|
|
So Jesus tells us that we are to welcome a prophet, but
first it helps to know what a prophet is and recognize the real McCoy.
You don’t want to be following just any body who says God’s been takin’ to them.
Who can tell me what a prophet is?
It’s not one who predicts our future.
In some cases a prophet may tell the people he or she is
talking to at that time what will happen if they don’t change their
ways.
But that prediction was meant for that particular time
and place.
Although it does stand to reason that if certain actions
angered God back then, then those same actions may now anger God.
A prophet is not a fortune teller,
a prophet is God’s spokesperson, the voice of God.
In olden days there were true prophets who listened to
God and shared God’s message.
Prophets like:
Jeremiah
Elijah
Isaiah
Micah
Then there were prophets who worked pretty much for the political/religious
establishment and they told the people what the political/religious
establishment wanted them to hear.
Prophets like Hananiah.
They said they were speaking in the name of God of
course.
But they were really just mouthpieces for the religious/political
authorities;
giving divine sanction to whatever plans the political/religious
establishment had.
Or just simply telling the people what they wanted to
hear.
Unfortunately, what God has to tell us is not always what
we want to hear.
September 12, 2001 – what do you think the word of God would have
been?
You’ve got the date, the day after the bombing of
the World Trade Center.
Apparently, most Americans don’t think the Reverend
Jeremiah Wright was speaking God’s word.
Of course, most people don’t have the foggiest idea what he really said
– but they’re sure he’s wrong.
So if Rev. Wright was wrong and not being prophetic, what
would a prophet have said?
Do we go with what the Psalmist prescribed in Psalm 137?
[Psa
137:8-9] O daughter Babylon, you devastator!
Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take
your babies and dash them against the rock!
What do you think, what would be the prophetic word on
this occasion?
(get responses)
March 10, 2003 – ten days before the start of the Iraq war – what do you think the word of God would have
been?
They say hindsight is 20/20, but I don’t think so.
I still think the best you can do is roughly 50/50 because I think even in
hindsight we’re still shortsighted and things are all fuzzy.
But it is even worse in the present.
In the present, in the “fog of war” so to speak, it’s even
harder to see where we should be headed.
If there was a prophet standing before you today – what do you think he
or she would tell you?
Given:
Wars
Poverty - Radical economic disparity
Bad here
But even worse on world wide level
Starvation through out the world
Environmental devastation
What would a prophet say today?
And Jesus said,
‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes
me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a
prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward.
How do we recognize a prophet? What will be the clues
that he or she is speaking for God?
Do we really welcome the prophets, do we want to listen to the prophets or do
we just want our religion to give us comfort and reassurance?
Let’s
assume we are faithful Christians and we welcome the prophet, how do we
recognize the prophet?
Was Martin Luther King a prophet?
Is Pat Robertson a prophet?
Is Jim Wallis a prophet?
Is James Dobson speaking for God?
What will the clues be that he or she is speaking for
God?
Well one way to find out is to wait and see what happens
and see if they were right.
But that doesn’t help us discern the present.
One way to make that discernment is to see if the prophet
has often been right in the past.
If so then there’s a good chance they may be right in the future.
But as a mutual fund prospectus will point out --past
performance is no guarantee of future returns.
So what will
help us discern if a prophet is from God?
What are the clues?
I came up with three: Truthfulness, Love and Challenge.
A prophet’s message will be true.
Is the prophet telling the truth?
Is the prophet helping us to see things as they really
are?
Are they helping us to see things as God sees them?
Quite often we have blinders on and we only see things
the way we want to see them or our family or friends tell us how to see them;
or how our ideology and favorite pundits tell us to see things.
A prophet should give us a fresh view – a
god’s eye view.
Of course it’s not always a view we want to
see.
It may even be a view that repulses us or initially angers us.
But it is the truth the prophet should give us – not an entertaining
reenactment of the fantasy we’d like to believe.
Love – The prophet’s message will be about
love.
This is a big one.
Jesus teaches us that a true prophet will never deliver a
message of hatred, or vengeance or violence and destruction – other
than as a loving warning that if current behaviors don’t change then
those behaviors themselves will bring about hatred, vengeance, violence and
destruction.
A prophet’s message will always be about how we can
bring more love into God’s world.
A prophet’s message will always be about how we can
add value to God’s creation.
The third word is challenge.
The prophet’s message will be challenging.
If we were already taking the path that the prophet
advises, there would be no reason for the prophet to speak.
The prophet is needed to challenge us to change direction
or move beyond where we are; also known as repenting.
If we are on a course of injustice, greed, idolatry, self-service
and vengeance; then clearly the prophet is going to call us away from that
path.
If we are on a path of putting other things, before God
– be it nationalism, or consumerism or some ideology;
the prophet will challenge us to repent.
This of course means that the prophet’s words
themselves will be challenging, hard to listen to, displeasing to our
sensibilities.
But if the words are true, yet challenging and certainly
calling us to love; then they are likely the words of a true prophet.
There are prophets in our midst. There are men and women
today speaking the word of God, for God is still speaking and these
men and women are the mouthpieces of our God.
For us, the first question we must ask ourselves is, are
we willing to listen?
Are we willing to open our ears, our minds, our hearts?
Will we welcome a true prophet into our midst?
Or are we
more likely to welcome a 21st Century Hananiah who
will just tell us what we want to hear?
I think we have learned that in the short run the Hananiahs are easier to listen to.
But in the long run they can be quite deadly.
To close up let me tell you what happened at the end of
the Jeremiah story.
Following the prophets like Hananiah,
many of the surrounding countries participated in a rebellion against King Nebuchadnezzar and
the Babylonians.
But the rebellion failed and Nebuchadnezzar brought the
full force and furry of Babylon against the rebels wiping out the remnants.
Judah however was sparred.
Tens of thousands of lives were spared and perhaps the future of the Jews was
spared. Why?
King Zedekiah of Judah had decided to follow the word of
God as delivered by Jeremiah, even against the will of the people.
As a result, Judah did not participate in the rebellion and Babylon did not delete them.
Holy God, help us to recognize the true prophets and to
welcome them.
AMEN.
|
