“Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!” Moses exclaims in the Old Testament book of Numbers. “Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!” That fervent prayer has been answered. At our baptism each Christian is anointed, is christened as a priest, prophet and king or queen. So the prayer of Moses that all the people of the Lord would be prophets has been fulfilled in the likes of you and me at our baptism. At our confirmation, each Christian is anointed, is christened, with the power of the Holy Spirit. The gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit are ours. So the prayer of Moses that the Lord might bestow spirit on all the people has borne fruit. That’s the theory, that’s the theology. What’s the reality? Do you as a baptized person feel very prophetic? Do you as a confirmed person feel the spirit of the Lord upon you? Our task this morning is to unpack the theory to see how it looks in reality. We need to make sure that we understand what the Bible means when it talks about prophecy. That will help us see our role as prophets, to understand truly what it means to have the spirit.
Who is a prophet? What is prophecy in the Bible? When we use the word prophet nowadays it tends to refer to someone who foretells the future. Carnak the Magnificent in the old Johnny Carson show was a parody of that kind of understanding of a prophet. Such a prophet would be able to say if the Cubs were going to win the World Series or the Bears the Super Bowl – as if. Such a prophet might be able to give you six good numbers for the next lottery. But that last example illustrates that fortune-telling prophets are in short supply. As the saying goes, if you’re so smart, how come you’re not rich? A prophet in the Bible is not someone who foretells the future. Rather he or she is someone who embodies God’s future. The prophet is the one who stands for what God stands for. I don’t have to tell you that sorrows and troubles keep on coming. Just when you think it’s safe to go back into the water, another shark swims by. The prophet is the one who knows that it is NOT the will of God that those troubles, those worries, those pains get the last word. God has made us for joy. God has made us for happiness. When we feel oppressed and heavy-burdened by all the nonsense that this world dishes out, the prophet stands forth and says, stop. All the grief and sorrow, all the death and destruction, all the turmoil and trouble of this world pales to insignificance compared with the glory and power of God. The prophet says, live in God and you will find that all those things that bother you are passing. You are glory bound. Have faith and trust in God and all will be well, all manner of things will be well. That understanding of prophecy provides the key to what the Bible means about receiving the spirit. The prophet is the pre-eminently spirit-filled person because of his or her complete confidence that God is with us. There might be times when the awareness of God’s presence comes out in shouts of praise or in dancing happy feet. But the presence of God can just as readily manifest itself in a serene countenance or a quiet demeanor. No matter what the outward appearance, we are spirit-filled when we have the blessed assurance that the God who has brought us this far by faith is not about to leave us now.
So a proper scriptural definition of a prophet would be one who stakes his life firmly in the kind of world that God wants for his people. The Gospel of St. Mark for today proposes some yardsticks that we can use to measure how well we are living out our baptismal vocation as prophets. We can list them as a series of “do’s” and “don’ts.” DO: join forces with anyone who is trying to make the world a better place. We can’t limit ourselves simply to those who follow Jesus. Everyone working to make this a more just and peaceful world is our partner. DO: give someone who is thirsty a cup of water to drink. When we are helping those who are in need we are helping this world to look as God intends. DON’T: do anything which will harm one of the little ones. This seems such a no-brainer that it is hard to imagine that the Church did not do everything in its power to keep the little ones safe and protected. In the mind of God the little ones deserve special care. DO: cut out of your life everything that causes you to sin. To be a prophet requires getting rid of all of those things which are not of God, or which can keep us from God. If the internet is tempting you with sites that are demeaning or degrading, cut it out. If hanging out with the old crowd leads you to overindulge, cut it out. If an old memory causes you to hold onto anger, resentment, or a grudge, cut out. DON’T: give anything greater importance than doing that which God wants us to do. Instead of telling God what you want, ask for the freedom to accept whatever God wants in our lives.
So if those are the characteristics of a prophet the reality is that I, we, aren’t very prophetic most of the time. We’re just trying to be decent. But the deeper reality is that each one of us has been named a prophet at our baptism. By the way we live, we bring God’s future into the this present of world. Can’t nobody or nothing take away the dignity we have as the people of God. That is why we need to keep on keeping on. We might not live our prophetic vocational perfectly but God isn’t finished with us yet.
