Advent 2 2020
Today is the second Sunday of Advent. The tradition on this, second Sunday, is to focus on the old Testament prophets – such mighty figures as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, as well as the lesser prophets – Joel, Habakkuk and Zephania.
John the Baptist is the last of the great Old Testament prophets, although he features in the New Testament. He’s’ really the man who straddles that divide between the Old and New Testaments – the one who tells us to watch and wait. But John has his own Sunday next week – for this week we focus on the prophets of the Old Testament.
If you ask people what a prophet does, they’re most than likely to tell you that they predict the future – this is what we understand by the word ‘prophesy’. In some ways that is correct, but it’s missing something important. Prophets are more than fortune tellers. For prophets read the signs of the times, and then point out what the consequences are likely to be, and how people should behave in order to put things right. Prophets also speak globally, or at least nationally, as much as they do to individual people – more, in fact.
So, if a prophet was around today he or she would mainly be shouting loud about the issues of our times. They might point out that coronavirus came as a result of cutting down the rainforest, thus putting wild animals in dangerously close proximity to humans – and that we will bear the consequences. Or maybe they would tell us that cramped working conditions in meat markets are dangerous and unacceptable – we will feel the consequences. They could tell us that covid will take its toll amongst elderly people, and disproportionately amongst the poor, chronically ill and vulnerable – and that these people, shamefully will be paying the price for the folly of nations. A prophet would tell us that polluting the oceans, overworking the land and the extensive use of pesticides and herbicides are destroying ecosystems – and that we will reap the dire fruits of what we sow.
Such prophets would also set out what needs to change. They would tell us to stop chopping down forests, and to cherish and love the earth; to deal with poverty and to treat elderly people with dignity and respect. They would tell us that we need to focus on working together as nations and continents to turn around global warming and pollution.
They would also be talking about sin – not simply of us as individuals, which is the normal focus of sin – but in neighbourhoods, towns and cities, and nations. The prophets would, most particularly, hold leaders to account – Prime Ministers and Presidents, Bishops, Lords, the landowners and the very wealthy.
So you see, the prophets aren’t ‘churchy’ people – they’re out there in the world, shouting and making a fuss. But, certainly as far as the Old Testament is concerned, they are people of faith. Their prophetic message springs from their faith. But, generally, the Old Testament prophets were not popular people – they were noisy, belligerent and probably antisocial. Above all they were persistent – they were prophets with the whole of their beings – wholly committed to their task.
I met one in London last year – a woman with ‘Great Grannies against climate change’ stuck on the front of her t-shirt, trying not to get away from an extinction rebellion protest, but to get to it. She was a lovely person – but also extremely committed.
What difference does this make to us – ordinary people in a small place with not much in the way of resources? Well, we need to hear what the prophets say to people of faith. They tell us that God isn’t interested in burned offerings while people are treated unjustly, that personal piety is a waste of time when people are hungry and homeless. That we should look after the strangers and refugees as well as we do our own families. They tell us that our faith has to have a ‘therefore’, and one which is outward looking.
So we’re the ones who listen to what the prophets of our day demand; we’re part of the great turning for which the prophets call. Not all prophets are people of faith these days, but it is certain than the values which our modern day prophets propound are based on the religious traditions of Judaism and Christianity – we are still in tune with them. So, we can make changes in our personal lives – use less plastic, recycle things, buy fair trade items if we can, even though they’re more expensive, refuse to buy anything with palm oil in it – and that’s not as easy as it sounds! The small actions of many people do add up and make a difference – but, sadly, at the moment, not enough difference.
So we’re the people who must hold our leaders to account and demand change. We can all do that in many ways: by taking seriously who we vote for, by writing to our MPs, by talking to our local councillors, making our priorities known to our Bishops – our Bishop sits in the House of Lords so he has a vote – how do you think he should use that? Some join demonstrations and chain themselves to railings. We can’t all do that – but we can all do something. We can act as a church too – our holiday club has been an example of that for a number of years.
Like the prophets who spoke to the world from the heart of their faith, we too must cherish our faith. The current pandemic, if nothing else, has made us realise just how much our faith means to us, and how our lives depend on it.
So this is where it starts, for us. Our faith in God is what makes us cherish God’s creation, and our love of God and knowledge of God’s love for us make us believe in God’s love for all people. So when we see people sidelined and neglected, or the planet plundered and decimated – we see these things with the eyes of faith. That is what should drive us outward into God’s world, and inward in prayer, just like the prophets. One demands the other – and we must do both.
Amen
Rev’d Dr. Anne Morris
Vicar St. Oswald’s, Knuzden, Blackburn