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PROPHETS AND PEACE MAY 7, 1972
ISAFAH 55: 3-13 JOHN M. BUCHANAN

.LUKE 19: 44-44

At this hour at the National Cathedral, Washington, D. C., the leaders of many
of the major religious bodies of our nation along with members of Congress and Govern
menta! officials are engaging in an ecumenical worship service devoted to the thuue c.
peace. Along with every other Presbyterian pastor in the nation | received notice last
week of this special event, and a request to turn my attention, sermonicatly this Suacay,
“4 the topic of peace.

| have not really done this in the past ~ for a number of reasons, some of which
may be simple rationatizations: private excuses for avoiding confronting an issue over
which men of good will disagree, and about which my own feelings are very mixed, Let
us, this morning, think together about peace in the context of our Christian faith,
our belonging to the church and our sense of the Church's mission in the world. Let
us confess, at the ougset, that wo have more by way of emotions than specific solutions.
As | begin, | da so knowing that | will say more than some of you would have me say: a...
less than some of you would have me say. But | confess that in spite of that 1 fee!
compelled to share with you where | am, and where | feel our common faith in Almighty
woud woud place all of us.

First, the groundwork. ‘Basic to any Christian commitment is the realization thet

it's going to cost something: that It will cal! into question every other commit: -*
that there will be considerable personal pain and sacrifice at the point of ranking
one's priorities." That is where we begin: with the honest recognition that commi tment

+o Jesus Christ is our first commitment - or It is no commitment at ati: that if judges
atl our other commitments and loyalties, and not vice versa. And if you cannot say that
about your own personal commitment, | warn you that very little of what | say this
morning will make sense. That's the groundwork.

The framework is in the role of the church in the world. Historicalty and tradi-
tionally it can be described tn terms of two words: Priestly and Prophetic. The priestly
rote of the church is its attention to the stuff of Institutional religion: its ceremonial
functions: its formal role In performing those rituals and rites that express the theolo-

gical convictions of the people: marriage, funcrals, prayer, worship -— the sacrc™”

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acts of imparting to the world the reality of God. The priestly role of the clergyman

has to do with hls officiating at worship, celebrating the sacraments and rites of the
Church, counseling his people, teaching and preserving doctrine, and administering the
Taeti tution,

The Prophetic role of the Church, on the other hand, Is to announce to the world
the Word of God.: to bring what we know of God's will for his people and his ersation
into confrontation with the secular structures of society. That too is part of the
clergyman's job, but more importantly it is the job of the church, the whole people,
clergy and fay atike. We sense ourselves califad ta be the vehicle - the herald - the
means by which the World of God gets conveyed to all men.

Both priestly and prophetic functions are Old Testament concepts, represonted in the
history of Israel by two distinct types of persons - two distinet religious personatitics.
In ancient Israei the priest, as the name implies, was an organization man - the prophey,
a rebel: the priest was an insider, protected and surrounded by hoary tradition,
‘elaborate ritual and an abiding concern for religious law ~ the prophet, more often thar.
not, was an outsider, although not by choice, standing quite apart from the ordinary
religious structures: the priest dalt with the faithful - the prophet addressed hir

4 roe wortd: theologicalfy the priest stood for the God of Israeli ~ the prophet for
one, universal God who was Lord of ali men,

Both personalities were necessary to the vitality of Israel: the priests preserved
the tradition: the prophets were out on the cutting edge. Both personalities merge in
the Ofd Testament into one ~ and that one image - priest and prophet - becomes the mod}
tor God's peopte as they live in the world.

Thus, the Church of Jesus Christ, has always seen itself in both of these roles;
but - as was always The case in the Old Testament - the prophetic rote has caused trouble.
The groundwork is the sense that commitment to Jesus Christ will cost something ~ because
where we begin to think prophetically we discover that our priorities must be reordered -
and we begin to feel pain.

Nobody wants to bo a prophet: Jeremiah tricd eery trick in the book to wriggly

from undur God's call to be his spokesman. Nobody |ikcs a prophet because the very

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nature of the job ts to be upsetting and discomforting, to be Judgementa! and angry and

honest. And so the Church ~ and {'m talking now about you and me - has always been
Inclined to be more priestiy than prophetic: to be concerned about institutional matters

ang to forget about th: world. And { confess that |'d 1ike that very much: it would be
most comfortable: it is, in our culture, a very popular stance. Billy Graham preack:
regularly in the White House because he is a priest and not a prophet. And the President's
sunday morning services are a contemporary instant replay of a very familar historical
scenario: the King in his chambers taking comfort in the oily wards of his personal
chaplain - while the prophet is banished outside the City walis. Prophets have never

becn very popular with the halis of government. And churches, when they are prophetic,

are not likely to be popular either.

Traditionally, the prophet has heid out for th. universality of God, and has been
unalterably oppossed to the suggestion that God belongs to one nation, one class or race.
Traditionally, the prophet has held cut for the sodal expression of rejiigion, for the
translation of doctrine into action. Traditionally, the prophet has hetd out for the
dream - the visfon: essentially the prophet Is the rea! optimist, the one who lives and
vices for the concept that men can do better tomorrow: that men can be more than they are.

| read this morning from the book to the prophet Isaiah; a chapter that is a
prototype of prophetic Thinking. !t includes the prectaimation that God is doing a new
thing in the world: he is bringing a ragged band of Jews out of exile and back to their
native tand: it includes the [navitation to personal faith and joy, and then it holds un
the vision the great day of peace when even the mountains and hills will break out ‘
singing.

That is still the prophetic rofie of the church: to speak for God - to call the world
to repenfence - and to hoid up the viston of a better tomorrow. And yet when it docs
it: when it honestly tries to convey God's will to ths wortd, people who ought to know
Reattor act as if it is doing something alien and strange: people say "stick to religion’,
and what that means fs "stick to priestly religion’ and forget dout being prophetic.

But that cannot be done, if we are to continue fo call ourselves God's people.

In the most recent issue of Presbyterian Life, J, Srwin Miller, head of Cummins

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Engine Co., in Columbus, Indiana, has written an cxce] tent articie, ‘Should Churches

"Play it Safe’? Now, Mr. irwin is certainty no Marxist: he is no naive leftist. He
isn’t naive at all. He is an honest Christian who was a member of the Executive Committee
of the Wor{fd Council of Churches. His article, - and ploase read it - was publiched

Reader's Digest In response to a series of articles fn that journal that were highly

a itical of the Worid Cow: 1. The issue which those articles did not confront, and whi
‘, Milles does, is the prophetic stance of any church that wants to call itself Christicn.
Listen to how he puts it;

“The role of prophet is active, often disruptive...and it is thoroughly unpleasa.r-
to those on the ruceiving end of the preaching. | know this, because, If the church
today were to do its job fully, | would be among those called to repent.c..... "Whose job
is if to cause society to ‘repent! if not the Church's? The church dare not evade its
obligations to proclaim God's Judgement over all human activity, even as it proclaims
his mercy and forgiveness’ (P.L. May 1972, P.48)

The difficulty, of course, is that human problems, social problems - arc politica,
preblems: and we do differ over their solution. snd here, | believe, the prophet - and
the prophetic church - must proceed with caution. I+ used to.be said that the Pr. ebyt. "cA
Church was just the “Republican Party at Prayer. And today there are many who feel thrt
Tae national officers of the Presbyterian Church represent the voice of the Democratic
party's left wing - rather than Aimighty Gad. And if either is True, we are as urfail' ©
as the German church in the |930's - that allowed itself to become the eccleotslastic
voice of National Socialism. The prophetic church must take seriously the body politic,
for that is when the decistons are made. But the moment the prophet's commitments are
TO a party - or a nation - or a system - he has stopped being a prophet of God.

Locally - every congregation of Christian peopie has a prophetic ministry to the
world and its own communtiy. And yet, here. in Lafayette, there is a thunderous silence.
Who speaks for the creator here? Who stands in the halis of government here on behalf
of all of God's children? Consider an immediate {lfustration: a river front park, 8
major investment of money, a luxury, a plaything for people who can afford golf: create 4

and funded instantaneously. I'm not oppossed ‘b that: I'm glad for it. But hold un

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iy a hole in the wail on 8th Street, enphamistically callud the Food Stamp Office -

staffed by people who are paid less than the groundskeeper will be paid at our park:
with no funds for janitoria service, and an exposed furnace and water heater in the
same space when littic children play while waiting for their mother to buy stamps. Hold
up Two images ~ two creations of the body politic: the superb greens on the banks of the
Wabash and a room full of old psople, standing in tine al! day - because we don’t have
the money to buy 20 folding chairs.
Politicans get elected by doing what their constituents want done. And so they are
not as responsible as we ars.. This community needs a prophet ~ a prophetic peopie of
God - who dare to be his voice. The Orthodox Church of Russia is history's best example
of a church that decided to play it safe: that never raised a voice against cruelty and
oppression and hunger under the Czars. And so the people turned to revolution. In J.
irwin Milber's words: ‘lf fhe churches should decide to play it sate, to remain silent
in times when a prophet’s voice is needed, then | fear for the church - and for all et ©
And so, ~Peace and the Prophetic stance of the church. And {1 would rather call this
concluding portion a time of sharing rather than a sermon. It was Phyllis McGinley, |
believe, who said that she was “cursed with objectivity": that she was always able to
understand and feet sympathy far both sides of an argument. That is my problem with peace.
| confess to a divided house in my own spirit: | know my history well enough to understand
the mistake Neville Chamberlain made in the name of peace at any price. tt confess to
sympathy for the people of S. E. Asia who do not want to live under communism: and to
revulsion at the plight of the prisoners of war at the hands of the North Victamuse. |
confess to anger because they invaded ~openly this time, and seem in no mood to altow my
country out of this thing gracefully.
| confess to a pastoral and priestly concern for you: for you did not come here
To think about this topic: and fow of you have been there, some men may go: some of you
have sons there - and al! of us Know someone who died there. | care very much about that,
and | don't want if to come out feeling as if it was a waste.
But, | confess that at the deepest level | am literaliy hounded by those | ittle

children who today wiil dic in S$. E. Asia’ | am oppressed by thom ~ because of another

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image in my mind: a man standing outside a city wail: the capita! of his nation:.
stending there weeping - 33 years old - and saying ~ “Would that even today you knew th. -
things that make for peace . The same man who said eariier, “Blessed are the peacemakers”

for they shall be catled sons of God.

In confess that in my hoart | know that the unversal God and father of all men is

weeping in his heaven because of what is happening in S, E. Asta. and that his will is
for it to stop: now. | kriow that God's priority for his people is peace - evea though |
may rt know what fo do about It. | know that my church, in Its confessions, says it

this way: The Church, in its own life, is called te practice forgiveness of enemies and
To commend to nations as practical politics the search for cooperation and peace.” |
believe that - and | wish we - at this time - had the courage to try it - because it has
never- Deen tried in all of history.

| confess to continuing support for my church when it addresses itself to peace -
even when | do not agree with what it says. 1 confess ta a deep dosire that atl of Ge't-
people hear the anger of the prophets he sends us, and they they be open to change and
reorder priorities.

| confess to th. continuing optimism of the prophet, and my conviction that the
church must hold up to the wortd the dream of world peace. Malcolm Boyd, in a recent
article, said that the vision is one of the fundamental reasons for the church - for
without the vision,fhe people perish. That's why, Sunday after Sunday, we pray for
peace - even while the bombs fall and the war escalates, Bocause here - in the Church of
Jesus Christ wo have custody of the vision of how things were created to be. and how
they could be. That dream is dear to me - as a fath-r of children who will inherit my
world - and who will have children to inherit their world. But the dream is dear to me
primarily becauee | cali myself a Christian,and because a star shone one night jong ago,
and because a child was given who is the Prince of Puoace.

What is the draam? {| found it last week as | was studyig tsaiah 55. J. Elliot

Corbett has taken portion of that chapter and paraphrased it in a book cailed The Prophets

On Main Street. Let me share his words: and prophetic vision and my dream,

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In that day the flowering dogwood shall stretch out its limbs,

aS a many-armed waiter carrying a dozen bouquets as trays:

and the crepe myrtle shatl send forth its blooms,

like circus candy on a@ stick;

and the weeping wiltow will arch her braches to the water's @dg<,
bike @ woman washing her long green hair ina flowing stream.
and all shall dweti in a fand of beauty,

praising God for his wondrous gifts te the chitdren of mon

For a new age shall dawn,

and it shalt not be called the Space Age.

or the Jet Age or the Atomic Age,

but the Age of Peace.

an age when men will bead their tanks inte tractors
their rockets into mail-service missiles,

their atom bombs Intec powsr plants,

For this will be an aqje

when your builders witl outstrip your destroyers,

where resources, once used for arms soon obsolete,

wilt pour into schools and cathedrats of heabina,

into tea chers’ salaries and urgent medical research.

where talents wasted on war strateqy

are redirected to the strategy of peace:

where young American are rot sent out to police the world with force,
but to serve the world with talent and friendship,

not to train querrillas or anti=querril tas,

but to train teachers and farmors.

For } will give you as a light to the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the and of the warth.

Let the trumpc7s proclaim

That a generation has com: of age!

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Let the mountains and hills break forth in singing and al! the trees of the fiuld clap

their hands!

For the spel! of war-obsession has been broken, and the paranoid worid has regained her
senses.

The promste of a new era

hangs like ripe fruit on the bowed--down tree:

a time when man may travel freely in any portion of the world,

his humanity his passport:

when broadcasts are unjanmed and se arc roads;

when nations are not inclined to hide their bembs,

buT anxious to share their vaccines;

when scientists may freely trade their informatim and discovertes
and no government wilt circumscribe truth with political theory.
Let that age step forth with eagerness

as a bridegroom cometh from his chamber

with every man may speak his mind with=sno knocw on the: door at midnight;
when religian may be taught to all who desire its benefits;

when no press release suffers prior censorship,

nor any peacetul assembly is disturbed by police:

when rich nations share compasstonately with poor,

not out of fear. or threat, or contest.

when no land wild be a Jew unto itself,

but all accept a common rule of justice;

when men are not joined only to their likeness, exclaiming

“He's a Mason! or “He's a Catholic!”

“He's a Negro! or He's a Caucasian!

"He's a Christian! or “He's a Communist!

“He's an American! or "He's a Russian! -

but rather shall they rejoice in the unity that makes them brothers

proclaiming: “He's my fel towman!”

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That winsome new age shall awake when all men enjoy the work of their hands.
They shall build houses and Inhabit thom:
They shall plant Vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall not build and another inhabit.
Thay shall not plant and ancther oat.
They shall not labor in vein or boar children for calamity...
Bofore they call i vill ansyer
while they are yout speaking | will hoar.
The wolf and the laub shal | Food together,
the lion shall vat straw like the ox...

They shali not hurt or destroy in ali my holy mountain,
says the Lord.

Father, we confess that it is not sasy to bu makurs of peace, As we look for Wem os

kwep the vision alive in our midst. Tarough Jesus Cheist our lord ANG