The Prophet Ms. Rachel

Sermon

My preaching professor in seminary, the Rev. Dr. Charles Campbell, was also my advisor, so he said a lot of things that struck me and stuck with me. The one that is on my mind when we read from a known prophet is: Never trust a prophet who always enjoys the job. I’m still unpacking this line sixteen years later. It’s an easy line to understand with harder prophetic words, though: earlier this fall, in a sermon, Eileen called Jeremiah the depression prophet; I called him a recession prophet. If we saw someone claiming to have a prophetic word, with great joy, telling us depressing or recessing news, we should probably pass on whatever else they’re trying to sell us.

It’s not all doom and gloom. Prophets must have some joy or otherwise there wouldn’t be prophetic words and none of us would be here! I imagine this part of Isaiah is one of those times someone finds joy in their work, likely after not enjoying the job. The Prophet Isaiah is probably multiple someones. The Book of Isaiah spans a long amount of time and likely had several authors. There are three eras in Isaiah. There’s one before the exile, which is where there’s overlap with what we read in Jeremiah earlier this fall.

The second era is during the exile and moving back, and this era is moving into post exile. The narrative hill being climbed here is wondering how to restore a community, with the good, bad, and conflicting influences of these eras. The scripture paints an idyllic image: stereotypical predators and prey eat together instead of eating each other. People aren’t taken advantage of for a profit, as they would have been as an enslaved or exiled people. People build houses and dwell in them, they grow food and eat it. Elders live long, full lives, and no one worries about the lives of the young being cut short. Things are so good we needn’t even recall the bad things!!

Though the point of this vision, or rather, this revisioning, is not to forget everything. Prophetic words often rely on older words; creative, generative, sacred stories, like the creation story in Genesis, has parallels here. So, we’re not trying to forget everything; the goal is to forget oppression, the generational trauma, so we don’t inflict it on others. This is why prophetic words are integral to our learning, forming and reforming what is possible and what should be policy. There are still prophets and prophetic words like this today. The presence of prophets is not limited to holy scriptures, but scripture can show us where the prophets we can trust might be found… like on YouTube.

That is where my family found the Prophet Ms. Rachel, who became a fixture in our house like many other houses with small children in the last five years. Ms. Rachel has graduate degrees in music and in children’s education. She is also a parent, and when her son was young she realized there was not a lot of content for kids online to practice learning first words. This became even more important after 2020, and so many kids and parents were at home without a lot of educational advice. For instance, my wife and I never planned to show our kid a television so young, let alone YouTube, but then there was little childcare and moms needed to work, so the TV was a helper.

Ms. Rachel went to the TV so to speak, too, as a helper. She put on her recognizable uniform of a pink headband and pink shirt, and she made instructional videos with songs about the ABCs with her husband. I can still hear her songs and hear her saying “O-pen” and other words specifically to help kids pronounce them. Her work was invaluable; she certainly did the job she set out to do and it usually seems like she enjoys it.

I saw Ms. Rachel most leaning into prophetic words when I saw her start to not enjoy her job. Ms. Rachel, like Isaiah, is not one person—she works with educators and performers, including Jules Hoffman, who sings a song called, “Crabby Crab.” It’s a song about being in a bad mood and how acting like a crab will help you regulate your mood. I don’t say this as someone who knows all of you, I say this as someone who knows a lot about moods: all of us need to listen and watch “Crabby Crab.”

Jules is very talented. They went to the Berklee College of Music and earned a degree in song writing. They are clearly in line with the teachings of Ms. Rachel. Jules also identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. Ms. Rachel and Jules received a lot of backlash for their online presence together. It reminded me a lot of Mr. Rogers, who washed his feet and shared a towel with Officer Clemmons, a Black man, in 1969—a poignant scene that Ms. Rachel also noted in a recent interview.

Ms. Rachel’s legacy has grown, like Mr. Rogers—she’s part of the culture now. She’s got a signature color and style like Miss Piggy. She’s also a Global Ambassador for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. Ms. Rachel was honored as one of Glamour magazine’s women of the year, and when receiving her award she wore a classic gown adorned with the art work of Palestinian children.

Ms. Rachel has spoken out repeatedly about the atrocities against children in Gaza, as well as in Sudan and the Congo. She is as empathetic as she is sharp. She pronounces what is possible and should be policy as simply as she does first words for children. I’m not sure how to explain it, but I guess she did this enough that a journalist asked her this year if she was sponsored by a certain terrorist organization, as if that would be the only explanation for a children’s figure saying children shouldn’t be bombed and starved, or envisioning all children receiving a joyful education.

This reimagining of creation, this prophetic word, that we read this morning from the Book of Isaiah, this idyllic painting of what’s possible for a community after oppression, after generational trauma—a community, a city, a country without vengeance, oppression, or exploitation or competition for necessary goods and services—this vision reminds me a lot of Ms. Rachel and her work; it is creativity, recreation with empathy.

Empathy can be a confounding term these days, kind of like fake news, depending on who says it; it’s hard to know what it means. A dictionary definition of empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. If I were to add a scriptural or theological note to that, it would be the possibility to see yourself and others as God’s beloved creation. We can see the image of God in ourselves and others, and we can act that way.

If you don’t love the theological notes, that’s okay; we can still easily make the possible a policy. But empathy is not the same as compromise. Empathy can lead to a compromise, so it’s easy to confuse them. Empathy is understanding why my son is angry, compromise is let’s all pick what’s on TV together because we can’t watch anymore songs for littles…

But we can’t replace empathy with compromise; this vision is not, “well, lions will be lions, so some lions get to eat some lambs.” That’s not the vision.

One of Ms. Rachel’s most pronounced prophetic words I’ve heard this fall is: no one needs a billion dollars, everyone needs to eat. We know from Isaiah that everyone can eat, and live full lives, without eating each other.

Except snakes. In Isaiah, they eat dust; since this is a revision of the story of creation in Genesis, we will not be deceived by snakes again, so they eat dust. Sorry, snakes.

Consequences are still a thing in this vision. Compromise is important. But, especially as we head into holy days, I hope you know that you don’t have to compromise to have empathy. And you certainly shouldn’t compromise who you are, the image of God, or the full life of your loved ones.

Ms. Rachel is a great collaborator; you’ll find her on TV with Elmo and Malala. She always seems to be thanking people for the requests she gets to do work with them. And she recently said she won’t work with folks who haven’t spoken out for children who are the victims of war. We can have empathy and still say no when we feel compromised.

Forgetting oppression is possible. Visions of full lives should be policy. For the glory of God, which is the joyful work of creation… Amen.