U2, RNC, and Prophecy

First of all, if you actually read the first one and missed not having a post last week, I am sorry. But since I think no one has ever seen this, I am going to assume that I am just talking to myself.
So tonight I want to talk about prophecy. It seems to me that we live in a society that really is in need of prophecy. Maybe even a church that is in desperate need of a prophetic voice.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am not talking about predicting the future. The last thing that we need is some more creeps on street corners screaming about Jesus' blood running through the streets and doom coming (actually heard that in London once). What I am referring to is a voice which will stand up and challenge the powers that be. That will demand justice. That will call out for the will of God to be listened to and not ignored. A voice that will take the opposition on and speak what is true and right, no matter what people think.
In America, it would seem that prophets would be welcome. After all, when we rebelled against Britain to become our own nation, wasn't it a somewhat prophetic voice that was coming out of Philadelphia. Our value of the freedom of speech would see to be truly great environment for such speech. Then again, it seems lately that we don't care about those freedoms so much any more.
Look at our world and think about the prophetic voice that is needed. I have to admit right now that I am being influenced by the ideas of Jim Wallis in God's Politics. Wallis argues that in politics we need more prophets to stand up to the governments and church leaders and demand justice. We shouldn't be buying missiles for wars that were never justified when children die of diarrhea in Africa. I know that I am going to sound like a flaming liberal, but if we weren't blowing up someone in the Middle East then we might have saved some of those elderly women in the New Orleans projects that died from heat exhaustion, and who most likely we have failed as a society for decades. With a country like ours in existence there should not be poverty, especially for children, at the levels it now exists. It is nothing short of apathy.
And then there is Africa. The entire civilized world is dropping the ball on that one. There is a continent facing a modern day plague called AIDS. Many don't understand it at all. Then there are all the children who are orphans and infected themselves.
Who hears their cries? The church should. As the body of Christ we should be cupping his ear to the heart of those who are being oppressed by economics and politics and diseases that they can't do anything about. What is our response? "Its their own fault. If they were not so promiscuous then they wouldn't have AIDS. Besides, their government will just waste the aid if we give it to them." What is our government doing? Finding more ways to declare war on countries that aren't attacking us? Maybe we can give Israel a few more bombs so that they can oppress the Palestinians. And as I started this paragraph, before the tirade, what has happened to the church? Were are the men of God who are to raise these issues of justice and righteousness to the fore? Well, frankly we are at the RNC cheering on the war mongers and the idiots.
Make no mistake, the DNC has plenty of idiots in it as well, and its fair share of scum balls. But my point, actually Wallis' that I am stealing, is that as the church we should rise above the dirty politicians and make a call to be a just people that loves mercy and peace. We should go around healing, not causing war.
This is not to say that we don't have our own prophets in this day and age. I love that Martin Luther King is on the side of Westminster Abbey as a 20th Century Martyr. He was a prophet. He stood for justice and righteousness and he was killed for it. King was a man who believed that God had a sense of right and wrong, and he stood for it with all he had. The church, well the white church, largely called him a "trouble maker." Shame on us.
Then there is a more controversial choice. Bono. That's right, the lead singer of U2. The world's greatest rock star. Have you noticed that he actually cares more about the situation in Africa and helping those people than his music. And do you notice the mandate by which he preaches his message of debt relief and medical aid? He says that God expects it from us to care for them. Wow, that seems right. Maybe he swears and drinks from time to time, but he is living out the beatitudes. Have we made things like swearing our mint and cumin and neglected the weightier issues of justice? Doesn't God's criteria for the sheep and the goats seem to put Bono in heaven and us on a south bound train far too often?
What do I mean by this? Let me put it bluntly, mostly because this is a blog that no one reads. The church is the bride of Christ and his voice on earth. We should not be a bunch of tools for a political part or a government. To quote the new Switchfoot album, "I pledge allegiance to the country without borders without politicians, waiting for our sky to fall apart, we are broken, we are bitter, we're the problem we're the politicians, waiting for the sky to be torn apart, come in and break me." We must rise in this world of greedy and self importance, particularly coming from our leaders and declare the message of the gospel. We must represent a savior who said when he started his ministry:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."