a slum. In these scenes, all that we can see is maximally bleak. There is not a soul to be seen anywhere, no sign of life, no movement of wind. The buildings look abandoned, with only piles of trash stretching out in front of them. Staring at these images against the backdrop of the ongoing sermon, we initially see these glimpses of reality on the streets . . . standing in starkest contrast with reality as portrayed in the sermon. We easily imagine that the slum scenes represent the daily reality for most of the urban black worshippers here. Contemplating the trashed-out slum scenes, nothing seems more evident than that God is not in control. This contrast would seem entirely to discredit the sermon, except perhaps for the haunting peace and soul-satisfaction that we can feel in the worshippers as they leave after the service. Then it may dawn on us that the slum scenes are artificially bleak. We are left with questions.
One of these questions is about what it means to speak of God as being in control. The most basic idea of control is illustrated by the example of a knob on a stove that controls the heat on a burner. God as a controller operates in a manner beyond our comprehension. The First Cause establishes laws that are inherent in the various forms of energy and matter. Dependable precision characterizes the working of the laws of nature.
We can also speak of a person regaining emotional control. In that sense, control implies a restraining or directing influence. And we could speak of an artist as having great control, meaning that the artist has developed talent and skill to convey a seasoned sense of proportion and subtle nuance of emphasis (Webster’s International Dictionary, Second Edition, Unabridged, 1934). God as controller operates in the realm of mind, for example, through truths of morality, such as the rule of treating others as we want others to treat us. Such laws operate not in a mechanical manner like a knob on a stove, nor as an automatic and irresistible domination, but as principles addressed to creature freedom, principles that we can disobey, even in a universe ordered toward goodness. Moral decision-making lays hold of the facts of the material situation and reaches up to the values and relationships of the spiritual domain, and meaningfully, wisely brings these realms together. Mind over matter, spirit over mind.
God also operates on a spiritual level; and here, too, the Creator establishes laws that describe the ways of divine love—for example, to receive the divine affection and to love God in return . . . and to love the neighbor as oneself. Creatures can love God so much . . . that his love has such a great influence on them . . . that it becomes their supreme joy . . . to affectionately dedicate their will to the doing of his will. Continuing this thought, we can imagine that God will one day rule the universe by the compelling power of his love. This is the kind of control that Werner Hezog is showing us in Huie’s Sermon: the love that is received by—and motivates—worshipers filled with faith.
I can hardly tolerate the sermon. And I’m jealous of its results.
