Boldness For A Bigger Purpose

Recently I had a chance to meet with Sr. Margie to catch up about a lot of things. As part of our conversation, we each talked about how we are these days and what’s on our minds and hearts spiritually. Sr. Margie said that lately she has been praying for prophets to arise in our midst to help guide us in these challenging times. She also acknowledged that some are likely here and we just don’t recognize them. Her words really stayed with me.

Our post-Easter readings offer us a lot to reflect on related to the prophetic.

Acts 4 tells us that Peter and John had just been released from jail for failing to be quiet about their experiences with Jesus. And, of course, they were threatened again with arrest if they persisted. The reading tells us that they say, “‘And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and enable your servants to speak your word with all boldness, as you stretch forth your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’” The reading then tells us that “as they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”

I wonder what stands out to you in this passage.

For me it is the word boldness. The post-resurrection disciples are no longer held back by the same fears that held them previously. And the threat of harm is not enough to deter them.

I think about Martin Luther King’s words from his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech on April 4, 1968. In it he’s talking to the crowd about needing to march again in support of the Memphis sanitation workers. And there had been threats of arrest against the marchers. But king says, “Now we’re going to march again, and we’ve got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be. And force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God’s children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. That’s the issue. And we’ve got to say to the nation: we know it’s coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory…We aren’t going to let any mace stop us…” And then he goes on to say how in their prior campaigns that the water hoses couldn’t stop them, the police dogs couldn’t stop them and arrest/jail couldn’t stop them either.

That is boldness for a bigger purpose.

Now another thing King said in this famous speech is that his listeners needed to “anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal.” 

We do not read it in today’s reading, but in the verse right after what we read in Acts 4 today we hear about the post-resurrection disciples discovering a form of cooperative economics that leveraged their power. “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had…And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the salesand put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.”

Wow!

Let’s just pause to take all this prophetic witness in. What is stirring in you right now?

In the gospel today from John 3, Nicodemus, a Pharisee, comes to have secret meetings with Jesus at night. Unlike some of his peers, Nicodemus is drawn to Jesus’ teachings but is afraid of meeting with him during the day and being seen.

And Jesus still meets with him. He does not shame him or say that he should be more courageous. He meets him where he is at and uses Nicodemus’ willingness to draw him further.

This, too, is prophetic.

Taken together today’s readings really offer some powerful teachings that I think have direct relevance to today’s world.

First, in the face of so many harms happening – domestically and internationally – a renewed spirit of boldness is necessary to confront the powers behind the harm. We, too, will need to be willing to endure some things and make sacrifices in order to move a justice agenda forward. Like the disciples or the civil rights marchers, we must not let fear stop us and we must, in the words of King, “get caught up with that which is right and [be] willing to sacrifice for it.”

If we were together right now, I’d ask the group to brainstorm what an increased “prophetic witness” would look like these days. Where would this witness be? What would it look like? What would its messaging be?

Rev. William Barber and other members of the group Repairers of the Breach are starting a multi-day public theology conference in New Haven, CT as this blog is being written. As part of their publicity they say, “Prayer is our private liturgy; Political, Prophetic Exorcism is our public liturgy. The Holy Spirit is recruiting public theologians as house cleaners NOW!”

Secondly, as MLK reminds us, our public theology needs to be accompanied by bold economics. Whether it is boycotts or the pooling of economic resources that go to help those most in need, we somehow need to keep addressing the economic imbalances that have torn our country and world apart.

Thirdly, part of being prophetic is creating space for people in our movements no matter where they are at. If our movements cannot be like Jesus – meeting people where they are and inviting them deeper – then we will just be replicating the systems of domination that continue to create binaries (friend/foe, woke/unwoke, right/wrong) and our movements will easily fracture.

Finally, Jesus models for us the prophetic act of engaging those who disagree with us or even oppose us. This can be some very difficult work indeed. And yet it may be what is needed in a world that has become so polarized.

Bold public witness. Marches and protests.
Economic withdrawal to provoke social change and the development of mutual aid to meet people’s needs. 
Creating movements that help people find a place and then deepen their commitments.
Engaging even those who might disagree with or oppose us.

These are resurrection attributes. These are part of our faith inheritance, and they are what have constituted the work of “church” in the world since the early days of Christianity.

In the words of King, “Let us rise up…with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be.”