I’ve been re-reading “The Prophetic Imagination,” a classic by biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann. In it he talks about the prophetic ministry of churches as being the result of two essential ingredients.

The first ingredient is that a church must have a criticizing ministry, that is, criticizing of the way the world is, criticizing of any unfairness or injustice that prevails in one’s community or society.

Then the second ingredient is to have an energizing ministry, that is to be inspiring and genuinely moving people toward a new way, to an alternative society where fairness and justice do prevail. The binding agent that holds criticizing and energizing together is what he calls the “prophetic imagination.” 

Prophetic imagination is what allows us to perceive that a thing is unjust rather than to perceive it as “just the way things are.” Prophetic imagination is also what allows us to envision, to perceive, what would be just instead.

Prophetic ministry, then, seeks to transform what is possible for humanity, by transforming what humanity can see in front of it.

For example, many churches in the hilltowns and in Greenfield are actively engaged in ministries relating to food and hunger; these are prophetic ministries. Firstly, they make a statement about the situation in our community; they acknowledge and clearly state our understanding that people are going hungry. They communicate that our churches do not live in a fantasy world, a wishful one, where no one is struggling in this country; they say that, no, we live in the real world, and hunger is all around us. Additionally, our involvement in these ministries state our view, our moral judgment, that this situation is wrong; whatever the cause or the source of a person’s hunger, the fact that any person is going hungry is unacceptable to us. Our churches are teaching that God loves all people equally and is unimpressed and undeterred by the arguments we like to make about who is greatest among us or most deserving of wealth and of respect and dignity.

At the same time, these ministries are also energizing. Everyone who participates in these ministries and advocates for each other’s (and one’s own) right to food are fostering a new kind of community, one where people serve one another, and through that service, little by little, brick by brick, begin to break down the social, economic, and political barriers between us. Amazingly, we find that a new world is coming into being already by our own hands and feet.

Of course this is just one of many areas of prophetic ministry happening in Franklin County and across this country. But whichever area of ministry we consider, we eventually run into a grave problem. No matter how well we use our imaginations here at home, no matter how effectively we criticize and energize our own communities, the truth is that all the prophetic ministries of churches will come up short so long as brutal wars like the one still unfolding in the Middle East are allowed to continue and spread. There can be no going forward toward justice and peace while this war is dragging humanity backward.

Therefore we urgently need to bring our prophetic imagination to bear, by criticizing this situation as untenable and unjust, and by bringing forth a fresh and energizing vision of a new Israel-Palestine, where the causes of violence have been uprooted, and a new era of peace can grow and flourish.

For a year now, too many churches have been silent and passive; too many of us as individuals have been reluctant to speak up or have been too easily dismissive of others’ viewpoints. And for much longer than that, we have relegated issues of war and peace, of neo-colonialism and resistance to it, to the narrowest corridors of our church lives. And as a result, we were unprepared for what has taken place this past year.

Those who seek to do justice neglected to take seriously how the decades-long blockade of Gaza would explode, like embers beneath ash, into the atrocities that took place on Oct. 7, 2023. Peacemakers at home neglected to take seriously how our colonial attitudes toward the people of Palestine would, since Oct. 7, degenerate into what Boston University’s School of Law and the University Network for Human Rights have called “the genocidal acts” of the Israeli government.

As people of faith and goodwill, it is more urgent than ever that we imagine and remember that we are called not to serve one country, though we are patriotic; that we are called not to serve one religion, though we are faithful; that we are called not to serve only our own people, though we are family and community-oriented, but that we are called to be the image bearers of God, of the Holy One of Blessing, of the One That Is and That Causes All Else To Be; that we are called — most of all — into the luminous siblinghood of all humanity. All prophecy and all ministry depends on it.

Rev. Jones is the minister of the First Congregational Church in Ashfield, United Church of Christ.

The First Congregational Church in Ashfield is an Open and Affirming congregation, uniting believers, questioners, and questioning believers in a range of community and justice-oriented ministries. The church hosts both the Hilltown Churches Food Pantry in its downstairs Friendship Hall and, during winter months, Ashfield’s Share the Warmth community program in its upstairs Green Room. The church has also been a steadfast supporter of the Palestinian House of Friendship. Join us on Sundays at 10 a.m., both in-person and on Zoom, for worship and fellowship. Phone: 413-628-4470; Website: www.ashfielducc.org.