Jamison Wallington Heschel: The Prophets An Introduction Spring 2014 CHMN637 Seminar in Preaching

To us a single act of injustice cheating in business, exploitation of the poor is slight; to the prophets, a disaster. To us injustice is injurious to the welfare of the people; to the prophets it is a deathblow to existence; to us an episode; to them, a catastrophe, a threat to the worldSympathy is the prophets answer to inspiration, the correlative to revelation.1

This paper will reflect my thoughts upon the work of Heschel: The Prophets An Introduction and how my pastoral ministry will be impacted by and influenced as a prophetic preacher. I open with the lines above because these are the two quotes that I believe are the extremes of pastoral ministry; that of preaching but not doing or that of having divine inspiration to have a mutual relationship with those to whom injustice is occurring. It is far too easy, and many times too common, to hear the preacher from the pulpit exegete the prophetic messages of the Biblical Text and then to have no notion or active response from that same pulpit for action. What good is the message of the preacher without his/her footsteps to bring hope? Is a voice in the pulpit evidence enough that the preacher cares about the oppressed? Heschel claims that Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profaned riches of the world.2 But what good is the voice if there is not motivation to change such an accursed society? The voice from the pulpit will remain silently received unless steps are given, by the preacher, to help the brokenhearted and set the captives free. For this to happen, my words (the preachers words) must not be lightly spoken from the pulpit. Rather, the words that I utter in response to the cruelty of human injustice must not be mere communication, they must burn my hearers into active response.3 My voice must be radiant with the tone of nonacceptance [sic]4 of the current situation. But my voice must have this passion, this deep rooted; soulwrenching; bowel-moving passion that Christ displayed in Matthew Chapters 4 and 9 for those without a voice. Without this passion, the human (and ultimately mine as a human-preaching of God) inclination is that Our standards are modest; our sense of injustice tolerable, timid; our moral indignation impermanent5 If I utter only words from the pulpit about the widows and orphans of James 1:27 yet I fail to implement in my hearers that the demand for helping these victimized individuals is not my plea but Gods, I have failed in my task as the prophetic preacher. My words are not to be limp but must attack my listeners soul at the very place that their own conscience ends.6 My passion for the victimized cannot be a pretend reaction to a real situation, but rather has to be a burning desire in my own soul before I get up to impart that desire to my hearers. I must have the ability to walk the streets of the poor; I must have the desire to eat the food of the homeless; I must have the motivation to speak to those in the slums, as my

1 2

Heschel, pages 4 & 26 respectively. Ibid, 5. 3 Ibid, 7. 4 Ibid, 6. 5 Ibid, 9. 6 Ibid, 10.

own reality before I can impart the necessity to my church congregation if I speak wonderful words but have not love for my fellow man, I have, gain, am, nothing.7 My purpose for the prophetic message to my local church congregation is to challenge the whole [community].8 The entire church, those that are unburdened and those that are burdened by the economic, societal, relational, environments are to come together to redeem the oppressed, inside and outside the church walls. As a preacher of the prophetic voice, I am to bring the reality of Gods relationship with humanity to my hearers.9 I am to help my congregation, as did the prophets, that the suffering in humanity affects the whole. The ability for corruption, malice, judgment, homelessness, racial-pride, racism, sex-trafficking, etc., to continue in our society is based on individual crimes, those that are caught red-handed in these acts, and the communitys indifference to these situations which allows them to propagate.10 So what, then, is the outcome of the preachers responsibility to have passionate education with active motivation regarding the injustice of society? What are the steps after the fact that the prophet has been a watchmanservanta messenger of Godan assayer and tester of the peoples way?11 The prophetic preacher is to continue to reveal God, to his congregation and to the world.12 The prophetic preaching is to stand the chasm between the people and God. The prophetic preacher is to stand before the people as Gods representative and stand before God as the peoples.13 The prophetic preacher is to work the works of God: to bear a message; to bring awareness; to stir the peoples minds. But the prophetic preacher is also to stand as a testimony before God as the peoples advocate. To stand before God and proclaim that the works of His followers coincide with the message of God. Gods role is not spectatorship but involvement. He and man meet mysteriously in the human deed.14 This duality of roles, between humanity and God, are seen in the prophet. As a prophet, he stands as a partner with God15 to awaken the conscience and awareness of the church community. Ellen White points to this dual nature of God and humanity working toward the salvation of others stating:
Divinity needed humanity; for it required both the divine and the human to bring salvation to the world. Divinity needed humanity, that humanity might afford a channel of communication between God and man. So with the servants and messengers of Christ. Man needs a power outside of and beyond himself, to restore him to the likeness of God, and enable him to do the work of God; but this does not make the human agency unessential. Humanity lays hold upon divine power, Christ dwells in the heart by faith; and through co-operation with the divine, the power of man becomes efficient for good.16

Therefore, it is imperative that the prophetic preacher be passionate before the people and pleading before God. The works of Christianity should mirror the works of Christ. The people of God should live in the image of God. This is the call of the prophetic preacher, this is task of the prophetic preaching.
7 8

I Cor. 13 Ibid, 14. 9 Ibid, 14-15. 10 Ibid, 16. 11 Ibid, 20-21. 12 Ibid, 22. 13 Ibid, 24. 14 Ibid, 24. 15 Ibid, 25. 16 Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, 296.4.