The Slow Way Newsletter: Who Are the Prophets Among Us?
a weekly newsletter for all the frantic strivers, serial doers & weary achievers
unhurried thoughts
Who Are the Prophets Among You?
“I believe in a God whose very nature is love and who has created a world and sustains a world and is transforming the world in love. And God’s greatest dream is that we would participate in all of that wholeness, the healing, the reconciliation, the restoration that God still dreams of for the world that God made.”
-The Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers, The Work of the People, “Transforming Through Love: Part 1”
This week I watched my town’s zoning board meeting over zoom. I was there to advocate for a nonprofit in my neighborhood, where people with and without disabilities live together in a gorgeous old victorian on a grumpy rich street.
Now, that’s probably not a nice thing for me to say. Technically, the grumpy rich street is only a block from my house, which means they’re my neighbors. But, to be fair, they are very rich. And some of those neighbors’ houses are 6 million dollar mansions. So I don’t tend to feel really compassionate toward them when they worry about my friends with disabilities bringing down the value of their homes by existing on the block.
The truth is that those 6 million dollar homes are easy to hide behind, and because of that, I rarely have seen or met anyone on that street. But the house where the nonprofit exists on the corner between my house and the grumpy richies? I see those friends every week. Sometimes I run into Jeremy, who has Down syndrome and loves to say hi to Ace, as he’s waiting for his ride to ballroom dancing. Sometimes Nate who runs the non-profit and lives in the house is out in the yard working in the garden or clearing something away. The other day Jack’s parents were there visiting, and they were happy Jack and I knew each other well enough to say hello. A few weeks ago my husband Chris was walking the dog at night and heard a guitar being strummed on the home's big wrap around porch. It was a resident without disabilities singing and playing in the dark for a resident who lives with disability. It was beautiful.
But, back to the zoom call. I sat through two hours of zoning board questions and suggestions all for the meeting to end without allowing for the “comments from the community” where I was ready to stick it to the grumpy neighbors who called in complaining about this organization. I didn’t get my turn.
In all my recent writing and thinking about what Richard Rohr calls "the Really Real," I’ve been considering how easy it is to miss the good thing right in front of us. It’s really clear to me that the best neighbors I have are the adults with disabilities who model the kind of life I want Ace to imagine for himself. But it’s definitely not clear to everyone. Why is that? And do I have the right to believe that I’ve figured something out that Mr Grumpy Rich-Pants hasn’t?
Chris had coffee with Nate this week and he told me later how prophetic imagination came up in their conversation. (Can I mention here that I love that my husband casually brings up “prophetic imagination” during conversations with neighbors?) There will always be people in places of power who see their wealth, their comfort, their collection of artifacts as something to protect. Just as Jesus said, it’s not easy to be rich and live according to the Dream of God. (My translation of Matthew 19:24, based on Stephanie Seller's amazing description above.) We’d all do well to recognize our own wealth and the part it plays in keeping us from the model of community Jesus describes in his Sermon on the Mount.
Chris had the insight that this home, this glaring vision of inclusion, has a prophetic presence in a neighborhood that is not used to feeling discomfort. Prophets in all the history of the world have never made people feel good about themselves. People with disabilities rarely bring comfort when they enter into spaces either. But their mere presence is prophetic: It points to a reality that is bigger than the wealth and power and fame we use to comfort ourselves. This world is dangerous, and our temptation will always be to gain more goods and hide behind them. People with disabilities can’t hide what’s actually true. The true story their lives are telling is actually the story of all of us: We are weak. We are fragile. And this world is dangerous.
Of course, Jesus’s major sermon would begin by blessing those among us who are prophets, pointing to the truth of who we all actually are: the poor in spirit, the powerless, the pure in heart, the ones who don’t belong, the ones who live in service of peace.
Who are the prophets in your neighborhood? What are their lives telling you about the Really Real, about meaning, about what you use to hide your own weakness, your own fragility?
Now, I’m going to end here with honesty. I don’t live in a 6 million dollar house (far from it), but you guys, my house is a big old house. We just had new floors put down and walls painted and new light fixtures hung this week. I say that to tell you that it might be just as hard for me, a perfectly comfortable white lady living in a big blue house, to live into the Dream God has for the world.
But you know how prophets’ voices get written down? Somebody who needs to hear them starts listening. My prayer today is that I’ll keep listening, come out of my big house and walk among the prophets. My prayer is that you will too.
a slow practice
Who are the prophets in your life pointing you away from the comforts you use to hide your weakness? That's not an easy question to ask ourselves. So let's start by naming our weaknesses. Then we’ll open ourselves up to see how we might be hiding them.
Each week in most churches, people are given space and time for personal and public confession, which my pastor describes as “all the ways we have fallen short of love.” What are the ways you have fallen short of love this week? Maybe you want to name them out loud. Maybe you want to write them down. Maybe you’re in a public space and you need to just note them in your heart. However it works for you, stare hard at your weaknesses, at your fragility, because when you don’t have to hide them, you are given the freedom to step into the Really Real.
The Carmelite William McNamara explained contemplation as a “long, loving look at the real.” So let’s end there, with this prayer: “Spirit of God, allow me to look in love at the Real, the true things around me.” Consider for a bit who might be the prophets in your midst, pointing you to the truth underneath the surface of things. Ask God to give you eyes to see the prophets, and ears to hear what God is saying through them.