February 1, 2009

If you were to ask Matt Lauer of NBC News, or Bill Moyer of PBS or Anderson Cooper of CNN, or Glen Black of Fox News to do an in depth report on the benefits of Christian faith in the western world in 2009, their video casts might be surprisingly similar.  Each journalist doing independent research, interviewing folk leaving Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Quaker, Pentecostal and Community churches on Sunday mornings might come back with these sincere, succinct answers.  “Following the teachings of Jesus Christ gives my life order and stability.”  “The Christian faith provides me with a reasonable moral code.”  “Christianity provides a way for me to encounter God so I have a place to go with prayers and worries.”  “Christianity provides comfort and safety, order and assurances.”  “Christianity wraps me and mine in a blanket of calm and security.”  “Right there in Holy Scripture it says, following the way of Jesus brings better life on earth and the promise of heaven after death.”

After hearing these reports, one could conclude that Christian faith is basically good citizenship and a modulated mainstream way of life.  There is something quaint and soothing in these descriptions, something reassuring like watching black and white reruns of the Andy Griffith show.  Mayberry is a lovely place to visit, but we all know it’s not a real location.  Christianity as a place of good manners and sanctuary is also a fiction. 

Safety, order, status quo, comfort, these were never the intent of our leader.  Jesus Christ came into the world to be a disruptive force.  God sent his son to turn human experience upside down.  Jesus came on a mission of change, drastic, far-reaching, intimidating change.  Jesus came to initiate a new world order, to push the earth in another direction.  He came to harness human will, energy, and focus on the goal of upsetting entrenched inertia.  Jesus Christ’s mission and reason for being was to supplant the kingdom of man with the kingdom of God.

Jesus came to earth with a very specific and radical agenda.  Calming the waters and soothing anxiety, wasn’t his work.  Revolution, rebellion, alternative lifestyles, these were his interests.  How the world was, what the world valued, how the world treated too many of its citizens had to end.  Human understanding had to be shaken up, turned over, and flipped right.  Jesus came with a commission from God.  “Lead my people back to right relationship and understanding of me, my plan and providence.”

The role Christ played, the language he used, the action he advocated was familiar to his time and people.  Jesus was an agent for God’s change in the tradition of the ancient prophets.  The Son of God continued the compelling and convicting work of those the Father raised up before.  Like Moses who called a people out of bondage, Jesus encouraged spiritual liberation.  Like Micah and Amos who warned against greed and selfishness, Jesus urged compassion and awareness of those struggling with less.  Like Isaiah calling his people to righteousness, Jesus pushed the crowds to prayer.

In tradition and tone, in style and substance, in mission and mode, Jesus was the penultimate prophet.  He brought the radical, revolutionary, amazing, dazzling vision of God to the people.  He followed the prophetic charge perfectly.  His success as a prophet so impressed the gospel writer Matthew, he concluded that the prophet Moses speaks about in our Old Testament reading this morning is, in reality, Jesus Christ.  “Moses said, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people.  The Lord said to me, I will put my words in the mouth of that prophet who shall tell them everything that I command.  Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable.  And if any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods or presumes to speak in my name something I have not commanded the prophet to speak, well, then that prophet shall die.”

In this encounter with Moses, God sets the standard and perimeters for all prophets who follow.  Clearly, Jesus met the criteria.  He was the embodiment of prophetic skill and much more.  He was God’s greatest prophet, but he was not the Lord’s final prophet.  In the ages following Christ’s resurrection and ascension, God has sent new compelling voices.  God has raised up and appointed new radicals, new visionaries, and new agents of dramatic change.  Contemporary prophets have walked this earth and stirred our conscience.  Modern Isaiahs have expressed God’s hope and disappointment to us.  In the last 50 years, four such prophets come readily to mind.  They are not perfect human specimens, but they have worn the mantle of God’s anointment and they have expressed the Lord’s expansive counterculture expectation of a better, more equitable, faith-filled world. 

In the early 1960’s, an African American preacher from Alabama told the world, God disapproves, God rejects, God says, “no more.”  You cannot consign my beloved children to the back of the bus because of skin color.  In the 1980’s, a cleric and activist in South Africa told the world, God disapproves, God rejects, God says, “no more.”  You cannot strip away the votes and free movement of a people in their own land.  In 1988, a Southern Baptist preacher went to China and addressed the communist leader, Li Peng, and said, God disapproves; God rejects, God says, “no more.”  You cannot keep my beloved children in darkness.  They must have access to my word.  Holy Scripture must be made available to your billions.  In 2008 and 2009, an Episcopal Bishop told his convention, “God has a dream for this diocese and it is a dream of a radical new church, a church where all are welcome, all are valued, all are invited to leave their mark.”  God has a dream where our church is a true reflection of their community, where all races and classes participate.

Four contemporary prophets were raised up and the world’s response was like our ancient brothers’ and sisters’.  In the verse, that immediately follows, our morning’s reading from Deuteronomy, God says to his people, “You may say to yourself,’ how can we recognize a word that the Lord has not spoken?’  How can we know if a prophet is true or false?  I say to you, if a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the Lord has not spoken.  The prophet has spoken it presumptuously.  Do not be moved by it.” 

Like the ancients, we wonder, are our prophets true or false?  Like the ancients, we must ponder and wait to see if their message comes to life and if their words reflect the quality and character of God.  Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” became a reality in full this year.  Desmond Tutu’s prophetic vision also came to pass.  South African apartheid has ended.  The Reverend Billy Graham lived to see his hope for China taking root.  Every day in this century, 10,000 Chinese become Christians.  And, Bishop Curry’s plan for a new church in the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina by 2017, we’ll see.

“God will raise up for you a prophet; you shall heed such a prophet.”

Our Christian charge is to expect the radical, revolutionary, upside down message from prophets that God will raise up from our own people.  Our Christian charge is to be alert and mindful and ready to hear and heed God’s new dream for us.

God says he will hold us accountable for our response to his prophets.  May we recognize and adopt their righteous vision for us all.

In our time, when the prophetic word is spoken, let it be heard.

Amen.