Being Prophetic

Text: Acts 2:1-21. Other texts: Luke 17:5

Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs.

In the time of Jesus, these places spanned from one end of the earth to the other. These were people from everywhere, from all over the world. These were all the people. From all sorts of lands. Of all different kinds. Who spoke all different languages.

Some had come Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost, the 50th day after Passover. Some were there to trade, to do business. Some were traveling through. Jerusalem was a cosmopolitan city. A meeting place of many people and cultures. A place, like Cambridge, of many languages and ideas.

The disciples, and maybe many others, were meeting. They seemed to be both hopeful and confused. Apprehensive and eager. Jesus was gone. There was work to do ahead, but no one knew quite what kind of work or where it would lead. It was a time of transition. Something was going to happen.

Suddenly, the story goes, sound like the wind rushed through the house and tongues like flame touched each of them. And they began to speak in other languages.

The people nearby were amazed. Each one heard the same story spoken, but each in his or her native language. This was a miracle of communication. But it is hard to tell whether it was a miracle of speaking or a miracle of hearing. Was it a miracle of tongues or a miracle of ears? Where, from the minds of the speakers to the minds of the hearers, where did the Spirit intervene?

Some thought this might just be a drunken party. But Peter told them that this event was a sign of a new age. It was a time of prophecy. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, and see visions, and dream dreams.

Prophets are called up by times of turmoil and change. A prophet is not really a fortune-teller or a prognosticator. A prophet is someone who sees things as they are. Someone who see clearly what is going on. And then tells everyone about it. A prophet is a truth-teller. A prophet’s main job is to tell it like it is. Sometimes a prophet warns about what is going to happen, but the prophet is not foretelling the future through some special knowledge that no one else has access to. The prophet knows what anybody could know if they only looked clearly, without prejudice, and without preconception. The prophet’s power of prediction is in the form of: if you continue to act the way you are acting, then the future will no doubt turn out such and such a way. Usually, that way is not so nice. The prophet’s statements are warnings. Heads up, guys! Watch out! Change your ways! Or else.

Therefore, people who have a stake in keeping things the way they are don’t like prophets. Prophets are trouble makers. They are anti-establishment. For that reason, there is no such thing as an official prophet, a certified prophet, an authorized prophets. Prophets are unauthorized.

When Moses came down from the mountain after speaking to God, as we heard in the first reading, all the officials were bent out of shape. These guys, they said, these guys Eldad and Medad are prophesying, and they are not authorized. Authorized by us, they meant. But Moses said: it would be great if everyone were a prophet.

Anyone can be a prophet. You can be a prophet. That doesn’t mean that everyone who stands around criticizing is a prophet. Everyone’s a critic, as they say, but not everyone’s a prophet. The spirit of God has to be with them. How we judge that is an open question. But the point is that it the powers that be are never the judge.

Anyone can be a prophet. And the flip side of this is that a prophet can speak to anyone. People whom the powers that be have excluded, or oppressed, or ignored, or underrated.

Peter says that Jesus brings a new era to the world. The rise of prophecy—with all sorts of unauthorized speakers and all sorts of unfamiliar listeners—is both a sign and and means of change. Like a hinge, prophesy connects the familiar and predictable with the strange and new. It is the Spirit at work.

In the story of Pentecost the Spirit moves people to speak and the Spirit moves people to listen. To have skillful tongues and open ears. The ongoing development of faith in each of us and in the world is a conversation. We all have obligations in this conversation. We are called to speak up about what we know about God and about what God asks us to do in the world. What we hear Jesus to say, for example. And we called just as seriously to listen to others, listening as we are guided by the Spirit.

The other day someone spoke about some people who cut out the words in a children’s Bible and put in other words. They did that because in their culture there were no sheep, and thus no lambs, and the shepherd and lamb language made no sense to anyone. So they used some other image, some other symbol of humble sacrifice. I would say this was a prophetic sort of act. Sometimes we have to speak in unfamiliar languages. But people were concerned, hearing of this, that the result wouldn’t be Lutheran.

Our job in these days is not to be the keeper of the gates. Our job is to be prophets. Sometimes that will result in a call to uphold tradition, and sometime it will result in a call to break tradition. It is not always easy to tell which is right. But we are in a time of tumult in the world. We are in a time of transition. Something is changing. It is hard, but I think it is good. We don’t have to be afraid.

One of the great things about riding the Red Line [subway] during rush hour—probably the only great thing about it—is that the train is full of all sorts of people. People of all sorts of ways of dressing, speaking, acting, even probably ways of thinking. We live in a cosmopolitan city. Full of Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia. And now, not just our city, but our world, our time is cosmopolitan. The whole world is like Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. It is a time that calls for prophecy. For truth telling. For warning, too.

Faith is not a conversation among like-minded people. Knowing that was what made Peter so excited. If everyone were the same, there would be no need for prophecy. Prophecy is a sign of God’s doing something.

We are all called to speak up, moved as each of us might be by the Spirit. We are all called to listen carefully. Go tell it like it is. Go hear it well.