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“Claiming our Voices: Prophets” Jeremiah 1:4-10 A sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley Martin Luther King Day Martin Luther King was the source of
many fine and inspiring sayings. Such
things inspire my prophetic imagination: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to
justice everywhere.” “Our lives begin to end the day we
become silent about the things that matter.” “The choice is not between
nonviolence and violence. The choice is
between nonviolence and nonexistence.” “The long arc of history bends
toward justice.” “Human liberation lies in the hands
of the creatively maladjusted.” “In the end, we will remember not
the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” “Returning violence for violence
multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of
stars…Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” “Segregation is the adultery of an
illicit intercourse between injustice and immorality.” “When you are right, you cannot be
too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.” “The hope of a secure and livable
world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace
and brotherhood.” “All progress is precarious, and the
solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.” “I believe that unarmed truth and
unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is
stronger than evil triumphant.” “The church was not merely a
thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a
thermostat that transformed the mores of society.” “Nothing in this world is more
dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” “Freedom is never voluntarily given
by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” “Life’s most persistent and urgent
question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” We could go on and on. There is a sermon or two in each one of
these. We all have our favorite
sayings. They grant us that clarity in
the midst of the moral decay of our lives and remind us that people of faith
have a prophetic voice that when it’s sounded is good news indeed. We love to celebrate Martin Luther
King Day, I know I do. I love it because
he was such a great example of a prophet.
A prophet is a person who says all of the right things, offends the
forces of domination with the truth of his message, and inspires people to
claim their own voices and walk in a Godly manner. But a prophet is more than just a good
spokesperson or a truth teller. A
prophet is someone who has the audacity to speak for God. Now, lots of people say they speak
for God. But you can tell the ones who
really do it by the fact that they lift up the downtrodden and exalt those of
low degree. A prophet speaks the truth
to power and holds on for dear life to that truth which shall set us free. Today, we are here to claim our voices. Each week during the season of
justice, this season between Martin Luther King Day and Lent, we will look at a
different aspect of claiming our voices.
Our scriptures will look at the beginnings of ministry when those of old
found their voices. We’ll look at the
first sign of Jesus, the first sermon of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, the
call of Isaiah and today we look at the call of the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a reluctant prophet.
He was a PK (a preacher’s kid) who heard God tell him that he needed to
say a word different than his old man’s, at least more vociferously than his
old man’s. Jeremiah was set as a prophet to the nations—not only to the nation of His job was to tell the people the truth, give them a final opportunity
to repent, and if not then to tell them the result of their actions. It’s like Malcolm X telling the people that
the chickens are coming home to roost. Jeremiah was in a difficult position because he was called to preach
God’s word to a people who had convinced themselves that they were beyond blame
for the state of the world. It seemed as
though all Jeremiah could do was prophesy gloom and doom. What he was really saying was that people
were going to have to be held accountable for their abandonment of God’s
influence on their lives. The people had
ignored their responsibility to their sisters and brothers. They stopped ministering to each other. In short, they stopped caring. Jeremiah was real sad sack. He didn't want to do what he had to
do. Not only did he tell the Hebrew
people that they were going to be defeated and head into exile, he suffered the
indignity that he didn't get to go with them. He had to stay behind as part of
the righteous remnant that secured the land for the return from the exile 50
years later. He lamented over and over
again his position and his words that he had to say. The book of
Lamentations is attributed to Jeremiah's weeping and wailing. He was
tormented by having to tell the truth. At my ordination, my mentor George Williamson used the call of Jeremiah
as my ordination sermon text, saying that I was called to be a prophet, young
and green as I was. He said that he
hoped I was lot happier than Jeremiah and that my love life was a lot better
than the prophet Hosea. So far so good on both accounts. As I am firmly entrenched in what we might call middle-age, I wonder if
I have lost some of my more youthful prophetic edge. They say that there are no old prophets. Martin Luther King was leading the Montgomery
Bus Boycott at the age of 25. He
preached his “I Have a Dream” speech at the age of 33 and was assassinated at 39. I think we tend to be more idealistic when we are younger—braver,
perhaps. Maybe
even indulging in the delusion of grandeur, that sense of immortality.
I remember Rodney Powell, one of the original lunch counter protesters
in 1961 tell us at a Soulforce gathering in 2000 that
the future of Soulforce depends upon the older people
getting out of the way of the younger people who are going to be more willing
to push the envelope than we are. He was including himself in the older
crowd, of course. In his day, SNCC was more willing to push the envelope
than was the NAACP. SNCC accused the NAACP of being more interested in
getting along and being comfortable than really pushing for change. I fear I'm not as prophetic as I was when I was younger. Is that
because I have kids, a mortgage, a 401K? I
struggle with this one. I protest, like Jeremiah of old. And God shakes the divine head at both of us. Of course it’s hard. But the
only other option is to live without a sense of higher calling. The only other option is to deny the truth of
the ethic of God that we build the beloved community. The only other option is to have an
uninteresting and comfortable life that is devoid of meaning beyond yourself. Ironically, that comfort leads to prophetic discomfort. We remember the words and message of Martin
Luther King and we remember who we are.
That’s why I cling to organizations like the Baptist Peace Fellowship of
North America, The Joint Religious Legislative Coalition, the Coalition of
Spiritual Progressives, Soulforce, the people who
make their witness on the That is what the prophetic vocation is all about. Of course we can tend to be bolder in our
youth and wiser in our maturity. But if
the passion drains away, that’s the truly sad part. That’s why we come to church. That’s why we sing these songs. That’s why we remember the words of Martin
and Jeremiah, side by side—the triumph and the lament. Both are necessary to forge our way into a
healthy future. Jeremiah said, “beware of those who preach
“Peace, Peace when there is no peace.”
Jeremiah clung to the only promise he ever received in his life: “Don’t
be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you.” Says
YHWH. (1:8) Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”(Matthew 5:10) We give all of the excuses. We
are too young, too uneducated, too poor, too
insignificant. We’re the wrong party,
the wrong gender, the wrong sexual orientation, we just can’t do it. Maybe we need to hear again the words of Jeremiah’s call. Jeremiah was abandoned by his friends and
family and when he tried to stop preaching God confronted him again. God said: “Gird up your loins; stand up and
tell them everything that I command you.
Do not break down before them…I have made you a fortified city, an iron
pillar, a bronze wall, against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its
princes, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you; but they will
not prevail against you, for I am with you to deliver you.” (Jeremiah 1:17-19) Yes, if we are to stand up to worldly powers on behalf of God’s plan of
justice and of love, then we will be strengthened with God’s strength. I have within me the real desire to just get along and have a quiet
happy life without all of this prophetic stuff messing it up. But then
again, if I try to hold it in, the prophetic urge wells up brims over and
spills out. Sisters and brothers let us reclaim our prophetic voices, all of us. Let us speak the truth with love, regardless
of our age, our circumstance our misgivings.
Let us always work for the kind of world where we can all live in harmony
and peace, where we can remember that God has a higher calling for us,
remembering that we are called mystically and physically and spiritually to be
one family. May God’s prophetic spirit, which flows in the veins of all of us,
speak to that truth.
In the end, leaning on those everlasting arms, may we build and plant a
world that we can all be proud of. Amen.
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