A prophet for this generation
James Cathcart
July 06, 2021
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Ezekiel 2: 1-5 (NRSVA)
1 He said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you. 2 And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. 3 He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. 4 The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ 5 Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.
Who are the prophets speaking to the years we are living through now? Who is God sending among us? And are we listening to them?
If the Bible is anything to go by (and we do tend to work on that basis…) then the prophets we should be on the lookout for could well be a little bizarre. ‘Unconventional’ perhaps. We can be certain that rather than having God on their side, they’ll be on God’s side. And that, as always, will be the side of the poor, the neglected, the marginalised, the brokenhearted. And what these prophets have to say might sometimes make us feel a bit uncomfortable.
But that just makes sense, doesn’t it?
If a prophet came and told you that everything was going swell and that what you should do… is exactly what you would be doing anyway… they’d be a bit of a pointless prophet.
And lo the prophet came and said “Eh, as you were.”
But unfortunately pointless prophets are often the prophets we want to listen to. The ones who say “Just keep things as they are, wee bit of rearranging here and there, but in the main you’re golden.” The miracle solution is a slight tweak to business as usual. Isn’t that relief? But as we look back over the years these prophets of convenience get swept along by the tide of change along with everybody else. It’s the prophets that God sends that ring through the ages.
PRAYER:
Change-maker,
rain-bringer,
life-giver,
we are sorry for the times when we think that the problems we all face
are something for someone else — somewhere else — to deal with
that requires little change from us.
We are sorry for listening to the prophets of convenience
and tuning out the inconvenient, uncomfortable, prophets.
Amen.
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