Other sermons.            Comments for Jim Sunday, July 15, 2001 Rev. James A. Todhunter "The Prophetic Ministry of the Church" Amos 7:7-17  Colossians 1:1-14   Luke 10:25-37 The eighth century B.C.E. Old Testament Prophet Amos ushers in what is called the classical age of prophecy, a period lasting several hundred years, and coming to a close before the time of Jesus of Nazareth. Nearly all the great themes common to these many prophets are found in Amos. Amos lived in a time when the Holy Land was divided between a northern kingdom called Israel, and a southern kingdom called Judah. This was the result of the split up following the reign of Solomon. Each had its own capitol, Jerusalem in the south and Samaria in the north. Amos was an uneducated farmer and herdsman from the southern village of Tekoa. At God’s call he journeyed north to confront the King of Israel. The place he picked was the central religious shrine in Bethel, the sacred place the Jews remembered as the spot where Jacob had his vision of the stairs ascending to heaven and knew that God was with him. Amos’ message got him promptly in trouble both with the political authority – King Jeroboam II and with religious authority, the High Priest Amaziah. Amos’ message was simple and direct. The powerful of the land practiced injustice in which the poor were oppressed and regularly defrauded. Land was stolen from them so that big estates could grow, and the courts were so corrupt that they sided with the big land owners. Social injustice. Together with this was Amos’ condemnation of the practice of religion in Israel. For the oppressors observed all the religious niceties and seemed to believe that God would not care about or even notice what they did. And there are indications that the rich and powerful had even managed to so delude themselves as to believe, in their hearts, that they really were, if not good, at least forgivable if they gave God what they thought God wanted – nice worship. Religious hypocrisy. The vision that is described in the scripture this afternoon is of Amos seeing God holding a plumb line – like a mason standing beside a wall he is building. God seems to be indicating that justice is that way. Either the wall you are building is straight or it will fall down. You don’t debate whether the plumb line is right or not. It just is. Justice just is. Prophets always proclaim this dual message – the twin related sins of social injustice and religious hypocrisy. Even in antiquity, kings realized that it is good have a close allegiance between temple and palace. As President Nixon regularly summoned the Rev. Billy Graham to bless some unjust policy or speak up for the White House, so King Jeroboam and Amaziah colluded to send Amos packing south. Later prophets, people like Hosea, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and others pretty much rang the changes on these central themes. If we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, we find that the prophetic aspect was central to his mission. His first public appearance in the temple of his home town of Nazareth involves his openly assuming the mantle of the prophet Isaiah in taking up the ministry of bringing good news to the poor, preaching release to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and letting the oppressed go free. How should we today react when we read the words of prophets like Amos? Sometimes we wonder who the real prophets are today? I personally believe that a better way to approach this is to say, along with Jewish tradition, that the prophets of ancient Israel preached and acted in a time and context distant from our own. For whatever reason, the age of the prophets is past. But this does not mean that their words and mission are out of date at all. As Christians we would say that the prophetic ministry was gathered up and embodied in the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. And to the extent we are courageously faithful to Jesus’ call to us to minister in his name, we, too will embody that prophetic ministry. The church has traditionally taught that if we carry on Jesus’ ministry today, we do this by recognizing that the church performs a number of ministries. These include: a ministry of proclaiming the Good News, a ministry of worship, a ministry of healing and service, a ministry of caring for one another, a ministry of education, and a prophetic ministry. A true church will embody all of these, and if any are slighted, or any one monopolizes all the resources, then this church is failing to be faithful to what Jesus called us to do. Let me now comment on the prophetic ministry in this context, by making some points and then sharing a current example. First, as I said before, the prophetic ministry doesn’t belong to individual prophets, but to the whole church. Individuals, within or without the church, are not singled out to be prophets; instead we all have a responsibility to make sure our church is fulfilling its prophetic function. This is not to say that certain people don’t shine out brightly in their examples – Martin Luther King, Jr., is a model for our age. Last week Washington mourned the death of Bill Wendt, a remarkable local figure who achieved nationwide prominence as an Episcopal priest who spoke out and acted in the area of civil rights and the anti-Vietnam War movement. The current Roman Catholic Bishop of Milwaukee is being harassed and isolated by the Vatican for his outspoken independence, including support of catholic women who have had abortions. But the point is that we best honor such individuals not by putting them up on pedestals, as by honoring their vision and putting that vision to work here. Second, prophetic issues are always current issues. And the important current issues where God is already at work must be prayerfully discerned. What the church must always bring to any foray into the social and political arena is prayerful discernment. Too often the spiritual agenda of the churches has been hard to separate from the political agenda of the left or right. The church must be engaged, but always with spiritual integrity. This is important because one of the old tricks of the world and the devil is to keep our eyes off the ball. If the people of God can be distracted, they can be sidelined and rendered impotent. For example how do we put into proper perspective the growing scandal on Capitol Hill involving Rep. Condit and Miss, Levy, the missing intern? Compared to campaign finance reform, health care, peace in Northern Ireland and Israel and the Palestinians, or even police misconduct in P. G. Country; is this a sideshow or the main event? The prophets did not shrink from condemning personal immorality wherever they saw it, but such bad behavior was always placed in the larger context of oppression and hypocrisy. Personal immorality, for the prophets, is always connected with a deeper societal sin. And third, it is impossible to exercise a prophetic ministry in the world, without applying the same prophetic vision to our own community. Here, as nowhere else, we must practice what we preach, or at least try to. To point the finger of God’s condemnation in one direction, and think that we have been provided some dispensation from judgment is to make the same mistake the ancients did. Our being "religious" or even "spiritual" means nothing to God, nothing at all. And if we are ourselves guilty of the kind of injustice that Amos preached against, we can have the loveliest worship service in the most wonderful renovated building, and God will say to us now, as God did to the pious in Amos’ age: I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies… Take away from me the noise of your songs: I will not listen to the melody of your harps, But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. I said I would share an example with you. CCC voted to become an Open and Affirming Congregation in 1995 – that is, publicly welcoming and affirming people of gay, lesbian, and bi-sexual orientation. At that time we were aware that one area of impact of such an action would be our relationship with the Boy Scouts of America. Then last year, as you know, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of the BSA’s position that they are a private organization with the right to exclude anyone they chose using their own criteria. Last November, our Open and Affirming Task Force met with scout representatives from the region and from Cub Pack 275. CCC has been the charter organization for this pack for the last fifty-three years. The discussion was somewhat uncomfortable, in that we were all aware of the inconsistency of our Open and Affirming Position and its irreconcilability with the BSA national policy. Also, on both sides there were varying degrees of response from hard-line to conciliatory. Then we agreed that a small group representing both our O and A committee and pack 275 should be convened to make recommendations as to what we should do. A follow-up report will come to you in this next Newsnotes. Briefly, what we discovered was that representatives of CCC and Pack 275 were in agreement in a number of areas: both are opposed to the BSA national policy of exclusion; both support CCC’s Open and Affirming position; both want to see scouting continue at CCC if at all possible; and both don’t want to bring hurt to the pack, its boys, leaders and parents. Two outcomes were the recommendations that CCC send a letter in protest to the BSA, and that we begin a dialogue and discussion with area churches to learn about their response to this and to work more closely together. All this for now. Incidentally the UCC resources available to churches on this issue are excellent. Officially our denomination supports scouting, but condemns this policy. I share this in the context of our prophetic ministry. Churches have taken many different responses, all of which, I suppose, could be described as prophetic. Some churches have chosen simply to sever their ties with scouting completely. Some have kept the ties but have protested and vowed to work the change the policy (Grace Episcopal, e.g.). Other churches have stated these goals and found that their charters have been revoked by the BSA. The prophets of ancient Israel had basically one action plan: change or else. They were not consensus builders, social renewal planners, or people inclined at all to work within the system, such as it was. They simply said that while there is still time, repent and rid yourselves of injustice and hypocrisy, because soon it will be too late. God’s punishment will come and it will be all consuming. The hard edges of this message make us uncomfortable. We would rather speak of healing, progress, gradualism, patience. Yet we forget that Jesus’ words to the Pharisees and sometimes to his own followers could be brutally direct and uncompromising. I believe we must not neglect this prophetic calling and the searching self-critique it carries with it. And at the same time, this calling takes its place in the overall ministry of the church, where healing, compassion, forgiveness, and humility are very important as well. Last week I suggested that we at CCC use this fall to do a top to bottom critique of our worship life together, get some help to do this, and be ready to begin worship with a new look in our renovated building next spring. Let’s do the same critique of our prophetic ministry. We are in a good position to do so. We have a board for Social Witness with strong leadership. That Board has already scheduled a planning retreat for next Sunday. We have already voted to be a "Just Peace" Church in the United Church of Christ, and we have a Just-Peace Task Force. The United Church of Christ teaches that you cannot have true justice without peace, and you cannot have true peace without justice. Let’s encourage that group to do a critique of our prophetic ministry. We have a long and strong relationship with Community Ministry of Montgomery County, with its ministry of service and advocacy. And we have been in conversation with Action in Montgomery, an organization encourages the religious community to not only talk about social justice, but to take action for it. Let’s see where that may lead. In closing, I believe when we return to our new renovated space, that God will smile upon what we have done and all who have made it happen. I believe that God will say "Well done, good and faithful servants! A remarkable achievement!" But then I believe God will also say, "Now. What do you intend to do with it?" AMEN. Back to Table of Contents.