WHERE HAVE ALL THE PROPHETS GONE?

Contrary to popular belief, a prophet is not one who predicts the future. A prophet, at least in the biblical-Old-Testament understanding is simply someone who speaks for God. The majority of, if not all the Old Testament prophets were reluctant prophets. They knew that if and when they spoke for God, they would not be willingly heard because their message was that unless the people changed their ways, some very bad things would happen to them. Sometimes the people listened and changed and sometimes they did not and what the prophet predicted happened.

Prophets are always caught in the middle. True prophets know what the people need to hear and yet know that the people don’t want to hear what they need to hear. For what the people need to hear is what is true and not some varnished or partial version of the truth. In today’s politically charged world that is what we are getting: half-truths and even downright lies that are purported to be truths, anything to appease a constituency that does not want to hear the truth because it might be painful.

The truth is always painful when it costs us something, when it demands sacrifice, when it asks those who are blessed to share some of their blessings with those who are not so blessed, when it reminds the blessed that it is only because of God’s grace they are so blessed and not because they are special or privileged, when it demands that the haves share with the have-nots.

That is prophetic language that has no place in politics and often has little place even in religious circles. No one likes to sacrifice. We somehow want to believe that we have what we have because we have earned it, deserve it, and have a right to it and that no one has a right to take it from us or ask us to share it with others let alone demand that we do so. Prophets would demur.

It is certainly not politically expedient to be a prophet by telling the truth when the populace is averse to hearing it no matter what one’s political persuasion might be. We all have our biases. That makes it difficult for us to accept what is true because it goes against the grain and even more so if it demands that we have to charge our beliefs or, God forbid, make some sacrifices for the common good.

Yes, it is often difficult to know what is the right thing to do, what sacrifices need to be made and what changes are demanded even as they may be difficult to both accept and to make. The Old Testament prophets had it easy even though their lives were in danger every time they opened their mouths. Their one job was to tell the people what they already knew but were unwilling to do, namely change their sinful and selfish ways.

Today we don’t kill our prophets, if and when we find them. We simply don’t listen to them or call them foolish or out of touch with the real world. We choose, rather, to listen to those who tell us what we want to hear and not what we need to hear. That has always been the case from time immemorial. And as it was then, so it is now, we do so at our own peril.