Sunday 1 September 2013

Where are the Prophetic Voices?

In 1981, December of that year at John Stewart Church, a United Methodist Church in my hometown of Bluefield, WV, Dr. Frank Horton told me as I answered my call that I needed to go to Gammon Seminary. He knew, among other things, that I would need to understand the gospel speaking to and for the voiceless. He knew, intellectually and instinctively, that the call to preach is a call to speak love and justice. He was confident, and quite correct, that the Gammon Seminary experience would expose me to that. 

On the past Wednesday night he entered Gordon Church’s Wednesday Night Bible Study as he does from time to time. It is a joy to have him there. He is the pastor who declared the best seminary for me. He is a preacher whose voice I have admired as a church father over the years.  Dr. Horton lives as a gospel champion, one who loves God and God’s people, world wide, ferociously and audaciously.

Looking at the book of Revelation, we now use Allen Boesak’s “Comfort and Protest: The Apocalypse from a South African Perspective” as our supplemental text into the riches and joys of this mysterious document.  We discussed apocalyptic literature, the end times, and the power of leaders, as well as how the church is perceived. Because, to Boesak, the church of Jesus of Nazareth was viewed by the Roman Empire as “enemies of humanity” –the query was raised: how is the church seen today? Is it seen as an alternative and/or critic of government? On this fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington, how are followers of Jesus viewed?

Responding to these queries, Dr. Horton then took determined and voluble flight. He intoned: The church is scared now.” As he elaborated on this conscience-piquing testimonial, he discussed the prophetic ministry he had served. He talked about the church needing to be “people of the way” as described in New Testament Greek. He talked about there being a distinction, a difference between followers of Jesus and he talked about the original March on Washington.

He talked about going to the 1963 march when a congregation did not wish for him to be present. He talked about his bride Carolyn, who he has been married to for 55 years, affirming that and every other move that God sent their way. He spoke of how the people of that day, in the church, believed in God’s power for overcoming. He spoke of courage then and its seeming lack today. Then, with tears streamed from his face, he inquired: “Where are the prophetic voices?” 

This is no idle question from a disassociated observer. Dr. Frank Horton was among the original members of Black Methodist for Church Renewal. He served as a United Methodist missionary for decades. He taught and preached in Liberia before, during and after Liberia’s civil war. Dr. Horton knows the pitfalls and the strains of speaking truth to power. He knows the costs and the benefits.  

In these days and times, with incarceration at an all time American high, with unemployment soaring while CEOs draw greater salaries than ever, with foreign aid to needy nations being trumped by foreign bombs on “possible” enemies to the nation, when some dare to make visionary expressions-and even dare to invite others to do so-only at no cost to them, his question bears repeating: where are the prophetic voices? Can a church claim to love God and be silent as God’s people live on the underside? Is there a place and space for the prophetic voice?

Dr. Horton’s piercing interrogative burns before the church today. It shouts for an answer, especially in light of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. It reminds us in unflinching terms that a declared love of God and a proclaimed desire for church growth rings hollow without a clear stand for what is right. When the redeeming God-the God whose prophets of old called for “justice to roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream”- finds followers now who are content with equality by the trickle and virtue by the drip drop, can the church expect to do anything but to decrease in power and influence, even if it does seem to increase in dollars and number?  

Where are the prophetic voices? Where are the faithful followers who will dare to speak up and out for God’s time, in the now? Loose them and let them go. Let the prophetic voices take wing and expression. Release the voices so that God’s love of all people will be proclaimed, seen and heard.