prophets

What does it mean to be a prophet these days? Biblically prophets spoke for God to matters of social injustice and sham worship. Prophets were individuals, not institutions or organizations. There were the court prophets, but it was the prophets who God called out of the not so obvious contexts that the people of God listened to and placed in the Bible.

Did the prophets measure the cost before they spoke and acted? Did they do it willingly? Did they argue with God? Mark 6:4 Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor."

So, what say you?

I copied the following review of Walter Brueggemann's book "Prophetic Imagination" from the blog "Gregg's Gamble".

Walter Brueggemann this time, with The Prophetic Imagination. Brueggemann is an old testament scholar, but this book merely uses that background as a foundation for exploring what the purpose of the church is. Rooting the purpose of followers of Jesus in the character of God (not a bad idea!), he begins with the foundational event of Israel’s history, the rescue and exodus from Egypt. He paints with meticulous beauty an utterly free God, constrained by nothing, whose character and task is to release the oppressed…release them from an oppressive royal regime that has co-opted and domesticated its gods to control and oppress and support the affluence of the status quo.

This, foundationally, is who God is. God is utterly free and beyond control by any human person or regime. And God stands with the oppressed always.

Moses is the quintessential prophet, and his task becomes ours: to criticize and dismantle the human royal regime, and to energize toward the new reality that God wants to bring in. This new reality existed more or less until the time of Solomon, when Solomon recreated within Israel the same conditions they experienced in Egypt: affluence of the ruling class at the expense of the poor, oppression and enslavement, and static religion, sanctioned and with access controlled by royalty.

Solomons and Pharoahs arise in every culture. The church becomes enculturated to the point where our affluence numbs us, our power structures silence the prophetic voice, and we domesticate God in order to keep our own status quo society. Brueggemann notes that the traditional “liberal” theological position has been excellent at the prophetic act of criticism, but has lost any real connection with God to allow for true hope of energizing change. The best the liberal prophet can do is critique. The traditional “conservative” theological position excels at holding on to hope of a future that energizes, but has lost any real distance from the dominating culture to offer a genuine challenge to what is. The best the conservative prophet can do is hope for heaven after a burned up earth.

Prophetic imagination is to criticize and to energize. Or, to use philosophical terms which have developed after Brueggemann originally wrote in 1978, the task is not done when we deconstruct, but only when we make space for God to create a new reality.

This is why we question. This is why we refuse to act as we have always done. This is why we should refuse to have our churches be market driven and to be consumers in our worship. This is why to truly, radically follow the way of Jesus Christ is upsetting not just to the dominant culture, but also to the dominant leadership of our churches and meetings. This is why I struggle.

I’ll close this post with a quote from the book:

I suggest that the dominant culture, now and in every time, is grossly uncritical, cannot tolerate serious and fundamental criticism, and will go to great lengths to stop it. Conversely, the dominant culture is a wearied culture, nearly unable to be seriously energized to new promises from God.

prophets, church, United Church of Christ