“SPEAK TO POWER!”
You very likely have heard these words spoken by church leaders across denominations. Usually, the ‘power’ to which they refer is politi- cal power. However, religious leaders are not exempt from being the ‘power’ to which we must speak.
In today’s First Reading we meet the Prophet Amos who spoke to the religious and political power brokers of his day. The Gospel narrates the demise of John the Baptist who spoke to a political power, the pathetic Herod. As I re-read this narrative, I asked myself: “How can we immediately after today’s Gospel, respond with ‘Praise to Christ our Lord’ and then the Alleluias or ‘Rejoice, Rejoice Rejoice’, Come Let Us Bless the Lord’?” I’ll tell you at the end of this newsletter.
The Psalm and the Epistle for the Day make declarations that prepare us and encourage us to “speak to power”. To speak to power in a way that is Spirit- guided we must first, with the psalmist, “listen to what the LORD God is saying”. The psalmist goes on to say in the same verse that God is “speaking peace to his faithful people and to those who turn their hearts to him.” (Ps 85:8) I believe we can safely assume that, for those who are neither faithful nor repentant, the word from the Lord is not peace. Ezekiel 34, boldly expounded by one of our priests in a memorable Service of Ordination some years ago, illustrates this.
Speaking truth to power when power is out of line is risky business, as God’s faithful prophets then and now affirm, but it eventually reaps great rewards when persons take heed, for when “Truth shall spring up from the earth”, then “righteousness shall look down from heaven.” (Ps 85:11) In the Epistle to the Ephesians, Paul outlines the deposit that God has made in His redeemed children. He has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms” and when we “believed in Christ”, He gave us His Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:3, 13). The Holy Spirit empowers us to carry out the tasks God assigns to us, so we need not be intimidated by those to whom God sends us, whether for consolation or correction.
The Bible makes reference to both positive and negative responses by power brokers who were confronted with truth spoken by God’s faithful servants. King David, for example, responded with true and deep repentance when Nathan pointed out his sin. Today we read of John the Baptist who was sent to prison when he rebuked Herod for his immorality, and he eventually suffered an ignoble death there.
Do we care enough to confront leadership or even our brothers and sisters in the pews when we know they are not living right? Are we listening to what God is saying to us today?
So, to go back to that question: yes, we can sing the Alleluias even when John is martyred, for our Lord Jesus declares:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven;
Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5: 10-12, NKJV)
