An African American pastor friend who I greatly love and respect from the Chicago suburbs called me a couple of days ago and asked me, an interesting question: “Who is the prophet to whom the modern culture can turn? No, that’s not it . . .” He was struggling to actually state what his real question was. We hashed it around for a while trying to make sure that I understood what he was asking and what was really troubling him, when finally, I came up with a question that he settled on as closer to his intent.
“It sounds like you are asking something like,
‘What can the church do to regain its prophetic voice to the culture?'”
Your milage may vary, but I think it is a good question too.
How does the church speak to our culture with a prophetic “Thus saith the LORD” kind of authority. Given that there are no prophets like Jeremiah or Isaiah or Amos being given new revelation from God today, how can the church speak with culture-penetrating power in our day?
“How can the church speak with culture-penetrating power in our day?”
Jeremiah has been called the weeping prophet. We need more like him. His nation was hard-hearted and far from God. It had rituals and a history of significance but that was far in the past. Now God had given him a message for the nation. “Buy a belt, bury it in the bank of the Euphrates, after many days dig it up, find that it is ruined” (paraphrase of Jer. 13:1-7).
Just a few thoughts, not a thorough exegesis, just some initial thoughts:
- Context: God was helping Jeremiah to understand his time
- Content: All Scripture is prophetic but which books seems more “like us” and our situation?
- Passion: Do we weep over the people to whom we preach?
- Be Prepared to Suffer: Many of Israel’s prophets were rejected and killed.
- Questions:
- What do we need to do to get a realistic picture of our time?
- How do we discern the times that we live in?
- What will it take to impress on our conscious the ruinous state of the nation?
- Are we even willing to start the process of learning what we need to learn?
- Are we willing to lay our hearts open to God to do the work in our hearts that is needed?
“Lord Jesus, help me to read Jeremiah with real discernment. Help me to figure out the answers to all of these questions. Make my heart soft and supple to Your will. Give me the guts of Jeremiah. Give me his courage. And Lord, whoever else around the nation, who you are doing this work in, give all these things to them too. Raise up prophets to speak forth Your word with power to a nation that is very much like Israel in Jeremiah’s day. For the glory of Your name, with whatever time I have left, I ask it. Amen.”
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