Prophets, Priests, and Kings 

Biblical literature is foundational in our culture. The competing categories of prophets, priests, and kings have been basic in the formation of our political and social systems. 

Politics and religion are in the Bible 

  and in most kinds of its literature. 

As a Christian, I strongly believe 

  that the best way to study the Bible 

    is to read and study it as literature. 

I want to go even further than that. 

In order to understand the Bible, 

  it's important to study it 

    using the same tools we would use 

      to study any document from the ancient world. 

For us Unitarian Universalists, 

  it's important to study the Bible 

    from the point of view of history and culture, 

      and to recognize it as one of our own 

        Sources of faith and understanding. 

That is to say, Christianity is one of our sources 

  of UU faith  

    so its most basic source document, the Bible, 

      is important for us to understand. 

Almost needless to say, 

  we do not regard any Scripture 

    as infallible or authoritative. 

In fact, one of the best Facebook memes 

  that I have seen lately says, 

"Buy a Bible, don't read it, and you'll be a Catholic. 

Buy a Bible, and read only what suits you, 

  and you'll be an Evangelical. 

Buy a Bible, read it fully, analyze it, reason it, 

  and you will be an atheist. "

Of course, I would prefer to say, 

  "Buy a Bible, read it fully, analyze it, reason it, 

      and you will be a Unitarian Universalist." 

There are other possibilities to be

  as well as Unitarian Universalist: 

    United Church of Christ, Lutheran, Anglican, 

      progressive Christian of any stripe, 

        and many others. 

In our highly charged social and political climate, 

  it's especially important to study and think carefully 

    about the ideas that helped shape our culture, 

      and I feel that we UU's are uniquely equipped 

        to provide guidance for a good, positive, 

          historical critical, and scientific way 

            to understand the Bible. 

Leaders and leadership

  have been foundational in our republic 

    and its democratic principles. 

Different kinds of leaders 

  were part of the biblical story. 

Prophets were those who spoke for God. 

Priests were those who led and sustained 

  religious institutions, especially the Temple. 

Kings were political leaders 

  whose power and rule were thought 

    by some biblical writers 

      to supplant the power and sovereignty 

        of the God of Israel. 

Other biblical writers believed and wrote 

  that kings were appointed by God 

    to represent Him and to rule His people 

      on His behalf. 

It's clear that many of the writers 

  who believed that God appointed the rulers 

    were themselves official representatives 

      of those rulers. 

The Bible is filled with disagreements 

  among its writers and those they wrote about. 

So much for the infallibilty of scripture, 

  even in matters of faith and theology! 

Each of those categories 

  of prophets, priests, and kings provided 

    an important definition of social roles, 

      and each one formed a foundation 

        for different aspects of our society to this day, 

          regardless of our own individual religious 

            or political commitments. 

Let's start with the king. 

Every society or organization needs 

  a chief executive officer. 

In our time we are seeing more clearly than ever 

  that the chief executive officer 

    can be a man or a woman. 

In our time, we have a shining example 

  of an effective chief executive 

    who is a woman. 

Elizabeth II has been the Queen of England 

  for many years. 

There are significant examples 

  of Queens in the Bible. 

Queen Esther is among the best known. 

She was so important in Biblical literature 

  that she has a whole book named for her. 

Mary the Mother of Jesus 

  is another important Queen

    in Biblical literature and faith. 

Among many Christians, she is known 

  as the Queen of Heaven, 

    a bearer of many of the ancient traditions 

      of the Goddess. 

The chief executive 

  has both power and responsibility. 

In the social relationships 

  that a king or queen  represents, 

    those two aspects have to be held in balance. 

Power cannot be exercised 

  without responsibility 

    for long. 

There will be protest, rebellion, and even civil war. 

The U.S.A. was born out of just such a rebellion. 

King George would not exercise power responsibly, 

  so he lost the Thirteen American Colonies

    to their rebellion. 

It fascinates me that to this day, 

  the war that established 

    the independent United States

      is known in the U.S. as the American Revolution. 

In the British Commonwealth, 

  including our neighboring nation of Canada, 

    that same war is known as 

      the War of Insurrection. 

So much depends on one's point of view! 

The concept of a chief executive 

  keeping power and responsibility in balance 

    can help us understand our situation 

      in our own time and nation. 

If the current chief executive of the United States 

  is willing and able to take responsibility 

    for his own exercise of power, 

      he has a chance 

        to earn the respect of many people

          who do not now believe 

            that he has their best interests at heart. 

As my mother used to say, 

  “Time will tell.”  

The role of priest is another link between us 

  and the ancient world. 

Basically a priest is someone who presides or assists  

  at some sort of religious celebration. 

Priests also serve as go-betweens 

  for people who need divine aid of some sort. 

So those in our time who offer thoughts and prayers 

  for people in hard times 

    are serving - or claiming to serve - 

      a priestly function. 

From ancient to modern times, 

  priests offer sacrifices 

    to placate the gods they serve. 

More often than not today 

  the sacrifices are symbolic 

    or commemorative. 

Among UU's there are both priests and priestesses 

  in our communities of earth based spirituality. 

The high priests and high priestesses 

  are such primarily 

    because of their ceremonial function, 

      not so much as people who have been ordained 

        or inducted into a special order. 

The priest and priestess 

  represent the Lord and the Lady

    the God and the Goddess. 

While none of them made it into the Bible, 

  there were surely priestesses in ancient Israel. 

They would have led the worship of YHWH's wife, 

  Asherah. 

Her presence in the Temple and in the Bible 

  was likely suppressed by the ascendance 

    of a more radical monotheism, 

      the belief in only one God. 

As a result, the priestesses of ancient Israel 

  were also suppressed and all too often forgotten. 

In churches today, the ordination of women 

  has restored the rightful place of both genders 

    in the worship life of many people. 

Our own UU Association and its predecessors 

  were among the first religious groups 

    to permit and encourage women 

      as leaders of worship and pastors, 

        beginning in the mid-19th Century. 

Today in the Church of Sweden, 

  a leader among Lutherans, 

    there are more pastors who are women 

      than pastors who are men. 

In both the Lutheran and Anglican churches, 

  there are also women who are bishops. 

Prophecy is an institution of religious leadership 

  that goes back to biblical times, 

    and there is clear witness to both prophets 

      and prophetesses in the Bible. 

As an institution, prophets, both men and women, 

  are often seen as troublemakers, 

    especially by those who are in power. 

A phrase we have heard repeated many times 

  during the recent commemorations of 

    the great prophet and congressman, John Lewis, 

      was "good trouble, necessary trouble". 

It was a designation of his own. 

When he was told to stay out of trouble, 

  he realized that he needed to get into trouble 

    for the sake of making the world better. 

That could be a summary 

  of the meaning of prophecy. 

There are and always have been prophets 

  and prophetesses, 

    and the Bible bears witness to both. 

Jeremiah is probably the best known 

  biblical prophet, 

    and Deborah is probably the best known 

      biblical prophetess. 

Prophecy has continued to be part 

  of Judaism and Christianity, 

    even though the canon of scripture for both 

      has been effectively closed (for the most part) 

        for about 2000 years. 

The best known Jewish prophet of our time 

  was probably Elie Wiesel. 

He was a survivor of the Holocaust, 

  both Auschwitz and Buchenwald. 

He survived until 2016, 

  and it has been said 

    that survival is the best revenge. 

His words of hope and human kindness 

  indicate the heart and center of his prophecy. 

Among my favorite prophetic words from Elie Wiesel 

  are especially relevant for us today: 

    used on March 10, 2015: 

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. 

- Elie Wiesel

You see, prophecy involves 

   more insight than foresight. 

We think of prophecy as prediction, 

  but the reality is more like proclamation of truth. 

The civil rights movement in the U.S. 

  has produced great prophets 

    in the Christian tradition. 

The best known is almost certainly 

  the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

From biblical times onward 

  there have been schools of the prophets. 

At least two of the books of prophets in the Bible 

  were written by followers of the prophets, 

    some of them even generations later: 

      Isaiah and Jeremiah were both like that. 

In our time, too, 

  there have been schools of prophets. 

Followers in the footsteps of MLK, Jr. 

  have carried on the tradition 

    of protest and proclamation. 

John Lewis of blessed memory, James Clyburn, 

  and Andrew Young are just a few of them. 

Andrew Young is of special interest to us UU's 

  because he is an ordained minister of the UUC, 

    the Christian denomination most closely related 

      (as I've mentioned before) 

        in history, faith, and practice 

          to our own living tradition. 

Prophets and Prophetesses, 

  Priests and Priestesses,

    and Kings and Queens 

      are important historical characters 

        and contemporary realities and metaphors. 

There are a great many lessons we can 

  and need to 

    learn from them all. 

I could easily begin a series of sermons 

  about each of those categories. 

I may just do that, 

  especially if I get (even just a little) encouragement 

    from you, the members of our church community. 

Amen. 

Blessed be. 

Let it be.