Prophetic Ministry

Message for worship at West Richmond Friends Meeting, 6th of Fourth Month.

Speaker: Ben Richmond

Acts 2:17-20

I want to begin by acknowledging that the last months have been extraordinarily difficult for our nation, and indeed, the world. Many of us feel that we have been living through an on-going coup against our democracy at the hands a cabal of the super rich. For many of us, it has been a time of both anguish and confusion; for some of us, it has been a time of fear.

I received this email back in mid-February: “Right now,” my correspondent wrote, “I am still at the stunned state, looking for what I should be doing or where I need to take a stand.” More recently, a Friend here among us said, “I feel paralyzed. I know there is hope, but it is pretty tough.” I think many of us felt like that, even as resistance to the coup has begun to take shape both on the streets and in the courts.

This caused me to turn and look at who we are as a worshiping community. Where do we stand in relation to this attempted coup? I was quite astonished to see how well we are situated we are.

• We are the Friends and members of Iglesia de los Amigos Cuáqueros en Richmond, whose names I will not say because of possible threats against their immigration status. We are Karensa, and all those providing ESL classes connecting us with the broader immigrant community.

• We are John, organizing renters, in a vibrant work for justice for poor people in our community.

• We are Ed, keeping us connected to the Community Food Pantry; a living response to Jesus word, “I was hungry and you fed me.”

• We are Becky, and many connected to the Richmond Friends School, providing a shelter against the storm for “the little ones.” We are Demarius and all the helpers who provide a place of wonder for the children of the meeting.

• We are Sarah and Jackie providing a personal connection with micro-enterprise initiatives empowering impoverished women through Right Sharing of the World's Resources. In this and other ways, we are responding to needs of those who are suffering because of aid cut-offs to the poor of the earth.

• We are Josh connecting us with First Nation people in Canada.

• We are Ann, connecting us with legislation, both national and local, asserting the structures of democracy and justice.

• We are members and allies of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, and Trans community. We strive to be anti-racist. We continue to support the values of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, not as a political slogan, but because we know there is that of God in everyone, and we are unwilling to quench the spirit in anyone.

• We are the many deeds of kindness and mutual care too numerous to mention. We are secretly generous.

I am grateful for all of you, who I have named and the many more who I have not named. And I hope it is clear that this has little or nothing to do with partisan politics, but everything to do with our understanding of the Gospel.

So, to those of us who have been feeling stunned, confused, and fearful: hear this word of consolation. Simply by being part of this worshiping community you are standing against the night.

I used to travel among Friends quite a bit, and in some of the meetings I would visit I felt a sense of heaviness, of being weighed down by all the problems of the world.

How I wished for them to feel the rejuvenating grace and love of God.

How I wished for them to receive a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

So that brings me to today's scripture reading:

17 "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. [Act 2:17-18 (NIV)]

Peter is quoting from the prophet Joel. Notably, Joel introduces the passage with the simple words, “After these things,” but Peter changes it into the much more highly charged: “In the last days.” Now, reflect with me what it means for “the last days” to have lasted almost 2,000 years. It clearly doesn't mean the the soon arriving “end of the world.” The word “eschaton”, which gives us “the last” in “the last days,” must mean something else. I think it means a time of crisis in human affairs, when God breaks in and disrupts everything. That is what Peter is getting at when he concludes the quote from Joel with these astonishing and perplexing words:

 19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.

 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. [Acts 2:19-20 (NIV)]

In Isaiah's time, the richest and most violent world empire was Babylon. Babylon was the invincible oppressor spreading its cruel and greedy wings over all the near East. But Isaiah saw that it was destined to fall. And so this is what he said:

An oracle concerning Babylon...:

 The LORD Almighty is mustering an army for war....

 10 The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light.

The rising sun will be darkened

and the moon will not give its light....

11 I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty

and will humble the pride of the ruthless. [Isaiah 13:1-11 (NIV)]

In Isaiah's day, it was unimaginable that Babylon could be overthrown. But, with the aid of the Spirit, Isaiah imagined it. When the prophets speak of “signs in heaven” such as “the sun...turned to darkness” they are using symbolic language to announce a profound overturning of the social order. This is not the “end of the world”, but it is the end of the world as we know it.

The early Friends picked up on this same language. They were living in a time of civil war and, profound social change, and great oppression. Thousands of Quakers were in prison. Puritan leaders in the Massachusets Bay Colony deported Quaker ministers and hung four of them.

George Fox called it “this thick night of darkness that can be felt.”

Back in January, I wrote a poem, which I titled, “Night.”

It was such a night when the godly

hanged four Friends on Boston common

-- one a woman preacheri-- who gladly

for the Light, cried freedom.

It was such a night of darkness, when Gettysburg and Shiloh, made-- on blood-soaked fields – redressfor years of soul-destroying trade.

Comes such a night in this our time?A night of darkness that may be feltii-- when sun and stars refuse to shineiii--and every human heart will melt?iv

If in the darkness our way must lie,-- eyes blinded in the fearful night --we'll heed your voice, and so we'll tryto walk with you in endless light,vto walk in realms of endless light.vi

In the darkest of times, in these “last days”, when the sun refuses to shine, and all we know to do is come together in prayer: that is when God says

17 " ... I will pour out my Spirit

Yes, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.

 18 Even on my servants, both men and women,

I will pour out my Spirit in those days,

and they will prophesy. [Act 2:17-18 (NIV)]

We are well situated to take our part against the lies and oppression of our time, but how we need the empowerment of the Spirit.

So, I arise today to ask for a new outpouring of God's Spirit.

I ask, today, that sons and daughters will prophesy.

I ask, today, that the old ones will dream dreams, and the young ones will see visions.

Before we turn to the holy silence, I want to say a few words about prophets and prophesying.

First, the task of the prophets is not about foretelling the future. Rather, it is about softening our hard hearts and bringing us into alignment with the emotions of God.

One thing that jumps out when you read the prophets, is they are alive with the anger of God. I know I'm on dangerous ground here because the image of an angry God offends against our commitment to Jesus' fundamental revelation: that God is love. So bear with me for a moment.

The first question I put to the prophets was, “What do you say makes God angry?” It turns out, there is a very consistent answer to that question.

We recall Micah 6:8 (NRS)

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you

but to do justice,

and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?

But Micah goes on to name specific injustices that seem to come from today's news feeds:

12 Her rich men are violent; her people are liars

and their tongues speak deceitfully.

 13 Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, [Micah 6:11-13 (NIV)]

2 ... All men lie in wait to shed blood; ....

the ruler demands gifts,

the judge accepts bribes,

the powerful dictate what they desire--

they all conspire together. [Micah 7:2-3 (NIV)]

Here is Zechariah:

9 Thus says the LORD of hosts: ...

Show kindness and mercy to one another;

 10 do not oppress

the widow,

the orphan,

the alien,

the poor;

and do not devise evil in your hearts

against one another.

 11 But [Zechariah goes on]

they refused to listen, ...

12 They made their hearts adamant....

Therefore great wrath

came from the LORD of hosts. [(Zecharia 7:9-12 NRS)]

The prophets tell us:

God is angry at violence and oppression,

God is angry when immigrants are persecuted.

God is angry when the rich enter into conspiracies against the poor

God is angry when rulers lie and judges are bribed.

But most of all, God sees that violence and oppression require hardness of heart, on the part of the oppressor and also in the on-looker. Just to be clear, the opposite of hardness of heart is empathy. It is the work of the prophets to melt hard hearts, and stir up empathy for it is empathy that makes us humane, and that is what makes us truly human. This is the work of love.

In the end, the great thing the prophets show us about God's anger is that underneath it always – always -- is God's everlasting mercy and love. Because God is love.

So, Micah goes on:

18 Who is a God like you,

who pardons sin and forgives ... ?

You do not stay angry forever

but delight to show mercy. [Micah 7:18 (NIV)]

And, Isaiah:

10 Though the mountains be shaken

and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you. [Isaiah 54:10 (NIV)]

The prophets show us God's heart. Angry at injustice, loving toward people. Anguished when people harden their hearts, (and I think, “anguish” carries the meaning better than “anger”) ... anguished, because God knows that violence and injustice always bear in themselves the seed of their own destruction.

The prophets also show us our hearts. They break up the stony ground and restore our empathy and with it our humanity.

Quakers celebrate that Christ himself is our prophet and that Christ is within every one of us. We know that even the least likely among us may be inspired to prophetic ministry.

So I renew my prayer for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

May the old folk dream dreams, and the young ones see visions.

May women and men prophecy.

May we keep our hearts open to the anguished love of God.

In this time of darkness, oh God, may we walk with you in realms of endless light.

i This refers to the execution by hanging in Boston of Friends William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, on 27th October, 1659; Mary Dyer, on 1st June, 1660; and William Leddra, on 14th March, 1661. (Journal of George Fox, Nichols edition, p. 411, fn 2)

iiExodus 10:21 (NRS) a darkness that can be felt

iiiActs 2:20 (NRS) The sun shall be turned to darkness

iv Isaiah 13:7 (NRS) and every human heart will melt

vJohn 8:12 (NRS) Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness.

vi“realms of endless day,” from the Liturgy of St. James, tr. Gerard Moultrie, in the hymn, “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.”