God's Prophets: One Foot In This World
And One Foot In The Next World
Amos 7: 7-17; Luke 4: 16-30
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Today's scripture lessons are bursting at the seams with prophets.
There's Amos, who saw God's plumb line hanging in the midst of Israel's crookedness and who thundered on God's behalf, 'let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.'
There's Isaiah. God ordered poor Isaiah to walk around Jerusalem naked for three years--an incredibly shameful act--as a warning to his contemporaries that placing their trust in Egypt's military might would bring shame upon them.
Elijah. God drove Elijah to risk his life confronting the corrupt King Ahab and his murderous wife Queen Jezebel.
Elisha. God empowered Elisha to heal a Syrian leper and to raise a boy from the dead.
And Jesus--exorcist, healer, preacher of good news to the poor, epiphany of God's Kingdom--the Spirit of the Lord rested upon Jesus, but the authorities in Jerusalem crucified him.
The Bible identifies or alludes to different kinds of prophets, including court prophets who served as the king's advisor and cult prophets associated with the Temple. Amos, Isaiah, Elijah, Elisha, and Jesus were prophets of a different sort however. They were not 'professionals' like the court or cult profits. In fact, the Bible often portrays the professional prophets in a negative light and directs scathing attacks against them. Just as a number of analysts have accused members of the intelligence community of distorting intelligence to conform to President Bush's wishes, the Bible often accuses these professional profits of distorting God's word to conform to the King's wishes.
Amos, Isaiah, Elijah, Elisha, and Jesus did not conform to anyone's wishes but God's. The Bible portrays them as specifically chosen by God to carry out the dangerous task of confronting people in power with God's truth, exposing economic injustice, political corruption, and religious hypocrisy, and offering radical alternatives to the King's policies and to popular opinion.
The question I'd like you to ask yourselves this morning is this: have you ever met a prophet of this sort? In the course of your life, have you ever encountered a prophet like Amos, Isaiah, Elijah, Elisha, or Jesus--a person who, as far as you could tell, was chosen by God for the dangerous task of confronting power, exposing injustice, corruption, and hypocrisy, or providing the world God's radical alternative?
I believe I have met three prophets in my life. Jim Harney, Mitch Snyder, and Philip Berrigan. I'd like to share a little bit about them this morning.
Jim Harney is a former Roman Catholic priest who served in Colombia for some years. I met him in Boston the 1980s when Robin and I were active in the Central American solidarity movement. We opposed the Reagan Administration's support for the oligarchies and military dictatorships in El Salvador and Guatemala, countries with horrendous human rights records including torture, death squads, massacres, and the bombing of civilians in the countryside.
During he height of the war in El Salvador, when the Salvadoran Air Force was bombing rural communities and attacking them with helicopter gun ships provided by the United States, and when the US was providing El Salvador with numerous military trainers and advisors, Jim was living in communities in the most frequently bombed region of El Salvador.
Jim took some of the most incredible photographs I have ever seen--photos of jet planes dropping bombs on peasant homes, and helicopter gun ships hovering in the air ripping communities apart with their massive machine guns. He took photographs of a death squad apprehending a friend of his in San Salvador. He attended the funeral of Archbishop Oscar Romero in San Salvador and took photographs of the army's massacre of civilians attending the funeral.
About once every six months, Jim would return from El Salvador to Boston to give slide shows for solidarity groups and then return to El Salvador. Jim's slide shows, and his personal knowledge of and passion for the victims of violence in El Salvador, probably did more than anything else to mobilize people in Boston to oppose Reagan's policies and to turn Boston into a sanctuary city for Central American refugees.
Robin and I had dinner with him one night in his little rent-controlled apartment in Harvard Square. He had a tiny little kitchen table, a few plates and glasses, three metal folding chairs, a bed, and two Nikon cameras. That was it. Those were all his possessions in the world.
About 5 years later, I ran into him at a Catholic Worker House in Baltimore. He was living in West Virginia with coal miners at the time, taking pictures of the mines and the living conditions in the impoverished little Appalachian communities.
Just for the heck of it, I Googled Jim Harney this week and discovered that he is now Artist in Residence for a group called Posibilidad in Bangor, Maine. Over the years, he has traveled to Chiapas, Mexico where he interviewed survivors of the 1997 massacre, to Colombia and Argentina where he documented the effects of war and economic globalization, and more recently to Iraq.
The second prophet I met was Mitch Snyder.
Mitch Snyder was a Madison Avenue advertising executive in the early 1960s when something snapped inside him. He left his wife and children and headed west. The police arrested him in a stolen car. After being convicted of grand theft auto, he ended up in the Federal Prison in Danbury Connecticut where he met Daniel and Philip Berrigan, who were in prison for their protests against the Vietnam War. The Berrigans introduced Mitch to the Bible, and apparently to their interpretation of it, and like them, he became a radicalized Christian.
Upon his release from prison, Mitch joined the Community for Creative Non-Violence in Washington D.C. where he eventually drew national attention to the plight of the homeless in Washington and the nation. He himself spent long stretches of time living outside with the homeless. He went on several long hunger strikes, led protests, and was arrested repeatedly. Tragically, he committed suicide in 1990
When I lived in Boston, I worked for a while in the homeless shelter located in the basement of the Congregational Church in Harvard Square. The shelter was directed by Jim Stewart, a Harvard Divinity School graduate and a prominent homeless advocate in Boston. At that time, Mitch Snyder had initiated a national movement called Justice Demands Housing, and Jim was his organizer in Boston. Jim and I became good friends and I participated in a number of the events and protests that Jim organized around Boston.
Jim invited Mitch to come to Boston to address a conference of the United Church of Christ's Metropolitan Boston Association. We had dinner with Mitch at the Conference, and then Mitch got up and absolutely lambasted the UCC for being a white middle class church that talked a lot about justice but did precious little to back up its talk, for being a church that issued all kinds of pronouncements about homelessness but did precious little to actually care for or house the homeless.
The good and proper UCC folks in Boston were mortified.
'How rude,' one woman exclaimed. 'Who does this man think he is?'
'A prophet,' I responded.
The third prophet I met was Philip Berrigan.
During the Second World War, Philip Berrigan was an infantry lieutenant and a survivor of the Battle of the Bulge. The violence he experienced during the war left a deep mark on him. After the war, he was ordained as a catholic priest.
In the mid-1960's, Philip, his brother Daniel, and Thomas Merton founded an interfaith coalition against the Vietnam War. In 1967, Philip, Daniel, poet Daniel Eberhardt, and United Church of Christ pastor James Mengel poured blood on Selective Service records in Baltimore. For that act, Philip Berrigan spent six years in federal prison.
Almost immediately upon his release from prison, Philip joined eight other Christian activists who entered the draft board in Catonsville Maryland and burned the draft files. The 'Catonsville 9' issued this statement upon their arrest:'We confront the Catholic Church, other Christian bodies, and the synagogues of America with their silence and cowardice in the face of our country's crimes. We are convinced that the religious bureaucracy in this country is racist, is an accomplice in this war, and is hostile to the poor.' For this 'crime,' Philip spent another three and a half years in prison. Upon his release, Philip and Daniel began the Plowshare Movement. In 1980, Philip and seven other Plowshare activists entered the General Electric Nuclear Missile Re-entry Division in King of Prussia Pennsylvania, hammered two nose cones, poured blood on documents, and prayed for peace. After ten years of trials and appeals, they were sentenced to two years of parole.
In 1999, Philip entered the Middle Rivers Air National Guard base and banged on warplanes. He was arrested and sentenced to 30 months in prison.
He died in 2002 of cancer.
When Robin and I lived outside of Baltimore, we volunteered every Friday afternoon at a Catholic Worker House in Baltimore called Vive. Another Catholic Worker House in Baltimore was called Jonah House; Philip and Daniel Berrigan were associated with Jonah House. On occasion, folks from Vive and Jonah House would get together to create some kind of trouble around some justice issue, and they once asked me to lead a worship service with Philip Berrigan on a street corner to draw attention to urban poverty. It was an incredible honor.
Jim Harney, Mitch Snyder, and Philip Berrigan. Three prophets I encountered in my life. Three prophets who had a major impact on my life. Three prophets who revealed to me that I am not a prophet, though I fancied myself one for a while.
Jim, Mitch, and Philip lived their lives at the very center of issues that I cared deeply about but did not commit myself to in the same way they did. I was passionate about justice and peace for people in Central America, passionate about homelessness, nuclear weapons, and poverty. I protested, made speeches at rallies, was arrested a few times, spent several hours in jail. But these guys lived their lives on a whole different plane of existence. When God called them, they gave up everything they had and they devoted themselves completely. When God called me, I responded with far less and I held back far more. Like Amos, Isaiah, Elijah, Elisha, and Jesus, they took up the dangerous tasks. I played it safe. And that's the difference between a prophet, and a person like me who is occasionally prophetic.
Some years ago I read the book Black Elk Speaks by John Neihardt. At one point in the book, Black Elk describes the enigmatic Souix warrior chief Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse, he says, had one foot in this world and one foot in the next world.
One foot in this world and one foot in the next world. This describes the prophets I met perfectly. One foot in this world and one foot in the next world.
The next world in which they had one foot was, I believe, the world Jesus called the Kingdom of God. They had personal and authoritative knowledge of God's Kingdom. They had a passion for it. They judged this world according to it. They attempted to live their lives by its code of love and justice. They suffered on its behalf. They had one foot in it at all times.
At the same time, they had one foot deeply planted in this world. They were thoroughly rooted in the pains, and sufferings, and injustices of this world. They were thoroughly rooted in the joys, and loves, and hopes of this world. They were powerfully and effectively present in and to this world. They loved this world and expressed undying hope for it. They served this world and ministered to its people. They suffered in this world and they suffered for this world.
How amazing, how awe-inspiring, how difficult to have one foot in this world and one foot in God's Kingdom. To live one's life trying to reconcile the two--to bring God's Kingdom into this world, and this world into God's Kingdom. It takes an incredible human being to manage this tension.
The characteristics that I remember the most about Jim, Mitch, and Philip were their depth and their intensity.
They struck me as deeply and intensely sad.
Deeply and intensely hopeful.
Deeply and intensely angry.
Deeply and intensely loving.
Deeply and intensely judgmental.
Deeply and intensely forgiving.
Deeply and intensely uncompromising.
Deeply and intensely intimidating.
Deeply and intensely inviting.
Deeply and intensely giving.
Deeply and intensely demanding.
They seemed more deeply and intensely in touch with God's passion than any other people I have ever met. Last week, Whit talked about prophets expressing God's passion. Jim, Mitch, and Philip seemed deeply and intensely in touch with God's passion--with God's sadness and anger over the human condition, with God's uncompromising love and hope for every human being.
I have often reflected on the impact Jesus of Nazareth had on the people who encountered him. Just think what it must have been like to encounter Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth. Just think about the depth and intensity Jesus of Nazareth must have radiated. The power of his personality. The authority of his words. The sincerity of his love. The uncompromising demands he made. The threat he posed.
Jesus evoked a powerful devotion from some people and a powerful hatred from other people. Some people killed him, other people gave their lives for him. What it must have been like to encounter Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth, in the flesh and blood?
Encountering the prophet Jim, the prophet Mitch, and the prophet Philip in the flesh and blood gave me a taste, a glimpse, a feeling of what it must have been like to encounter the prophet Jesus in the flesh and blood. But Jim, Mitch, and Philip also taught me what can happen when we encounter Jesus, not in the flesh and blood, but through his living spirit. Jim, Mitch, and Philip were prophets not because they encountered Jesus in the flesh and blood, but because they encountered his living spirit, and because they responded with everything they had to his call.
I pray that I may become more responsive to Jesus' 'living spirit and to his call. And while I dont know that I'll ever be a prophet, I do hope and pray that I may become ever more prophetic.
