One of my favorite t-shirts – I can’t remember where I first
saw it – had printed on the front of it: “I AM A HOPE DEALER.” God is calling
us to be prophets of hope, visionaries of the future into which God is inviting
us. We are called to be a company of prophets.
This morning, our scripture texts provide an opportunity to
reflect on this calling. The language of
prophecy may seem outdated, other-worldly, describing a spiritual elite that
doesn’t have much in common with us or our time. Nothing could be further from the truth. Prophets are us. There are some in this room. And there are plenty of openings for new
applicants to the company. Let me break it down this way:
1.
Prophets are made, not born.
2.
Prophets are team players, not lone rangers.
3.
Prophets are Spirit led, not ego driven.
4.
Prophets are hope dealers, not doomsayers.
Prophets are made.
This is very clear in our reading from II Kings, the story of the
leadership transition from the prophet Elijah to his successor, Elisha. When Elisha receives Elijah’s mantle (or
cloak) as a symbol of his authority, it is the culmination of a long
apprenticeship. Elijah was deep in
meditation on Mount Horeb, when God instructed Elijah to name Elisha his
successor.[1] The
text doesn’t tell us this, but I suspect that Elijah had his eye on Elisha for
a while. He recognized his leadership
potential, and God confirmed this intuition.
When Elijah came down from the mountain, he found Elisha
plowing the fields with 12 yoke of oxen.
Elijah threw his mantle over Elisha and roped him into the company of
prophets. Elisha’s decision to accept this invitation was an irrevocable
commitment. Elisha responded by kissing his parent’s good-bye, honoring their
role in preparing him for this moment.
He then slaughtered the 12 oxen and made a feast for the people in his
village; an act of celebration and of generosity, but also a divestment of his
assets such that there is no going back to his old way of life. There are no oxen to fall back on! This is an act of radical trust in God.[2]
We are told again and again in the text that Elisha followed
Elijah, repeating the refrain, “I will not leave you.”[3] Whatever else was involved in Elisha’s
training, it included the development of a profound relationship of love and
loyalty. This relationship was not
rooted simply in personal affinity, but in shared devotion to God. Their love for one another was comprehended
by a larger love for the people of Israel, and for God. Prophets are formed by this experience of
love.
Prophets are team players. It is easy to read the text and fail to
notice the emphasis on the company of prophets.
It isn’t just Elijah and Elisha.
There are bands of prophets in Gilgal, Bethel, and Jericho.[4] In the process of moving toward Elijah’s
final translation into the mystery of God, Elisha is introduced to these
communities of prophets. Elisha is
initiated into a company of prophets; he is not a solo practitioner.[5] Elisha engages in the spiritual practices of
the community and becomes steeped in its traditions. Prophets can critique the tradition, it’s
political and religious institutions, and their leaders, precisely because they
are profoundly conversant with it.
One doesn’t just wake-up one morning and decide to be a
prophet. It requires commitment to a
spiritual practice, rooted in a tradition, that seeks to awaken us to the power
and presence of God and renew the life of the community in conformity with the
creative, life-giving, loving intention of God.
For the company of prophets in ancient Israel, this loving intention was
expressed in the Torah or covenant between God and Israel. It is the touchstone that informed the
prophets’ critique of contemporary injustice and corruption, and provided a
foundation of trust in the future that God desires for us.
Prophets are Spirit led. We are not given detailed instruction on the
education of prophets. We do know that
prophets are transparent to God’s presence and power, transmitting divine
energy and communicating a vision of reality that transcends their personal
abilities. God works through them. How is this possible?
The texts bear witness to the usual methods: prayer, meditation, fasting, and
worship. We know from Elijah’s story
that he encountered God in sheer silence through the practice of meditation in
solitude.[6] There are also references to ecstatic rituals
among the company of prophets, involving a de-centering of the ego that opens
pathways to channel spiritual power.[7] There is also a more prosaic practice shared
by the prophets: they listened attentively to the needs of those who were poor
and suffering in Israel; the victims of injustice; and those who had no
advocate. Prophets come close to the
pain in their communities. They do not
take refuge in their own privilege or power, but in the healing and empowering
love of God.[8]
These practices open the prophets to the Spirit. They cultivate awareness of reality and a
willingness to confront painful and difficult truths. Prophets are not fortune tellers; they simply
perceive the consequences of the present course of action that any woke person
can see. Prophets sometimes have a
reputation for being confrontational or pessimistic, when really all they are
doing is making conscious what others prefer to deny, dismiss, or even destroy
rather than acknowledge. Prophets and
kings go together in ancient Israel, because the prophets are always revealing
what the kings prefer to keep hidden.[9]
Elijah becomes so transparent to God’s presence and power
that he simply disappeared.[10] No more Elijah! What is left is a double-portion of his
spirit, the Spirit of God with which he became aligned, transmitted to
Elisha. This is the hallmark of genuine
prophecy; to become so transparent to God that the “I” unites with the “Thou”
and becomes available to empower others for service. Elijah knew the fulfillment of his mission
would lie in a future of God’s creating that transcended him, requiring him to
entrust himself to the work of others after him. Prophets know that it is not about them; it
is about God’s future.
When the company of prophets at Jericho saw the spirit of
Elijah resting on Elisha, they bowed down before him.[11] This was not simply an act of obeisance. It was an act of confirmation. Elisha’s initiation was complete. Elijah gave himself completely in service to
God so that Elisha and others could live into God’s future. Elijah – like Moses, like Dr. Martin Luther
King, like Harvey Milk – would not
experience the fulfillment of the hope for which he struggled. But he shared his power so that, one day, we
would realize God’s dream.
Prophets are hope dealers. Elijah and Elisha struggled against the
injustice of their day, cursed the evil they resisted, and warned of the
consequences of refusing to repent and renew God’s covenant of love and
justice. But that is only one part of
the story. When Elisha takes up Elijah’s
mantle, he strikes the water of the Jordan River and a pathway across the water
opens for him to return from the wilderness into the promised land.[12] Elisha re-enacts the movement of God’s people
from slavery to freedom; from want to abundance; from despair to hope.
This is what prophets do: they announce the vision of God’s promised future that we cannot yet
see. They enact that vision in word and
deed, creating and renewing a pre-figurative community in which that promise is
realized already. That is what it means
to be Israel. That is what it means to
be the Church. We are called to be the
company of prophets living God’s future now.
Prophets courageously name what is wrong with the
world. They are not dope dealers. They don’t give us false reassurances, trying
to numb us out, making us easier to manipulate and exploit for their own
benefit. They tell the truth in the
service of awakening us to the need to change, to allow God’s Spirit to blow
afresh through us to repair the world.
Prophets do not deny the pain of the past and the suffering of the
present, but neither are they in bondage to it. They imagine God’s future and
invite us to live into that future together.
Genuine hope is rooted in the truth, however painful, and is open to the
future in deep trust that God is not done with us yet.[13]
I want to close with a couple of observations about how
Jesus deepens our understanding of the company of prophets. Jesus was considered by many to be a prophet;
perhaps even the reappearance of Elijah.[14] Like Elijah, Jesus was raised up into the
life of God, but by transcending death rather than avoiding it. The Spirit of Jesus is not poured out on just
one person, but upon all who awaken into Christ consciousness. Jesus does not claim the title of prophet but,
rather, “Son of Man”: human being. All human beings have access to the
Spirit. The company of prophets is not
an exclusive club.
Prophecy is, however, a demanding commitment. It requires a radical de-centering of ego
that leaves us without recourse to our usual means of security and control; we
must give away the equivalent of our yoke of oxen and exchange it for Jesus’
yoke.[15] This includes renunciation of violence as a
means of prophetic action. Unlike Elijah
and Elisha, Jesus refuses to curse his enemies or bring down fire from heaven
upon them.[16] With Jesus, there is only blessing, no curse,
purifying the prophetic vocation of its ambivalence about violence and its
potential to mirror the very evil it resists.[17]
With Jesus, prophecy as the cultivation of complete trust in
the power of divine love is radicalized and becomes an expression of ultimate
freedom, liberation, nirvana, moksha, salvation. It is a demonstration in word and deed of the
power of self-giving love to realize God’s promises here and now. In a world of dope dealers, let us be hope
dealers. Let us follow Jesus and become
prophets of God’s future.
[1] I Kings 19:1-16.
[2] I Kings 19:19-21.
[3] II Kings 2:2, 4, 6.
Compare Peter’s response to Jesus in John 18:17, 25-27 and 21:15-19.
[4] II Kings 2:3, 5, 7.
[5] II Kings 2:15, 4:38-41, 6:1-7, 9:1-3 indicate Elisha
exercised a leadership role among the company of prophets. The precise social location of the company of
prophets and their function in ancient Israel is a subject of much scholarly
debate. See John S. Kselman, “The Social
World of the Israelite Prophets: A Review Article,” in Religious Studies Review (Volume II, No. 2, April 1985), pp.
120-129.
[6] I Kings 19:8-13.
Compare Jesus’ frequent retreats to pray in solitude, especially in Luke’s
Gospel: Mark 6:30-32; Matthew 14:1-13; Luke 4:1-15, 5:16, 6:12-13, 22:39-44.
[7] These ecstatic rituals sometimes include kings as
well; cf. Saul’s naked frenzy with the company of prophets (I Samuel 19:19-24)
and David’s nude capering before the Ark of the Covenant (II Samuel 6:14-23). These
stories are some two centuries earlier than the company of prophets in I and II
Kings, but indicate a continuous tradition and practice over time; at least, in
the northern kingdom. For an intriguing
investigation of the homoerotic character of the relationship between YHWH and
Israel’s first kings, and the cult of the prophets as possessed of YHWH’s
phallic power, see Theodore W. Jennings, Jr., Jacob’s Wound: Homoerotic Narrative in the Literature of Ancient Israel
(New York: Continuum, 2005).
[8] Elisha is a good example. Consider his intervention to assist a widow
being impoverished by a creditor (II Kings 4:1-7); his healing of an enemy
general (II Kings 5:1-19); his giving life to a dead son (II Kings 4:32-37); and
his miraculous feeding of the hungry (II Kings 4:42-44).
[9] Patrick D. Miller, Jr., “The Prophetic Critique of
Kings,” Ex Audito (2, 1986 ), pp.
82-95.
[10] II Kings 2:9-11.
[11] II Kings 2: 15.
[12] II Kings 2:13-14.
[13] Constance Fitzgerald, OC, “From Impasse to Prophetic
Hope: Crisis of Memory,” CTSA PROCEEDINGS
64 (2009): 21-42.
[14] Luke 9:18-22.
[15] This is the force of the “hard sayings” in Luke
9:57-62.
[16] Luke 9:51-56. Jesus
makes clear that the “Son of Man” will suffer violence, not inflict it, unlike
the prophets who precede him; cf. I Kings 18:40 and II Kings 2:23-24.
[17] Luke 6:27-36.
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