Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
September 28, 2003

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Last Sunday was, I believe and hope, a very important day in the life of our church. That evening our church renewal taskforce hosted a potluck. Now, a church potluck, pleasant as it is, is no big deal. What was so significant happened after the potluck was over. The members of the renewal taskforce led sessions for those of you who were there introducing you to three areas of possible mission focus for our church and talking about how we might get involved in those issues for the sake of this community. I had the honor and privilege of having nothing to do with those presentations. I acted as timekeeper. That’s it. As the sessions progressed I was able to stand aside and simply be overwhelmed by the marvelous scene of the people of this church gathering together, talking together, and getting excited about the prospect of our church beginning more fully to live out our call to witness to the Gospel here in Monroe and the Sky Valley. It was truly a beautiful sight, a wonder, one of the true highlights of my still brief career as a pastor. I want once again to thank the renewal taskforce-Laurie, Rosella, Sharon, Merle, Kim, and Keith-for making that wonderful evening possible. Last Sunday evening I saw the people of this church truly being church in the truest, most faithful sense of that word. I saw the possibility that this church may truly become the prophetic voice in this community that I believe we are called to be.

Which brings us to two portions of those rather long and to a considerable extent difficult Scripture passages we just heard. Both are full of different themes that are worthy of attention. The Gospel passage from Mark in particular contains some of the most troubling, even disturbing passages in all of Christian Scripture. Maybe in three years, when this passage comes up again in the lectionary, I’ll tackle those passages about how it is better to maim ourselves than to spend eternity in hell. Maybe by then I’ll have figured them out. Today, however, I’m not going to tackle those passages, at least in part because there are other parts of the readings from Numbers and Mark that relate more directly to things that are happening among us, specifically, the work of the renewal taskforce.

In both of our passages this morning we see people prophesying. Specifically, we see people prophesying that some other people think should not be prophesying. In Numbers Moses, at God’s direction, has called seventy elders together to hear a word directly from God. The Spirit of God rests on them, and they prophesy. That’s apparently all right with everyone. However, two men, Eldad and Medad, who were not among the chosen seventy and who stayed behind in the camp when the seventy gathered with Moses and God, also received the Spirit and were prophesying. This unauthorized prophesying upset a "young man," who ran to Moses assuming that as soon as Moses heard about it he would put a prompt end to such independent, unsanctioned prophesying.

In the passage from Mark, essentially the same thing happens. Someone was acting in Jesus name whom Jesus and his followers had not specifically authorized to do so. The text doesn’t say this unauthorized person was prophesying exactly. It says he was casting out demons. Still, the notion is the same. Someone was doing what Jesus in his response called "acts of power" who wasn’t specifically authorized to do so. And just like the young man in Numbers, the Disciple John went running to the group’s leader-Jesus in this case rather than Moses-assuming that as soon as the leader heard of it he would stop the unauthorized activity. Well, in both cases the leaders knew better than did the ones running to them with the complaints. Jesus said they should let anyone do "acts of power" in Jesus name. It didn’t matter is the person was precisely a follower of Jesus or not. Moses’ response was identical and was expressed succinctly and with power: "Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them." Taken together, or taken separately for that matter, these two passages give us one clear and simple lesson: The people of God-that’s us, folks-are called to be prophets.

Well, OK. We’re called to be prophets. What is heaven’s name does that mean? The common understanding, or better, the common misunderstanding, of prophecy is that it involves predicting the future. We tend to equate prophet with seer, one who can foresee the future, who can tell us what is going to happen. The problem is, that’s not, or at least not primarily, what the word prophet means in either the Hebrew or the Christian Scriptures. Some of the prophets do talk about things to come, but that is not their primary message. To be a prophet, that is, to prophesy, actually means simply to speak the Word of God, to speak God’s truth in the world and specifically to speak God’s word of justice to the powers of the world, the powers that be. That’s primarily what the Hebrew prophets did. If you doubt it, take a quick look at Amos, Hosea, and Micah. They preach God’s word of justice for the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized with unsurpassed power and passion. That’s truly what it is to be a prophet.

We are called to be prophets in that sense, and our Scripture passages this morning tell us something else about that call. The figure from Mark known to scholars as "the other exorcist" and Eldad and Medad from Numbers were people who, so the world thought, were not supposed to be prophesying. They weren’t authorized. They didn’t have the right credentials. Moses and Jesus said it didn’t matter. All of God’s people, everyone who does acts of power in Jesus name, is called to prophesy. What does that mean for us? It means prophesying isn’t just for professionals like me. You don’t need a theology degree. You don’t need some piece of paper on your wall conferring authority. You don’t have to be unusually righteous or moral. There are no purity tests for being a prophet. All God’s people are called to be prophets, are called to witness to the Gospel of God’s unconditional and inclusive love for all people. So don’t sit there thinking you don’t know enough, or aren’t good enough. Excuses won’t get you out of this one. All God’s people are called to be prophets.

OK, you may be thinking, but I’m scared to death of public speaking. I’m not eloquent. I don’t know what to say to people. I don’t write clearly or persuasively. These excuses won’t get you off the hook either because, you see, prophesying, witnessing to the Gospel, isn’t just about speaking. The Hebrew prophets proclaimed God’s word not only in words but in what are called prophetic acts. They acted out their message as well as spoke and wrote it. We are called to preach the word, but even more than that we are called to prophesy by living the word. St. Francis of Assisi said it best when he said: "Preach the Gospel always. When necessary, use words." We can all live the Gospel even if speaking it is not one of our gifts.

Both the prophets of Israel and Jesus focused their prophesy, their speaking and acting out of the Word of God, on groups that were marginalized and vulnerable in their societies. For the Hebrew prophets that focus on the most needy among them was always summed up by a call for justice for the widow, the orphan, and the stranger in their midst. We see this emphasis in Jesus ministry to those whom the dominant religious culture of his day called sinners and perhaps most powerfully in his reaching out to and including women in his movement. Last Sunday we were considering how the people of this church might more faithfully live the Gospel here in this community, in this time. True to the prophetic traditions of Israel and the Christian Church, were focused our attention on three groups in our society whom the dominant culture of our time marginalized and devalues.

We spoke about issues of concern to senior citizens in our community. Our culture marginalizes and devalues seniors because our culture idolizes youth, and those of us who qualify as seniors aren’t young. We spoke about justice issues for the Latino people among us. Our culture marginalizes and devalues Latinos because it elevates the dominant Anglo culture and people over all others, making us the ideal of which all others fall short. We spoke about justice and inclusion for our gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered brothers and sisters. Our culture marginalizes and devalues them by calling them sinners and refusing to extend to them legal protection of their human and civil rights. These three groups represent in a very real sense today’s widows, orphans, and strangers among us. They are the outcast and the excluded to whom Jesus reached out and to whom Christ continues to reach out with God’s word of love and inclusion. There are of course other important justice issues in our community, issues concerning the homeless, the mentally ill, the incarcerated. There issues about education, employment, and access to medical services that scream for our attention. The three areas we focused on last Sunday, however, give us a good start. As we focused on them, we were obeying God’s call to all God’s people to be prophets.

Let us now commit ourselves to continue what we began one week ago. The renewal taskforce will keep working on these and other issues. Some of you expressed your interest and willingness to work in these areas of prophesy, even if you didn’t think of it as prophesy. We will follow up. We will begin new programs. To mention just one particular, in the process of its work the taskforce learned that our mission statement’s language about welcoming all people regardless of sexual orientation in fact qualifies us now, today to be listed officially in the UCC as an open and affirming church. We don’t have to go through some process first. The people who were here last Sunday said virtually with one voice: Do it. The taskforce will, I am sure, be coming to the Cabinet in the near future with a proposal that we do. The taskforce will propose other steps and programs as well. We have begun to prophesy, but we aren’t anywhere near done. We are called to be a prophet church. Let’s do it.