Monday, January 26, 2015

Epiphany 4 B - Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Jesus will run into the problem of a prophet raised up “from among your own people” as a “prophet is not without honor except in his hometown.” (Mark 6:4) Truth is a fair amount of people will only hear “what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3) so hometown prophets may be tempted to only speak soft words. Other prophets consider the measure of their word by its capacity to offend but maybe they just get off on making people mad. The Lutheran two step of Law / Gospel preaching is meant to convict both people and preacher who are then “driven into the arms of the Gospel.” (Luther) I’ve never shied away from a difficult word because I know it is a word I need to hear and since I always preach to myself I suppose God thought others needed to hear the difficult word as well. And I can tell you I am always desperate for a forgiving word from God so maybe others need to hear that just as much as I do. I believe that is the partnership of prophet and people that God intended so that the people of God might become a prophetic word for the world.  

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