“Who Speaks For Us?

Karen Sloan 14/11/2021

Readings - Mark 13:1-8

What do I say today.

Actually I have so much I don’t know where to start.  Initially I was going to try to talk about the writer of the gospel of Mark and what was happening at the time he was writing , and I will eventually, but what I’d rather talk about is our time, what is happening today, for us.

Because today is a day to talk  about false and true prophets. 

What’s a prophet you might ask?  In the biblical tradition a prophet was someone who spoke truth to power, announcing what was happening in front of them in the here and now.  They were not there to predict the future, but to call out what would happen if the society they lived in and the king they served continued on their merry way. 

If you remember the prophets of the Old Testament, they  include Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the books of the 12 Minor Prophets from the 8th century.   These prophets were concerned about the political, ethical and social justice issues of their time.  Justice for them was about how human systems impacted on human lives.  And the lives they were most concerned about were the widows, orphans and aliens.  We hear Isaiah saying in 1:17 “Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow”.  Or Micah, do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God. For them the just society was a society in which the weak and voiceless ones had been brought into community, all under Gods presence and love.

In the New Testament Jesus links us to the words of the prophets, which he would have read and understood, with his words and actions.   When he was baptised Jesus took his commissioning from the book of Isaiah, which is found in Luke 4:18 “The spirit of the lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free”.  If we listen to the gospel we hear Jesus bless those who hunger and thirst for justice, those who are persecuted for the sake of justice, and accuse the religious people of his day, the Pharisees of focussing on religious practise and neglecting justice. In calling people to practise and struggle for justice Jesus was standing in continuity with this great prophetic tradition of the Hebrew Bible.  This too is our heritage which we seek to live out.

But it is a heritage that is costly, as Jesus found out.  As Borg says “Like the Hebrew social prophets before him, Jesus passion for justice set him against the domination system of his world and time.  It set him against a politically oppressive and economically exploitive system that had been designed by wealthy and powerful elites, legitimated by religion and designed by them in their own narrow self-interests.  And it led to his death on a cross.”

Today we see how there are prophets who lie within this tradition, speaking truth to power in order that we may transform society, how we can turn things around , and false prophets, in fact there are so many false prophets it’s hard to distinguish where the truth lies.

Climate change, the pandemic, refugees, war and the need for war, poverty and the poor, first nations health and wellbeing , economics, there are people speaking the truth, or as much as we can ascertain and people speaking rubbish, which passes as the truth. Prophets guided by with self -interest or just plain crazy.

Who to believe, what to believe, how to find the information that means we can see clearly the reality of the situation we are faced with, and the transformation that is required., by us and our community.

Let’s just take a look at a couple of examples.

I don’t want to bang on about climate change, but it’s hard to ignore it with the Cop26 climate summit, which means the conference of parties,  going on in Glasgow right now.  Unless you have been living under a rock, then you would know there has been widespread calls for countries to stop procrastinating and work together to reduce global temp rise to 1.5 degrees  and that means cutting emissions a lot by 2030.  Now some would say it’s not urgent, and we don’t need to change our ways, but that is denying the reality we have seen with our own eyes in Australia and around the world.  Fires, floods and changing weather patterns reflect a changing climate, one where the poorest people will suffer the most.  We have an incredible array of modern day prophets calling loudly for changes to our lifestyles and to the way countries operate in order that we can safeguard the planet and those on it.  It may well be too late, but at least we can try.  But then there is Scott Morrison, Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals, and Fox news, retreating to worn out arguments to delay.  False prophets reassuring us that we don’t have to change anything to save the planet!. I don’t want to say that they haven’t moved because they have, but its probably not fast enough or widespread enough. 

What about the pandemic and Covid 19?  False information and false prophets are everywhere.  Facebook is full of them, with their conspiracy theories and their misinformation.  I would like to think the scientists involved in the production of the vaccine, who worked day and night, to produce something that would save lives, just as the scientists who have worked tireless for years to alert us to the dangers of climate change would be regarded as the true prophets of our day.  But that does not seem to be the case.

One piece of information that is used to discredit and predict things that are just not real relates to how the RNA vaccine actually works, which some fear will change their DNA.  Prophets of doom who insist it cannot be safe.  Let me explain, RNA is  a normal piece of cell machinery, an incredible molecule which copies sections of our DNA, which never leaves the nucleus of the cell.  The RNA piece is what leaves the nucleus and goes into the cytoplasm, or fluid of the cell, to make  the proteins it has been coded for and what the body needs. So the DNA is safely protected. The vaccine places, very cleverly a piece of RNA that is coded for a protein that sits on the virus, into the cytoplasm.  We then make the protein which the body sees as foreign material and develops antibodies to it.  It’s called  a spike protein and both the protein and the RNA piece disappears after a few weeks. But we are left with the antibodies.

It does not change our DNA, it is not passed on to our offspring if that’s the stage we are at, and it’s  damn amazing.

What about the misinformation and prophets of doom about refugees.  I know that most of you do not engage in the rhetoric that is so prevalent, that they are queue jumpers, they have no papers, they are this or that or economic refugees and therefore not relevant.  My friend Nazar has returned to Pakistan after being here 7 years, I think 4 in detention and then a few in the community on a temporary visa where he couldn’t work.  He went back after losing his wife who died when he was here, and returned to a village decimated by Covid.  He helps as best he can to feed those that are left, with help for us.  But what about the refugees from Afghanistan, we should have taken 20,000, instead of 3,000, such is the humanitarian crisis there.  Don’t forget the Rohingya refugees or the Syrians still in refugee camps.  Or Eddies family still in Uganda.

Modern day prophets who call out truth to power and who challenge the inhumane way we treat people.

I could go on but you know what I mean.  At any given time we  have people claiming the world is ending, that the rapture is coming, that the floods and fires are Gods wrath, and that the non- believers will go to hell. Nothing about the consequences of our own actions.

True prophets, none, and certainly not a prophet in the tradition of the bible, both old and new testament. Nothing about how to bring the kingdom of God, to the people of the earth.

So what do we do, well we need to try to find the truth ourselves, as best we can, and then spread that truth regardless of the consequences.

This means trying to access information from what we think are reputable places, not just facebook or the internet, talking to people who work in the areas we are concerned about, going and seeing things for ourselves,  and then involving ourselves in some of the solutions. 

Its not accepting things at face value. And not going for the easy answer.  Send the refugees back, don’t let them in, keep digging our coal, indigenous people are all lazy and drunks, and cannot achieve anything useful, let’s go and nuke them for war is the best option.

Even when things seem pretty grim and life for so many is hard, we still need to find hope not in these easy trite answers, but answers that are life giving. 

 ….

So now we come back briefly to the reading from today.

Why does the writer of Mark have Jesus talk about false prophets?

Because he was living and writing at  a time  of great upheaval, of great terror and war.

The gospel was written between 64-77 CD, either just before or just after the destruction of the second temple by Rome in  Jerusalem  and the exile of the Jews.  But even before that the Jewish followers  of Jesus were being blamed for the fire in Rome and a reign of terror was in place.  People were murdered, whole families tortured, homes burnt and women raped and killed..

Marks community was suffering, terribly. They knew what brutality and violence looked like.  As Bill loader puts it, these are people whose memories are real, the rape and pillaging, the burning and torture, the killing and mutilation were their experience.  These people knew terror.  It is defiant to use the image of birth pangs for what was going on, it was clinging to hope.

But where is hope found in these terrible times, what does hope  look like.

For Mark that hope was to be found in Jesus. 

The writer of Mark presents the voice of Jesus in chapter 13, by using powerful resistance symbols found in apocalyptic literature.  This literature talks about end times, using myth and images showing nations fighting nations, flood and fires. It was popular during times of suffering and persecution.  As Bill Loader says, to indicate the birth pangs of a new order.

But it’s not a magic trick.  For we have Jesus, taking a seat facing the temple in this opening reading as a dramatic act, symbolizing his utter repudiation of the temple state, the entire social order of Judaism, and its exploitation of the poor. As Ched Meyers terror, and violence and war is just a symptom of the dominant system and Mark is showing how nonviolent resistance  attacks the system at its roots.  This is true transformation for him. A kairos moment.  Remember he presented a choice, the kingdom or the injustice of the dominant system.  Hope lies in the kingdom

But as Mark also says

`Beware that no one leads you astray`.

Wow its hard to image what those who were listening to this story might be feeling.  We want to be rescued, we want some magic, we want Jesus to come and rescue us, now.

Yet he says, beware those who might lead you astray.

He also says,

Beware false prophets, further along in the chapter.

False prophets were abound, offering easy solution to their terrible problems.  God will intervene, armed rebellion will work, follow this person or that person for they have the answer. We will be alright, let’s leave the others to their own devices, let’s look after number one.

Others who claimed they were also the returned messiah, or where speaking with Jesus voice. 

Where does the hope for the community lie?

Jesus called those in Marks time, and he calls us to respond with nonviolence and love and to seek justice for all people.. Inclusiveness, compassion and love, not war and not violence. He called them to be part of the answer. He calls us as well. He never said it was going to be easy to confront the powers with truth.  He just said that was the way to follow him and follow the God he reflected.

A Kingdom here and now, not in the future.

We hear words today so timely they could be speaking to us, `Beware that no one leads you astray`. No wonder Jesus warned in verse 13, which we didn`t read, `You will be despised by all sides because of my name`.

 …..

What a radical message. What a confronting message. 

So we are challenged, deeply challenged.

Challenged to speak truth to power, to seek to be the prophets of our day, and to show there is another way.

 But isn`t this what these passages are meant to do? Jesus was radical and his message is supposed to unsettle us, challenge us. Following Jesus means saying no to lots of things that our society deems as expected.  . As my father in law Alex used to say, it has to start with a change of mindset, a change of heart. It starts with us.

Amen