The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America January-March 2018 - 10

Peace BreakFasTs

The Paradox of Prophetic Hope
in a Distressing Time
by Rev. Judge Wendell Griffen

Editor's note: The Rev. Judge Wendell Griffen, a longtime member and
friend of BPFnA~Bautistas por la Paz, was the speaker at last summer's Peace Breakfast during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General
Assembly in Atlanta, GA. Below is an excerpt from his presentation. The
full manuscript can be found out www.bpfna.org.

thank ledayne polaski for inviting me to address you this
morning. Thanks to each of you for your presence today,
and your past and ongoing efforts as agents of God's love,
justice and peace. I also thank BPFNA ~ Bautistas por la Paz
for your prayers, messages and other acts of encouragement
on my behalf earlier this year, after Arkansas politicians and
the Arkansas Supreme court attacked me because I and other
members of new Millennium church held a peaceful prayer
vigil in front of the Arkansas Governor's Mansion on Good
friday, April 14, in solidarity with Jesus.

"So one important obligation of
prophetic people is to do what
Moses did for Joshua, what Peter
did at Pentecost, and what Jesus
did for Nicodemus. We must
understand and then help others
understand that the Spirit of God
is not domesticated."
Gwenyth lewis of Albuquerque, new Mexico, came to
little rock and delivered a statement of support on behalf of
BPFNA ~ Baustistas por La Paz.1 new Millennium church,
my wife, our sons and I thank you. We are strengthened by
your prayers and encouragement.
I title my remarks today "The paradox of prophetic hope
in a distressing Time." The signs of our distressing time include
racism, sexism (including heterosexism, homophobia, and transphobia), materialism, militarism, imperialism, techno-centrism,

Baptist Peacemaker

JAN-MAR 2018

white religious nationalism, and xenophobia. These oppressive
realities existed before donald Trump and Mike pence were
elected president and vice president of the united States on
November 8, 2016. They are even more obvious now.
I addressed those concerns in my book The Fierce urgency
of Prophetic hope [See the sidebar on page 11] to urge prophetic
people to be more visible, more vocal, and engage in what I call
"prophetic citizenship" with fierce and urgent hopefulness. I
now offer suggestions on strategies for doing so based on four
memorable Scripture lessons-Numbers 11:24-30, Acts 2:1-21,
Genesis 1:2 and John 3:8.
If you remember one thing I say today, I hope you remember that humans do not manage the Spirit of God. I repeat:
humans do not manage the Spirit of God.
In Genesis we read that God has given humans custodial
responsibility for the earth and its creatures. We are divine
stewards, trustees if you will, over all that God created.
But before there was a world to manage, we read in Genesis that "a wind from God swept over the face of the waters."
(Genesis 1:2) Think of that "wind from God" as the holy Spirit.
Then recall the night-time meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus that we read about in the third chapter of John's Gospel.
When Jesus explained to nicodemus what he meant by being
"born from above," Jesus described the process in these words:
"The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of
it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8)
I will mention the point a third time: humans do not
manage the Spirit of God.
In numbers 11, we read about a crisis in the ministry of
Moses as he led his formerly enslaved hebrew people.
Malcontents among the people stirred up a complaint
about the food service along the journey. (Numbers 11:4-9) The
demands of leading hundreds of thousands of people overland
were tough enough for Moses, but this seems to have been his
breaking point. At Numbers 11:13-15 we read his frustrated
words to God:
where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come
weeping to me and say, "Give us meat to eat!" I am not able to
carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. If this is
the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once-if I
have found favor in your sight-and do not let me see my misery.

http://www.bpfna.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America January-March 2018