In his first blog of 2025, Bishop David Bard outlines how to speak prophetically as people of Christian faith in a world where moral speech is rapidly labeled partisan.
BISHOP DAVID ALAN BARD
Michigan Conference
Beginning my first blog of the new year with a quote from the 2020/2024 Book of Discipline may not seem like an auspicious start, but here goes. Among the disciplines by which bishops are encouraged to lead the church is “a prophetic commitment for the transformation of the world” (¶403.1d). The subparagraph continues: “The role of the bishop is to be a prophetic voice for justice in a suffering and conflicted world through the tradition of social holiness. The bishop encourages and models the mission of witness and service in the world through proclamation of the gospel and alleviation of human suffering.” A prophetic voice.
Many of you know I have been engaged in some listening sessions across the Michigan Conference. The final one is this Saturday, January 11, at Grandville UMC. If you’re close by, join us at 10:30 am. I am grateful to all of you who have participated. At one such gathering, I was asked how we, particularly clergy, might speak prophetically in our current social, cultural, and political climate. It is a great question.
What does it mean to speak prophetically? In the broadest sense, it means bringing the theological and moral resources of our Christian faith to bear on significant issues in our society and being a voice for justice in a suffering and conflicted world. Theologian and biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, in the fortieth-anniversary edition of his important book, The Prophetic Imagination, writes this about speaking prophetically: “In both judgment and hope, prophetic articulation — in elusive poetic form — voices the interruption of the known controlled world of the totalism and the emergence of an alternative world that is dramatically other than the world managed by the totalism. The prophets voice a world other than the visible, palpable world that is in front of their hearers” (p. 129). In other words, to speak prophetically is to use our faith’s theological and moral vision as a lens to examine our world. Inevitably, we will see that our world is not yet God’s dream for the world, God’s kingdom, where justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5:24), a world where justice and peace kiss (Psalm 85:10). It is to point out the discrepancy, but even more to affirm that God continues to work in the world toward God’s newer world and our lives should reflect that. Judgment and hope.
We have a powerful example of such prophetic speech in John Wesley’s “Thoughts Upon Slavery,” first published in 1774. If you have never read this essay, I encourage you to do so. Wesley’s essay is deeply thoughtful and morally clear. “That slave-holding is utterly inconsistent with mercy, is almost too plain to need a proof.” “Liberty is the right of every human creature.” Powerful words in 1774.
Why might someone ask a question about prophetic speech now? Speaking prophetically has always been part of the ministry of the church and its leaders. And we live in a world that has witnessed the coarsening of our political discourse in this nation and many other parts of the world. For instance, issues surrounding immigration and global migration are often couched in terms that are demeaning and dehumanizing. People not only disagree with one another but voice their disagreement in ways that demean and diminish those with whom they disagree. Dehumanizing, demeaning, and diminishing rhetoric is of concern to all who claim a biblical tradition affirming that all persons are created in the image of God. There is a need for prophetic speech. We also live in a world where moral speech quickly gets categorized in narrowly political terms.
In the words of Jesus, we should be wise as serpents and innocent as doves when thinking about how we might speak prophetically in such a world. Again, Walter Brueggemann is helpful. Brueggemann asserts that the prophetic is not simply a matter of speaking about social justice. “‘Prophetic’ in ancient Israel does not refer precisely to matters of social justice. The prophetic in ancient Israel is rather a ‘God-performance’” (pp. 127-28). By that, Brueggemann means that the prophets proclaim a God active for the transformation of human lives and the world, and that transformation is not only about justice. Further, in another work, Brueggemann is insightful about how the prophets spoke prophetically: “The prophets employ many varied rhetorical strategies. . . . I have come to think . . . that our usual assumptions about prophetic righteous indignation are overblown and mistaken, both because such speech is not seen as a rhetorical strategy rather than an unrestrained tirade, and because there are many other rhetorical strategies utilized as well” (Reality, Grief, Hope: Three Urgent Prophetic Tasks, p. 57).
Speaking prophetically, then, points out the discrepancies between current realities and God’s dream for the world as we understand it using our best theological and moral thinking while asserting God’s active work toward God’s newer world. Yet prophetic speech is not simply decrying the world as it is, particularly in a tone of righteous indignation. That kind of righteous indignation may have its place. But in a world that is becoming accustomed to people shouting at one another and where moral speech is rapidly labeled partisan, perhaps other rhetorical strategies might be more prophetic and helpful.
I want to offer some suggestions.
Prophetic speech will often utilize significant questions. Have you noticed? How might we understand this using biblical, theological, and moral resources? Why is making positive change often so difficult? When addressing someone with a different viewpoint, curiosity about their lives is helpful.
Prophetic speech, utilizing questions, inevitably leads to grappling with the complexities involved in many important issues. Moral clarity and intellectual complexity should be partners in the prophetic. Prophetic speech that is little more than sloganeering soon loses its ability to communicate except to those already convinced. I am reminded again of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s encouragement: “Never must the church tire of reminding persons that they have a moral responsibility to be intelligent. Must we not admit that the church has often overlooked this moral demand for enlightenment? At times it has talked as though ignorance were a virtue and intelligence a crime” (Strength to Love).
If questions and recognizing complexity are important elements in the prophetic, then perhaps prophetic speech should take the form of prophetic conversation more often than one-way communication. Let me be clear: preaching has a role in prophetic communication. Speaking of an active God working to transform human lives and the world will mean touching on important personal and social issues. It is often best to engage the most complex and controversial prophetic work in the context of conversation and dialogue. Preaching prophetically should lead into conversations, not end conversations. All such preaching and conversation must be deeply rooted in our theological and moral vision.
Conversation, questions, dialogue, curiosity, and recognizing complexity don’t necessarily fit with many understandings of what it means to be prophetic. However, if the prophetic is inherently countercultural in important ways, what could be more prophetic in a world of social media echo chambers, self-reinforcing disinformation, simplistic labeling, and rhetoric that demeans and diminishes than conversation, curiosity, and dialogue?
The purpose of speaking prophetically and engaging in prophetic work is not to make the speaker feel more righteous. It is to finally open people up to God’s transforming work in their lives and the world. It is to join with others in God’s work of love in the world, building beloved community, building more just communities, and generating more compassion and care. This prophetic work belongs to us all.
A theologian who was a teacher of some of my teachers, James Luther Adams, once wrote an essay entitled “The Prophethood of All Believers.” In it, he writes: “A church that does not concern itself with the struggle in human history for decency and justice, a church that does not show concern for the shape of things to come, a church that does not attempt to interpret the signs of the times, is not a prophetic church.” He argues that this work belongs to us all as part of the church, the prophethood of all believers. “The prophetic . . . church is the church in which persons think and work together to interpret the signs of the times in light of their faith, to make explicit through discussion the epochal thinking that the times demand.”
We begin a new year. Let’s resolve to engage in ministry more deeply, seeking to know and live God’s love in Jesus Christ more profoundly. Part of this work is prophetic work, which aims to open us all up to the transforming work of God in our lives and the world.
Enjoy what you are reading? Click here to subscribe to our MiConnect e-newsletter and receive articles like this one in your inbox each Wednesday.
Last Updated on January 8, 2025