Last month our sermon in the arts of ministry series was also about speaking the truth. However, it was about the kind of speaking the truth that happens one-to-one, when honesty is called upon in the work of building and deepening relationships. There is another kind of speaking the truth, I mentioned then, that is very different, but is also an art of ministry and an art of living well. That kind of speaking the truth is about speaking the truth to power, about the larger kind of prophetic call.
The Bible is full of prophets, books of the Bible are named after them: Isaiah, Nehemiah, Micah. You know their words: [Isaiah 40:1] "Comfort me, comfort me o my people." [Isaiah 2:4]; "And nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and they shall learn warn no more."; [Amos] "And Justice will roll down like waters"; [Micah 6:8] "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God."
These are the words of the prophets, people who spoke with a certain vision for the world. They held up a dream, an expectation that was high, but also noble and beautiful. They also, it bears mentioning, named the ugliness and horror of their ages.
Not out to make friends, the prophets screamed from street corners and rooftops about the moral turpitude and societal injustices that they saw. They talked hope, it is true, and visions of a better world, but only after they had painted a grim and shameful portrait of the world we lived in and ourselves in it. [Micah 7:2] "The faithful have disappeared from the land, and there is no one left who is upright; they all lie in wait for blood and they hunt each other with nets…The day of their punishment has come." [Jeremiah 5:1] "Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look around and take note! Search its squares and see if you can find one person who acts justly and seeks truth - so that I may pardon Jerusalem."
I always thought what a horrible curse it would be to be chosen as a prophet. What a nightmare to be given this gift. I am with Jonah on this one, for when Jonah was called to go to Ninevah and tell them to change their ways. Jonah took to the seas. He hopped ship and ran from this ungrateful assignment.
Prophets say the things we don't want to hear. They remind us that we have gotten weak or self-satisfied. They tell us that we have more than our share of life's goodies and need to be reminded to share. They see what we choose not to - the poor who cry out in desperation, the prisoner, the sick and forgotten, those suffering under oppression. And then, they ask us too see also. NO, THEY DEMAND WE SEE. They do the impolite and unceremonious act of preaching wherever there is a pulpit or a town square or public forum. And the message is the same: ignore this truth at your own peril.
It is an ugly job, but someone has got to do it.
There is a story in the Book of Numbers in the Hebrew Scriptures in which the spirit is said to rest on two men in Moses camp, Eldad and Medad. And the gift of this spirit was the gift of prophesy. Another in the camp, Joshua, hearing the two men begin to prophesy, tells Moses to stop them. But Moses replies, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!"
It is an interesting story for it shows not a jealous leader in what is a strongly patriarchal culture, but one who is eager to share the power, especially this power of prophesy. "Would that all the Lord's people were prophets," Moses says. And why wouldn't Moses want to share it?
Perhaps because the more prophets who are out there, the more voices to cry out against injustice, the more brothers and sisters in arms, the more likely the message might be heard. To be a lone prophet crying out against the injustices of a great nation - could there be a lonelier calling? Moses is happy to have help in this calling.

This idea of the shared gift of prophesy, is one that Unitarian Universalist took hold of. James Luther Adams, the foremost UU theologian of the last century, named a book after this idea. He called his book The Prophethood of all Believers. The idea Adams clung to was that the gift of prophesy was open to all of us, not merely to priest or rabbi. It was an idea that made sense in our faith with its deep respect for the individual to discern truth, and it validates our denominational history. We are a movement that is characterized by a prophetic gift. As a movement, or as individuals who are members of this movement, we have been on the forefront of every movement for social reform in this country's history and still are. Whether we promulgated it two centuries ago or not, we have been a faith of the prophethood of many, if not all.
It is not, as James Luther Adams said that we believe our folks can foretell the future, but that we have the responsibility, and some of us the gift, to "forthtell" it. We have the ability and encouragement to speak the truth we see, the concerns we have, the uglier realities that need holding up and confronting. That is what I mean by prophetic gift. Whether it is treatment of the mentally ill or prisoners or any kind of oppression by race or sex or sexual orientation, neglect of the environment or of our schools, we believe we have to "forthtell" it, regardless of the consequences. We believe, as Martin Luther King said that, "Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them and the social conditions that cripple them is a dry-as-dust religion." So we try to concern ourselves with those things, and to invite others to be concerned. Such is the business of speaking the truth to power.
Interestingly, in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament there were certain patterns to the prophetic. One was that prophesy always happened within religious community. It generally wasn't a gift given to the random hermit. It needed the community to support and interpret it. Prophesy in all its fullness is and always has been the shared responsibility and gift of this community and ones like it.

So, what are some of the requirements of the prophetic call? What do we do to prepare ourselves to answer the call? Well, here are a few thoughts.
To begin with must be open to hearing new truths. That means a number of things. That means first recognizing that prophetic truths are not always pretty and that, most often, we are as "convicted" (to use and evangelical phrase) as others will be by the truths we come to see and know. So, if we are going to be prophets we must be willing and ready to see our own errors and evils.
Being open to new truths also means that although we don't have to run around looking for truth, we cannot duck our heads. We must listen to the winds of social criticism and political commentary, even when we'd rather be listening to music. It means not sticking our heads in the ground when life brings us face-to-face with an injustice. Not walking away, because we can.
Finally -- and here is a tough piece -- looking for new truths also means being tolerant of those who preach at us. I know that such preaching can be annoying and folks who do it can sometimes seem so frustratingly sanctimonious. However, just like the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, the prophets of today or tomorrow will not always be graceful and inviting in their manner. The Martin Luther King Juniors of the world are, unfortunately, the rare exception. So often good "seers" are almost their causes' own worst enemy. However (and remember this!), it is possible that they are the ones with the gift of "forthsight," but you are the one with the gift of speech, persuasion, of translation into action of the words they speak. When you find yourself shutting out a message because you don't like the messenger, ask yourself if you are not risking damning prophetic truths - truths YOUR calling is to carry into the world more effectively -- because you don't like the messenger or his/her manner.

Next to be ready for the call to the prophetic life, you must be grounded in the truth of what you say and the purity of your intent in speaking it. No great movement has been invited into existence. Each one has been born of harsh labor pains and endurance. To face ostracism, suspicion, the pain of seeing people's comfort level compel them more often to reject you than face the evil of their lives or their world, this is painful, and we cannot do it for public acclaim. You may not get any or maybe it will come years down the road. Meanwhile, you do the work because you must, and you must because you know it is good. Olympia Brown said, "Do not demand immediate results but rejoice that we are worthy to be entrusted with this great message."

After listening for the truth and speaking it out of our conviction that it is right to do so, the next obligation we gave is that we support each other in this prophetic life. It is a lonely calling and we will need each other. Actually, if the Hebrew Scriptures are right, we cannot do it without each other, that's why the hermit doesn't receive the gift. But what is important to say here is that we must support each other even if we disagree with one another's message.
For one thing, true to our tradition, we must be a place that supports the prophetic life. Period. It is like supporting freedom of speech, no matter what is said. For another, experience has shown us that, long after the window of opportunity first presented itself, we decide that we were wrong, and the one we thought was a bit off-base was, in fact, deeply wise and capable of great insight. It is the curse of the prophet to be ahead of his or her time, or his or her peers. So, we support each other in this prophetic call, even if we disagree. At the very worst we have simply been good to each other.
There are, of course, limits to this support. Truth must be spoken in love. We do not throw out love in service of justice, or we risk losing our souls, and likewise we don't allow others to do so in our presence, without consequence. There is courage and personal strength required if one is to be prophetic, but there need not be ugliness in the mix. After all, is ugliness and abuse what the prophet is supposed to be speaking out against?

Last year a congressman, whose name I have conveniently forgotten, accused Unitarian Universalism of being the cafeteria brand of religion. He meant that we pick all the stuff we like from the buffet, the stuff that is sweet and goes down easy, and none of the tough stuff. We eat the pudding, but leave the brussel sprouts, full of vitamins, but hard to get down, on our plates. Well, at our laziest, he is right. At our best, he is wrong.
Still, it seems a good metaphor for facing the prophetic call, because the prophetic call is part of the good-for-you section of the buffet. It is full of vitamins, but not always a ton of fun, and we might be tempted like Jonah to head out to sea, or duck our heads. Yet, our history - our proud history - tells us we cannot walk away. We need to respond when called, and even prepare ourselves (and each other) to be called. That has been one of our most noble legacies as a faith movement - the good we have done, the truths we have named and served, without counting the cost. And it must continue. Not only does our world depends upon on us being ready and willing to be prophets of our own generation, but our faith becomes dry as dust if we are not.

Go forth and prophesy! It is your heritage as a Unitarian Universalist. It is your calling as a member of this religious community.

So may it be.