It’s prophecy time
the flyer says
come and let us tell you what an angry and retributive
God
has in store for this sinful world
and let us scare the hell out of you…
It’s prophecy time
come to the “prophecy center”
prophecy
it’s a good thing
really
when it is really prophecy
not when it someone telling you
what a prophet from long ago was telling
people from long ago
about the possible consequences of their actions
and challenging them to change
not when it is someone pointing to the “signs of the
time”
Bible style
and suggesting that those signs
(meant to apply to ancient Rome) are happening “now”
and we’d better pay up our tithes
and answer that altar call
or burn
but when it is someone proclaiming
“Hear! Hear O
Children of God!”
that the same errors of yesteryear
are the same errors of today
and we really ought to change
Aquinas (in his Commentary of Jeremiah) suggests
that a
“prophet has been consecrated to overturn, root up,
destroy,
and again to build and renew”
a prophet is to stand up to injustice
and stand up for justice
and bring healing
a prophet is about transformation
not about scaring people into
buying insurance against an inevitable future
but about moving people into changing the future
prophets are people who must see
see what is wrong
prophets are people who must speak
who must, in whatever way they can
put a mirror in front of people and say
“This is us”
a prophet is a person who helps other people see
what he or she sees
that which is hidden
that which is forgotten
that which is denied
and a prophet says
because we are greedy
because we abuse power
because we neglect the poor
because we oppress
because we pillage and plunder
because
this is what will happen
this is what is likely to happen
unless
unless we see
unless we repent
unless we change
unless we turn to God
not in fear but in hope
and live life a different way
a prophet is less about what God is going to do to us
and more about what we are going to do to ourselves
it is not that God is unimportant
for in God, in Sacred, in Love
we find the power to change
but we cannot, we will not change
what we do not see
so let us hear it for the prophets
for Isaiah, and Amos
Micah, and Mary, and Elizabeth
for Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela
for Sister Chittister, and Shawn Clairborne
(and definitely not for Enlow, Locke, and Kerr)
let us hear it for the prophets
those who see
and stand
and speak
those who help us see what is wrong
challenge us to be better
and connect us with the Power
to change
