"What's All This Fuss About...?" (A Tribute to Emily Litella)

by Kyle Wiseley

My favorite sketches from the early years of “Saturday Night Live” were the ones that featured Gilda Radner as the perpetually misguided Emily Litella who always started her rant with the phrase “What’s all this fuss about . . .?” focusing on some ludicrously misunderstood issue of the day – hilariously funny and almost guaranteed to be as racy as contemporary television censorship then allowed. Emily misunderstood the most obvious of contemporary concepts and at the end of each of her screeds, when she was corrected, obviously miffed, would concede, “Well, that’s different. Never mind!”

So, as I consider the issues that contemporary Christian organizations agonize, and unfortunately, fight over, I am tempted to say with Emily: “What’s all this fuss about . . . ?” (Fill in the blank with whatever the controversy of the day may be.)

I think we overcomplicate what it means to be a Christian or to try to live a Christian life in our contemporary world. If I were to attempt to explain Judeo-Christian theology to one who had absolutely no knowledge of it, I would begin, not with a creation story, or a story of a Messiah, but with a simple verse from the words of a prophet by the name of Micah, who spoke to his people in a time of both significant economic and political prosperity which was threatened by the mighty strength of the Assyrian Empire. He pointed out the obvious injustices practiced by the people, both individually and as a nation, and particularly emphasized the ongoing disputes and conflicts regarding proper ways of being faithful to Israel’s covenant with Yahweh, He said simply:

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8 NRSV)

For me, those simple words succinctly state the entire requirements for righteous living:

• To do my best to understand the story that both the scriptures and the tradition has passed down through the millennia
• To practice and advocate for justice for all people
• To make kindness the prime intent of all my actions
• And to practice humility in all things and with all people

So, what’s all this fuss about anyway? We are a diverse people – created so by the Divine. How dare any of us say that, because God has revealed God’s self differently to others, that I can no longer relate to them in brotherly love? Because all of us, like Emily, can woefully misunderstand even the simplest of things.