The function of a prophet is to speak on behalf of and work for the poor and oppressed. This was Jesus' self-proclaimed primary mission:
Jesus returned to Galilee powerful in the Spirit. News that he was back spread through the countryside. He taught in their meeting places to everyone’s acclaim and pleasure.
He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,
God’s Spirit is on me;
he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, “This is God’s year to act!”
he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, “This is God’s year to act!”
He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, “You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.” -Luke 4: 14-21 The Message
The function of a priest is to help people enter the mysteries and live sacramentally- that is to see all of their life as means of God's presence, action and grace. It is not to be a gate-keeper, but a guide.
While there are ritualized sacraments, what is sacramental is not limited to these, so we need not spend any energy arguing over how many sacraments there are. We just need to open our awareness.
The function of pastor is to shepherd. Jesus was the Good Shepherd-making Christian clergy under-shepherds.
It is easy to ignore one of these -and many do- but it is the full calling. And it seems to me that the one that gets left off the most in America is the prophetic- being the voice for the poor and oppressed.
We'll call ourselves "Father" and "Pastor" - but not "Prophet." And that's o.k. if we act the prophet, cuz then we'll probably be called other names, anyway. At least that's what happened to Jesus:
All who were there, watching and listening, were surprised at how well he spoke. But they also said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son, the one we’ve known since he was a youngster?”
23-27 He answered, “I suppose you’re going to quote the proverb, ‘Doctor, go heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we heard you did in Capernaum.’ Well, let me tell you something: No prophet is ever welcomed in his hometown. Isn’t it a fact that there were many widows in Israel at the time of Elijah during that three and a half years of drought when famine devastated the land, but the only widow to whom Elijah was sent was in Sarepta in Sidon? And there were many lepers in Israel at the time of the prophet Elisha but the only one cleansed was Naaman the Syrian.”
28-30 That set everyone in the meeting place seething with anger. They threw him out, banishing him from the village, then took him to a mountain cliff at the edge of the village to throw him to his doom, but he gave them the slip and was on his way.
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