Miners' Service - Durham
14 July 2001
Where are the prophets today?
The mining communities have over the years given birth to several prophets. Keir Hardie was one of these - a champion of the miners and a founder of the Labour Movement. His portrait took the place of Queen Victoria and Gladstone in miners cottages. Ramsey MacDonald saw him like Moses leading the children of the Labour Movement out of bondage towards the Promised land. Others saw him as a latter day Jesus. He saw himself as a prophet. In Bradford just under 100 years ago he proclaimed that the Labour Movement "had come to resuscitate the Christianity of Christ, to go back to the time when the poor should have the Gospel preached to them, and the Gospel should be good news of joy and happiness in life ... ring out the darkness of the land, he proclaimed, ring in the Christ that is to be."
This Jesus is the same one who went into his home synagogue and proclaimed that God had anointed him to bring good news to the poor and to announce the release of captives and the setting free of the oppressed.
But where are the prophets today?
In 1901 Keir Hardie wrote words strangely powerful and relevant 100 years on, "The outcast in his lonely broodings and his fits of remorse will get nearer to the heart of God than will those who observe all the rites of Christianity but are strangers in its spirit.'
In a world of focus groups where advertising agencies control the message of politicians, where is the voice that speaks for the poor? There was very little talk of the poor in the General Election and even this week the Church of England removed from its assessment of allocations to the parishes the deprivation indices that are used to gain a fuller understanding of poverty. We might well ask whether the poor are still with us, they seemed to have vanished off the screen!
They are with us - but they lack a champion, an advocate, a prophet!
When Jesus came to Nazareth with good news for the poor, Luke tells us that everybody spoke well of him and were amazed at what he said. But their mood soon changed and the story ends with them filled with rage and trying to hurl Jesus off a cliff. The reaction in Nazareth is typical. We all like a prophet until they say something we don't like!
One minute they were applauding Jesus, the next they're hurling him off a cliff and all this without the help of the tabloid press who in our own day love to build people up and then to knock them down. What was it that made them so angry with Jesus?
The moment Jesus starts to tell them that God would help those beyond their own community their mood changed. The Jews loved Jesus until he started to talk about the Gentiles. The wealthy love Jesus until he starts to talk about the poor. The whites Jesus love Jesus until he starts to talk about loving the blacks. The blacks love Jesus until he starts to talk about loving the Asians. The citizens love Jesus until he starts to talk about caring for the asylum seekers. The world loves Jesus until he starts to talk about protecting the environment for future generations. We all love Jesus when he gives us what we want. The sticking point comes when Jesus challenges us to reach out to those on the edge and beyond the boundaries of our own community, of our own self interest.
This is the clue to understanding that Biblical proverb: 'A prophet is not without honour save in his own country and in his own house'
Why's that? Why should a prophet be without honour in his own country and in his own house? Because the prophet points to the needs of those beyond the walls of his own house, beyond the boundaries of his own nation and that doesn't win votes. That angers those who put themselves first.
Last week I was in Walton Prison visiting over 100 asylum seekers detained alongside convicted prisoners. Banged up in a cell for 23 hours a day with only one shower a week, they are depressed to be treated like criminals - so depressed that one man I met had tried to kill himself.
I visited a centre and met a young man from Africa. He showed me the machete blows that had caused him to flee to this country. He attends church every Sunday and yet not one person has ever spoken to him on his way in or way out.
Who speaks for the asylum seeker? Who speaks for the poor? Where are the prophets today?
We have focus groups! But where are the prophets
We have spin doctors! But where are the prophets?
We have pollsters! But where are the prophets?
We have image consultants! But where are the prophets?
We have politicians and church leaders! But where are the prophets?
As Jesus showed, the prophet has to endure the changing mood of the crowd, the rage of the mob who protect their own interests. Who has the courage for that?
Yet if there is no prophet in the land the rich will get richer by squandering the earth. The poor will get poorer throughout the earth.
And it is happening before our eyes. Is it not time to pray to God to raise up a prophet, to resuscitate the Christianity of Christ, to go back to the time (and to go forward) when the poor shall have the Gospel preached to them.