Sunday May 24th, 2009.

Five Core Values: Being A Prophetic Community.

At the end of April, over 30 of us went for our Church Awayday at Speccott Barton and I think we all had a pretty good time. During the teaching sessions we had that day, we thought about five core values that should underpin our life and our ministry together as a church. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be following up on that teaching, as we consider what it means for us to be a prophetic community, an inclusive community, a sacrificial community, a missional community, and a worshipping community.

I hope that this will be a chance for us to share ideas about what sort of fellowship God intends us to be. All the sermons will be available via the church website and I want to find out what you have to say about it all.

Anyway, this morning, we’re going to be looking at how the church is called to be a prophetic community, and I want to start with ...

The prophet’s job description

I don’t know if you’ve ever wanted a new job, but, when you received the job description, you suddenly realised that it probably wasn’t as straightforward as it looked and that you needed to read between the lines. So, for instance, it might say that the successful candidate “will have responsibility for establishing an efficient filing and office management system”, which really means “We’re in total disarray and you’ll spend your first six months in the job clearing up the mess!” Or, another example might be: “The successful applicant will be engaged in a wide variety of tasks, as directed by the manager”, which means, “Whoever takes on this job will get all the dirty and menial jobs that no one else wants to do.”

So, what might the job description of a prophet of the Lord look like? Perhaps, it would be something like this:

First of all, ...

· “The prophet will represent the Managing Director (that is, GOD) by addressing the press and the public, as instructed by the Managing Director.”

Which means that the prophet doesn’t say whatever he, or she, wants, but is purely a mouthpiece for God – this means that when prophets speak, they do so with the full authority of God. Notice how Amos prefaces all his declarations with the words. “This is what the Lord says ...” – whether or not the people take Amos seriously they need to understand what he says comes directly from God

Next ...

· “The prophet will have a responsibility for dealing with complaints.”

Which means that the prophet has to carry the can when people don’t like what he, or she, is telling them! There are several examples of prophets who didn’t want the job – Moses and Jeremiah, to name just two – and maybe you can’t blame them, because many of the Old Testament prophets suffered terribly for their efforts.

You certainly didn’t become a prophet to enjoy a quiet life!

And last on the prophet’s job description comes this ...

· “The prophet will have a responsibility for the implementation of the disciplinary procedure.”

Being a prophet always entails a lot of plain speaking! When the people start to get things badly wrong, it is the prophet’s duty to tell them that they have reached a point of crisis and, where necessary, to deliver God’s judgment.

The Hebrew prophets usually addressed their prophecies to the royal and religious authorities of Israel, but they could never be described as ‘political activists’. And yet, what they say always challenges the existing political situation: when they speak God’s word, they undermine the authorities’ claims that all is well, and invite their audience to see things differently. This is a really important notion for us – the Church in the twenty-first century – to take on board.

So then, for us – the Body of Christ – today ...

What does it mean to be a prophetic community?

To be a prophetic community, first of all, we need to refuse to be squeezed into the mould of the world, a course of action that may have negative consequences for us as Christians, just as it did for the Old Testament Jewish prophets and for Jesus Himself. In the Baptist Union’s material on the five core values, there’s the story of one Christian who wouldn’t conform:

Jason was a middle manager for a firm doing cleaning contracts for his local City Council. As a conscientious Christian, he had from time to time been uneasy about some of the things he was being asked to do. However, things came to a head when he was asked to give assurances to staff about the security of their jobs, when in reality those jobs were about to be axed. He refused to give these false assurances and, as a result, he lost his own job. In his early 50s, this was a risky step to take. In fact, apart from some part-time and very unrewarding work, Jason never did work again.

I wonder how many of us here would have taken that course of action in those circumstances? Would you have been prepared to stand up for truth and justice in the face of all the pressure to conform to the way of the world?

As Christians, we are called to live in the world without being of the world – which is much easier said than done, because there will always be a tremendous pressure (and temptation) to go along with the will of those around us and not cause waves, rather than follow the will of God and accept the consequences. As the Church, then, we must have the courage of our Christian convictions and speak God’s word into the public arena, no matter how much at odds that puts us with worldly wisdom.

Here’s a fine example. The Maranatha Community, an interdenominational group of Christians, has for many years stood up publicly for Biblical values, submitting reports to Parliamentary inquiries into subjects like the reclassification of drugs, sex education in schools, assisted euthanasia, abortion, and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. Often, the views it has expressed have conflicted with the generally held views of society, but it has never shied away from speaking God’s word into public discussion. We - like the Maranatha Community, and other Christian organisations like it – must refuse to be squeezed into the mould of the world.

The second thing required of a prophetic community is the courage to stand up and speak out against injustice. The Revd Martin Luther King once said that “[t]he ultimate tragedy is not the brutality of bad people, but the silence of good people.” It was an essential feature of King’s life to stand up and speak out against injustice, against the racial prejudice and hatred which was directed at the black citizens of the southern states of America. Equally, it should be an essential feature of the life of the Church to challenge injustice and oppression, wherever they occur: locally, nationally, and internationally. We need to expose instances of injustice and immorality and, where appropriate, join with others to oppose and change them.

A really good example of the Christian Church doing this is the work of the Stop The Traffik organisation, which is campaigning against the trafficking of human beings around the world. Already it is being taken seriously by the United Nations, which has appointed its founder, Rev Steve Chalke, as a special adviser on the issue. It is also having an impact on the trafficking of children in Africa for the purpose of producing cheap chocolate, with Cadbury’s and Mars now committing themselves to producing traffick-free chocolate in the next few years. We can support their work by buying only Fair Trade chocolate products

Another great example of the Church acting prophetically in recent years has been its significant input to the Jubilee 2000 and Make Poverty History campaigns for the cancelling of the debt of the world’s poorest nations. And let’s not forget the work of Christian organisations like Open Doors and the Barnabas Fund, which expose and oppose the persecution of Christians around the globe. By highlighting individual cases and helping Christian communities who are being oppressed, these organisations are standing against injustice and promoting righteousness.

But being a prophetic community isn’t just about supporting those who are fighting global injustice, it’s also about being prepared to speak God’s word into local issues, such as the poor provision for homeless people, the need for rehabilitation facilities for drug abusers and the deprivation experienced on some of our estates.

Yet I think that being a prophetic community shouldn’t be just about reacting negatively towards things, but should also include supporting, encouraging and highlighting examples of good, just and righteous practice. It should also involve us providing an alternative way of looking at the situation by practically supporting the poor, the vulnerable and the oppressed in our own neighbourhood.

I think that the link we have made with the residential service next door to the church is significant, because we are supporting something that is good and important in our community, because the staff need to know they are appreciated, and because the young people they serve need to be aware that they are loved. We must build upon this link and extend our support to the whole Young Devon charity that runs the service, because this is something good, something to be celebrated and something to be encouraged.

But, as we come to a close, let’s return to our Bible passage. Through Amos, God gave the king and his court an image of justice being like a river and of righteousness as a never-failing stream. It’s a dynamic image, because justice is dynamic – it’s like the constantly flowing waters of a river – it’s never static, it never rests. Justice is something that God’s people are called to do and to do justice means to act in the interests of the powerless: to stand up for the poor; to defend the oppressed; and to protect the vulnerable.

Through Amos, God gave the authorities a vision of what their society should be like. And this is what we, the Church, are called to do in this day, in this age: we are called to be the kind of light in this world that exposes the failings and injustices of our society. But, at the same time, we are also called to be the light that illuminates the road ahead, the light that helps people to move in the right direction.

In the way that God moves, judgment is always accompanied by hope – once He has revealed us as we really are, He then shows us what we can become if we do His will. That is the role of the prophet within the community. That is the role of the prophets we encounter in the Bible.

So, may we truly be the prophetic community that our heavenly Father wants us to be. May we be prepared to face the cost of that calling and count it as joy that God sees fit to use us in this way. Glory be to His name, for ever and ever. Amen.

I really want to know what you think about being a prophetic community: what do you think are the local issues that Barnstaple Baptist Church should be concerned about? What do you think God is saying to the people of Barnstaple? If you have something to offer, please write your thoughts on a piece of paper and drop it in the basket in the foyer. Or, if you have a question that has arisen from this message, do drop that in the basket as well and I’ll try to address it in future weeks.

Let’s sing now our final song, a prophetic song that looks forward to the coming of Christ in glory – “These are the days of Elijah”...