Readings: Isaiah 40:1-11 2 Peter 3: 8-15 Mark 1:1-8
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
Later this morning we will be singing the words, Long ago, prophets knew, Christ would come, born a Jew. But did they really know? Is prophecy just about foretelling the future, I prophesy I will have a cup of coffee after this service! Well, prophecy is not always just about predicting the future. Prophecy in the bible can be seen as falling into two categories, the prophesy that seems to predict the future and the prophesy that takes the form of speaking truth to power.
As anyone who has read Harry Potter will know, understanding prophecy can be a tricky thing. We can read into the words what we expect to find there, which may not be how the original speaker or listeners would have understood the words. The words we heard from Isaiah this morning, have often been linked to Jesus, as the coming Lord who will make paths straight. However in Judaism prophecy is seen more as God declaring his current concerns to his people. The listeners at the time , might have interpreted it as referring to the coming of, the Persian King Cyrus who, when he defeated the Babylonians, allowed the Jews to return, from captivity in Babylon to their homeland.
Down the centuries Jews and Christians when facing terror or hardship have reapplied these words to their own situation, situations the original writer could never have conceived off.
Biblical prophecy shouldn’t be seen as prophecy in the fortune telling mystic meg sense of the word. We would maybe like to know what the future holds for us , as long as it is good, we may be less willing to know if it is bad.
The problem with reading prophecy as fortune telling is that it can’t be true because the future is determined by our actions now, by choices that we are free to make. When we try to follow prophecy in a fortune telling way, we become enslaved to it and lose the freedom God gives us to choose our own path.
What the prophets like Isaiah did do was give people, people that may feel they are waiting in the darkness, hope. It can still offer that hope today even as this advent the world around us may feel in a dark place. There is that hope that the light will shine in the darkness and the darkness will not in the end overcome.
Prophets of course aren’t just in the Old Testament. Mark starts his gospel by quoting our friend Isaiah, but then introduces a new prophet, a prophet of the New testament, John the Baptist. John is perhaps more the second type of prophet, who speaks truth to power. He goes around in his wild way, telling people look here is the truth. He dares to speak the truth to those in power, and loses his head for it. Whilst I hope we will not all be called to lose our heads like John, maybe we do need to have a little bit of John the Baptist in us.
To call out those, anybody, but maybe especially those in positions of power or influence who do not stick to their promises. Those who present information in a misleading way in order to stir up hated and violence towards others. We need to show people there is a better way. It can be very easy in the heat of the moment when our emotions have been stirred up, by a post on social media to quickly hit the re post button, without checking the source of the information, and the message the original poster is trying to put across.
Video and audio clips can be edited, to put across a certain viewpoint, that may not accurately reflect reality. We should pause before hitting the re-post button, check the source and if something is misinformation, then maybe still post about it, but point out the problem.
Be like John the Baptist.
Advent is also a time of waiting, and it can seem like we have been waiting a long time, over two thousand years. After waiting this long it can be easy to give up, to drift away, from living as God intends us to. Peter, in his letter today, reminds us that how we see time and how God sees time may not be the same. God is not slow, he just wants to give everyone time to find the right way. Some people might need help to find that way, and that is where we come in. Peter calls us to live lives of holiness and godliness whilst we wait for the coming of God. To be lights in the darkness ,and lead others to the hope and promise of God, through the prophetic way we live our lives as children of God.
So, how should we interpret prophecy today? Well we can use the writings of the biblical prophets to comfort and to challenge us to repentance and a turning to a better way. The prophets are also though, calling us to follow their lead, to comfort where comfort is needed but also to challenge and live in a way that speaks of God.
At this time of year church life can feel as if it’s operating on a different time zone to the rest of life. We are here in Advent waiting and thinking of prophets, of calls to repentance. The rest of the world out there, has already got their Christmas tree up and is eating mince pies. By the New Year, they will be pulling everything down, saying Christmas is over, our celebration of Christmas will still be going on. This can in itself be a prophetic act, a way of saying to people, look there is more to this than parties and turkey and presents, something which is deeper and longer lasting than a bit of tinsel on a tree. Come and see, come and hear the deeper truth and find the deeper joy, and we like the prophets of old must have the courage to speak out and deliver the message. Amen
