Living In Between

Zechariah 13:1-9
Two verses from today’s Old Testament reading caught my attention. “On that day the prophets will be ashamed, every one, of their visions when they prophesy; they will not put on a hairy mantle in order to deceive, but each of them will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the soil; for the land has been my possession since my youth’” (Zechariah 13:4-5). “I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the soil…” How similar these words are to those of the prophet Amos. “Then Amos answered Amaziah, ‘I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel”’” (Amos 7:14-15).

In the first case –– in Zechariah –– we are told that in shame false prophets will turn from their deceptive ways and will deny that they were ever engaged in such work. In the second case, however, –– that of Amos –– one who has come to be recognized as a legitimate prophetic voice rejects the title. Oddly, both Amos and the false prophets of Zechariah ultimately point to agriculture as their true occupation. For Amos, this probably meant that he was not a member of the guild of prophets, that he was a true outsider who was doing what God had called him to do. It was a task he could not avoid yet one he accepted reluctantly. The false prophets, however, would be running away from a deceptive past in which they had spoken, not God’s word, but their own, for they had not received a call from the Lord but lived as though they had.

As one who feels called to preach and to serve the church in a particular way, I take each of these stories to heart. On the one hand I know the danger of sharing a “false gospel” based not on the gospel but on what others want to hear. I also wrestle frequently with the heavy expectations that fall on ministers to function with integrity and honesty. Though I am hardly a farmer, there are days when I would welcome the chance to run away and lose myself in a different line of work. At those times I am comforted by Amos’ words and the fact that someone else has come this way before. On other days I find myself swelled by pride and making assumptions that are clearly not correct. Those are the days when I hear the words of Zechariah as a warning against complacency.

No life of faith is easy, no attempt to serve God is without challenges. We all struggle and we all fail from time to time. But somewhere between the false words of pride and self-centeredness and the true words of God’s judgment and grace we find a path to walk that leads us forward in hope. That is the journey we must seek.

Prayer: Almighty God, by your grace may our words be true and our faith be sustained all the days of our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Work To Be Done and Work To Be Undone

Micah 3:1-8
Luke 10:1-16
In our reading today, Micah takes particular offense at those prophets who “say ‘peace’ when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths” (Micah 3:5). As a result God will withhold all visions and revelations from them (v. 6). Without these there is no way a prophet can function, so their work will come to a halt. Our reading from Luke offers a different set of circumstances. As Jesus tells his followers, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest” (Luke 10:2).

For Micah the issue is false prophecy. For Jesus the issue is lethargy or apathy. What is common to each is that there is always a place for the truth of God’s word and always work to be done for the coming reign of God. But if we insist on seeing things only in human terms we will often find ourselves in opposition to what God is doing. We simply cannot take God’s word and try to pass it off as something it is not. Nor can we ignore the people around us who need so desperately to hear God’s word in the first place. Jesus says that the laborers are few. What he might have said is that the honest, trustworthy laborers are few, just as Micah points out that there is no shortage of false prophets who would rather look after their own needs and not those of the people.

So which kind of work are we doing? Are we shaping a message that makes us feel better and calling it God’s word? Or are we honestly addressing those issues that confound our world according to God’s will, regardless of how unpopular it makes us or how insignificant we may feel? It’s a crucial question, because if we are going to be the body of Christ as we’ve been called to be, we need to “talk the talk” as well as “walk the walk.”

Prayer: Lord, bless us in our living today, that we may serve you faithfully and obediently and may not find ourselves ignoring your word for our own sake. In Jesus Name. Amen.