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The
Cathedral Church
of Saint John
Ten Concord Ave.
Wilmington
Delaware
19802

voice: (302) 654-6279
fax: (302) 777-5789

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Dean’s Sermon
12th Sunday after Pentecost
15 August 2010

by the Very Reverend William B. Lane

Prophetic Leadership

The mission of Martin Luther King, Jr., like that of Jesus, was not to comfort the comfortable but to proclaim hope for the oppressed and deliverance from bondage.

Jeremiah 23:23-29
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56
Click the above links to see the scripture readings.

During the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s, Martin Luther King, Jr. and others in the movement landed in a Birmingham jail. They came under a great deal of public criticism from the mainline religious leaders of the city and the State of Alabama. They were being too pushy, too assertive, they appeared to be aggressive.

In response to these Judeo/Christian leaders, Dr. King wrote his now famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail. In it, he presented the case for Gospel/Prophetic responsibility on the part of Christian/Jewish leadership. And Gospel/Prophetic responsibility stood in the line of the shalom ministry of Jesus and the great prophets of Israel. The implications of the letter were that the religious leadership of Birmingham and Alabama, and by the way, of most of the United States, were failing this ministry. Rather than criticize the prisoners in the jail, they should be in there with them.

Imagine the power and impact in the sixties in Birmingham if the white religious leadership, the Roman Catholic and Episcopal Bishops, the Protestant and Jewish leaders, had exercised prophetic leadership, and spoke, not criticism to those in jail, but spoke the word of the Lord with them from the jail. Rather than words of comfort for the power structure, words of hope for the oppressed.

The prophetic tradition of Israel in which Jesus stands is in constant tension with those who exercise religious and social authority and power. Amos the prophet is told to keep the word of the Lord to himself and get back where he belongs. The attempt is made to marginalize Jesus as nothing but a hick from Nazareth.

Now, there is something very seductive about cozying up to power. The concept of going along to get along has its appeal. If the white religious leadership of Birmingham had spent time in the jail, they might have found themselves in a different relationship with the business, and civil leadership of the City.

There is indeed a difference in spending time as a guest of the state in the jail house rather than in the State House. And the prophetic tradition is that the latter, not the former, should be considerate a potential danger to faithfulness. In speaking of John the Baptizer whom he held in high esteem, Jesus says to the crowds:

What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who put on fine clothing and live in luxury are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

Through the ages the Church has often succumbed to the temptation to sanitize Jesus, to make him presentable, to identify him with the kingdoms of this world rather than with the kingdom of God. But the Jesus of history, the Jesus revealed in the Gospels, will have nothing of that. His mission is not to comfort the comfortable but to proclaim hope for the oppressed and deliverance from the bondage that oppression brings to both the oppressed and the oppressor.

It is safe to say that Jesus did not envision himself in a popularity contest. If there were those who would respond to him, there would be others who would not. The peace that Jesus presents is not the peace of Caesar, a peace that is achieved by controlling the many for the benefit of the few, a peace maintained by the sword. No, the peace that Jesus presents, that is presented in Jesus, this peace is nothing less that the shalom of God, and it will be rejected by the kingdoms of the world. It is a peace that brings not glory to the powerful, but liberation to the poor, the oppressed, the weak, and the outcast.

Jesus understood, as Jeremiah had before him, that there would be those who present themselves as prophets, who would claim the word of the Lord, and tailor it for the ears of those who “count.” The words of Jeremiah resonate with Jesus:

I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, "I have dreamed, I have dreamed!" How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back-- those who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal. Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully.

The Judeo/Christian story of faith has within it the stories of those who heard the word of the Lord as it has been proclaimed within the great prophetic tradition of Moses, Elijah, John the Baptizer, and Jesus of Nazareth. Those who heard and by their presence and presentation made that word known, no matter the cost. These are the great cloud of witness spoken of in the reading from Hebrews, those who have often spoken from the jail house, and the poor house, from the wrong side of the tracks, from the factory floor, from the dust bowl, yes often from the poverty of things, but not a poverty of vision, faith, hope and love.

So, the Church, the community of Jesus, has in its mission a call, not to speak words of comfort to the powers and principalities, to might and authority; but to speak words of truth, words of justice, words of compassion. In other words, to speak of and present to the world, the shalom of God.

Faithfully,
The Very Reverend William B. Lane

Dean’s Sermons:

Cathedral Call Letters from the Dean

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