Week 1 Prophetic

Prophetic

Things that I was told about the prophets growing up

Prophets are those people in the Old Testament that fore-told the coming of the Messiah

Future tellers

That they just sort with God’s help, guessed what was going to happen and that was what actually came true

In the next several weeks we are going to learn more about some of the Prophets and hear a little bit more of their story

Prophets predominantly held two things in tension:

A firm and accurate understanding of the world as it is

They didn’t ignore current realities, but rather stated them as they were

a hope that things might one day be better than they are now

They often dreamed up what the world could look like through art, poetry, and prose, that brought people around them into a hope for the future

One commentator says that they “comforted the afflicted, and afflicted the comfortable”

They spoke truth

Many times it was an uncomfortable truth. Something that people didn’t want to hear

Many times it was to people in power

They created and lived out theologies that helped to grieve with those who were grieving, get angry with those that were angry, and to bring hope to those that seem to have lost all hope

2020

It has become a synonym for us with suffering, with surprise, and with pain

It comes through in phrases like, “I can’t wait till 2020 is over”

or sounds about right it’s 2020

This time has seen:

In just the past couple of month we have seen a public health crisis like nothing that any of us has lived through before

an growing consciousness of racial injustice that has existed for a long time

a growing consciousness of a climate crisis that has existed for a long time

And to top it all off, there are murder hornets flying around somewhere

Prophets of now

I say all of this with a heavy heart but also with an understanding of our need for a prophetic voice

Not the apostolic prophets in quite the same way

but a prophetic voice that perhaps all people could be a part of speaking

We don’t need a cheer up and be happy type of message

We don’t need to ignore what is going on in the world when we come to church

I think we need to reclaim the prophetic voice

To remember that God might be speaking to us right now

Both to have a firm understanding of the world around us, but also to constantly be asking the question where is the hope?

Personal story

Lego man story

I am wanting to make an outlandish claim and my claim is that the words of my preschool teacher were prophetic

At a time when I could only focus on the terrors of preschool in front of me, and my mom could only focus on the terrors of her weird son that always carried around a lego person, the teacher was able to zoom out and bring us to a new consciousness of our situation

This story is about someone Abram who has to leave a whole lot behind who has to give us something that he has his hand tightened around?

Scripture

Make sure to clarify the disclaimer that Abram was, in fact, not a prophet. But Abram is the father of the nation of Israel.

Genesis 12:1–7 NRSV

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

An Unconditional Calling

We don’t know if Abraham has gifts

The challenge of passage that deal with ancient authors like these is that we think we have to be special or called

Abram could have been anyone, Abram could have been you or me

Abraham did not apply he did not beat out the other candidates

he was just called unconditionally

Abram only had a few things that were certain, and even those certain things he had to let go

only a few surviving family members

The area that he grew up in

God asks him this sort of difficult task

He has to leave what he has to walk away from it and let the past go

And travel to a new land

I was curious so I got out the map that is a little over 300 miles very close to the distance between here and St. Louis. This 75 year old man was being asked to walk on foot. Taking not much at all

Loosen his grip

He had to loosen his grip on the thing that he was holding onto to be able to accept the new thing that God was preparing for him

To a future not our own

Abram must exchange the known for the unknown, and find his reward in what he could not live to see (a great nation), in what was intangible (thy name) and in what he would impart (blessing)

Abram is not being called to his people…he is being called to people he doesn’t know, and don’t exist.

He is planting seeds that one day might grow, but he probably won’t see them

Abraham didn’t know what the end of the story looked like:

Hebrews 11:8 NRSV

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.

this is how the story ends, but Abram is not around to see it

Acts, Galatians, Revelations, and Hebrews all quote this particular moment in Abram's story

Here are the dominos that happen after Abram’s calling

This promise with Abram becomes a covenant in Gen. 15 and Gen. 22 and that covenant become a people, and that people is led by prophets and those prophets.

God promises three things

Land

People

Blessing

Abraham probably cared most about the first two

Abraham and the people around him probably cared about the practical questions

That last part is the focus of this week and the central piece to this story, but probably wasn’t a big deal for Abram.

God is calling you to be a blessing

Blessing

The primary factor of blessing is the statement of relationship between parties. God blesses with a benefit on the basis of the relationship. The blessing makes known the positive relationship between the parties, whether a single individual (Gen 12:1–3) or a group (Deut 7:14–16)

The Different contexts we use “blessing” in

I give you my blessing

Bless you when you sneeze

In the form of a benediction

It is often used to describe money

It is many times used as a way to hide privilege

Blessing of the backpacks

Shecem, Bethel, and Hebron all are places where Abram builds an alter in remembrance of the blessing that he has received

The name Abram is almost a pun on the word blessing in Hebrew

From the beginning of creation God

Go forth with a blessing