Words for Worship

Ministry Today

You know, it is strange

that Islam honours Jesus

as a prophet yet Christianity

has rarely used

that term for him.

 

Of course, his being

both divine and human

has resulted

in so many words

to describing him.

 

Yet there still seems

to be a bias

against the title

of prophet for him.

 

And that is possibly

due to number of reasons.

 

Maybe we think

calling him a prophet

somehow lessens

his greater significance

to human history.

 

Or alternatively, it is because

he just doesn’t fit

the prophet mould.

 

The pattern

at least

we have seen

in the Old Testament.

 

Because certainly

there are differences

yet there are also

many similarities.

 

Now last week,

we decided that

the Old Testament Prophets

believed in speaking

of how God saw things.

 

Moreover, they felt compelled

to deliver God’s warning

in a blunt

If not aggressive fashion

whether listened too or not.

 

 

As a result our lessons

from Jeremiah and Ezekiel

were pretty strong meat indeed.

 

However, this style

of straight-speaking

was not unknown

to Jesus either.

 

Nevertheless, he still added

something new

to the divine vocabulary.

 

As our first lesson

is read to us then,

please try and think

of the similarities

and the one key difference

Jesus had

with Jeremiah and his colleagues.

 

Here to read to us ………….

First Lesson

HYMN…………………

 

As you have probably realised

the difference

between Jesus

and the prophets of old,

came in the last few lines.

 

And it is this hope filling difference

that is summed up

in our next lesson.

 

This is now read to us by…….

 

Second Lesson

 

I got a rather handy gadget

as a Christmas gift.

 

It looks like a credit card

but it actually

is a magnifier.  

 

And so it slips

into my wallet

and it is there

when I need to see

something better

and in greater detail.

 

Well, believe it or not

that is the way Christ works

when we look

at the prophets

in the light of his life

and teaching.

 

Because it is only when

we reread

the Old Testament

knowing Jesus

can we really see

what they were on about.

 

Indeed,

our Lord acts as lens,

amplifier and answer

to the prophetic statements

of the past.

 

He is also the lens, amplifier

and answer

for the prophets of today.  

 

And that is pretty crucial

because those prophets

are none other than

you and me.

 

So what then

do I mean by

Jesus being a lens

to all prophecy?

 

What in fact

does he help us

to see better?

 

Well it’s only when reread

the Prophets’ proclamations

in light of Jesus,

do we realise that

they always talked

only about the people of God.

 

In other words,

their pronouncements

were condemnations

of the whole of Israel

as one solid entity.

 

Indeed, the Israelite theology

of long ago

and no real sense of the individual.

 

It was as if

the entire Jewish community –

chosen as a people

collectively

rather than chosen

as individuals –

stood or fell together.

 

On the other hand

Jesus never seemed that fussed

about preaching about

the whole people of God.

 

He was far more interested

in the individual.

 

Who do you,

in the singular,

say I am? –

was and is his classic question.  

 

I am the way

and the truth

and the life to you

personally

he told Thomas.

 

Christ then as lens helps us

to focus on

what the prophets

have to say

to 21st Century Broughty Ferry.

 

He switches

from a wide angle view

of loads of people

to zooming in

on just one.

 

And usually that one

is ourselves.

 

It is that lens then

that makes God’s word

as found in the Old Testament

singularly relevant,

and individually disturbing

and specifically cutting.

 

Because, in the end,

with the magnification of Jesus,

we see ourselves

as personally responsible

for our own moral decisions.

 

In other words,

we stand

not by what others do

but rather fall by ourselves

if we do not have

God’s vision

and do not respond

to his will.

 

Of course, this is also

the key

to our prophetic work

in this age.

 

For we must not

find our escape

by issuing praise and condemnation

to a whole community,

nation or people.

 

Such is

at best

a waste of breath

and at worst

prejudice.

 

Rather we must learn

to do the hard intellectual work

of separating

individual from individual,

we need to learn

to communicate God’s word

to individuals,

and we need to support individuals

who are in desperate need

of hearing God’s word

to them.

 

Let us then

be prophets of a Christianity

today

that is ever

a one-to-one religion.

 

In 1904

a man from Milwaukee

took his girl friend,

Bessie Cary

to a picnic

on an island in Lake Michigan.

 

After awhile Bessie

got a craving for

a cool, refreshing bowl

of ice cream.

 

Ole rowed 2 ½ miles

back to the mainland

to get some.

 

Unfortunately, the summer heat

melted the ice cream

into a globby mess

by the time

he made his return trip.

 

This embarrassing incident

prompted the young mechanic

to look for

a more efficient means

of propelling a small boat.

 

Five years later,

Ole Evinrude,

patented his revolutionary

outboard motor

and formed the Evinrude Motor Company

which is still in business today.

 

Ole therefore

looked at what had gone before

and wanted more.

 

Christ too

looked at the prophecy

that was even ancient to him

and wanted more.

 

So in addition

to being a lens,

Christ became also

an amplifier

of the old time prophets.

 

In other words

he took what they said

and gave us

something bigger

and something better.

 

For when we read

the prophets carefully

we hear what was wrong

and what it would be like

if God’s people

got it right.

 

But in the parlance o

f modern diplomacy,

they offered no road map

from one to the other.  

 

This absolutely central work

was left

for Christ to do.

 

Because it was he

who showed us

how we can take the vision

that God has for humanity

and make it a reality.

 

It was he

who demonstrated

how we should forward

God’s warning to individuals

and see them

turn back towards paradise.

 

In truth it was he

who showed

each of us

what we must become

as a person

if we do want to see

with God’s vision

and then do something

about it.

 

Put directly, it was he

who gave us all

the road map

to God’s fulfilled will –

a road map

we call the Gospel.

 

Or as that

well known lady of song,

Lena Horne

once put it –

it is not the load

that breaks you down.

 

It’s the way you carry it!

 

In a movie about Beethoven,

there's a scene

in which he becomes furious

at his landlady a

bout some little thing,

screaming and throwing things,

and practically terrorizing her.

 

Later he told her

he was sorry.

 

It was a touching moment

and you could see

that the woman

was almost moved to tears.

 

Then he gave her 2 tickets

to the concert

at which his new symphony

was to be performed

for the first time,

to which she replied,

"Mr Beethoven

Your not half bad

when you keep a civil tongue

in your head!

 

And that brings us

to the third role

Jesus plays

with regards the prophets.

 

Because when we read

the blood and thunder prophets

in the example of Christ

, we see

they weren’t half bad

when they kept a civil tongue

in their heads.

 

Yet Jesus was

ultimately

more than

their lens and amplifier.

 

For you see

it is he who completed

the Old Testament’s prophetic work.

 

Put another way,

in him

God has spoken fully

and after that

there is no more

of significance

to be said.

 

Ultimately Christ

was not the last

of the Old Testament Prophets;

instead he was

their answer.

 

And what do I mean by that?

 

Well, if we do review

the ancient prophetic output

with an eye to their dating,

we notice

a very interesting fact

indeed.

 

For the earliest prophets

such as Amos

told it as God’s saw it

and then offered hope

that all will be well

if his audience changed.

 

But the prophets

closer to the exile

of the Israelites in Babylon,

told it as it was

but then gave no hope

of the people’s reprieve.

 

It was as if

they asking challenging questions

but without giving

hopeful answers.

 

Here then

is how Jesus

is the full answer

to these literal

and metaphorical Jeremiahs.

 

For he says that

there is always hope –

hope not just for a people

at some future date

but also

for the individual

here and now.

 

And that is

the best kind of hope.  

 

Because that type of hope

tells us

as individuals

that God not just sees us

as we are

but loves us –

that hope

proclaims that God

knows how difficult it is

for each of us to change

and gives us forgiveness –

that hope guarantees

that God

in the answer of Jesus Christ

offers even more

than outward change –

rather, he gifts

each and every one of us

internal transformation

 

And that transformation

to the will of God

is called something else –

that answer

to the hopeless prophets

is called something else –

that answer

to our own hopelessness

is called something else.

 

For that transformative answer

is called - salvation.

 

 

Well, we come to the end

of our looking at Jesus

as a prophet

and look forward

to hearing of those

who spoke Christ’s word

into a thirsty world

over the last 2000 years.

 

Yet let our following

of the prophetic path

not end

on the completion

of our service.

 

Instead, let us hear prophecy

spoken today.

 

Let us

in God’s love

speak prophecy today.

 

Above all, let us

accept God’s grace

in being transformed

into his self-fulfilling prophecy

for today.

 

And we do that

by grabbing

with both hands

Christ’s offered salvation.

 

Come then

let us go up to its locus –

come then

let us go as hopeful people -  

come then

along with me

to that place

we all can profit from

and that is

indeed

the Lord’s Table.

 

Amen

 

HYMN…………….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus - The Prophet