Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Where have all the prophets gone?

I need a prophetic voice to wake me up from my comfortable slumber. But, where can I go to hear it?

With so many voices competing for our attention, I wonder about our ability to hear the clarion call of God despite the cacophony. There are so many people talking about so many things. The noise is deafening. And yet, despite all the chatter, I think it's getting easier to surround ourselves within the cocoon of our preferences, finding voices that are merely parroting our prejudices.

For example, it's amazing to me how quickly people line up on this or that question simply because of their political allegiances. Or, how a "theological hero" makes a claim about this or that book and all their devoted followers fall in line to bash the author.

Given the rancor that dominates social discourse, I can't help but wonder if we'll ever hear a prophet say, "Thus saith the Lord," and we'll have ears to hear it. To me, it seems like the days of John the Baptizer all over again.

5 comments:

Tom 1st said...

Add to that our deep hermeneutic of suspicion regarding any and all who might say, "This is what God says" and the situation becomes more troublesome.

Rodney Reeves said...

Tom 1st,

And, quoting Scripture makes it worse.

Tom 1st said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tom 1st said...

Exactly. And,honestly, though there is a serious problem with not being able to hear God's voice through another person, I also fear people who quote scripture like that because I've seen it abused so often. So I don't know what a middle ground looks like. Maybe it's discerned contextually.

JD said...

I feel like God speaks to me most through music. So many artists today are coming at life with a prophetic voice (Derek Webb, Sufjan Stevens, Mumford and Sons, DMB at times) that to ignore them or push them off as simply good music to listen to disregards what actually may be happening.

"But now bring me a harpist." While the harpist was playing, the hand of the LORD came on Elisha and he said, "This is what the LORD says..." 2 Kings 3:15-16a