We need to listen to today's prophets

[Evensong sermon preached on Advent 2 St Mary's Banbury]

Why didn’t anyone see the credit crunch coming?

Why didn’t anyone warn us as to just how vulnerable the financial system was? Why were the banks allowed to lend large sums of money to people who had no realistic chance of ever paying them back? Where were the prophetic voices of our generation?

The truth, of course, is that plenty of journalists and commentators – both religious and secular - did warn us of the current crises. One of the most outspoken in Christian circles – Ann Pettifor – spoke on this precise topic over a year ago at the Christian Greenbelt festival. It’s not that we weren’t told, but that we refused to listen.

On this, the second Sunday in Advent, we are encouraged to reflect on the role of the prophets in the foretelling of Christ’s birth.

Now this is slightly problematic this year as our lectionary gospel is Mark, which unlike Matthew and Luke ignores the stories of Jesus’ birth completely along with all the corresponding old testament prophecy.

Yet even the beginning of Mark, which we heard read a few minutes ago, draws on the wisdom of two old testament prophets - Isaiah and Malachi - as Mark introduces John the Baptist:

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
Prepare the way of the Lord,
Make his paths straight.”

We often think of a prophet as being someone who predicts the future – and this is certainly how the prophecies of the old testament appear to be used in the new.

Yet that is only partly true. The prophets not so much predicted the future as if it were inevitable and beyond anyone’s control; rather they outlined what the future would be like, given the current behaviour of the people of Israel.

The prophets played two vital roles. First, in the name of Yahweh, they kept hope alive – hope for the transformation of the present and for ‘the day of the Lord’ to come in the future. Secondly, they sought to bring the people of Israel back to God.

These two roles were intimately connected with one another. The prophets reminded Israel of the faithfulness of God, but at the same time condemned Israel whenever it went astray.

Like us today, the people of Israel were not good at listening to their prophets. Frequent prophetic utterances were ignored; and because the Israelites refused to listen, they failed to respond.

Our relationship with God is similarly grounded in invitation and response; God’s invitation to us, and our response to God. The divine gift of redemption comes with clear responsibilities as the prophets repeatedly emphasised in their proclamations.

All of this makes the inclusion of old testament prophecy in the stories about Jesus a little disturbing. Their inclusion is not a simplistic and sentimental reminder that the incarnation was foreseen in the old testament. But a very painful reminder that the incarnation was only necessary because of human failure. A failure to listen and respond.

When we read in the new testament quotations from the old testament prophets we need to do so with great care. First, because the authors of the new testament had their own motives, quite distinct from the original prophet’s intentions. And second because it can lead us to the very mistaken view that the old testament is nothing more than a very long extended introduction to the real story. The names we give the two halves of our scriptures don’t help. Yet there is only a century or two between the end of the old and the beginning of the new testament. Read as a whole the Bible is one continuous story of God’s relationship with creation.

At the beginning of his gospel, Mark weaves two of the many prophecies of Isaiah and Malachi together; drawing new truth from their separate contexts – contexts that were separated by at least 100 years.

Isaiah, writing against the background of exile in Babylon offers comfort and hope. Malachi’s denunciation of the religious and moral waywardness of the people of Israel in the 5thC BC was accompanied by dire warnings of the judgement of God to come.

In uniting these two different prophecies, Mark gives scriptural authority to John the Baptist who offers comfort through baptism and utters warning through his own prophecy of the coming Messiah. And it provides the scriptural basis for Mark’s outrageous claim with which his gospel starts: This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

So, returning to my opening comments about the credit crunch, how can we relate the old testament prophets to the challenges of our own day?

As the people of Israel waited in exile in Babylon, their hearts turned to Jerusalem in hope. Yet at the same time, Isaiah reminded his hearers of the transitory nature of the human condition.

“The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.”

Faced with the problems of God’s world we can become immobilised by our own mortality; we can deceive ourselves that we are too small and transitory to make a difference. And so we need our modern prophets – not simply to warn us of the reality around us that we often prefer to ignore, but to keep alive our hope in the God who creates, sustains and redeems us. A God who is actively involved in the world and whose commitment to us is unswerving.

So what does Christian hope offer the world this Advent? A world that includes unnecessary cholera epidemics in Zimbabwe, continuing strife in the Congo, economic uncertainty and misery for many in this country and the ongoing threat of terrorism in so many places? A world that looks far from redeemed despite the redeeming God.

Let me suggest three things:

First, the world doesn’t have to be like this. We can imagine an alternative and it’s called the Kingdom of God; a counter-cultural way of living and relating to one another that is inclusive of all, protective of the weak and vulnerable, and welcoming to the stranger.

Secondly, God hears our cries and responds. God heard and delivered the people of Israel from Egypt and from Babylon. Frustrated with the world, God incarnate came in Jesus and is available to us today through the Holy Spirit.

Finally, hope is something to realise; to bring about. Hope is not about dreams; it’s about how we respond to God’s invitation to us. Unlike wishful thinking, which is rooted in selfish desire, hope is grounded in the gritty reality of life. As Jesus discovered in Gethsemane, hope demands engagement with the world, not escape from it. To hope for a better world is to be a participant in its creation. To live in hope is to actively engage with a God and a gospel that demands that we live differently.

We think of Advent as a season of hopeful waiting. Yet for most of us I doubt it is a season of idleness. To wait is not to be unoccupied. To hope is not to leave the transformation of the world to others. God depends on us.

What are we hoping for this Advent?

Amen.