Words of the prophet

Isaiah 51:7-16 (NRSV)

Listen to me, you who know righteousness, you people who have my teaching in your hearts;
 do not fear the reproach of others,
and do not be dismayed when they revile you. 
For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool;
but my deliverance will be for ever, and my salvation to all generations.


Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord!
Awake, as in days of old,
the generations of long ago!
Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the dragon? 
Was it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep;
who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to cross over? 
So the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
 they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.


I, I am he who comforts you; why then are you afraid of a mere mortal who must die, a human being who fades like grass? 
You have forgotten the Lord, your Maker,
who stretched out the heavens
   and laid the foundations of the earth.
You fear continually all day long
because of the fury of the oppressor,
who is bent on destruction.
But where is the fury of the oppressor? 
The oppressed shall speedily be released;
they shall not die and go down to the Pit, nor shall they lack bread. 
For I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar - the Lord of hosts is his name. 
I have put my words in your mouth, and hidden you in the shadow of my hand,
stretching out the heavens
and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’

When I started doing this devotional piece for my blog, I used whatever reading the ELCA emailed out as their reading of the day.  But lately, partly because of my schedule and partly because I wanted to think more about what reading to do, I’ve been choosing myself from one of the three lectionary texts assigned for the day.  It gives me a bit more time to think about it, and I hope make it more relevant. Today is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s actual birthday, and the day the Lutheran Church commemorates King.  Isaiah seemed to me a fitting reading for that.

I was recently at a gathering where we discussed who our modern prophets were.  The facilitator of the conversation was looking for current ones, but more than one in the group said MLK, and really, has there been a one such as him since?  I don’t think so.

It’s funny because we ask for prophets but when we have them we seem to either disavow them or kill them.  Although Isaiah’s death is not recorded in Hebrew Scriptures, tradition has it that he himself was martyred, sawn in half.

We may not have prophets today of the stature of Isaiah or Jeremiah or MLK, but they exist.  I’ve seen them in congregations and in the world – truth tellers who tell things as they are and how they will be if we continue on a path.  Not necessarily what we want to hear a lot of the time.   It’s a sticky wicket in the United States.  We don’t want our politics and our religion mixed, not in church and not out of church.

But where would things have been had MLK and Isaiah not mixed politics with religion? 

Of course, the mixing of politics with faith inevitably leads to “what” politics and “whose” politics, so it isn’t always easy to discern when “truth” is told in context of religion whether we are hearing prophesy or ideology.

But another prophet helps us here.  Micah 6:8 serves as a great reminder: What does the Lord require of us but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God?

I’m thankful for the witness and prophetic wisdom today of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who took these words to heart.  And I hope that when I hear prophetic words of wisdom that show the heart of Micah's call, that I will recognize them!

Lord of all, you send us prophets and we ignore them or kill them.  But you don't give up on us.  You keep sending them so that we may hear your truth and your truth may set us free.  Thank you.  Help us to recognize those words of truth when we hear them.  Amen