Discernment
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
How do we end up knowing whether or not we, or someone in our community, is being “raised up” for leadership? In the book of Deuteronomy, the people of God are promised that a prophet will be “raised up” among them so that God’s words will be placed in their mouths.
Deuteronomy also says that people who don’t listen to this prophet will invite consequences. The same goes tenfold for the prophet who deviates from God’s words and maybe begins to speak words placed in their mouths by other gods.
Now, Deuteronomy is an old, old text. But we could take some of what that text is saying and reexamine what prophecy might look like today. We could interpret the kind of “gods” that might speak words that deviate from God’s. Because there are many “gods” that go by different names than Ba’al or Beezelbub—gods like power, wealth, prestige, and comfort, among others.
We might even wonder what a prophet could share as words from God today. In the Old Testament, those words were shared in a poetic form scholars call “oracles.” But today prophets might write poetry, or they might write press releases. Prophecy might show up in songs or in dance. Maybe even sermons.
Nowadays when we hear the word “prophecy” we immediately conjure up an image of Nostradamus and his esoteric writings or brooding mystics like Rasputin. But prophets in scripture were just people sharing words that God gave them. Are there still prophets being raised up among us today?
There are a lot of people claiming to speak for God out there. People on TV, people running for political office, pastors justifying abuses in their role or abuses happening in their communities, and church judicatories who justify their phobias with unjust policies are all buttressing their arguments by claiming their integrity to their faith. Are they right? How do we know if someone is speaking on behalf of God or not?
The church is where gifts for ministry—prophecy, preaching, teaching, administrating, and others—are discerned. And yet the church is also a place of deep division and conflict. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that we are living in a time where the truth can be elusive to identify.
I know that in my own faith journey, I have had to discern truths about where I stood on issues related to gay marriage, abortion, and what it really means to be a church in ways that went beyond the traditional paths of discernment; the kinds of things that churches argue about and become entrenched in their positions about. There wasn’t a church leader who could just give me the answer to my questions.
The first moment in my life where I felt spiritual clarity was when I let go of my affiliation to a single church and started noticing the Jesus in my neighbor. I noticed Jesus in my theatre colleagues in college who were faithful, good people who also happened to be gay. I noticed Jesus in the people who held positions on things I was taught all through my childhood were evil. I even noticed Jesus in people who didn’t believe like I did.
Prophets don’t necessarily come from predictable places. In Deuteronomy, the prophet being referred to was Moses—a fearful shepherd with a speech impediment. At the end of the day, it is within community, in real relationship with one another where we might find truth, and discern the gifts that God has given to each of us.
