Have you ever thought of yourself as a prophet? During the sweltering hot days of August I remember hearing friends predict this would be the coldest and hardest winter we have had in years. Were they prophets, arm-chair meteorologists, or just lucky? That hot afternoon I remember wiping sweat from my brow and thinking, “Yeah, haven’t you heard of global WARMING?” Who has frost on their face now? Uh, me.
Being able to predict the weather is one thing, but being a real prophet is something altogether different. The word itself has changed meaning over time and now holds a general flat definition of being someone who can predict the future. In a Biblical sense being a prophet is less about telling the future and more about speaking a word of God with power, conviction, and results. Many of us probably have a favorite Biblical prophet like Elijah or Deborah, but who comes to mind when you think of modern day prophets or where a prophetic voice is needed?
The word prophet always brings to my mind the late Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday we celebrate on January 18. For King and many biblical prophets, their main job was to speak a word of God in order to critique the status quo, challenge systems and societal structures and call into question the complacent assumptions of a community and its leaders who too often believed they were unquestionably doing “the Lord’s” will. Being a prophet has almost always put one in difficult, uncomfortable, and often life-threatening situations.
In 1963 King was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama for non-violent protests. Just prior to his arrival an open letter directed at King was published in the local paper by eight religious leaders seeking “law, order and common sense.” The thrust of the letter can be summed by quoting two sentences from its middle, “We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely.”
Jailed for the protest King wrote a letter in response to these religious colleagues on the margins of an old newspaper, the only paper he was allowed to have. It is now referred to as “The Letter from Birmingham Jail.” To quote from this well articulated and weighty letter,
“…I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
As we continue to celebrate the season of Epiphany, where ordinary things are revealed to be extraordinary in the light of the Gospel, may we not turn away from the mirrors that the prophets within our communities hold up to us. On the contrary, may we serve as caring, courageous stewards of the precious prophetic voices in our midst. Have a happy and peace-seeking holiday weekend.
- Don
