In honor of TVUUC
False Prophets and Fundamentalist Christians
A
Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Gregory Wilson
The
Unitarian Universalist Church of Brevard
October
3, 2004
Good morning.
In order to understand false prophets and fundamentalist Christians,
you have to really understand the evolution of how prophets came to be in the
first place in the Judeo-Christian heritage after Israel became a nation.
Because in order to understand false prophets you have to understand true
prophets. In order to understand
true prophets I think it’s helpful to discover what is the origin, and what
is the need of the prophets. There
was time in a history of the nation of Israel, before Israel was a nation,
when they did not have prophets. The
prophets who dealt with economics were an outcome of the development of
Israel’s moving from a group, or federation of communities, which had judges
and met together like regional governments, to their having a king, and their
request for a King. So in order
to understand how that happened, we’re going to talk a bit about the nature
of how Israel moved from being not a nation to a nation.
I think there’s also
something important to understand about prophets. Prophets don’t talk about the future until after they have
described the present. Prophets
talk about the here and now. Prophets
talk about oppression. Prophets
talk about tyranny. Prophets talk about how can we help the people who are
oppressed. Then they also talk
about the consequences for the nation of Israel of oppressing the poor, and
the consequence is from their perspective a judgment from God. The dynamics of
Israel’s moving from a federation into the nation of Israel went something
like this. There was a judge in
the community of Israel named Samuel. And
the people approached Samuel and said to Samuel, “We want to be like the
other nations. We want a king to help us in our battles.”
I was reading an Old Testament commentary by theologian Walter
Brueggemann, and he suggests there were three reasons why Israel might have
wanted to be a nation. One was
the imitation of other nations. One
was the protection of having a military.
But there is another reason. He
said that Israel got to the point where there were citizens who were
accumulating wealth and the need for a kingdom was to centralize power to
protect the economic patterns in which they were accumulating wealth. Now
which one of those do we pick; my hunch is all three of them play a role, but
to really understand which one matters the most, we must look at the outcome
of Israel’s becoming a kingdom.
So the people come to Samuel and say “We want to become a nation. We want a king.” Samuel goes to YHWH, their God and says “YHWH these people are coming to me and saying they want to be a kingdom like the other nations. And YHWH says “No.” And Samuel says “No.” Samuel goes back to the people and says “YHWH says ‘no.’” And the people say “We don’t care. We want to be a nation anyway.” Samuel goes back to YHWH and he says “The people don’t care that you say ‘no’; they want to be a nation anyway.” So then God says “Yes, they can have that.” And Samuel came back and says “Yes.” Samuel says “This will be the outcome of your wanting a king. Your sons will be drafted into the military service. Your daughters will be called away from your homes to serve the king as bakers and handmaids and such. He will take your best farmlands and give them to his servants. And the king will accumulate so much wealth and it will become such a burden to the people that you will cry out to God to no longer have a king. This will be the outcome of having a king.”1 But the people still want a king.
So we have a story in
which Saul and David as the first kings did fight military battles and were
very much extended outwardly fighting the people who were around them.
After David was the king, after militarily creating a safe place for
the nation of Israel, Solomon became king.
And when Solomon became king, Solomon said “I don’t have to worry
about these other kingdoms fighting me. And
since I don’t have to worry about that I’m going to build a great temple
to the Lord.”2
Now whenever a government official says they’re going to build a
great temple to the Lord, or they’re going to build something great, we’ve
got to figure out where are they going to get the funds, and where are they
going to get the labor. So what
Solomon does is he talks to this other kingdom and he says “Can you bring us
cedar?” And the other king says “Absolutely.” Then Solomon says “Then
we will pay you whatever wage your laborers want.” So the other king says
“Great!” So this is international trade, and it looks like it’s going to
be a good thing for both kingdoms. So
it’s a good thing. Right?
Then Solomon in building
this great temple, takes 30,000 men from the nation of Israel, pulls them out
into a pool of forced labor. He sends 10,000 to the other land to help their
laborers, and he rotates them every month. So every month there are 10,000 out
of the 30,000 men going away from home. He also took 70,000 men to be
carriers, and then 80,000 stonecutters, forced
laborers to work at building this temple. Exactly what Samuel said would
happen began to happen. And to have this kingdom, this King turned inward to
meet his own needs to glorify the himself and his understanding of God, and he
had to oppress the people and pull people out of the way they were living,
disrupting normal family life, and create an economy based on slavery.
And we give Solomon great
credit for being wise. Scripture
says, Solomon was wise because he
could accumulate wealth. There we
have another issue–wisdom is collapsed with wealth.
If we look around today, who do we honor? Who do we call wise? Often
it is those who have great wealth. This
pattern of collapsing wisdom and wealth may have begun there, or it may have
begun earlier, I don’t know, but I know it is there in those writings.
And it says that King Solomon excelled on the earth and he was richer
than any other king. He was the best king. So
naturally his God was the best. And
his God needed slave labor to gain this wealth.
It reminds me of the book Howard Zinn wrote, The People’s History;
I suspect if we looked at the people of Israel at that time, they would report
a different thing than Solomon is reporting.
Because they are the ones that are having their families disrupted.
They are the ones who are being pulled away. They are the 10,000, the 70,000,
the 80,000 people that have to deal with the governmental policy of building a
great nation with slave labor.
It is out of this context
that prophets are born. It is out
of this context, which we Unitarian Universalists say is one of the core
ethical sources that we have for relating to one another. It is one of the
roots of who we are, the prophets from the nation of Israel. So here’s Amos in the year about 750 B.C.E. at here’s
what Amos has to say. “You oppress the poor and crush the needy.
And their crops you exert a grain tax from them.
You trample the needy and you get rid of the destitute from the
land.”3
The verb for “get rid of” means to “exterminate.”
From the prophet Isaiah.
“Those who accumulate houses are as good as dead.
Those who accumulate landed property until there is no land left and
you are the only land owners remaining in the land, you are also dead.”4
From the prophet Micah.
“Those who devise sinful plans in the evening because they have the
power to do so, they confiscate field after field after field.
They seize house after house after house.
They deprive the person of the land they inherited.
You hate justice, and you do not do what is right.
Her leaders (Israel’s) take bribes when they decide legal cases.”5
Again from Micah.
“Faithful men have been disappearing from the land.”
When we look at our world, when do men disappear from their homes?
When an oppressive force comes at night and takes them from their
homes, that’s when they disappear from their homes.
“There are no godly men left. They
wait for an ambush so they can shed blood..” 6
From Jeremiah. “Do not
believe the lying words and have confidence in what rulers say.
Stop oppressing foreigners who live in your land, children who have
lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands.
Stop killing innocent people. You
are putting your confidence in delusional talk.”7
From Lamentations.
“We must pay money to drink our own water.
We must buy our own wood.” Wood
was the source of their energy. If
that’s not a movement toward privatization, I don’t know what it is.
“Our ancestors sinned, those who have gone before us.
We are left to bear their punishment.”8
We move down to Malachi,
450 to 400 B.C.E.. “ I will come to you in judgment, those who break
promises, those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, those who refuse to
help the immigrant.”9
The prophet’s response
wasn’t about individual and personal lives.
The prophets were addressing culture.
The prophets were addressing politics.
The prophets were addressing religion
The prophets were addressing how a culture abuses and oppresses another
portion of the culture so that they are well-off. That’s what the prophets are addressing. So if we want to
begin to understand true prophets and false prophets, we can use this lens
that we can look through. Government policy that oppresses is what the
prophets spoke against it. Not
only is it what they spoke against, it is why they came to be, because of
political, religious, and economic oppression.
Part of what I was going to do today is talk about the question how can we respond to conservative Christians if we have a different view, not just a Christian view, but another particular view. I think what’s going to be helpful in that is to understand who was the man Jesus. Who was he? Who was he in context with his history? And I’m suggesting that to really understand Jesus, we have to understand the prophets. And I’m suggesting there is a lens in the New Testament, an event that Jesus went through, that will help us understand not only who Jesus was, but also who the prophets were.
Before Jesus began his
ministry, he was called up into the desert to spend 40 days and 40 nights
fasting and trying to understand who he was as a human being and what he was
going to do. And while he was in the desert, this character Satan comes to him
after 40 days. And Satan’s
lying in the desert on soft pillows and blankets and he’s sipping wine and
eating grapes, and there’s a basket filled with fresh-cooked bread. And
Satan says “Well Jesus, I see you’ve been wandering around in the
desert–would you like some bread?” And Jesus shakes his head no.
And Satan says, “Ah, that’s too bad, because I know you can smell
the freshness of the bread.” Then
Satan says, “I know that you can call all the angels that exist to help you
do all that you want to do in the world.
Wouldn’t it be easier to call all those angels to help you do good in
the world?” And Jesus smiles and says “Satan, it is you who use others to
do your bidding”. And Satan
says, “Ah, yes it is so Jesus.” The Satan says to Jesus, “You know, I
can see you ruling all the kingdoms of the Earth.
I can see it and it looks good, Jesus. You
could have all the power, all the money, all the wealth, anything you want.
You could have thousands of followers to do whatever you wanted them to
do.” And Jesus said “No!” 10
What is Jesus saying
“no” to? Jesus is saying
“no” to power. Jesus is saying “no” to ambition. Jesus is saying
“no” to wealth. Satan
wasn’t only tempting Jesus on a personal level, as an individual.
Satan was tempting Jesus to move away from the prophetic lineage of
which he was a part, and on which he was going to base his ministry. That’s what Satan was doing with Jesus. He’s moving him away to join the world of the
Solomons. He’s moving him away to join the world of oppression that uses
other people so that he can have the pillows and blankets and wine and grapes
in the desert. That’s what
he’s doing in relationship with Jesus.
So in order to understand
the life of Jesus, you must look through the lens of the temptation story and
the heritage of the prophetic voice in the nation of Israel. And you must
understand that it is more than a personal thing with Jesus.
It’s a cultural, and a sociological, and an economic, and a religious
thing that Jesus is up to. Too often today when we hear Christians and fundamentalists
talk about Jesus, they leave out the prophetic dimension of the prophets and
Jesus. And it is the sole reason
for the prophets and for Jesus, the sole reason he exists is to call attention
to the oppression of the culture, the oppression of society.
That’s why he was where he was.
That’s why the prophets came to be.
And it’s missing from much of the religious conversation today.
As a matter of fact some conservative Christians and fundamentalist
Christians would say we are called to obedience to Jesus and obedience to God,
yet they are the ones that define what obedience means.
They do not move into a search for truth and meaning and find out the
alive and living themes from their own holy book.
They do not talk about the oppression.
They do not talk about over-taxation.
They do not talk about using laborers for their own comfort who are
making 37 cents an hour, who are living in toxic environments.
They move in a political direction that actually supports that way of
economic life. The prophets call
for cultural change. The prophets
call for sociological change. And
now if we really try to understand and talk about Jesus and what he said,
listen to some of the words that he said:
“Do not store up
treasures on earth.”11
That’s statement is about the commercial aspect of the time. Don’t be
attached to goods. Don’t be
accumulating goods. Don’t be addicted to the feeling of acquisition. So as
Jesus talks about it, what happens is you cloud your eyes.
It darkens the inside of who you are as a human being.
He says you need light in your eyes, to bring light to the inside of
who you are as a human being, and if my mind is cluttered with attachments to
external things and to commercials that I’m flooded with in this culture,
Jesus is saying our eyes are darkened. And
the inside of us is darkened. He
is not talking about me being saved. He’s
talking about a culture and a way of life for a whole people that does not
support oppression. “For where your treasure is your heart is also.”12
“You cannot serve God
and wealth.”13
You simply can’t do it. And here’s how we know Jesus is putting
himself in the line of prophets. “In everything do to others as you would
have them do to you. This is the law of the prophets.”14
When he says this is the law of the prophets, we must go back and listen to
the words of the prophets and the words are against over-taxation, poor
working conditions, pulling people out of their homes to work for the
government in any way, shape or form, disrupting family systems, that’s the
lineage of the prophets.
“Be aware of false prophets that come in
sheep’s clothing but are inwardly ravenous wolves.
You will know them by their fruits.
Are grapes gathered from thorns or figs from thistles?”15
What are the fruits of an oppressive economic culture?
Toxic waste dumps? Bad
working environments? Chemicals in
the air that affect unborn children? If
you read Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s book, Crimes Against Nature, he talks
about the presence of mercury in the bodies of every citizen in this country.
He talks about 600,000 births this year that will be affected by mercury,
because of the mercury in women and mercury in the infants.
As I understand how some conservative Christians are talking about
protecting the fetus, this is an assault on a human being. It is an assault, it
is a crime to do that.
“You have neglected what
matters in laws, justice and mercy, and you pay attention to tithing and
receiving tithes. Woe to you scribes, you hypocrites,” (and this is very
important) “for you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of
the righteous and you say ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we
would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’
Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who
murdered the prophets.”16
Let’s take a look at that.
What conservative and fundamentalist Christians say is, “The people who are
the heroes, the people who founded this country, they are on our side.”
The conservative Christians claim Jefferson, claim Adams, they claim
Washington. But they were not
trinitarians. Jefferson and Adams were Unitarians. And Washington supported John
Murray, a Universalist, as Chaplain of the Army in direct opposition to the
trinitarians of his time.
When I was in the Southern Baptist Convention, and the
fundamentalists were taking over the Convention, which had been a good
organization, when they took over Southern Seminary, they claimed the heroes of
the Southern Seminary; but the heroes of Southern Seminary had moved from the
seminary from fundamentalism to being a moderate Seminary were you could be
there as a fundamentalist or a conservative or a liberal.
You could be any of those and you were welcomed in that Seminary and you
could move in any direction. As
soon as the fundamentalists took over that Seminary, they made claim to these
heroes as their heritage. But these
heroes that they claimed would not have signed the statement of faith that they
made people sign in order to be a professor in the Seminary. Jesus is saying the
same thing. The reading we read today said the same thing. We claim ancestors to
make us look good but if we were back there, we would be over and against these
ancestors. As Unitarians we have
allowed the group that has oppressed Unitarians to claim Unitarians for their
good. I don’t think we can be
silent any longer. I think we need
to stand up and say that is not so.
“But false prophets also
arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will
secretly bring in destructive opinions. ...And in their greed they will exploit
you with deceptive words.”17
So if we take a minute and
look around at the landscape of today for false prophets... I’ve got in front
of me something we downloaded from the Internet, and the title is the “EPA
Issues Pre-election Gag Order to Staff”18
And the summary is, from my perspective, secret keeping, violation of the law,
it’s unjust, there are plans that pollution which is criminal will be made
legal. The ban “Appears to
violate Congressionally-enacted bans on agencies imposing any “nondisclosure
policy, form, or agreement” on its employees without explicitly informing
employees about their rights to reveal matters covered by statutes such as the
Whistleblower Protection Act.”17
So those acts that I would
say good prophets put in place to protect the people, to stop oppression, now a
group of prophets are removing those laws, laws that were installed to protect
the people.
Now I’m getting to one of
the motivations for this sermon. I
was reading in the paper and this title jumped out at me: “Falwell says
Evangelicals control GOP and the election.” “The Rev. Jerry Falwell said
yesterday [at a meeting in the US Senate building] that evangelical Christians,
after nearly 25 years of increasing political activism, now control the
Republican Party and the fate of President Bush in the November election.”18
This is their route to dominance– where Jesus said “no” to wealth,
to power, to ambition, where Jesus said “no” to Satan, whatever that means
for us, whatever that symbol means that leads to oppression of people, because
that’s what Satan means for me, oppression of people, whatever mechanism
oppresses people, whatever comfort we get from that mechanism, whatever wealth
we get from that mechanism that is symbolic in that word Satan, Jesus said
“no.” The prophets for 500 years said “no.”
When Satan tempts Jerry Falwell and the Christian right-wing politicians
who are in their camp, I can only conclude that they have said “yes” to
Satan. They are ambitious. They are greedy.
They are wolves in sheep’s clothing, who are ravenous and are
destroying our country’s environment. It
is who they are. Here are people
who are claiming that they love the creator who created the earth, and at the
same time, when politicians use certain words that the fundamentalists respond
to because of who they are as a particular religious group, they support those
politicians. They also support the process that destroys this earth and
oppresses people. We can only say
that whatever Satan symbolizes in the temptation story, they have said “yes”
to. They have said “yes” to the
way of Solomon. They have not heeded the warning of Samuel.
It is who they are. They
have said “yes.” And maybe
Falwell’s right. Maybe they are
in control of who become the leaders of our land.
As Unitarians Universalists
we were born out of the prophetic office. It
is who we are. We did a
Service of Remembrance awhile back about the Socinian community.
They were born out of creating tolerance.
They were born out of creating a democratic process where we could live
together and not be oppressive of one another even when regimes change. That’s who they were.
That’s our roots. It is in
our identity not to be silent when we see false prophets. It is in our identity to stand with the prophets of Israel,
to stand with the prophet Jesus, to stand with our prophets--maybe Ralph Nader
or Dennis Kucinich, I don’t know. But we must find out who is standing over
and against the tyranny in our land, who is standing over and against the
process of democracy in our land. We must find out who is standing over and
against the interdependent web of existence in our land that we hold dear, that
we hold in our hearts, that our principles hold as the highest values for some
of us. For some of us they are even
sacred. Our religious values are
egregiously torn apart by wolves in sheep’s clothing. We must call attention
to that. How can we call attention to that in personal conversation? We can talk about the lens through which we
understand Jesus. And anybody that claims power and ambition is not
following the Jesus that went through the temptation story.
That’s how we talk about that. We
can talk about the prophets and how the prophets were about culture, were about
politics, were about economics. We cannot allow political conversation to kill
the prophetic voice. We must call
attention to it. And so be it.
Endnotes and Scripture
References
8.
Lamentations 5:1-22
18. Scott Shepard, Cox News Service, Palm Beach Post, September 25, 2004.
Copyright 2004, Rev. Gregory Wilson, D.Min.
