Word to the Wise
Sunday, July 4, 2021 - 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
[Ezek 2:2-5; 2 Cor 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6]"A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kind and in his own house."
Prophets have an uneasy existence. Jesus quotes a bit of folk wisdom to describe the rejection he received in his own hometown, but the "honor" he refers to for a prophet could be fleeting. The role of a prophet was honored but sometimes those who played that role were simply saying what others wanted to hear rather than what they needed to hear. A quick look at the prophecy of Jeremiah or Amos, for example, will show that. They denounced false prophets and challenged the powers-that-be in their conduct. In turn they were persecuted. Jesus and John the Baptist both suffered for their prophetic ministry. In Jesus' case, it was all well and good that he performed miracles, but when he challenged people to repentance and justice, he got rejection in return.
What the Old Testament prophets and Jesus had in common was their challenge to entrenched power structures that were destroying "the widow and orphan" In Jesus' case, it was the combination of scribes, Pharisees, Saduccees and Herodians with the help of the Roman occupiers. Loss of power and a way of life built on convenient religio-political status can lead to a violent reaction to protect that "ststus quo." It was true in Jesus' time and it is true in our own time. The role of a prophet is to challenge a society and its members to take a long look at the gap between its cherished values and the ways in which these values are being lived out. Jesus' hometown crowd chose to close their hearts to his words..
On this 4th of July, as we celebrate the "blessings of liberty" we might also ask just how that liberty is enjoyed. Do we really believe and live the words of the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." Or, do we believe as Orwell's famous work, THE ANIMAL FARM, puts it: "All the animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."? How have we treated those prophets in our midst who have called us to such an examination of conscience? In our prayers for our nation today, we can ask God to help us to be more faithful to Jesus' message and to those values we profess but fail to live out as Americans. AMEN