Encourage the Prophets who light our way

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/122517-day.cfm
IS 52:7-10
HEB 1:1-6
JN 1:1-18

Brothers and sisters:
In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways
to our ancestors through the prophets;
in these last days, he has spoken to us through the Son,
whom he made heir of all things
and through whom he created the universe,
who is the refulgence of his glory,
the very imprint of his being,
and who sustains all things by his mighty word.
When he had accomplished purification from sins,
he took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
as far superior to the angels
as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (HEB 1:1-6)

The above reading plants Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension as a fulcrum in history, specifically the most remarkable human event in the annals of time because our Trinitarian God brought us to his bosom by becoming one of us. Yet, the subsequent impact of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling in Christ’s followers (which Hebrews affirms) leads to the upcoming age of Christ’s return as King. That holy and glorious frame, a picture of humanity’s future, rarely flashes before us. In fact, today’s science fiction purposely ignores this awesome imagery.

Where are our prescient authors of today, like Isaiah and Daniel and Malachi and John of the Book of Revelation? The author of Hebrews provided in depth reporting, detailing the events that had taken place, including the presence of God in “people of the way.” All of these things had been envisioned by the tuned in prophets of the Jewish people, and they ardently wrote about it. How about now? 

I submit that many soothsayers, actively listening to the Holy Spirit can be found. You must search far beneath the incessant surface noises screaming for our attention to find them. Their voices are like whispers, much like the harkening of the Holy Spirit. We can trust the honesty of these hidden whisperers, but we have to hear through the camouflage of other noises. 

Few of the holy prophets of today reach the maddening crowds with their visions. Sacrificial copies of Jesus’ crucifixion in the Matrix and even Harry Potter engender some nods of veiled gratitude that a higher force reigns supreme, yet their work only presents odd caricatures of the savior rather than truth confident in the God that we Judeo-Christians recognize. Little work has been done to imagine how the Holy Spirit dwells in us once the savior returned to the Father, much less even farfetched analogies to the actual triumphant return of Jesus. Rather, we get fantasies dialed into the doom, pointing to dark verses in Revelation and forgetting that river of grace, the Tree and Book of Life, and …. oh well.

We have to go back almost a hundred years now for C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series, which tackled the future of heaven and earth. Plenty of authors have covered the Jesus story, but few, so few, have written about what will soon be revealed.

Since the Holy Spirit arrived, God has blown through the ears of the population, and rushed to fill the chests of every man, woman and child ever born. Unlike the time before Christ, our earth-wide prophets no longer number one or two per nation. There are now the possibility of dozens within even the smallest of our communities. If only two arise, at least one of them must have storytelling capabilities. More likely, a prophet bursts from every family, and stories flit wildly about in youthful-turned-adult imaginations, all probably worthy of hearing. Who though can hear them? Where does this telling go, and when does it take place?

Some might claim that television, movies, magazines, internet, and advertising’s unlimited beacons have blunted the imaginations of prophets into silence. But, what fills these primarily secular venues with output other than these very prophets. These are God’s holy folks, gifted by divine grace. We can see their handiwork everywhere, purveyors of storytelling attracting us with many years of serial episodes, astounding us with wondrous plots and presentation. Even the minute, crisp tales told in mere seconds through advertising commercials can be remarkable.

The tales, unfortunately, do not mention the Holy Spirit, nor the new Heaven and New Earth, and certainly not the magnetic gathering of God’s people to his side for eternal joy amid the Communion of Saints. 

Today’s mainstream prophets lack what we would call a grounded holiness. These are not phony prophets, though, or soulless seers, or even just wily fortune tellers. Not really. They answer the call for conscripted oracles, instead, performing the bidding of warrior producers, armed with both money and missions. They are clairvoyants for the misguided, I believe, manufacturing rationale projections from premises most absurd. Like tattoo artists, they are craftsmen looking for a paying audience. And, as awful as Christians must endure, they have become diviners of agenda-driven market opportunities, rather than devotees of the promptings from the Holy Spirit.

False prophets do exist, most nefarious, and awful. More apparent than frightful, though, we should not be concerned with them. We should be encouraging the bright-eyed prophets who consider film/television, journalism and investigative reporting the high grounds of divining and oracle telling to turn, rather, and follow the path of the Holy Spirit's leading where they go. Distance themselves, abandon even, the sacred-sounding influencers. In their hearts the prophets know that celebrity resides in periphery, and that politics turns cracks into chasms. Cleverness is not a sin, actually, though politics has developed it into a dark art. Celebrity is no longer a hosanna glory to the creator’s graces, a spontaneous parade to ingenuity and skill. It is only, now, a manufactured autoplay interruption to the masses insistent upon a financial reward.

The prophets gifted by God who set the scenes and fabricate the entertainment world of politics and celebrity should know better, but it's not all their fault. We need to add our whispers to the ignored background noise of the Holy Spirit. We need to be the purposeful white noise machine, calming and choir-like in unison. Who are we, if we are not kin to the prophets? We are the evangelizers, the priests, the kings and queens that God anoints daily. Our duty in Christian citizenry should provide courage to the prophets who replay their visions into our roadmaps. Not just a timeline of the future, of course, but the unmistakable analogies, similes, parables, and banners of divine, eternal interrelationships. That sounds way more complicated and weird than it is. We are the Body of Christ porting into the Communion of Saints through the broadband of grace. The prophets holler directions and point out the signs, encouraging us all to recognize where Jesus “sustains all things by his mighty word.”

While this reflection touts a call to encourage the prophets a similar charge could be made for the priests, evangelists, teachers, kings and queens. The Body of Christ belongs to a holy compliment of gifted believers and saints. Encouragement follows mentoring, which follows recognition, which follows awakening. All are done in concert, because that’s how the Holy Spirit works. We should not be disappointed or depressed. The story of Jesus’ return is true. The indwelling is not just frighteningly real, it is compelling and inevitable. 

With grace we can see it, hear it, and feel it. The urgency is not so much that Jesus is coming, but that our brothers and sisters need to know that we receive the same embracing grace. We belong to a dispersed orchestra while God relentlessly taps upon his podium, calling us to attention.