Prophet
I’ve been working through this for a while now trying to
understand the picture we have of a big issue seller in our ‘Christmas Present’
project and the advent story.
As a result of my pondering, I offer you these words to
think about and reflect on...
Are prophets all around us? Or are they hidden in the
corridors of power? However we
understand that I wonder how many prophets we miss as we go about our everyday
lives? Is it the big issue seller? The Occupy campaigners? What about the
homeless person sitting in the same old place... waiting? Maybe it’s the young
people that go out in there droves on a weekend to ‘forget’ there problems for
a few hours? What about through the many projects that help people make a
better life for themselves? What about the politician or local councillor who
works for their community?
So maybe the prophets of our day
are the people we least expect?
With this picture of the prophet there is also this idea
of hoping... We often ask children at Christmas time ‘what are you hoping to
get’? When we are older our hoping is for different things and they vary from
person to person, but some of the concerns that seem to be on the world agenda
at the moment about this question of hoping are - hope for a better future for
the generations to come, hoping for things to change in the world’s economic
climate, hoping for peace and stability in the world, hoping for employment,
hoping that I still have a job in the morning.
It seems to me that the biblical Christmas story has aspects of hope for the future as well as hope for the here and now... we
long for it to happen and we long for it to make a difference now, there is a
bit of me that wants to ask the question... how can we be prophets... not just
to speak into situations but also to make a difference to a situation by the
things that we do?
So here are some questions to ponder about this weeks picture:-
Are there prophets all around us?
What are you hoping for?
In what way can you bring hope into situations that you
are in?
Please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments.
Please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments.
John the baptist is the most famous prophet we think of at this time of year next to Jesus. What would he be asking us to repent from could it be building the bigger barns that Jesus condemned in the parable of a rich man or standing by when so many on the world are in dire need or destroying the environment? Or just in thinking we are better than anyone else?
ReplyDeleteGreat questions John, i'm sure it would be all of those and others!
ReplyDelete