July 8, 2012

Geno Sisneros

Pentecost 6     Ezekiel 2:1-7     Mark 6:1-13

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Since my exodus from evangelical Christianity I must admit that I’ve carried with me a very negative opinion of the concepts of ‘prophets’ and ‘prophecy’. Where I’m from, so-called prophets used their ‘gift’ of prophecy as a weapon to exercise control over individuals and families in the congregation. It was not the voice or the interests of God that were being channeled through them, it was the minister’s own self-serving agenda that was being carried out masquerading as God’s. 

I won’t mince words this morning and pretend that I have any tolerance for systems of belief of any kind that have been designed to disparage the humanity of a person or group of people in order to exclude them from full life or to exercise control over them. 

Christianity, along with the other two Abrahamic religions, have a long history of corrupting, in that way, the core message of love which lies at the heart of those traditions. This hypocrisy exists in spite of the fact that all three traditions warn against false prophets and have a commandment to ‘love one's neighbour’.

Before I engaged with the thinking around this sermon, I tended to think of ‘authentic prophets’, if they ever existed, like dinosaurs - a now extinct species that died out long ago. I knew that dinosaurs were real but I wasn’t so sure about prophets.

So this morning I’m prompted to ask, what is a real prophet, did they really exist and do they exist now?

We get a brief glimpse this morning of the god of Israel’s call to a priest named Ezekiel into life as a prophet. Ezekiel had been one of a few thousand upper class Jews exiled from the Southern Kingdom of Judah along with their king by the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar II. 

Ezekiel’s calling had taken place just as those in exile had begun reflecting on the events that led to their forced removal from their homeland. This god of Israel had allowed them to be exiled because their kings had been poor leaders and their oligarchy had become immersed in stingyness and greed. They had ignored the warnings of prophets such as Jeremiah and were now paying the price for their disobedience. The destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel would not be far behind and for all the same reasons. 

Prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel functioned as religious intermediaries whose function was to carry messages back and forth between the god of Israel and his people. The prophets delivered these messages using a variety of mediums including but not limited to: visions, poetry, street theatre, protest, and legal arguments. They were adept social critics who on behalf of the god of Israel condemned the idolatry, sexual immorality, exploitative lending and violence that was rampant among the people. Along with these condemnations were stern warnings of impending destruction should things not change from what what was perceived as the people's disobedience and departure from the Law.

At first all this sounds mighty bizarre and mighty hypocritical, that the god of Israel had any room to talk for he often used violent and inhumane cruelty to carry out his agenda, but as Karen Armstrong says, “over the centuries Yahweh had become an idea that could help the people to cultivate a compassion and respect for their fellow human beings.” [1] She explains that it was the prophets of Israel who reformed the old pagan cult of Yahweh into something that promoted the ideal of compassion [2] and the great Rabbis carried on this tradition. 

It therefore became a sacrilegious act to profane the image of God, which was present in each human person, by denying a human the basic necessities of life or by humiliating them or corrupting their freedom. 

Only ten years after Ezekiel’s calling, just as he had prophesied, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was sacked too and the Temple destroyed. 

Almost six-hundred years later back in the homeland of Israel, we encounter Jesus in his hometown of Nazareth not as a ‘saviour’ or as a ‘messiah’ but he identifies himself as a ‘prophet’. Jesus knew the stories of the prophets well, he was also a Rabbi - a teacher. He knew what it meant to call himself a prophet. He knew the images that the word ‘prophet’ would evoke in people’s minds. Prophets were not saviours or messiahs or gods, they were human messengers who believed they had seen the vision of God’s Justice.

If there was a tradition by this time of a virgin birth, the residents of Nazareth don’t know about it and neither does Mark (or Mark knows about it and is refuting it) for he lists the names of Jesus’ brothers and says he has sisters too. Furthermore, the unbelieving crowd in the synagogue where Jesus has taught ask, “is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?” implying there is some sort of negative ‘scandal’ surrounding his birth. Identifying a man through his mother was considered an insult. [3]

Mark is clearly making the point that this Jesus is human and he believes himself to be a prophet. The crowd ends up rejecting his “wisdom” and his “deeds of power” maybe because they knew him as a boy and they knew that there was nothing special about him. He was just plain ol’ human Jesus to them, not even a prophet.

But Jesus fits the modus operandi of a Biblical prophet. He claims to be a messenger carrying a message from God. He delivers this message through parables and allegories. He warns the powers-that-be of God’s displeasure with their treatment of the poor and the vulnerable. He criticises their empty but elaborate worship. He accuses them of hypocrisy in their observance of the Law to the detriment of those who are in need. He condemns their greed. He challenges their authority. He despises their false piousness. He pronounces God’s judgement and offers God’s vision of Justice as an alternative. He knows that the prophet is called not to be popular but to be faithful. He follows the tradition of many prophets before him, to speak the Justice of God to those whom it would disturb!

When I hear Christians talk about a conservative Jesus, I want to know what Gospel they are reading, because none of what I’ve just described sounds conservative, not in any sense of the word. Oxford defines ‘conservative’ as “a person who is averse to change”. When I see illustrations of a meek and gentle Jesus, I want to know how the artist came up with that portrayal of him because it’s not in any of the Gospels! To portray him that way is to disregard his prophetic nature.

Professor Greg Carey says that, “with so many people waving Bibles around and holding prayer meetings, one would expect some familiarity with the way of God. Instead, it seems the loudest Christians declare [the prophets’] message unjust.” [4]

So, to answer my original question, I do believe that prophets existed. I believe that Jesus was a prophet and I believe we have prophets among us today and in this very congregation. And as we are all part of that tradition of prophethood, we are all called to do the work of making reality the vision of God’s Justice in our world. 

Now that sounds like a creed I can live with. I find it alarming that neither of the two creeds that most Anglicans will recite this morning, the Nicene Creed or the Apostles Creed, mention anything about Jesus’ ministry of Justice. I find it disturbing that the most important part of his identity is not even alluded to in a summary of his nature.

But now more than ever our world needs authentic prophets more than it needs creeds. In New Zealand, our government is engaged in the rollout of a systematic oppression masquerading as welfare reform. Children are living in massive poverty. Families are having to decide between food, power and petrol. Taxes have gone up on the poorest while the wealthiest are getting wealthier. In countries where sacrifice is legislated, the poorest always pay the highest price.

The church is not exempt from criticism either and neither are its leaders.

Our bishops and other leaders in the Anglican Church in New Zealand need to get their act together and lead the way to Justice, not away from it or around it! Issues of equality are holding up progress on the further work we need to be doing in New Zealand and in the world, and frankly it’s shameful. We look to our leaders to proclaim the concrete Gospel and it is a myth of patriarchy to say that we have to slowly introduce liberation. Our leaders need to be critiqued and challenged when they buy into this myth and when they perpetuate it. 

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 

“So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent -- and often even vocal -- sanction of things as they are.” [5]

All good prophets know that the art of critical thinking is at the heart of transformation. In our reflection this morning, let us think critically about the way things are and how they might be transformed. Let us remember that we are challenged to follow the example of Jesus in the tradition of so many prophets before him, who not just listened to but spoke the Justice of God to those whom it would disturb, even and especially unto power!

[1] History of God - Karen Armstrong - 97.

[2] Ibid 459.

[3] Gospel According to St. Mark - Hooker, Morna Dorothy Hooker - 153.

[4] Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32 | Odyssey Networks. 2011. 6 Jul. 2012

[5] Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]. 2005. 6 Jul. 2012 http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html