SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4 2024 - NO PRIVILEGE FOR PROPHETS
February 4, 2024
Carolyn Smith
No Priveledge For Prophets
I have taken great care to not tell many tales of my kids in these reflections for the
sake of their dignity and agency, but I’m their mama, and kids are cute, and we
grown ups enjoy telling these stories . I have two smart young adults, but I will
always cherish the sweet little voice telling me about a “Callapitter” instead of
caterpillar. And one who complained “we’ve been in this car for hour and hour
and hour!” So cute, learning, not quite right, but learning.
Arriving home, or back to town, these grown kids anticipate the time warp of
their awkward memories, relationships and neighbourhood hijinks, knowing they’ll
be reminded by everyone of “remember when.” A sense of cozy comfort and
privileged welcome if they had a good childhood, but not if there were cracks to
recall.
And any of us might be the ones who have stifled someone’s courage & voice
with outdated expectations, holding onto status quo, clinging to comfort zones,
disrespectfully, or often lovingly through memories.
Sometimes benign, sometimes difficult, it’s common, and one thing that becomes
true: it’s hard to find our Voice with confidence or authority when we’re reminded
of all our short comings and remember whens. Like Jesus in the story today, It’s
hard to come back from being a Sunday School Kid to be preacher. It’s hard to
grow and change, and become an expert or authority and find places to bring
change. And it’s hard to be changed - to be open to hearing, sitting in new
circles, pondering new voices in a way that evolves well rather than striking
defensiveness.
This is vital in families - to cherish old memories and allow evolution, to put up
the family photos AND celebrate one another’s accomplishments and voice. It’s
also the birthplace of understanding that allows a town, a culture and nations to
shift and grow... it’s why we are an Affirming congregation, why we work on
Reconciliation and why we acknowledge this Black History Month in Canada to
encourage diversity of voices and culture and progress, to name and set aside
what needs to be left behind and condemned, and build a community more loving,
with possibilities and privilege shared.
But.... How long, O Lord, how long.... It will never be ‘done,’ but we are doing
something worthwhile at St. Paul’s displaying a community that has a flavour of
justice-seeking, relationship - building with a growing participation of diversity and
friends. Certainly not perfect, so we keep on together bending the arc of our little
universe towards Justice, as a version of Beloved Community.
People living together aren’t usually easily in community - there are Privileged ones
with wealth and status, comfort and power, with a Voice that fears little. There
are the unprivileged ones, lacking these strengths. And a lot of people ebbing and
flowing in the middle, shifting the power, the permission and measure of privilege.
You choose to listen to one voice or another, you put your money into some
products or projects over another, you emulate the measures of privilege that you
think you value. And so the flavour of a community shifts.
Beloved community! Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of it as people redeemed,
people reconciled to relationship: he said “It is this type of spirit and this type of love
that can transform opposers into friends. It is this kind of understanding and goodwill
that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new
age. It is this love which will bring about miracles.”
Sign me up! Because when I grew up, and grew wiser - when I got away from my
youthful innocence, anything less-than brings me dis-ease, sorrow at wasted
opportunity, worry for young people disenchanted, helplessness at voices silenced.
This is true with racial justice, it’s true with reconciliation and world wars, and
drug deaths and poverty. My heart, mind, strength and soul are off-kilter while
these churn, and while I know it’s too big for me to fix, without having my hands
on the Arc bending it as best I can, what happens to my integrity?
if it was easy, and rosy, and people and leaders had listen to Micah and Amos and
Elijah, we’d have been done with Injustice centuries ago. So Prophets will always
need to rise up and their wisdom will always resonate against the backdrop of
what seems to be utter failings.
John read to us from Mark - the earliest gospel written with a sense of ‘Who is this
guy, who does he think he is, WHO is Jesus in the face of status quo and tradition.?’ A
New Testament professor always called Mark the “Grumpy Jesus’ gospel , as he
went about making people & Systems feel mighty uncomfortable while pointing
out the holes in their efforts so we had 3 parts of that story today.
We started with the scandal of Jesus at home - who does he think he is preaching
to the town who raised him???
No privilege here, despite familiarity. What did his oldest, closest folks miss
out on, (before at least a few clued in later on?) What could have been different if
he’d been measured by spirit or maturity other than old memories and status
quo?
Next he instructs his followers to be prophets themselves, to carry a simple
message of peace 2x2, leaving behind all their privilege, out of their comfort zones,
no extra snacks or sweater for the road. Just the bare minimum of a message of
Peace... and if they get run out of town, they’re given full permission to shake the
dust from their sandals. Where do they get the confidence, where do they have
any assurance that this is worthwhile?
Would you go? If you measure this prophetic effort by all that will go wrong
when people can’t hear your message, your voice, you would’t go. If you measure
it by the privilege of meeting good people and creating new relationship, it begins
to sound like a nice day making friends, creating Beloved Community that changes
gently. privilege. It’s like us, preparing to leave our comfort space here, and invite
new people along to create Beloved Community in this town...
If I said Prophet Isaiah or Elijah was in town, we say ‘oooh wow,’ we’d by tickets to
hear them speak. Except they weren’t privileged by celebrity. They were fringe
people in tension with most others. Remember wild John the baptizer as an
outsider, wearing scrubby clothes, barely eating. But everyone knew him, even the
King, not for any recognizable privilege but for his courageous voice. King Herod
took a look at Jesus and instantly recognized a similar spirit to John. He knew John
too well - more of the story would tell you that John had wowed the king in some
difficult circumstances with his wise counsel. Herod liked him. But to preserve
his status and reputation, his privilege, he’d been manipulated into beheading him.
And Herod was haunted by his broken integrity and his shame. What could have
happened if Herod had embraced his mightier strength - that of his integrity - and
made use of his privilege to upend the little kingdom for peace, with John B in a
respected role? Or set aside his shame and call Jesus in for a heart to heart chat?
So what good is your voice? What privilege do you carry? Where are you stuck
on the fringe, feeling weak? If you were told, ‘go 2 x 2 and bring peace to the
community,’ do you recoil? Or reach out with courage? To be a prophet is to be
bereft of privilege in the way many of us would measure it, and still, what is the
privilege of prophetic witness?
Bring a message of Peace. Love with all your heart mind strength and soul. Show up for
the lowest and the least.
Do you believe it, that love overturns injustice? That it heals and reconciles
people? Then YOU have strength, we have strength together. If we steel each
other, 2x2 or more by more, and we do it with mind, soul and strength, with the
integrity of Spirit, and we know it brings beloved community because we’re living
it already, how is that not privilege?
How long O Lord, how Long? ~Forever! We’ll be navigating racial equality and
diversity, sharing a message of peace, seeking a world of justice forever, because so
many don’t seem to value a privilege of integrity of heart/mind/strength and Soul.
And the cost is always high.
But HERE - hearing each other, seeking truth, allowing people’s inner prophet
and spirit to thrive, Here in community, we are privileged to call one another
Beloved.
May it always be so. Amen.