What do we want

We don't really want prophets do we? Well sort of....maybe.... Well so long as they write books and mind their own business and lead conferences and inspire us when we want to be inspired but just so long as we can close the pages safely when we have had enough of the challenge and sanitize the voice when it pushes beyond our comfort level and well.....if those prophets really won't behave we can always starve them out.

I always thought that somehow priests were also supposed to be prophetic - but I have discovered that that might not be so true - certainly not in a time of economic uncertainly when anything other than the staid - apparently formulaic money-bringing-in tried and tested truth might be more than an investment risk. So instead of prophecying we preach carefully - we preen the self to a place of relative safety - carefully choosing the image we will portray and carefully constructing the wall around anything which might reveal either the depths of our humanity or the height of our interaction with God's revealed truth.

Neutrality is mandated for us politically for financial expediency and it is almost as if this neutrality extends further into our lives. Challenge but not too much. Congregations expect some questions but not too many and will remind tou that they are in Church voluntarily and do not have to be. This is not even about doom an gloom, this is not even about being miserable. If I tell people to "Rejoice in the Lord Always!" If I really tell them to do that instead of making nice noises, what am I telling them? I am not telling them not to do many of the things which many of them will claim is their normal behavior. Much of what we do is not rejoicing. Adding joyfulness to our lives is not something which is done all that easily for many of us and so we add tokens and smile and shrug and drive home cussing as the driver in front stops too quickly or the pedestrian ambles slowly across the road and we watch the light change frustratingly.

Neutrality is why the Church is dying. You no longer crucify your prophets you simply refuse to take them seriously - you tuck them into corners or tie their hands with financial threats. You work them hard at every day life until their poor heads ache from trying to keep sane with the message of the angels and the needs of humanity clattering in upon them constantly. And many of them you break. Many of them you break with addiction or you exploit their weakness and self-need. You, dear Church, do not want prophets, you do not want the voice of God, you want stability and reason and these have never been the same - for God is offended by our reason and cannot maintain our dependence upon ourselves.

A little un-reason would do the Church good, a little letting go - paying for the heating even when you really, really disagree with the words being said. No one asked anyone to agree with every word and it is a sin to censor those who are given words to speak by means of intimidation. Salvation may be some sort of balm but the stirring of the soul, the turning to Christ, that work of renewal includes anger, it includes rejection of our rough edges, it includes letting go and allowing in. I am sorry to upset anyone with harsh accusations but we will all die as a denomination if we cannot listen and we cannot listen if we do not trust in the word of prophecy.