Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
July 5, 2009

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.

“Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown.” So says Jesus in the passage we just heard from Mark. And it’s certainly true. Indeed, I would go farther than that. It seems to me that true prophets are generally without honor not just in their hometowns but in society in general. That certainly is how the Bible as a whole sees the matter. The Biblical prophets from Amos and Micah in the eighth century BCE to Jesus in the first century CE are generally rejected by the society to which they prophesied. Some of them were killed by their society, most notably of course Jesus. We see this Biblical attitude toward the fate of prophets in our passage from Ezekiel. There, God commissions Ezekiel as a prophet to Israel. But God is suffering under no illusions about how Ezekiel will be received when he begins to proclaim God’s word to the people. God anticipates that the people probably will not receive Ezekiel and his prophecy favorably. God tells Ezekiel not to be afraid of the people, a statement that hardly would have been necessary if God had expected him to be received positively. God expects the people to be like briars, thorns, and scorpions with Ezekiel. He’s hardly going to be received with honor, but God says: Go anyway. At least they’ll know that there was a prophet among them.

Well, maybe the people would know that, and maybe they wouldn’t. God’s encouraging statement to Ezekiel assumes, I think, that eventually the people would figure out that Ezekiel had been right. It seems to me that sometimes that happens, and sometimes it doesn’t. Maybe God was just trying to make Ezekiel feel better. Whatever. Ezekiel was going to get the reception prophets usually get: Rejection. Scorn even. Maybe worse.

Now, I don’t usually consider myself to be a prophet or this church to be particularly prophetic. But on one issue I actually think that we are. That issue is, of course Open and Affirming, the full acceptance of God’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender children as equally loved, equally valued, equally moral people. The rejection of the idea that genuine love and commitment between two people can ever be sinful just because of the gender identity of the people involved. On that issue we are prophets. We might as well get over an inappropriate modesty and claim that ancient and honorable title. We believe, or at least I believe, that God has called us to be prophets in this place on this vital issue.

And, to a large extent, we have received the reception that God knew Ezekiel would receive, the reception Jesus received in Nazareth in this morning’s passage from Mark. Our message has hardly been embraced with enthusiasm by most of the people here in our hometown. I have been excluded from opportunities for community service because of our Open and Affirming commitment. I have been called apostate by another pastor in town, an apostate being someone who has turned against a faith he once held. I have been told by anonymous phone callers that I can’t call myself a Christian pastor if I truly hold that position. Some of you have been challenged by friends and family. Local papers have published letters to the editor aimed against us. There have also been expressions of support to be sure, but the attacks—so far only verbal, thank God—have been more numerous and more vociferous. We truly have been, to a large extent if not exclusively, prophets without honor in our hometown.

Yet. Yet God’s word of grace and justice cannot be resisted forever. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said that the arc of the universe bends slowly, but it bends toward justice. In recent days we have seen evidence that the arc of the universe is bending toward justice in the church for gay and lesbian people. We learned just over a week ago that St. Paul United Methodist Church and Edmonds Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) have declared themselves open and affirming churches or their denominational equivalent of open and affirming. They are the first churches in Snohomish County outside the United Church of Christ to take that prophetic position. St. :Paul United Methodist is particularly courageous because in becoming a reconciling congregation, the United Methodist equivalent of open and affirming, they are contradicting the official position of the United Methodist Church, which clings to an outdated and unfair prejudice against gay and lesbian people in its official rules and pronouncements. I give thanks for their courage and their prophetic voice. The climate is changing, even in the church. For reasons I have never understood, religion tends to be a conservative influence in society, and the churches may be the last to change in this regard; but even that change is coming. We’ve seen it here in Snohomish County.

That’s how it works with genuine prophecy. The world always rejects it at first. Sometimes the prophets give up. God was apparently concerned that Ezekiel would give up. Jesus was apparently concerned that his disciples would give up when they met resistance on the mission trip that he sent them on in the second part of our reading from Mark. But if the prophecy is genuine, it always prevails in the end. The prophets may not live to see it happen. Martin Luther King didn’t live to see the election of Barack Obama. We are privileged to see it beginning to happen in our community during our lifetimes. In the end, we will be seen as prophets with honor, because we’re right. And God’s truth the we were the first in Sky Valley to proclaim, will prevail. Thanks be to God. Amen.