From the Pulpit: Falling on Deaf Ears

The prophets who foretold the coming of Christ told of a peaceful establishment of God's kingdom that most people never lived to see. But that's not an excuse for giving up, Canon Rose Duncan said.

Preaching on the second Sunday of Advent, Rose said the messages shared by Isaiah, John the Baptist and others often seemed to fall on deaf ears, but that doesn’t dilute the message — or the responsibility to do the work. The prophets’ words, she said, were not in vain.

If we hear and respond to [John the Baptist’s] call to repentance for the forgiveness of sins, then we must believe that there is something we can do, that we can be agents of change. John is not saying things aren’t the way they’re supposed to be and they will never be get used to it. No, his is not a message of futility in the face of brokenness in God’s creation. Rather, it is a liberating and joyful call to realign our individual and collective wills with the purposes of God to seek wholeness and harmony, to restore all people, to unity with God and each other with Christ.

To hear and respond to John’s message is good news because in spite of the fact that things aren’t always the way they should be, they can change  — and so can we. Now more than ever, we need not only hear the cries of the prophets, but we need to grasp the baton of the prophets. We must ask ourselves: Are we willing to be prophetic enough to walk out in faith, to work with and break bread with people who may not look like us or vote like us or speak like us? Are we willing to let God’s light shine through us so much so that we can show the world a new and better way of being?

Because this is the good news that we have to share. This is the prophetic vision of God that has the power to transform our relationships, and yes, the world.