The Resistance …“How long will they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look.” Bob Marley
A Prophet’s job is to speak, “Truth to Power.” Most self-serving politicians are not willing to utter these truths and line towing religious careerist will consider saying them. I know worship leaders who don’t believe what the pastor says, but if they say what they believe they will loose their jobs and it would end their career. I’ve met pastors who refuse to utter what they admit behind closed doors, leaders who don’t agree, but tow the line so they don’t loose their community and respect. If the leaders of our faith tradition became ruthlessly loyal, and gave up on human allegiance, we could create a community of faith that truly knocks upon the divine door.
Enter the Prophet:
Our faith traditions need holy people who will not settle for security and safety alone and these brave individuals embody the role of the prophet. They live on the borderlands, outside of groupthink and aim to be line with the divine arc of redemption. The divine arc of redemption is a slow evolution of man coming to see God as God is and less in light of our fears, projections and manipulations. The Arc of Redemption is inclusive, good news to all and Jesus is central to this projection of the redemption of all creation to her creator. The prophet is most likely killed, persecuted or socially marginalized on the outside of society or from faith communities. They get marginalized for good reason too as they speak with in the tradition, but challenge it to its core and orthodoxy. They often don’t fit the pre-packaged and polished view that the religious elite are selling to the public.
Venerating the Prophet as Gods voice to humanity
The prophet took extreme measures to be cleansed from the values of the frivalist, the materialist, and the marginally, comfortably religious. These individuals where not perfect or correct in all they uttered, but they often went to great efforts to be in tune with God’s hum. Preachers and teachers classically sanitize the prophets of all extremes when looking back. Modern evangelicals rant from the pulpits we cant question their writings and we conform hook, line and sinker. Those who refuse to go all in on this propaganda get kicked out, alienated, shamed, or manipulated to come back into line… and I feel this pain personally. Consider the example of Ezekiel for crying out loud! The dude stayed in bed longer than Gandhi and cooked over his own shit getting radical and crazy trying to break into the consciousness of the religious castle. These prophets have a job to shake up the faith tradition, but end up getting killed or venerated as God’s Perfect word! Hosea, marries a prostitute in the name of God, Jesus and John the Baptist chose homeless roaming to connect, Jeremiah was likely clinically depressed and locked up in the city sewage, Joana unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide to avoid his job as prophet, and Balem was called to order by his talking donkey. Today we would incarcerate these individuals and have them locked up or on meds.
America, a nation divided, needs the voice of the prophet today.
The voice of American Christianity is impotent and lost sight of the arc of loving redemption embodied in Jesus. We have become obsessed with right wing protectionism, patriotism, seclusion, fear, and being morally superior. None of these trite and passing issues have lasting value. Being in Tune with God, connected and united to our divine life giver is most important thing in this embodied state and the life that will continue in the next dis embodies reality. Being righteous, on top of the dog pile, in control of our kingdom of dirt, or religiously driving a sect of faith are not on Gods priority list but our petty agenda. We must respect our long faith traditions but learn to push past the boundaries too. The God who Jesus points to is still inspiring, illuminating and looking for brave souls to speak truth to power, but this comes at a great price. We must be willing to allow divine goodness to help us speak truth to power politically, socially, religiously, and face the reaction of those who currently clutch to their fleeting power. This brave life will disenfranchise you, cost you your life, but it’s true life. We need modern prophets today to die to conformity and come alive to the Spirit that still breathes.
Jesus’s Teaching:
We must loose our life in order to find it
The Practice
Read this song by Josh Garrels and let it move you today.
The Resistance
“I was born into a system constructed for failure
It’s a sinking ship manned by drunken sailors
An escape artist behind the bars of a jailor
An asthmatic attack when we forgot the inhaler
If the shoe doesn’t fit what good is a tailor
In the midst of a crisis please cancel the gala
Without a symphony there’s no need for a prelude
To foreshadow what’s to come.
See the secret committees, commence with their meetings
To make red tape in response to simple questions
Questions threaten the perception of the beneficial systems
A pyramid scheme with it’s cogs and it’s pistons
Mechanization of men, making more and more
Live in a miserable exhistance
How can so few, claim so many victims
And this begs the question
My rest is a weapon against the oppression
Of mans obsession to control things
Look at the long line of make believe kings
The lord of the flies want’s you to kiss his ring
Follow new rules with invisible strings
And become a puppet in the diabolical scheme
How do good men become part of the regime
They don’t believe in resistance.
Hold fast like an anchor in the storm
We will not be moved
Lesson number one, overcome
Every fear of regret and confusion
It’s all illusion, delusion
Sent to disconnect the holy fusion
Of spirit and the flesh
Every mortal breath, is meant to bring forth fire
But only when the fear of death, gets consumed
On the funeral pier
So let the flames rise higher
Let every man be considered a liar
If he doubts the goodness and faithfulness of God
Itching ears will compulsively nod in approval
When unbelief is taught in all our temples and schools
But God can restrain the madness of a fool
He can bring His truth through the mouth of a mule
You can move an mountain without any tools
It just takes the faith of a little seed
to make a way through what might seem to be
Impossibility,
And the ability will match the occasion
The outcome will defy explanation
The liberation will not be televised
When it arrives like lightning in the skies
Hold fast like an anchor in the storm
For your love, we will rise and overcome
Through the fire
Hold fast my people and sing
Through peace and through suffering
All for the joy that it brings, to be free
It’s gonna cost us everything
To follow one Lord and King
True love endures everything
To be free
Hold fast, like an anchor in the storm
We will not be moved”
credits
from Love & War & The Sea In Between, released June 15, 2011
The God Image 