The Prophetic Voice

 Whenever I think of Palm Sunday, I think of all the kingly symbolism in the story. Jesus riding into Jerusalem, the heart of Judaism, on the foal of a donkey, mirroring the Zechariah prophecy that the new ruler of Israel will come victorious and triumphant, humble, riding on a donkey’s colt (Zechariah 9:9).

Plus, there is the symbolism of the palm branches and cloaks which scripture says were laid on the road for the donkey to walk on – another tradition for honoring royalty. Our Palm Sunday songs also echo kingly language and symbolism and shout the cry of oppressed people everywhere, “Hosanna! Save us!”

The message… Jesus is king (albeit of a spiritual kingdom), God has authority, not Caesar!

But what caught my eye this year in the processional story in Matthew was the people in Jerusalem demanding to know who on earth this person was entering their city so dramatically. And the crowds responded, “This is the prophet Jesus from Galilee.” Matthew doesn’t call him the Messiah, or King of the Jews, or Son of God… this is the prophet Jesus. Matthew is the only gospel writer to use this word in this story.

A prophet! Yes! We could debate all day whether Jesus was divine or human or both. But I don’t think anyone disagrees that Jesus was a prophet.

Joan Chittester, in her book The Time is Now, offers a good understanding of what a prophet is:

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Politicians will always ask the question, ‘Is it expedient?’ but the prophets must ask the question, ‘Is it right?”’ The words shake convenience, complacency, and comfort to dust. It is convenient to satisfy the crowds. It is complacent to meet the barely satisfactory in human needs and assume that is enough for anyone to do. It is comfortable to know that anything more than nothing will be sufficient to satisfy the record of success. Yet, none of those are enough to give human dignity to the poor. They are hardly likely to provide a decent life to the children of the next generation. No real comfort comes to anyone from the drip, drip, drip of peace and justice...

[But] visionaries talk about “rightness” for everyone. A right kind of life. The right level of justice. Most of all, the right criterion used to determine what a right life looks like and what constituted enough justice to truly be justice...

For the prophet, the right criterion to be applied to the whole of the human journey is the Word of the God who wishes us, scripture says, “well and not woe.” It requires that from one end of the social scale to the other, we each have available the measure of life’s resources we need so that being alive is a blessing and not a burden.

In addition, I would add that a prophet always speaks truth to power, has a strong commitment to justice, a deeply compassionate heart and is extremely persistent and resilient. They are willing to risk themselves for the sake of others because it is the right thing to do. Prophets demand equality, dignity and wholeness and make agape love the center, or standard, for every change and every decision

Yep, sounds like Jesus to me!

In the Buddhist Jataka Tales, the Buddha talks about his many past lives… In one of those lives he was born as a friendly little parrot in a great forest. He loved living there, had many friends, and his spirit was one of joy and happiness in caring for others.

One day a great storm came upon the forest with much thunder and lightning. Lightning hit again and again until it struck a dry tree and a huge fire started. Smoke filled the air and the flames spread quickly in the high winds. The animals ran wildly in every direction

The little parrot flew over the burning forest crying for the animals to run to safety. Some made it to the river, but others were trapped by flames and smoke. Rather than flying to safety himself, the little parrot kept flying over the burning forest trying to think of some way to help. Suddenly, a crazy idea came to him. He flew down to the river, soaked his whole body in water and then flew back into the fire to find any animals who were trapped, then he would shake the water from his body onto them, giving them a few moments of cooling.

Again and again, he flew back to the river, soaked his body and went in search of anyone in danger. His lungs ached, he was dizzy from the smoke, but he couldn’t stop. He thought to himself, What else can I do but fly? I must do this to help.

Now, up in heaven some of the gods and goddesses looked down from their palaces and happened to see the forest fire and the little parrot. “Look at that little parrot, how completely foolish he is trying to put out a raging forest fire with his own little wings! Whoever heard of such a thing? It’s absurd!”

But one of the gods, strangely moved by the actions of the little bird, turned himself into an eagle and flew in to get a closer look. The little parrot was nearing the flames again when the eagle appeared at his side and said, “Go back, little bird. This is a forest fire. You can’t stop this. What can a few drops of water do?”

But the parrot wouldn’t listen and kept going back and forth from the river to the flames. “Save yourself!” said the great eagle. And little parrot said, “I don’t need a great shining eagle to give me advice, thank you. My mother could have told me that. I just need someone to help.” Seeing the parrot flying so steadily through the searing flames again, the eagle thought with shame about his own privileged life. He could see the carefree gods looking down on the earth as if life was just a game. He could hear their laughter, but he also could hear the cries of the creatures in the forest. He wanted to be brave like the little parrot. He began to weep streams of tears which became rain that poured down on the entire forest.

When the flamed died down and the smoke began to clear the little parrot, washed and bright, rocketed in the sky above and laughed, “Now that’s more like it! Thank you great eagle!” (This was somewhat paraphrased from Jack Kornfield’s book, All In This Together.)

The little parrot was truly a prophet. He worked to save the animals, risking his own life, and he was brave enough to speak truth to power – the great eagle. Because he risked and stood his ground and would not be deterred, the eagle helped and the forest and animals were saved.

The little parrot in this story reminds me of Jesus seeking valiantly to help the people, pouring his energy, his wisdom, his healing out for those he saw hurting, oppressed, ill, outcast, struggling. But he was just one person against a raging fire of tyranny and religious authority. It seemed that the people wanted him to do it all. Afterall, where were the people standing for this parade into Jerusalem? On the sidelines cheering him on, as if Jesus would somehow, magically fix everything. There is no great eagle god in this story to sweep in and save Jesus and the people. Sadly, Jesus is killed because of his prophetic voice trying to right the political and religious wrongs. God doesn’t operate that way. The divine calls us all to be scratchy, prophetic voices in the world, to join together to seek justice and freedom and equality, to call individuals and governments into accountability. What Jesus tried to teach his disciples and the crowds was that we are all in this together, we are all one and we need to help each other.

We are not asked to be sideline people… we’re asked to raise our own voices in prophetic witness. We look around and see that more and more people are doing this today – standing up for the rights of all people to live life as a blessing not a burden. But it can be risky.

In January, just days after Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Rob Hirschfeld called out the "cruelty, the injustice and the horror … unleashed in Minneapolis," and warned his clergy to prepare for "a new era of martyrdom."

"I've asked them to get their affairs in order to make sure they have their wills written," he said in an NPR interview, "because it may be that now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable."

This was not said to invite violence or to require martyrdom of his clergy. And, in fact, he’d been saying this for years whenever fellow priests and bishops gathered to push or gun control legislation and other social justice causes. His intent was to ask his clergy to live life without fear of death, “to be ready, to have affairs in order, to have your soul ready, in case you find yourself in trouble.”

This is the world as we know it today. And despite the White Christian Nationalists, who seem intent on completely twisting scripture and ignoring the true teachings of Jesus, there are many people, many Christians who are not on the sidelines waving at Jesus expecting him to do it all, they are in the streets walking next to him, raising their own voices, using their own power against the powers that are denying a life of blessing to all.

Author and historian, Diana Butler Bass, wrote this on her Substack on March 25:

Christians are showing up and standing up these days — fighting for and serving their immigrant neighbors, preaching about peace, protesting in the streets, attending training events to protect voting. Bishops have told their clergy to write their wills and understand that they might be martyrs if they do their jobs. Congregations now cheer brave clergy who preach a politics of love. Church-going grandmothers deliver casseroles to people afraid to go shopping because of ICE in their towns. Nearly every mainline denominational leader has stood up legally and theologically against mass deportations and the destruction of social services for the poor. At many church coffee hours, you now hear congregants sharing plans to attend local protests and swap slogans for “No Kings” signs. Entire churches are doing book studies on Christian nationalism — and why it is a bad thing for both America and for the church.

We must keep holding on to hope. Hope in a better day ahead. Hope that love and justice will eventually win out. Hope that the generations to come will have a world of peace and a stable climate. Hope that only comes through the prophets voices and getting off the sidelines.

Shaker Antoinette Doolittle once said, “Every cycle has its prophets as guiding stars; and they are burning candles of God to light the spiritual temple on earth, for the time being. When they have done their work, they will pass away; but the candlesticks will remain and other light will be placed in them.” That new light, those new candles are ours. It is our light that must now burn on this earth, seeking to put out the dangerous fires that threaten our world, our people, our animals and our environment.

We can’t sit on our privileged clouds, or on the comfortable sidelines throwing palm branches. We must not put our lights under bushels but set them out for the world to see. We must become prophets ourselves, working for justice, standing up for the underdog, loving radically until our own candles burn down and it is someone else’s turn. Prophets never do this for themselves, but for others and for future generations they will never know. If we don’t do this now, then when??

Many blessings,

Kaye