Before I begin I want to thank you all again for inviting me to speak to you once more. I guess it would’ve been a bad thing if, after I spoke here last week, you all said, “Well, that’s okay, Bill, once was enough.” As you probably know, sometime after this service you all will vote for or against me to be your next pastor. I got to thinking, this is sort of like American Idol. You will all cast your ballots and I’ll either get chosen or not. Although I am the only contestant. So if I come in second to myself, that’ll be quite embarrassing.
I like to start my sermons with a joke; a funny story, a humorous anecdote. When I spoke here a year-and-a-half ago, I told you a funny story that I want to tell you again. I wasn’t going to tell it again, because I already told it once, but I want to tell it again for two reasons. One, it fits in perfectly with today’s sermon. And two, I think you ought to know, if you do hire me, that I do sometimes repeat my stories. (Hey, I only have so many of them and sometimes I forget if I’ve told a story already.) About 4 years ago, I went to the Secretary of State’s office to get my driver’s license renewed. Now I don’t know if I looked kind of raggedy that day or what, but I think the woman behind the counter thought I was a homeless man or something. She asked me, “Do you hear voices? Do you have hallucinations?” What? Those our strange questions. I said, “Well, I do have visions, but I think I’m supposed to because I’m a pastor.” She laughed and said to the woman next to her, “This one says he has visions, but it’s okay because he’s a pastor.” She laughed too. I want to talk with you today about vision; more specifically about prophets who have vision.
May 21st, that’s when a group says the world will come to an end. I’ve seen billboards that proclaim it; maybe you have too. Judgment Day they call it. But heck, I live in Holland, Michigan, where everyday is judgment day. Just try mowing your lawn on a Sunday; see how many judgmental, dirty looks you get. Some people would call those who predict the end times prophets. But I don’t call them prophets; they’re more like psychics. They’re like Jeanne Dixon predicting the future. Prophets don’t predict the future; prophets speak truth to power.
The Hebrew prophet Isaiah said, “The spirit of God is upon me, because God has anointed me; God has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of God’s favor.” That’s what a prophet does. He or she doesn’t predict the future; other than to say: your future’s going to be pretty bleak unless you help people. Prophets bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim the good news and speak truth to power. The Unitarian Universalist prophet Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “In the soul of man there is a justice whose retributions are instant and entire. He who does a good deed, is instantly ennobled. He who does a mean deed, is by the action itself contracted.” That’s what prophets do. They speak truth to power.
Gandhi was a prophet. Gandhi said, “I am a Muslim and a Hindu and a Christian and a Jew and so are all of you.” Prophets speak truth to power and sometimes say things people don’t want to hear. Dr. King was a prophet. Dr. King said, “I have a dream that one day…all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing.”
Jesus was a prophet; whatever else you might say about him, you’d have to say he was at least a prophet. He spoke truth to power. I know some people at a Unitarian Universalist church don’t like to hear about Jesus. But I don’t want to talk about the mythological Jesus: the walk on water, the turn water into wine Jesus, the Hollywood Jesus, who looked like Mel Gibson. I want to talk to you about the man Jesus, who probably looked Mel Brooks.
He was Jewish after all. I want to talk to you about the Jesus who looked revenge in the face and said, “Forgive and you will be forgiven.” I want to talk to you about the Jesus who looked hate in the face and said, “Love your enemies.” I want to talk to you about the Jesus who looked war in the face and said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” That’s why they killed him. They didn’t kill him because he had to die, they didn’t kill him because he lived to die, they didn’t kill him because he had to die to rise again, they didn’t kill him because he had die for our sins. He didn’t die “for” our sins, he died “because” of our sins. He died because we didn’t want to give up our sins of revenge and hate and war. We’d rather kill him. They killed him because he was a prophet, because he spoke truth to power. Just like they killed Gandhi, just like they killed Dr. King. Just like they’d kill Jesus again today.
Remember shortly after 9-11, when President Bush went to Ground Zero and had his arm around that firefighter? What if President Bush had had his arm around Jesus instead? When President Bush said: We’re going to war, we’re going to hunt these people down and we’re going kill them; imagine what would have happened if Jesus would have said, “No, no, no; don’t do any of that.” “Forgive and you will be forgiven.” “Love your enemies.” “Blessed are the peacemakers.” All across America people would be shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!” Prophets usually don’t make it to retirement age, they don’t usually draw a pension, they don’t usually get a gold watch. They usually get killed.
I’ve been visiting an inmate every week for the past few months at the Ottawa County Jail. We talk and meditate and I try to lift his spirits. It may not be much, but I’d like to think that I’m trying to bind up the brokenhearted. I write a religion column for the Holland Sentinel every few weeks. I write about justice and compassion and peace.
It may not be much, but I’d like to think that I’m trying to proclaim the good news. I went before the Holland City Council a year ago this month. (I mentioned that last week.) I asked them to pass a Gay Rights ordinance. I’ve gone back to city hall many times in the last year, speaking in support of something that’s opposed by many religious and business leaders in Holland. It may not be much, but I’d like to think that I’m trying to speak truth to power. Does all this make me a prophet? What am I, joking?
I have a friend in the Reformed Church in America in Holland. He told me that at a Reformed Church in America meeting in Holland, where there were a bunch of clergy, a minister asked, “How can we be more prophetic in our ministries?” The leader of the group said, “Well, whenever I think of a prophetic presence in ministry, I think of Bill Freeman.” What is he, joking?
I met a businessman in Holland a few months ago. I’d heard of him before, but I’d never met him. He’s a minority. He’s a liberal. He’s my kind of guy. I saw him at an event back in November and went over to introduce myself. I stuck out my hand and said, “Hi, I’m Bill Freeman.” He brushed my hand aside, gave me a big bear hug and said in my ear, “I know who you are. I love what you’re doing in this town.” What is he, joking?
This church, like every church, needs a pastor, binding up the brokenhearted. This church, like every church, needs a preacher, proclaiming the good news: forgiveness, love and peace. This church, like every church, needs a prophet, speaking truth to power. Today, when you vote for or against me…vote for or against me, because I want to be your pastor, binding up the brokenhearted; vote for or against me, because I want to be your preacher, proclaiming the good news: forgiveness, love and peace; vote for or against me, because I want to be – with all humility and to the best of my ability – your prophet, speaking truth to power. And that’s no joke.
Oh, and by the way, there’s no rule or regulation, there’s no creed or code, there’s no doctrine or dogma that says only one person in a church can do the work of a pastor/preacher/prophet. I think you all know that. I think many of you have done the work of a pastor/preacher/prophet here at Harbor Unitarian Universalist Congregation. And I hope that if you agree to hire me, you’ll agree to help me: to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim the good news and to speak truth to power.
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