2026-02- 08 Vox Populi, Vox Dei

Описание: On the eve of the American Revolution, parliamentarian Edmund Burke is reported as having coined the term “the fourth estate” to describe the power of the press in holding the three legitimate estates (Clergy and Houses of Lords and Commons) to account for the uses and abuses of their power. By 1891, author and essayist Oscar Wilde was lamenting that the fourth estate already seemed to have swallowed up the other three, which had become entirely incompetent and incoherent. He claimed that the people were now “dominated by journalism.” (Wilde’s conclusions about government were self-serving and misguided, but this observation seems to have been spot on.) Now, in the twenty-first century we’ve turned to what some call “the fifth estate,” the unofficial, decentralized vox populi (voice of the people), amplified by the internet and social media. To be sure, it often sounds less like one voice and more the clamor and distortion of a not-yet abandoned Babel. 
 
Ok, so there’s a little history lesson for you. But what does it have to do with our series? Everything, I think. On the eve of exile, Micah, too, raised his voice to speak for those who were being neglected by the official advocates of human flourishing. The kings’ courts, the priesthood, and even the official prophetic class had abandoned truth and justice in favor of comfort. Micah was in some ways acting as a fourth estate, yet as we saw in his opening, this message was not a news broadcast or even a grassroots social media movement. This was not the vox populi, but the vox Dei – the very voice of God. 
 
This week we will hear God’s judgment on those who fail to use their positions to respond to the cries of the poor and powerless. We’ll also see how Jesus, as always, ultimately fulfills this call and response from both ends. And I’m glad we’ve been reading through 1 Corinthians in the Soul Room, because it’s a perfect word for how the body of Christ can take on this mantle and cry out with His voice to the wilderness noise in which we find ourselves today.