Shapers of Prophetic Imagination
Wendy Barrie, until recently vice president of the Forma Board, delivered this sermon at the recent 2013 Tapestry Conference in Albuquerque, NM. Last week I remarked to a friend that I must have been crazy to say that I would preach at a conference for which Richard Rohr was the keynoter, and she agreed. Then, more politely, she inquired about the readings. “We’ve transferred the Feast of the Presentation,” I told her, “when Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the temple forty days after his birth and Simeon and Anna the elders recognize Jesus as the redeemer of the world.” My friend, herself the mother of a baby, smiled wistfully. “Is that how it was with Jesus?” she asked. “Even as an infant everyone who looked at him just knew how special he was?” So for a moment let’s engage the Gospel of Luke as imaginative story and consider Mary and Joseph. At this point Mary at least must realize something’s up: that terrifying angel, the strange pronouncements of her cousins Elizabeth and Zechariah, those smelly shepherds turning up. Still, it’s only been forty days, she’s not sleeping much, maybe she’s gotten the hang of nursing by now–let’s hope so, since there aren’t many alternatives. Joseph’s probably not much help. His hero status belongs to Matthew’s gospel, as do the wild star and the night visitors. And now, Simeon and Anna, righteous and devout, tell the new parents, exhausted and overwhelmed as new parents are wont to be, that this child of theirs is extraordinary. Mary and Joseph, according to Luke, are amazed. They may have whispered it to each other as he slept: those eyelashes, the curve of his ear, the perfect fingers and toes. This is different, and difficult. Imagine being told by two aged truth-tellers that your child will be the salvation of God’s people. Imagine Mary hearing too the prophecy that a sword will pierce her own heart, not understanding, but noting the pinpricks of fear. None of this may be what they wanted to hear. Prophecy runs in this family, and it is dangerous. “The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.” Jesus is twelve, and while he may have been the perfect child up until this point, he’s now a tween causing his parents three days of frantic grief. When at last Mary and Joseph find him in the temple among the teachers, Jesus is clearly living into the second half of life. He knows exactly where he is called to be, and what he is called to do. Our children can tell us: “a prophet is someone who comes so close to God, and God comes so close to them, that they know what is most important.” His parents do not understand. Children and prophets, women and elders. Luke wants us to know that everything in this story happens through the presence and power of God at work in human lives. According to New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson, “the story of twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple reveals Luke’s understanding of the prophetic call: God’s spirit can and does work among the young, the poor, the villagers, the powerless.” Luke’s pattern of prophecy and fulfillment is carried through Acts, and Johnson reminds us that “if the spirit of God continues to work in every time, and if the spirit’s chosen instrument is the human body, then prophets are in fact in the world as God’s agents now.” There are prophets among us. A prophet lives on the edge of the inside, our master teacher Richard Rohr writes in Radical Grace, “A prophet is one who lives precariously with two perspectives held tightly together–the faithful insider and the critical outsider at the same time.” “A prophet is one who lives precariously with two perspectives held tightly together–the faithful insider and the critical outsider at the same time.” I wonder who that could be. We, the educators, the practitioners of Christian formation, shape the prophetic imagination and embolden the prophetic voice in others. We ourselves are prophets, standing on the edge of the inside. I hope we are. Father Rohr says, “If you are both inside and outside, you are an ultimate threat, a possible reformer, and a lasting invitation to a much larger world.” It’s subversive. It’s transformative. We are following Jesus. Now, in the language of Godly Play, I invite you, I implore you: “Stop. Watch. Pay attention. Something incredible is going to happen. The prophets will show us the way.” Wendy Claire Barrie is the Director of Children, Youth and Family Ministries at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York City. Image: Peaceable Kingdom by John August Swanson.