I’ve been thinking a lot about the role of the prophet
lately. For one thing, it’s Advent, and we’re about to get our annual shout
from John – the Baptist, the one to whom Lutherans don’t generally give a lot
of airtime.
In the absence of credible Christian prophets these days, we
have some thoroughly secular folk taking on the cause of waking us up. There’s
the Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping warning
us of the Shopocalypse, and plenty of environmentalists telling us to wake up,
and quick.
I am sympathetic to these messengers, and like to think that
I am pretty awake myself, on my better days. But the pastoral side of me wonders
about the long-term effects of fire and brimstone. I suspect that some people
enjoy getting a good beating on a Sunday morning, feeling bad for awhile and
thus being certain that they’ve done their emotional penance. Then they go back
to sleep.
Or, there’s the effect Janisse Ray wrote about recently in
Orion, in which the true believers gather, tsk tsk at all those who are deaf to
the message, and then head home, ignoring any further changes they may personally need to make. What if “the choir” is not really doing that much better than middle America? If I know
about global warming and believe in
it, does that automatically make me more righteous than the doubters? Am I
justified merely by my faith in the wrath to come?
Here’s the irony: many of these “prophets” have long since
eschewed any semblance of religious faith. In fact, many of them assume that churchgoing
Christians like me are the opposition rather than allies. If you asked them
about matters of heaven and hell, personal righteousness or eternal judgment,
they’d probably insist that they don’t believe in judgment. But they sure as
heck use the language of guilt, sin, shame and, sometimes, fear – as well as and
sometimes better than street corner prophets. Walter Brueggeman argued in
Sojourners recently that Rev. Billy is most definitely using the methods of Old
Testament prophecy (e.g. performance art) in his Starbucks tirades. These
prophets believe firmly in the end of the world as we know it. They just think God has no part in it.
I’m pretty sure that the end of the world as we know it will
come about through human hands. We can create a shopocalypse, an end to oil, a
global climate crisis without any intervention at all, thank you very much. But
I’m also pretty sure that sustained, hopeful, joyous resistance to the status
quo needs something more than my humanity – it needs my trust in a God more
powerful than my own sleepy soul.
What wakes us up best – the screaming smoke alarm or the sounds
of nature? I’m not sure either one works perfectly for everyone. For some the
rude awakening just arouses anger at the source of the noise; others are just
too darned exhausted to let anything wake them.
It’s been years since I needed an alarm in the morning. I
have something much better now – my children. Their voices are insistent,
piercing and still beautiful. And they need me, now more than ever, to wake up.
I saw What would Jesus buy? today, and it has,
appropriately, stirred me up. I can’t say I learned anything new about American
consumerism, or corporate (non-)citizenship or sweat shops. Rev. Billy did not irritate me as much as I
expected. But I was moved simply by the story of these individuals – Bill Talen and
his choir and band members – who toured the country for a month in ancient buses
(retrofitted for biodiesel) in order to
spread their message. Most of them seem
like the people with whom I lived for a year in Lutheran Volunteer Corps –
young, committed, hopeful, and fun-loving.
