I had the honor of moderating a conversation between the
Norwalk Policy Chief and representatives of the Black Lives Matter movement at
a breakfast held on MLK Day. The event was full of speeches and prayers and
singing. In introducing me to the audience the Rev. Dr. Jeffery Ingraham the
pastor of a large Baptist Church in Norwalk, lauded my handling of a
contentious public hearing on white privilege but said in researching our
denomination found that we could not be farther apart theologically. He cited a
billboard from one of our churches that read “More Curious Than Certain”. He
was certain Jesus died for our sins, we, he implied, considered that Jesus was
a matter for further consideration.
As we worked together, of course, we could put aside those
differences for the common cause we made to remember and learn from the
prophecy of Dr. Martin Luther King. I reminded him later that King’s oft used
line “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice” was
in fact, first penned by our own Rev. Theodore Parker, a staunch abolitionist
and Unitarian minister. The point I hope to make was that in the words of Dr.
King, “we may have come on different ships but we are all in the same boat now.”
In other words, we need to see the deep seated call for all
people of faith to reclaim the prophecy of Dr. King and so many others for what
it can teach us about how to live in this broken world. Prophecy is an often
misunderstood as some kind of fortune telling, confusing its truth telling for
a foretelling, like a tip on which horse to bet on.
A Medieval prophet prophesied to a king that his favorite
mistress would soon die. Sure enough, the woman died a short time later. The
king was outraged at the prophet, certain that his prophecy had brought about
the woman's death. Word spread through the kingdom and soon got back to the prophet.
The King summoned the prophet and commanded him: "Prophet, tell me when
you will die! “The prophet realized that the king was planning to kill him
immediately, no matter what answer he gave. The prophet thought for a moment
and said: "I only know that whenever I die, the king will die three days
later." source: http://www.jokebuddha.com/Prophecy#ixzz4WJoRW1nn
We are all in lamentation, even amidst our abundance. Life
itself is finite, the world has struggle and now, especially we may feel lost
and not yet found. The ancient Hebrew prophet Amos speaks a timeless truth when he
says of those in power:
“Take away from me the noise of your songs, I will not
listen to the melody of your harps. Let instead justice roll down like waters
and righteousness and mercy like an ever flowing stream..” (Amos 5:24)
The lamentations we may be feeling will lessen (but like
grief never fully close) when and if we dedicate our lives to something larger
than ourselves. This is the prophetic tradition we own. We need hope here, I
agree, and we need reliance to reclaim the prophetic tradition that is ours stretching
back to Amos, through Jesus, through the loving ministry of Clara Barton, through
the Waitsail and Martha Sharpe through Dr. King and onto such luminaries in our
times such as Christopher Reeves, Maya Angelou and Mary Wright Edelman, through
the lights of those still to come, Corey Booker, Nina Turner and the young Unitarian
Universalist minster in Bismarck at Standing Rock, Rev. Karen Van Fossan.
We have a deep and hope filled pool of prophecy that is ours
to claim. And I am proud that hundreds of thousands of women and men, girls and
boys marched for justice after the inauguration. We will need to march again
and again.
As I thought about this passage from Amos, I could imagine
the world he was railing against. Long gone were the glory days of Saul, David
and Solomon. Israel had split into its own version of the red and blue states;
a civil war had divided the land into to two states; Israel and Judah with the
power resting in the Southern half of the land. The Jewish empire was faltering
under its own weight, made sleepy by its wealth and arrogant by its belligerence.
Amos, as all good prophets should, was telling the haughty leaders that false
piety wasn’t enough. That prayer in schools wasn’t going to save them, that
flag waving, scroll thumping sacrilege was a lost cause. That making Israel
great again rings hollow. Only justice
and righteousness will save them; in fact that is only offering God really
wants from his people. Our journey is only beginning but I take courage that it
is the way of tyrants to fall. It always has been.
With Grace and Grit, John
