‘What Does It Mean to Be Prophetic?’ - Rev Adam Slate

Where to start? When the stakes feel enormous, we can wonder whether there is even a part for us to play in thinking about the future. The inclination can be to … reach for something practical, incremental, achievable.

‘In Other Worlds’ asks something different of us. It asks us to stay in that open space a little longer. To test rather than conclude. To treat the future not as a problem to be solved but as a place to be explored collectively, with full knowledge that none of these worlds may be the exact answer, but that all of them are worth inhabiting for a while. … 

What is hard to find right now is permission and places to imagine and dream, the sense that it is legitimate, even necessary, to think beyond what is currently feasible without having all the answers first. Stories have always been how humans create that place.

The future will not be made by any single vision of it. It will be made by many people, thinking hard, testing ideas, willing to be imperfect and in the middle of something not yet finished. This is where we are and exactly where we need to be.

-From the Foreword to the exhibition ‘In Other Worlds: Imagining Our Future,’ Luke Kemp, Head of Creative Programme, Barbican Immersive

Introduction

This morning we are talking about what it means to be prophetic. Being a spiritual community entails thinking about our mission and what defines us.

We certainly have answers to that question: social action; social-izing; intellectual challenge.

For many of these things, there are other places where we can meet those needs. Activist groups, social groups, lectures. But there are also some fairly unique purposes that a faith community serves that we do not always see from other types of communities.

One is pastoral. Being what is called a ‘covenantal’ community where—especially for people who choose to become formal members—we commit to being in relationship with each other rather than coming and going without expectations. Where we can rely on the care and comfort we get from our fellow congregants and our minister when we reach out for support.

The other fairly unique role that this kind of community can serve is a prophetic one. That may not be a term you use often, and I think people have different ideas about what it means.

Cultural and Religious Images of Prophecy

The word ‘prophecy’ calls to mind cultural references to prophecies, which foretell the future and are used to set the tone for a story. In dramas like Macbeth and Oedipus Rex, prophecies drive the plot as the characters react to what they think the prophecy is telling them to do or not do. In stories like Star Wars or Harry Potter, prophecies about the main character highlight their importance, giving gravity to their purpose.

Then there are the religious prophets. In religious texts, prophets serve as human intermediaries for the Divine to impart wisdom; promote ethical living, social justice, and devotion to God; and convey warnings and consequences of straying from righteousness.

The Hebrew Bible includes about 20 prophets like Isaiah, Daniel, Jonah, and Ezekiel. Christianity adds Jesus as a prophetic voice. The Qur’an names 25 prophets from Adam to Mohammed, but Islam acknowledges that there were 124,000 prophets sent to serve as messengers and give guidance about worshipping Allah and living a righteous life.

Religious prophets warn us against pride, greed, and gloating or rejoicing over others’ misfortune. They tell us that manifesting good, seeking justice, rescuing the oppressed, and protecting the vulnerable are more important than our religious rituals, observances, and ceremonies. Even for those of us who reject the concept of the Divine, it is still powerful guidance for how to live.

Regardless of whether you have read or studied the biblical prophets, you have heard their words. Calling us to ‘beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks’ so that nation ‘shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)’ Telling us that we should ‘do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly’ in our faith (Micah 6:8). Foretelling that lion shall lie down with the lamb (Isaiah 11.6). It’s actually that the ‘the wolf shall live with the lamb … and the calf and the lion will feed together’ but it comes from Isaiah! It was Amos, who told us, most famously through the Rev Dr Martin Luther King, to ‘let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5:24).’

The ‘Prophetic Voice’

So we have these cultural and religious ideas of what it means to be prophetic: foretelling the future, warning us in the present. I like to think of being prophetic as ‘making the unseen, seen.’ Taking what we do not see, or do not want to see, and shining a light on it, making it more visible or accessible.

Offering prophetic witness happens in several ways.

Remembering the Past

The first one is by remembering the past. Has anyone heard the term sankofa?

The concept of sankofa comes from the Akan people of West Africa, around present day Ghana and Ivory Coast. It means ‘to return and fetch it,’ recalling a proverb that says, ‘it is not taboo to go back to retrieve that which you have forgotten.’

The sankofa symbol is a bird, flying forward but with its head turned backwards, often holding an egg in its beak, which represents knowledge. It promotes the idea that often to go forward we need to return to the past to remind ourselves what we once knew.

The Leonard Cohen song ‘Come Healing’ that the choir sang as our prelude speaks of gathering up past brokenness. Facing promises we have never dared to vow; confronting the solitude and longing of love that we have confined. Rather than ignoring the past, facing it as a path to healing the body, mind, and heart. That is powerful mental health work for sure, but it is also prophetic:

Come healing of the spirit.

Come healing of the limb.

Come healing. 

Witnessing the Present

The second aspect of prophetic witness is being attentive in the here-and-now. Being present to what is happening around us; not turning away from what our communities and the world need. Really seeing the heights of joy, the depths of sorrow, and the breadth of human longing.

Theologian Lisa Thompson considers this to be a practical responsibility, not just a lofty  aspiration to kick around on Sunday. Informed by her perspective as a Black woman, she highlights the need to be critical and ethical participants in the world.

It is tempting to avoid those things that require us to choose between action or silence. Being prophetic—making the unseen, seen—involves shining a light on them, calling ourselves and others to engage, reflect, and struggle with hard but important decisions. 

Anticipating the Future

Finally, being prophetic involves anticipating the future; being led by the Spirit or our imagination to think beyond the present. One-hundred and fourteen years ago, in 1912, the magazine Popular Mechanics wrote an article warning that the vast amount of coal being burned as fuel had the potential to alter our climate. It was backed by research dating back to the 1800s.

I imagine that this article generated little more than curiosity, but it was a prophetic message. Not in that it predicted the future but because it shone a light on an uncomfortable truth, one that even today, people are still working to keep hidden.

‘In Other Worlds’

A few weeks ago I saw the exhibition ‘In Other Worlds’ by Liam Young at the Barbican; today’s reading is from the Forward of the exhibition book. More than a century after the Popular Mechanics article, the exhibition contemplates the future of a world in which climate change has proceeded apace. The exhibition is prophetic in its ability to imagine nuggets of hope in the aftermath of centuries of land colonisation, resource extraction, and industrial devastation.

The article takes ideas and technology that exist today and uses them to construct grand, ambitious, arguably beautiful visions of how we redeem ourselves after we have let things go too far. In one part of Young’s work, ‘Planet City,’ the artist envisions the global population moving into a single city, giving the rest of the planet back to the wild to heal itself, to let it start to breathe again. In another, ‘The Great Endeavor,’ Young describes the largest construction project in human history: a global infrastructure to extract carbon from the atmosphere and store it in rock.

The exhibition points out that the question has never been whether bold solutions are possible; humanity has always been able to turn science fiction into reality. It is whether we have the will and imagination to make them happen. Making my way through the exhibition, I found myself thinking that maybe we do.

This is what the prophetic offers. It remembers the past, witnesses the present, and anticipates the future. It does not offer promises, but rather perspective and choices. It never guarantees, but instead offers vision, possibilities, and hope. 

The ‘Prophetic Church’

Churches have a role to play in this kind of prophetic work. Some claim that role; some do not.

When Martin Luther King Jr was sitting in a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama for violating an injunction against civil rights protests, he wrote a letter to his fellow clergy criticising their lack of prophetic action in the face of the civil rights struggle. Speaking to mostly clergy from white, moderate communities, he highlighted those communities’ inclination to prioritise order over justice; to prefer the absence of tension to proactively pursuing peace; to say: "I agree with … the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods."

He was referring to moderate congregations’ unwillingness to be prophetic, unwillingness to say what was going unsaid. Dr King warned that if congregations could not harness their ‘prophetic zeal, [they would] become irrelevant social clubs without moral or spiritual authority.’ He said that, ‘a [congregation] that has lost its voice for justice is a [congregation] that has lost its relevance in the world.’

King wondered specifically about the Unitarian movement. Both he and his wife Coretta had attended Unitarian churches and had considered being members, but they questioned whether Unitarianism carried the prophetic heft required to build a significant political movement, particularly among Black people.

When I was training to be a minister, my Christian preaching instructors would say that we should deliver our messages with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other, balancing the wisdom of our tradition with the issues of today. The theologian Lisa Thompson, who I quoted earlier, warns that our moral compass can ‘miss the mark either by not naming what is at stake … or by not naming why people of faith should be concerned based on the values [we] claim.’

The Prophetic and the Pastoral

One critique of this approach to continually name what is at stake is that it can make services too political, at the cost of the minister providing comfort to the congregation. But there is research out there that says that the pastoral needs of the congregation and its prophetic mission go hand in hand. That there is not really a boundary between them.

That for every service on poverty, there is likely someone in the pews who struggles to support themselves or their family. For every service on domestic violence, there is likely a survivor in the pews, or an abuser.[1] When we talk about white nationalism there is someone facing targeted discrimination, or someone wrestling with their biases. At a service on Gaza, there may be a Muslim needing affirmation or a Jew wondering how to talk to their family. When we talk about laws impacting trans and non-binary people, there are trans and non-binary people wondering whether they will find compassion from their own congregation.

Which is why I encourage you to contact me for pastoral conversations, to help me understand what has brought you here and what you are looking for from New Unity. It is why we have our monthly Circle Groups like we are having this afternoon, to let each other know what is on our minds.

These kinds of conversations have led to services on death, regret, and the importance of challenging dialogue. And to workshops and conversations on disability and global justice. It is how we make this place reflect all of us.

Conclusion

As a spiritual community, we know New Unity is not just an activist organisation. And we are not a social club. What makes us different? 

Just by coincidence, I have had some great conversations this week with congregants about how we say who we are—on the front of the building, in our printed materials, on our website. Maybe this is where our prophetic mission leads us: asking ourselves how we want the world around us to know that we are here.

I think our history can lead us to think that question has already been answered; I was visiting a nearby congregation recently and the person leading the service described us as ‘the Wollstonecraft church!’

We remember our past—not to get stuck there—but to be empowered by it. Like the sankofa bird, going back to fetch those things that serve us.

We stay present to the here-and-now, witnessing to the world around us with our traditions in one hand and a metaphorical newspaper in the other.

And we stay curious about the future, imagining what is possible—for us, and for the people, communities, and issues we care about.

How do we want the world to know that we are here?

Exercising our prophetic voice—remembering the past, witnessing the present, anticipating the future—is not easy, and it can be messy. But it is also something we may not want to shy away from. It can offer vision and hope to people who need it.

May the legacy of our past and the call of the present inspire us to be the prophetic voices that we have the potential to be.

Notes:

[1] Lisa Thompson, Preaching the Headlines: Possibilities & Pitfalls, 17.