I once met a man who thought of himself as a prophet. What he ended up being was obnoxious. I once thought of myself as a prophet too. I wasn’t. What I ended up being was obnoxious.

I try to imitate Christ. I try to keep my relationship with Christ close. I try to do what Paul suggests to put on the mind that was in Christ Jesus. Yet for all my striving and praying and reading the Bible and other scholars’ work, sometimes I just can’t relate to Jesus.

He comes to his hometown and gives a sermon. The townsfolk have known this young man since he was a child and are proud of his growing fame. Yet he shows up and reads and says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus seems to have a chip on his shoulder. As they say, “Good sermon today, Jesus!” he challenges them, saying, “I know you’re expecting a sign, but it’s not going to happen. The truth is, in the time of Elijah no one was healed except Naaman the Syrian.” What he’s saying is, “I’m not here for you. I’m here for those who you won’t worship with. I’m here for those you won’t allow in your church.”

Then the whole congregation gets up in arms and drives him out of the synagogue. They want to throw him off a cliff. But Jesus just passes through the midst of them and goes on his way.

I can’t relate to Jesus in this passage. In seminary, we’re taught to listen and care. We take all the pastoral care classes. We don’t want to rock the boat too much because people might get angry. And people don’t like change. And we have to be sensitive to that. Yet Jesus doesn’t seem to care and when the folk get up in arms, he just passes right through them and leaves.

Who I can relate to is Jeremiah. Today we hear his call story. He doesn’t want to be a prophet. Jeremiah knows what happens to prophets. They don’t have many friends. They are always popping people’s bubbles, ruining parties, and have no social life to speak of. He knows that they aren’t accepted in their hometown. But God touches his mouth and says, “There ya go! Now you have my words!”

Jeremiah then has some hard words for Israel about God’s displeasure. For 51 chapters, Jeremiah really gives it to the people of Israel reminding them to fall back in love with God and treat their neighbors justly. What I love about the book of Jeremiah is that he also questions his call the whole time. He complains and doesn’t want to do or say what he is compelled to. Jeremiah is very human.  And the thanks he gets? He lives in the town garbage dump. And people wonder why he’s so angry. Jeremiah, why are you so angry? It’s like Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street. Why is Oscar so angry? You’re such a grouch, Oscar. HE LIVES IN A TRASH CAN! You’d be angry too! It’s why Jeremiah is so grouchy and ruining everyone’s fun.

Often we are without the right words. Someone says something that we just know is wrong. It strikes us funny, but we don’t have the words to articulate that feeling in the moment. We can’t be on guard all the time against every slight. What does it matter anyway?

I was a resident assistant in college. Each month, we had to do some sort of program for our floor. It could be social or educational and we had to balance the two. I partnered with my coworker Tiffany for an idea she had. She was African-American and wanted to do a program about white privilege and racism. I knew I needed more education in this area, so I agreed.

The students came in, and we divided them based on eye color. Those with brown eyes got the best seating, notebooks, pens, and all the attention of the facilitators. Those with blue eyes or any other color that wasn’t brown were given no supplies or seats. Then Tiffany had people memorize a sequence of numbers. For every correct listing of the sequence, we gave out prizes. Of course, the brown-eyed people had the advantage and won all the prizes. The anger and resentment grew among the blue-eyed folk until it boiled over. They rose up and pointed out how unfair it was and how awful the conditions were and why were we doing this anyway.

That’s when Tiffany and I explained the Brown-Eye, Blue-Eyed experiment that started with a teacher in Iowa.[1] Jane Elliott wanted to teach her class why Martin Luther King Jr was killed and what he was working toward in 1968. So she divided the class and treated those with brown-eyes as superior to those with blue-eyes. The black children who were normally reserved suddenly became leaders and those who normally excelled in class started to struggle. The next day, she reversed it. Yet those with blue-eyes remembered the sting of being ostracized, and they rejected Jane’s teachings and reached out to their brown-eyed classmates. They hugged and cried.

We had a similar thing happened in our dorm at OU. Tiffany began to lead a great conversation on race. On what it’s like to be black on campus and in America. Genuine listening happened because the room knew for just a brief moment what it was like to be ostracized and not given a chance. Tiffany was my hero that day, and I believe we each left that dorm room a different person than when we walked in. Then the parents started to call and demand Tiffany be fired. Not the white male who helped and cosponsored the event, but the black female.

My life was changed by that prophet Tiffany and it is currently being changed my by prophetic friend Sage Lewis.[2] Sage is a son of Medina, played cello in this very church, had a locker next to Kelly Johns, and knows Jane Greinke. He’s a small business owner who owns this great old building in. He started to notice how there were a lot of homeless folks around his building. Something inside him called out to open his building to the homeless folk that he passed each day going into work. And that’s what he did.

He knew nothing about the plight of the homeless. He didn’t read a book or hear a speaker; he followed his heart and his curiosity. He helped the homeless folk who gathered around his building organize. They came up with rules, they cleared brush from around the building and started a substance-free tent city. Perhaps many of you have read about it in the Akron-Beacon Journal.

Sage started to get donations of food and clothes. He helped find resources for his new friends. He learned their names and their stories. He started to read some statistics and stories about the homeless, like how many struggle with mental illness. How the majority of teens who came to him were homeless because they were lesbian, gay, or trans and had been kicked out of their homes. He knew of those who were working multiple jobs but were still homeless as none of the jobs provided a living wage or benefits. There were those with chronic illness. There were those who just wanted to be off the grid.

Then the city stepped in and shut him down.[3] Sage fought it. The city accused him of attracting more homeless when Sage was just shedding light on what was already in the city. Sage saw that there were more policies and laws on animals being outside than people and thought that was wrong and the thanks he got was being maligned by Akron’s mayor. The city council accused Sage of wanting to keep people in tents. Sage would rather have people in houses, but a tent is better than nothing!

I have learned so much from Sage and his work with his folks. He’s still trying to help, still trying to advocate for those who are often overlooked. He, like the prophets, like Jesus; stands with the outcast and marginalized.

This is not something he sought out. Like Tiffany, this is an idea he followed without knowing what the results would be. I think most prophets are like that. They follow a calling and feel like they fell into this thing that now consumes their life. Like Jeremiah.

I think Jesus had a pretty good idea what he was getting into. I think that’s rare. That’s a Rosa Parks situation. She had trained all her life, she was active in the movement, she fought for civil rights, she knew what the situation was. And that’s what kept her planted in her bus seat, refusing to give it up. She was prepared. She knew the stakes. She had an idea of what was to follow.

Maybe that’s you. Or maybe you’re like Jeremiah, who is more my type of prophet. He fell into this calling. He didn’t really want it, but he was compelled to follow it until it’s end. I think many of us can be in his shoes. I think Tiffany and Sage are both in that line of prophet.

Jeremiah is my type of prophet because I lived it too. I was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered.[4] I thought I’d be on NPR for some great sermon or a book or something, but instead, I found myself on it because I thought it would be a good idea to greet the Syrian Refugees. Toledo is a resettlement area, and we wanted to greet our neighbors. So we played Frisbee in the park and launched stomp rockets in the sky for four hours. We learned that nothing defeats fear like a face. We learned the names of our new neighbors. And our neighbors got out of their houses. They felt safe because if anyone said anything about their style of dress or skin-color, they knew we would defend them. That’s what got me an interview with Ari Shapiro. I felt so humbled and glad, it was nothing planned. Then came the comments. Then came the threats and misunderstandings.

I think most of us are more like Jeremiah. I think our Cub Scouts are in that camp. When we say the oath in our den and pack meetings, we pledge duty to God and country and to help other people at all times. Those are broad terms that can lead us anywhere. It could mean we help people cross the street, or carry someone’s groceries. It could mean we help retire American flags properly or build pergolas on church property. It could mean we help feed hungry people or provide shelter for those who haven’t any. That oath could lead us to a work of a lifetime that is both grounded in being a good citizen, a good human, and a true Christian.

I think our new members are in the Jeremiah camp as well. They are gifted people with wonderful stories. They have pledged that they love Jesus, and they are calling this church home. Those promises seem broad, but that means they could be building homes in Costa Rica someday. Or on a mission trip to Pipestem, WV, with the youth. Or they could start some new mission as they follow a call that is on their heart, and we as fellow brothers and sisters are so inspired that we take up their cause as well.

You see, each of us could be a prophet. A prophet is not someone who tells the future, that’s a fortune teller. A prophet is someone who sees something wrong in the world and feels called to help fix it. This isn’t easy work. You will be hated, misunderstood, and labeled as a troublemaker. Like Tiffany. Like Sage. Like Jeremiah and like Jesus. Sometimes the clarity of your mission can cause you to have to live in a garbage dump because you believe so firmly that what you stand for is right. And sometimes, the clarity can cause you to pass through the angry crowd like they aren’t even there. And sometimes, you will be greatly troubled and vexed.

But the good news is that in the long run, your work will be lifted up and celebrated. Follow your curiosity. Look to what God is calling you to do. Do as theologian Howard Thurman suggests, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Go be fully alive. The world will be better for it. Amen.

Works Cited

 Read the full history of Jane Elliot here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/lesson-of-a-lifetime-72754306/

[2] Check out Sage’s personal blog here: http://www.sagelewis.com/

[3] https://www.cleveland.com/akron/2019/01/akrons-tent-city-wont-reopen-but-work-with-the-homeless-continues.html?fbclid=IwAR2HsgXRQVsJtj0yNhv93CgR_mIcFwzSd5FMXkvMjogIOMYFtxNTCgW9pNY

[4] Luke on All Things Considered, January 4, 2017: https://tinyurl.com/yauorkms