Sunday 7th December, 2nd Sunday of Advent

How can you tell if a prophecy is true? This Sunday, as we remember John the Baptist’s proclamation of the Messiah and celebrate our belated Advent Carol Service, we will be hearing a great deal from the prophets of the Old Testament. It’s easy for us, with the benefit of two thousand years of hindsight, to think that the prophets had an accurate vision of Jesus hundreds of years before the first Christmas, and that everyone at the time of Jesus knew what to expect, but it wasn’t like that at all. In fact, we know that there was much speculation about who the Messiah would be and how he would come. Indeed, many people wondered whether John was himself the Messiah.

The point is, the only way to know a prophecy is true is when it happens, or after the fact, which is pretty rubbish when it comes to being forewarned about events. But this is to say that prophecy is (as a great teacher of mine liked to say) “more about forthtelling than foretelling”. John, like all the prophets before him, was less interested in the future than he was in how people were living in the present. And so, in fact, were all the prophets before him. “The day of the Lord is coming!” they said, “Get ready!” Prophecy isn’t primarily about the future, it’s about today, and what we do with it, and how that paves the way for tomorrow.

Every blessing,

Roger.