Transcript
This document is a direct transcript of an audio recording, and may contain transcription errors and other minor edits for the sake of clarity.
SEAN: Can you guys hear me? Yeah, good. . . . Can you hear me okay?
So, a lot of you know I like to read the news. I donât know if any of you saw the news out of Swedenâthis has to do with the president of IKEA, you know, the furniture company? So I guess heâs been a corporate guy, but he wanted to get into politics recently, and he actually won the election [for] Prime Minister of Sweden. [A] big deal. First job, first thing he has to do, is assemble his cabinet. [Laughter.]
Thereâs another headline I sawâwould you like to hear about this one?
CROWD: Yes! [laughter]
SEAN: âSaint Anthony Asks God What He Did to Deserve an Eternity of Looking for Everyoneâs Car Keys.â They actually interviewed him; this is what he said:
âI canât go five minutes without someone asking me to âplease come down, as something is lost and canât be found.â Iâm exhausted!â said a beleaguered Saint Anthony. âItâs been eight hundred years straight of looking under beds and rummaging through couch cushions! Now I have to find cell phones? Why, Lord? Why me?â [Laughter.]
Iâm kind of a word guy. And, to prepare for this talk, I got a brand new thesaurus; really exciting for a word guy, big! When I went to open it, though, all the pages were blank. Now I have no words to express my frustration. [Laughter.]
Did I mention question four? Thatâs the place where you write down all the jokes, so that you can remember never to tell them again.
A few weeks ago, in my menâs group meeting, we celebrated my birthday. One of the brothers in the group, Chris Meehan, has a habit of praying for Scripture passages for whoever we happen to be honoring for their birthday. And in my case, he gave me three different passages. All three of them were eerily relevant to my life, but one of them struck me like a stone.
And then Chris interpreted it in a way that never would have occurred to me in a million years.
I went home and I read the passage in light of Chrisâs comments, searching for the meaning, only to discover that it was actually far more relevant than I had realized at first glance. In a few sentences, the passage explained the last two years of my lifeâthe role I had been playing, touching on matters deep in my own soul, showing me how my story fit perfectly into Godâs story. For several years, I had been wandering around in some sense of confusion. Now, here was my life, taken up and found again in the pages of the Bible, seen, and known by God. The way this message came to me, through a faithful brother praying for passages like he always does, still astounds me.
This is a talk about prophecy. Prophecy, at its root, in the Biblical sense, is divine revelation of the sense of history. Divine revelation of the sense of history. God making sense out of confusion, the confusion of our history. Prophecy explains our lives to us, how they fit into Godâs plans, into whatâs happening in the world. Prophecy interprets events for us. It gives us Godâs spin on thingsâand, believe me, thatâs a spin that you canât find on the evening news.
Often, it doesnât come to us in straightforward terms. Like with parables, we have to search out the meaning, and sometimes that meaning ripens and deepens over a period of time.
Prophecy is faith seeking understanding.
In 2 Samuel 12, the prophet Nathan tells King David a prophetic parable. This is the story of a rich man who steals a poor manâs sheep. With that story, God communicates to David how he sees him: David is that rich man, who has stolen a poor manâs wife. The meaning of the prophecy cuts through the clutter of Davidâs blindness and excuses, and falls on him like a hammer: âThat man is you.â Prophecy tells us the truth, and we need the truth, even if, sometimes, it cuts us to the quick.
In the community, we tend to think about prophecy as one person standing up in front of a group, and bravely channeling Godâs message. We like to pray for an outpouring of the gift of prophecy, and we have high hopes that God will pour it out . . . on someone else, on anyone else! [Chuckling in audience.]
We forget that for prophecy to work, the listeners have to do as much work as the speakers. Listeners search out the meaning and turn words into deeds. We forget that St. Paulâs encouragement about prophecy, in 1 Corinthians 14, follows his famous words about love in 1 Corinthians 13: âMake love your aim; then be eager for the gifts of the Spirit, above all for prophecy.â Prophecy is a form of love.
This talk is not about prophecy as something that an individual does. Itâs about prophecy as a group activityâespecially a small-group activity. About all of us receiving and exercising the gift of prophecy. About all of us being brave.
In 1 Samuel 10, Samuel anoints Saul king over Israel, and Scripture tells us, âGod made Saul a different person.â The next thing that happens is, Saul goes on a journey and meets a company of prophets, and the Spirit of God suddenly takes possession of himâthis new personâand the whole group is swept up into a prophetic rapture. Thatâs the picture that we want: a menâs group or womenâs group that becomes a new creation and is caught up by the Spirit of God.
Weâre here today because of a consultation. What is its purpose? To hear what God is saying to us. To hear God together. We all need to be filled with a Spirit of prophecy: the young, the old, the meek, the brave. We need God to reveal his sense of our history. To give us his mind about the past, the present, and the future.
When God comes in power, our personal agendas are stripped away. One will speak, another will hear. The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and the whole womenâs group will see it together. Three men will go into a fiery furnace, but observers will notice a fourth man walking among them. âLord, you are the only person here today.â
Thereâs a real risk with prophecy. The risk is that we miss it. When God speaks, we donât want to be like the playmates of whom the children said, âWe played a song, but you did not dance.â
Recently, one brother in the community was sharing with another brother about some things at work he wanted to change, and his inclination to wait awhile before making the changes. The second brother shared some advice. He said, âIn your first year on the job, donât change anything but the light bulbs.â The first replied, âYeah, I heard that before.â
I wonder if the first brother missed it. The sense that âthereâs nothing new hereâ is a red flag. One brother played a song, but the other didnât dance.
The risk of not recognizing the word of God is very real. Like King David, we canât see straight. Weâre blind to our role in the story. We donât expect prophecy to occur in our lives; especially in our ordinary, everyday lives. Maybe, we donât want it to occur.
And there are worse obstacles.
This year in Allendale, a 20-year-old man, a man who had come to our camp several times while growing up, was shot and killed by his cousin. Guns drawn over some argument at a gas station. And this isnât the first time this has happened to children we know.
Flash forward a few months. Mike Wacker was in Allendale this past summer. He was driving some children home from summer camp, when he heard a six-year-old singing a rap song. By the third time through, Mike caught on to what the boy was singing: âIf I had to kill my brother, I would.â
Today itâs a malicious rap; tomorrow the deed is done at a gas station. Christ is killed. And may the Lord have mercy on us.
We may be thinking to ourselves, âYeah, thatâs how they do it in the poor neighborhoods. What a tragedy.â But not so fast! We forget our more polite ways of murderingâwith our thoughts; with our pitiless judgments; with our grudges, as David pointed out this morning.
âYou have heard that it was said . . . in the old days, âYou shall not murder.â . . . But I say to you that anyone who is angry with his brother must stand his trial; anyone who contemptuously calls his brother a fool must face the supreme court. . . .â
How can we hear the word of the Lord in a menâs group when we think our brother is a fool?
Thereâs a chapel in Washington, D.C. that has mosaics from the floor to the ceiling. The first mosaic depicts Eve grasping an apple from the tree.Â
[Pause and partly audible comment about brief delay in projecting art on screen]
SEAN: Yeah.
[Pause]
So, right next to this mosaic of Adam and Eve is a mosaic of Cain and Abel.Â
[Inaudible comments]
SEAN: Yeah, so. . . .
[The] . . . first thing to notice is that theyâre standing under the same tree, and Cainâs hand is in the same position as Eveâsâbut now itâs grasping a stone. Cain is straddling his brother with an evil look in his eye. How quickly we go from the apple to the stone. [With determination in his voice:] Spirit of Cain, be gone from this community!
Picture this scene, another scene from the Bible. A poor man from Galilee gets on a borrowed donkey and rides it into the city of Jerusalem. He pauses. Weeps over the city. A crowd grows around him. Thereâs a lot of shouting. To a Roman soldier, itâs strange, but not so out of the ordinary in that tumultuous town. To the crowd, itâs something completely different: the arrival of their long-awaited Messiah. The fulfillment of words they have kept in their hearts for centuries:
Daughter of Zion, rejoice. . . . Shout in triumph. See, your king is coming to you, his victory gained, humble and mounted on a donkey.â [Zechariah 9:9]
And in the crowd they do shout, and they do rejoice. Farmers, craftsmen, fishermen, fathers, mothers, childrenâthey all rise up and play their parts in the fulfillment of the prophecy. They see their king and shout âHosanna!â They see what God sees. And yet, only for a moment.
Soon the enemies of God rise up in opposition. The zeal of the multitude withers under the threat of persecution. By the end of the week, they all reject Jesus, save for a precious few. The spirit of fear conquers the crowd.
This was humanityâs second fall.
He was in the world; but the world, though it owed its being to him, did not recognize him. He came to his own, and his own people would not accept him. [John 1:10-11]
The second fall, more terrible than the first. Our people, the human race: feral, demonic. We tie our brother Jesus to the tree and kill him in cold blood. One day, itâs âHosanna to the Son of David.â The next, âIf I had to kill my brother, I would.â
Look again at that image of Cain. The artist who created the mosaic has done mosaics all around the world. Whenever he makes an image of Jesus, he uses the same figure. Once youâre familiar with his work, you can easily recognize the Lord. And there he is, tied to the tree, rejected, and condemned.
Letâs take a few moments and consider that crowd, that fickle crowd, and what we can learn from them. Listen to their warning. At the triumphal entry, there are two types of people.
First . . . are the blind. They donât see the Lord. Among this group are those who donât care anymore. They heard the shouting in the streets, but couldnât be bothered to go see what all the excitement was about.
Others have it all figured out. Theyâre loudmouths on campaign. âLetâs go back to the glory days,â they say. Or the opposite: âLetâs tear it all down and start over.â So sure of themselves; so shut up to God.
There are also the polite, the well-mannered. They cringe at what Jesus says, because they know others will be offended. The fashionable editors of the word of God, the sanitizers of the Scriptures.
Thereâs a second group who do see Jesus as King. But they still betray him. They become the devilâs unwitting accomplices.
Some in this part of the crowd are relational, but never missionary. They enjoy a pleasant conversation, but never get around to the gospel.
Others are the âfamily-firsters.â God can have my time; just let me take care of my children and grandchildren first. My kids have veto power over God.
Some are hooked on entertainment. Count me in for the joyful procession. But, the next morning, I wake up, glance at my Bible, and ask, âWhatâs for breakfast?â
Then thereâs the worldly and the disappointed. âWhat kind of prophet gets himself arrested? Iâll tell you: one who is not on the right side of history.â
The triumphalists want God to show the world whoâs the boss. For them, Jesus emerges from the tomb with a stiletto, to stick it in the eye of his enemies. They donât appreciate the fact that Jesus let his crucifixion be a public spectacle, while no one but the Father and the Holy Spirit were there in that quiet hour when he rose from the dead.
On the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem, many welcomed their Messiahâbut they didnât have the power to continue living in the Spirit. Their zeal was a flash in the pan. Is that us? Is that the story of the People of Praise?
There is hope for fallen disciples. Thereâs Pentecost. Thereâs the Holy Spirit. And thereâs prophecy.
On Pentecost, the body of disciples become a new creation. The first thing Peter does is explain the meaning of history to the people; he receives the divine revelation, and he shares it with everyone.
Yes, the political leaders still oppose the disciples, but that no longer matters to them. The spirit of fear has been defeated. They know which way the wind is blowing, and they blow with it.
Brothers and sisters, for our consultation to succeed, we need a new Pentecost. We need to understand the signs of our times. We need a revelation from God that explains our past, our present, and our future. We need prophecy!
âI wish you would all speak in tongues, but even more I wish you would all prophesy,â St. Paul says [1 Cor. 14:5]. Not some. Not a few. All!
âNo longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, âKnow the LORD,ââ predicts Jeremiah, âbecause they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.â [Jeremiah 31:34]
The fruit of this consultation wonât be one or two new decisions, but a prophetic community on the move, blowing with the wind, like the disciples after Pentecost.
Weâve seen God move through prophecy in our communityâs past.
In 1976, a brother in South Bend, Tom Finke, gave a sharing at a community meeting. He explained how three years ago [sic], in 1973, when there were still about 50 adults in the community, they started to get words about being a âlight to the nations.â Fifty people, in a room, in South Bend, Indiana: a âlight to the nations.â In response, and after a lot of prayer, they accepted an opportunity that came their way to take responsibility for putting on international charismatic renewal conferences. It happened! The prophecy was fulfilled.
But they didnât stop there. They realized the children of the community also needed the light, and so they switched their meeting times from Friday nights to Sunday afternoons, starting a tradition that continues to this day. Our very schedule is a result of prophecy.
They bought the old LaSalle Hotel in downtown South Bend, and opened a restaurant, so the public could encounter the Spirit of God. So they could be a light to the city.
Flash forward to 2001, the second High Country Adventure. I was there for this one as a young man, and I remember the evening sessions with the boys, how those boys complained, and vented, and raged, after Paul DeCelles asked them what their lives were like. It was a simple question, but it got quite an extraordinary response. Paul had ears to hear what the Spirit was speaking through those boys: âThe community has to change if weâre gonna have a place in it.â
And their prophecy did change us. Without the word of the Lord coming through those angry teenagers, our mission in Allendale, Evansville, and Indianapolis wouldnât exist. Without those angry, prophesying teenage boys, there would be no Praise Academy, no summer camp, no Mike Wacker in a car with a six-year-old boy listening to the rap lyrics. Iâm really glad you were there, Mike. [Stirring and murmurs from audience.]
Flash forward to January of 2020. A sister in the South Bend branch, Marti Merrick, had a vision. It indicated that our meeting room would be filled with empty seats. Three months later, look what happens! God shut down our meetings, along with the rest of the world. Sometimes, it takes months, or even years, to appreciate a prophecyâs meaning.
Since we are truly new, since Christ really does fill the space inside of us, taking over those places where our grudges and our judgments can reside, we can speak his words all the time! At home, with our families and households. In our small groups. In the school pick-up line. At the grocery store. Prophecy doesnât have to be just a Sunday affair.
Since we are truly new, there will be no more idle words, no more pointless, fruitless conversations, like the ones Jesus warns us about. Matthew 12:36: âBut I tell you that everyone will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.â
Since we are truly new in Christ, if thereâs ever a need for some correction, we will achieve it without judgment, and hear the word of the Lord from our brother or sister along the way. Yes, words may spill from my brother like a fountain, but that fountain has God as its source. May I be the fertile ground that my brotherâs words wash over.
If God can make stones cry out, if he can speak through a dumb donkey, then he can speak through anyone, even meâme, his beloved son. The one he went to the cross for. Yes, even me. I can receive Godâs revelation of the sense of history. I can share it with you, and you can share it with me.
This consultation is an act of faith; weâre stepping out of the boat. Either he will hold us up by his life-giving word, or we will sink like a stone. The only way we walk is by the power of God. âLord, if itâs truly you, bid us come to you, out on the waters. All of us!â
May our sons and daughters prophesy. May our young ones see visions and our old ones dream dreams.
Come, Lord, reveal to us the meaning of our story. We want to walk with you into your future. Come Holy Spirit! Pour out your spirit of prophecy on the People of Praise!
Amen.
[Applause.]
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