A Poke With A Sharp Stick

I grew up in the desert Southwest, where colorful speech abounds. For instance, ever heard of a haboob?

One memorable phrase I particularly like would characterize a recent, essentially favorable, event as being “better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.” I have heard this used to describe events as different as finding a dime on the sidewalk, getting a really good deal on a new car, or landing a date with the prettiest girl in school.

I think you can safely assume that the culture of the desert Southwest is laconic.

This came to mind last Sunday when the Old Testament reading was from the book of Amos, “a shepherd and dresser of sycamores.” This description stirred up my curiosity, so I looked up what a dresser of sycamores did.

Dressing The Sycamore

The sycamore tree is also known as the fig-mulberry.  To ripen, the fruit of the sycamore tree needs to have its skin pierced.  Usually a sharpened stick or an iron hook does the trick. Pierced at the right time, the fruit ripens in three days.

In its native habitat, a type of small wasp did the piercing. But trees brought to regions without the wasp needed human intervention to ripen.

Once I learned this I naturally thought of that phrase from my youth.  Fig dressing sounds like good preparation for the role of prophet. Amaziah’s (the priest of Bethel) reaction, is right up there with the reaction of someone who had just been poked with a sharp stick:

“To Amos, Amaziah said: “Off with you, seer, flee to the land of Judah and there earn your bread by prophesying! But never again prophesy in Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary and a royal temple” (Amos 7:12-13).

It is often the case with prophets that their words make people uncomfortable. Some of their words can be comforting, as in the predictions regarding the Messiah or the return and triumph of Israel.

Discomfort Not A Qualification

It is unfortunately true that some people in our time have come to think that making others uncomfortable is a good thing in and of itself.  This idea particularly applies to art. Googling “Art should make people uncomfortable,” for instance, produces 3,390,000 results.

While this is a thread in contemporary modern art, it is not representative of all art (or the arts) and artists working today. As is often the case, the loud and obnoxious seem to draw more attention than the quietly illuminating.

There are also people who call themselves “comedians” whose work consists of making people uncomfortable.  Many “performance artists” even appear to specialize in creating discomfort, for themselves and others. But none of this makes the art ‘work’ or the (self-styled) comedy prophetic.

The discomfort of prophecy is incidental to its call for people to return to moral and ethical values that they have abandoned or allowed to slide into disuse. While responding to this call is not always comfortable, the actual return is comforting and healing. Though the modernist discomfort is in itself the desired state, the prophet’s discomfort is a call to return to the comforts of orthodoxy and obedience to God’s law and will.

The End Point Is Comfort

The call to repentance creates discomfort at first. This is because to heed the call a person must admit to how far they have strayed, and that is a difficult and sometimes painful admission. But the end of repentance is restoration, and that brings comfort as Isaiah also says:

“Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.  Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service has ended, that her guilt is expiated, that she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:1-2).

Over and over this is the pattern of prophecy – the prediction of disaster because of the people having strayed from God’s law and will. Following the prediction comes the promise of comfort for those who restore their damaged relationship and return to living godly lives under God’s grace and his rules.

Indeed, in our own times we have seen Israel recreated after a persecution that matched or exceeded anything in history. While embattled, today the people of Israel enjoy a standard of living equal to that of Western Europe and other highly developed countries, according the UN and the World Bank (as reported in Wikipedia).

Our Modern Equivalents

Our own American history contains three or four “Great Awakenings,” periods of intense revival of religious fervor and church membership. The Fourth Great Awakening is, however, a subject of controversy.  Some identify it with the Jesus movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and others dismiss that period as too short and limited to qualify as the fourth Great Awakening.

Still, sometimes certain charismatic and essentially prophetic personalities were involved in these movements. But none have produced anything like an Amos or an Isaiah.

Each of these movements resulted in greater devotion among those already inside the faith, and/or increased church membership (mostly in Protestant denominations). A lot of personal repentance and reform were preached and practiced, at least for some time.

Catholicism has had its own revival movements, including Cursillo and its many offspring (such as CRHP, Welcome, and “‘An Emmaus Experience”).

When it comes to prophetic figures, however, the ground is pretty thin. Pope Francis recently called for all Catholics to act prophetically by understanding God’s plan for themselves and for others. He said we should be someone who lives out and witnesses to Christ’s teaching and message.

No Stick Required

In that particular call by Pope Francis, there does not seem to be any special need for a sharp stick. Or maybe there is.

But my estimate is that most people are not equipped to wield the piercing stick effectively.  Enjoying the poke is a human reaction that gets in the way of a genuinely loving approach to someone with hard truths.

Starting small and gently would seem to be a better tactic for most of us.  A warm hand placed on a shoulder, soft words spoken gently, accompanied by genuine loving appreciation for someone’s good qualities and virtues is surely a better plan.

A wise man of my acquaintance used to say, “You can’t carry a 300 lb. wheelbarrow of truth over a quarter inch thick balsa plank bridge of love.” This comes under the category of “truer words were seldom spoke.”  For most of us, given a 300 lb. truth our first step is to create a sturdy enough bridge to handle the stress.

Of course there are those among us who are expected, even required to deliver heavy truths without regard to the strength of the bridge between them and the recipient. Policemen, mental health workers, and clergy are some of these people.  These people are generally trained to handle such difficult interactions. But they always face difficulty and discomfort in their task.

However, if we are called, then we must answer. And if on our way we come across a sharpened stick, we might do well to consider bringing it along, at least as a reminder.

Prayer

Lord, give us ears to hear and eyes to see when you bring a prophet into our lives. And let our own witness to others honor and reflect those who have gone before us, spreading the Good News and attracting people to Christ through the way we live and behave.
Amen