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1 Kings 17:17-24 Galatians 1:11-24 Luke 7:11-17 Some of the most eccentric people in the Bible are prophets. Most of them started off as ordinary people like you or me, but God ended up calling them to do some pretty crazy stuff. For example, there’s the naked prophet – Isaiah. God told Isaiah to walk around Jerusalem naked for 3 years to warn the people that if they went to war with the Assyrians, they themselves would be stripped naked and marched off into slavery. And then you have the almost-naked prophet, Jeremiah. God had him buy a new pair of underwear and then wear it around without washing it. Then God told him to bury the underwear in the wet river sand, get it even dirtier, and then put it back on. This was to show the people that they had become like nasty underpants to God because they were worshipping other gods. And then there’s Ezekiel…his book is filled with crazy things that he did for God. But one of the first was that he had to build a little model of Jerusalem in the dirt. Then he was tied up and had to lay on his side for 390 days facing the little city to represent the number of years Israel had been sinning. Then, just when he thought he was done, he had to lay on the other side for 40 days to symbolize the number of years that Judah had been sinning. Throughout this time he had to cook his food using cow manure for fuel, which I’m sure his neighbors just loved. So, does anyone want to be a prophet? This past week as I was driving back from Synod Assembly, I decided to listen to the book of 1 Corinthians on my iPod. And as I was listening, one part in particular really struck me, so when I got home I had to look it up and digest it a little more. Keeping in mind some of the crazy things that these prophets did, here is some of what Paul had to say in 1 Corinthians 14. “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy…Everyone who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and comfort. The one who speaks in tongues edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies (or builds up) the church.” Paul makes it sound like being a prophet is something that we should want to do, that it’s a pretty cool gig, and that in fact, it is something necessary for the upbuilding of the church. Once we get past the fact that God sometimes asks prophets to do crazy things, the job description that Paul lays out for prophets is a pretty sweet deal. My handy dandy Bible Dictionary builds on Paul’s words and says that “a prophet is someone who speaks on behalf of God for the strengthening, encouragement, and comfort of others.” So does anyone want to be a prophet now? Using this definition, our Stephen Ministers are prophets, even the three new ones that just started their training this past week. Our Christcare leaders who are also going through training right now, are actually training to be prophets. Anyone on our Caring Team could be considered a prophet, as could our Sunday school teachers or youth group sponsors. Our PACE Team is setting up a whole program to train future prophets. OASIS volunteers who pass out food to the hungry are speaking and acting on behalf of God and thus are prophets. And as any of these unknowing prophets will tell you, if you think about it like this, being a prophet is a really cool job. Our scripture passages this morning lift up some of the cool benefits of being a prophet. In Galatians, Paul says that people glorified God because he had been converted into a prophet. In 1 Kings, Elijah is at first criticized for being a prophet. The widow’s son who has just died cries to him, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” But by being a prophet and having a close connection to God, Elijah is actually able to bring the son back to life. And it is through his actions that this pagan woman comes to believe that the words of the Lord in his mouth are words of truth. And in our gospel lesson today, we see Jesus acting as the ultimate prophet. He sees a funeral procession and without even being asked, he has compassion on the widow who has just lost her son. He walks over to the casket, touches it, and tells the dead son to rise up. Of course, the dead son sits up, and through this action, the people recognize that they have had an encounter with the holy. Perhaps this is best benefit of being a prophet and why Paul says we should all desire it as a spiritual gift. Being a prophet means that you get to have God-moments all the time. When you care for people, when you strengthen them or encourage them, when you have compassion on people – God shows up. And when God shows up, crazy things start happening – dead people start coming back from the dead. And you as a prophet get to experience this first hand. Kelly Fryer, the main speaker at last weekend’s synod assembly, tells the story of visiting a tiny little art gallery in Oregon. When Kelly walked into the gallery, the owner was really friendly and gave her a little tour of the shop and told her the stories of all the paintings and pieces of art. The owner told her of how every year she gathers the artists together for a retreat to help them build community with each other. When the owner asked Kelly what she was doing in Oregon, Kelly told her that she was a church consultant and here to do some work with one of the local churches. At the mention of churches, the woman began to open up about her personal struggles with the church and how some people in her former church had said some things to really hurt her. The art gallery owner hadn’t been to church in years and consequently had been spiritually drained. She felt like God had abandon her. After a lengthy discussion of encouragement and consolation, Kelly said, “I don’t want to freak you out, but I’ve felt God’s presence with us since I walked through those doors.” Immediately, the woman burst into tears. It seemed that Kelly had affirmed something that the woman had also been feeling, but had been reluctant or scared to acknowledge. Kelly’s prophetic voice of encouragement and comfort had named God’s presence, made it safe for the woman to be vulnerable, and healing had happened. A woman who was spiritually dead had come back to life. And there are other ways that dead people come back to life in our world. Martin Luther in his Small Catechism says this regarding the 5th Commandment, which is “You shall not murder.” He says, “We are to fear and love God, so that we neither endanger nor harm the lives of our neighbors, but instead help and support them in all of life’s needs.” So it seems that if you see someone being “murdered” with words or actions by someone else, you can in essence bring them back to life by helping them and supporting them in their time of need. Regarding the 8th Commandment, which is “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor,” Luther writes, “We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.” So it seems that we can actually bring someone back to life by defending them, saying good things about them, or just basically giving them the benefit of the doubt. As prophets, our job is to do these things and to name them when see them happening in others. Kelly recommends starting off with those little words, “Now, I don’t want to freak you out, but I think God just showed up.” When we do these things and see others doing them, its amazing the kind of difference that it can have in our relationships or make in someone’s life. Dead people can actually be raised through caring and compassionate words and actions. Modern day prophecy, like all of us are capable of through the Holy Spirit, is only slightly different from biblical prophecy. Unfortunately, we can’t all be like Elijah or Jesus and just decide to physically raise people from the dead because we are compassionate. Now, the good news is that God also doesn’t call us all to run around naked or not change our underwear either. But when we do use our gifts of prophecy, when we strengthen, encourage, and comfort, when we speak on behalf of God and have compassion, cool and crazy things can happen. Not only does God show up, but we can actually raise the dead. Amen.
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