The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
January 31, 2010
Vol. 13 no. 05

Everything But...

Prophecy still holds quite a fascination for people. The common understanding is that prophecy involves predicting the future, and I doubt there are many of us who do not sneak a peek at spectacular, usually gloomy, prognostications about coming events in those ornery tabloids. The end of the world is a popular choice and now we have the Mayan calculations of 2012 - and there’s already a movie out to visualize it.

The Old Testament is the source of what we know about prophets and very few times did they predict the future. They were speaking for God, possessed by God in fact, and what they were saying is that our corrupt and selfish way of living will inevitably get us into big trouble. Some politicians, scientists, preachers like to tout themselves as prophets, but when they talk about the coming consequences of our present behaviour, it’s simply a matter of knowing how people and nature work and mis-function. No visions or crystal balls required.

Don’t get me wrong, we need more prophets. Yet, watch out what kind of prophet you ask for. Plenty of self-proclaimed prophets think they know it all, they are God, instead of speaking for God. It is seldom mentioned, but humility is the most important quality for an authentic prophet. Jeremiah, perhaps the most strident of prophets - and one of the least popular in his day - could never be accused of being on an ego trip. He is flabbergasted that God would want him, a tongue-tied teenager, to say such momentous things to Israel. It is not the words that Jeremiah wrote that we read, but the words he heard, and often he was afraid to repeat them. Jesus in the second part of his hometown Nazareth sermon and it doesn’t go well. He’s right - nobody really likes a prophet in their home.