The Prophetic call of the Church...

Jeremiah 1:10...

Sermon #9

DRIVING THEME:

Genuine community is a realizable goal for the human family.

PROPOSITION:

It is time for pastor and people alike to rekindle the prophetic fires to arouse godly irritation to those who make fun at the church's mandate.

ANTITHESIS:

Saying that which is "politically correct" has become the modus operandi for a code of etiquette. Politicians travel the length and breath of the country devotedly concerned about the direction the pollsters' winds are blowing. Nobody should be offended, and everyone should be wooed for party allegiance. As a church, we have been lulled to sleep by the pressures of post-modernism and 21st century optimism.

Racism runs amok and we have lost the will to speak with an uncompromising voice.
Poverty and social inequities proliferate in our cities and we fear the identification with the Social Gospel, so we remain silent.

Our communities are fractured, fermented, flaked, factitious, famished, frayed, and forsaken. We refuse to be the prophetic voice on behalf of the voiceless.

Minorities and immigrants are increasingly denied their share of the American dream, and our churches are busy pushing sailboats in ecclesiastical bathtubs.

Children represent a sizable proportion of poverty statistics, but we refuse to invest in remedial programs to alleviate the pain and reduce the risk of long-term mental disorders.

THESIS:

Jeremiah was called to an office both sublime and appalling. First he had to castigate, foretell doom and destruction, comfort, offer hope, build and plant. He was told by God, "Gird up your loins; arise and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them." 1:17

God is calling the church to be prophetic. The message will never be popular. Jeremiah was considered as the enemy because of the intimate relationship that existed between the mind of God and his own obedience.

Jeremiah was called upon to deny the charge of forsaking his country and of going to the enemy camp (37:14).

Jeremiah became of a conspiracy to slay him (18:23).

Jeremiah was promised that his enemies would not prevail against him (1:19).

Jeremiah prayed that his enemies be destroyed that the whole people could be saved (11:20; 12:3; 15:15; 17:18; 18:21).
Have we lost our prophetic edge? Are we afraid to say, "thus says the Lord"?

RELEVANT QUESTION:

If God has called the church to be prophetic, how are we to return to obedience to that mandate?

SYNTHESIS:

The church is called to respond as a prophetic institution in the midst of a cynical world. Here are various areas that could lead the church into becoming God's salvific and emancipatory witness in our world.

To be prophetic, the church must demonstrate that healing is possible in a broken world, chiefly by becoming more and more a healing and compassionate community.
To be prophetic, the church must take seriously the on-going threats to human livelihood--the restlessness of the young, poverty, injustice, human rights violations, atheism, child and spousal abuse, oppression of women, and family collapse.

To be prophetic, the church must develop ways of relating pastorally and prophetically to the political directorates of our time without fear of repression, or overweening arrogance.

To be prophetic, the church must respond to the rapid growth of pluralism. Collaboration with persons of other faiths cannot be an optional extra for Christians, it is of divine necessity.

To be prophetic, it is imperative that the church becomes a pilgrim community ('paroikos'), emphasizing the provisional nature of codes, canons, and styles of conduct. God's salvation is continuous and progressive, as it is cosmic.

To be prophetic, the church must persist in its call for the participation of the people in the management and control of their own affairs as an inescapable demand of genuine human freedom.
We must genuinely seek to bring our community and country in harmony with God's kingdom. A society that welcomes only persons of a certain skin color, who were born on a certain patch of terra firma and share a certain national history, can hardly be called one that is in harmony with God's kingdom. The church must give the needed direction toward the fulfillment of the highest and best that the human spirit can embrace. America is not God's kingdom, but America has the freedom and the liberty to pursue those human values that do correspond to the kingdom ethic.