Tag: prophets

Prophet Pope Vs Profit President

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Politics, Faith and Values, Faith Development, Government Reform, peacemaking

The recent war of words between the Trump administration and Pope Leo both infuriates me and makes me very sad. I am astounded that the President and his Roman Catholic Vice-President have so little knowledge and respect for the 2500 year-old tradition of prophetic voices from the faith community speaking as the moral conscience to powerful political leaders. Trump and Vance act as if Pope Leo’s admonitions against war and violence are something new and radical when they are as old as the Moses, Nathan, Micah, Amos, and Jesus himself.

My sadness comes from my own failure as a pastor and preacher and that of the church itself to do a better job of educating our congregations about this age-old tradition of speaking truth to power. I can only speak for myself, but I know that throughout my ministry I have treaded very lightly on the prophetic aspects of my call; and I regret that deeply. My personal journals and conversations with colleagues often reflect my grief that I “sold my soul for a pension and a parsonage.” By that I mean that I avoided controversy and conflict in my congregations to have a “successful” ministry, i.e. keep my job and not create problems for my church superiors.

Far too often that meant going along with or avoiding political views I disagreed with to keep peace with the church members who paid my salary and supported the church’s budget. That is not at all the example set by prophets in the Bible. But before we go on let’s clarify what a biblical prophet is and isn’t. Popular usage of the word “prophet” often equates to one who predicts the future. Biblical prophets do that in a sense because they often warn people what will happen if they refuse to repent and follow God’s will.

But that definition of a biblical prophet is too limited. In the fullest sense the prophets of the Bible are those who are spokespersons for God. And that role often means confronting the powerful rulers of society who are more concerned with profits than prophets. Examples include Moses in the book of Exodus demanding that Pharaoh release the Hebrew people from the slavery which was essential to Egypt’s economic system. Or one of my favorites is Nathan bravely exposing King David’s sinful behavior directly to the King himself. (2 Samuel 12)

Later prophets like Micah and Amos try unsuccessfully to warn the leaders of Israel and Judah that their greed and selfishness will lead to their downfall.  Nowhere is what faithfulness to God spelled out more clearly than in Micah 6:8: “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?” No objective observer of our current political leadership in the United States can deny that we are failing on all three of those measurements for obedience to God.  And to his credit Pope Leo as a contemporary prophet is pointing those failures out.   

President Trump and his acolytes have particularly taken offense at the Pope’s criticism of the war the President and Benjamin Netanyahu are waging against Iran.  They are demanding that the Pope and other religious leaders support the war, failing completely to understand the biblical mandate all of us as Jews and Christians have to be advocates for peace.  The Hebrew prophets Micah and Isaiah both make this clear:

“For out of Zion shall go forth instruction
    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations
    and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
    neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isaiah 2:3-4, also found in Micah 4:3)

I cannot escape the irony that these verses describe these instructions for peace are to come from Jerusalem.  Israel today doesn’t even live up to the limitations for just revenge set down in the Pentateuch.  Even AI on my computer knows more about the Scriptures than Trump, Vance, Hegseth, and Netanyahu.  Here’s what AI says:

“An eye for an eye” appears in the Old Testament as a legal principle of proportional justice (Lex Talionis), ensuring punishment fits the crime (Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20, Deuteronomy 19:21). Jesus references this in Matthew 5:38-39 to instruct followers against personal retaliation, teaching them to “turn the other cheek” instead.”

One of the best lines I’ve heard this week came from comedian Jimmy Kimmel.  He said, “Maybe Trump should read the Bible instead of selling them.” And I’d recommend he start with the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 where we can get as close as we can to what Jesus’ philosophy about the faithful life.  The heart of those teachings are the Beatitudes which we all need to be reminded of regularly especially in these dangerous times.  So I’m going to give Jesus the last word here from Matthew 5:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falselyon my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Election Blues and Faithful remnants

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Politics, Faith and Values, Government Reform

“The lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off a strong nation.”  Micah 4:7

Is it possible to be very pessimistic about the future of American democracy and simultaneously confident in the future of its ideals drawn from the best of Judeo-Christian values?  It is on the horns of that dilemma I find myself as I near the end of my 75th orbit around the sun.  The euphoria I felt a year ago when Donald Trump was soundly defeated in his bid to be re-elected dictator of the U.S. has given way to despair as I watch the democratic party described by Will Rogers when he said, “I don’t belong to any organized political party; I’m a democrat.”  Now that inter-party warfare threatens to doom the Biden presidency and in the process throw open the doors of the US Capitol so the failed coup attempt of January 6 can be successfully completed at the polls in 2022 and 2024.

I have voted faithfully in every election since 1968, but this year I am so discouraged by the way the bitter politicization in our country has infected even local elections for school boards, city councils, and township trustees that I am tempted to throw up my hands and not even vote. Politicians have always exaggerated and lied about reality to get votes, but this year 90,000 Americans have died unnecessarily because political lies have become more deadly than the Delta variant of COVID-19.

As the news plays on my radio or TV I hear Amos warning against the sins of Israel. I see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem because she would not listen to his words of salvation and peace. I see shock on the faces of those who have bought the lie of American exceptionalism as they try to wipe the mark of the beast off their faces on the day of Armageddon.

But deeper than my despair I also know that the reign of God is not dependent on sinful mortals. I feel in my dry bones the salvation history revealed throughout the Scriptures that there has always been a faithful remnant preserved from any tragedy that rises from the ashes of earthly kingdoms to carry on the eternal torch of God’s holy shalom.

There are 82 references to “remnant” in the Hebrew Scriptures.  These references are not about left-over pieces of fabric, but about those who are left out and powerless according to worldly ways.  Through flood, slavery, exile and even execution of the Messiah the solid rock of truth has survived as the foundation of life itself. The earthly power of Pharaohs, Jezebel, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod, Pilate, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and all the others named and unnamed in our history books is as flimsy as the fakery of the Wizard of Oz.

The creator of our universe will still prevail with or without us, even if we succeed in our blind foolishness and destroy the earth itself. Dr. King was right that the arc of the moral universe is long, so long that we cannot see the end. It is as unattainable for mere humans as the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. So just now we despair because that arc of morality seems twisted and malformed in our finite ability to envision the mystery of the future. But I still dare to believe that it bends toward justice, maybe not in the dwindling short term of my lifetime, but in God’s eternal kairos.

From the perspective of 3/4 of a century of life on this planet this much I know, maybe not in my feeble brain but “deep in my heart,” the great old protest song “We Shall Overcome” is true. That “someday” of justice may not be on any human calendar, but it will come in God’s good time; and on that hope I must hang my hat, especially in such trying days as these.