1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11-20)
Epiphany 2- Year B
Proper 4 (9) - Year B
The prophetic tradition raises up people who are very sensitive to wrong doings of the leadership of the nation, even if such leaders are still able to mostly cover it up or get away with their silliness in the short-run.
This is not just something one is born with. Paying attention to the discrepancy between what is said and the consequences of following that what is said is a skill that can be learned.
Prophets are not cynical in looking for the flaw in everything, but they are alert to projected consequences. When we talk about war as though it had no consequences it doesn't take a full-fledged prophet to see and speak about how silly our talk is. It only takes a girl or boy who can see the nakedness of the emperor to be a prophet.
In fact, where prophets are usually seen as dour old men always coming around with the bad news that no one wants to hear, we can play prophet.
Knowing how much we do learn through play, this would probably be a good educational tool for us to use more often than we do. Anyone out there adept at creating a board game called "Prophesy This." The cards would be scenes from real life, as contemporary as possible, and after reading the scenario one would have note where the consequence was going to come, how soon it would come, and how it would draw us closer or push us farther away from one another. So there would be both prophesy that would be forerunner of blessings as well as prophesy of disaster because of faulty thinkings and feelings.
What would it be like to play prophet with a youth group. They come with both the cultural baggage ingrained in them and yet a flexibility to see the flaws. This would be a great way to begin to nurture more prophets. So, play away.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/january2003.html
An old story tells of a farmer who had a mule for sale. He claimed that this mule would obey any command it was given. One prospective customer was somewhat leery of this claim and decided to put the farmer and his mule to the test. So he said to the mule, "Sit down." But the mule just stood there. "Sit!" the customer yelled, but nothing happened. He turned to the farmer and said, "You claim this mule will do anything it is told, but I can't get the mule to sit down." The farmer just smiled. He reached down and picked up a two-by-four, then walked over and hit the mule in the head. "Sit," he said. And the mule sat right down. Turning to the shocked customer, he said, "first you have to get his attention." [This version found here.][MISSING URL]
Sometimes a "bolt from the blue" conversion happens when we finally hear something for the "first time".
Chinese water torture is the popular name for a fictional method of water torture in which water is slowly dripped on to a person's forehead, driving the victim insane . This form of torture was first described under a different name by Hippolytus de Marsiliis in Italy in the 16th century . Supposedly the torture in dripping water is the slow rate at which the water flows. The victim can almost predict when the next drop will fall and a sense of tension builds up. When the drop finally does fall, a sense of shock and relief follows, only to be replaced with more tension about the next drop. The release of tension (no matter how small it is) prevents the victim from withdrawing inside himself. As this does not require interaction on the part of the torturer it can be done continuously. [Wikipedia article]
Sometimes, degree by degree, a shift in awareness, direction, and behavior happens.
Whether you hear a call the first time, a third time, or a forty-ninth time, rejoice greatly for you are now joined to the great prophetic tradition of revealing the real state of affairs and helping people change course as its consequences become clearer and clearer. Don't forget this same process is applied to the state politics as well as religious politics.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/january2006.html
With tingling ears we have searched and searched for something that will not disappoint. We have searched inside ourselves and found the house of Eli still alive and well. We have lowered our expectations of everything and everywhere, it is all like Nazareth - unacceptable as a starting place.
A big place we searched was the law but we found it didn't reflect a Law of Justice very well. We could follow it forever and never find it brought us to a beneficial place, only a place bounded by Eli's sons waiting for a loophole to be found.
Finally it is important to fall back on such basics as being trustworthy and without deceit. These are very tough roads to travel that go beyond easy, prior, answers and are continually in need of integrated responses.
Finally it becomes a question of whom we will be with at the end.
If we will be with those we are now with, what response is needed now?
If we will be with ourselves as we are now, what response is needed?
If we will be with that unknown to us, what response is now needed?
- - -
follow me
come and see
hurry on
we will come to a mirror
and see as we are seenchoices will be feasted upon
responses will be made and remade
we'll see how this looks
and thatshapes will be formed
lives hidden will be revealed
roads will open
laws will fadehurry
pay your money
takes your chance
you are seen
you can see
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html
"This was a time when the revelation of God was rarely heard or seen." [The Message] Here we have the moral equivalent of "once upon a time . . . ."
In these days anything can happen. In fact we might even begin to expect that there are games afoot and they will play out. In a day when the elder's children are messing up, dreamtime becomes important. The dreaming of everywhen is still afoot in our lives when we can be alert enough to catch it on one of its turns through ourselves.
How many times have we been called before responding? Are we still waiting for some deus ex machina that will keep us running off to an expert?
Alternatively we can listen to the dreaming that creates out of our nothingness a day of new beginning. This dreaming carries us beyond our projections that claim eternal protection. How would this story be told if G*D weren't so personal?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html
When life outside our experience clamors for attention, we find we are formless and void, we have no database in which to encode data.
Samuel didn’t have it. Eli didn’t put it together the first time around. Blessed be persistence that refuses to let us have the out that Scrooge tried - “an indigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato.” No, eventually we have to put down our explanations, so finely honed, and say to the universe, “Huh?” and “Here I am.”
To finally acknowledge a mystery is to paint a target on your mind and heart that the mystery be birthed in you - that you will live out your revelation.
May you lift from the ground all the revelations that have fallen about you and toss them to the sky. So is trust evidenced and gained.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/01/1-samuel-31-10-11-20.html