Sunday, January 31, 2016
O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I must cry out, I must shout, “Violence and destruction!” . . . Within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary holding it in, and I cannot.
from Jeremiah 20:7-13
Church is nice, right? It’s full of nice people doing nice things, isn’t it? Because the Bible is nice. Jesus is nice. God is nice. Well . . . sometimes. Part of what the church does is to comfort those in pain. But there’s another part too, and that’s to be a pain to those who are too comfortable. It’s called “the prophetic voice.” It’s what Jeremiah was doing thousands of years ago when he said, “Whenever I speak, I must cry out.” Like all prophets, Jeremiah was called to expose lies and hypocrisy, to stand up against injustice, and to warn the people what would happen unless they changed course. Join us this MLK weekend as Seminary Intern Logan Bennett asks what the prophetic voice might have to say to us.
