Truth-Telling

Prophecy is telling the truth with your words and your actions. It is always encouraging to the recipient and always life-giving. This does not mean that there is not a brutal element to telling the truth about God and the world. It only means that the truth is beautiful and mysterious and mostly different than we ever expect. 

The cross and the resurrection are powerful prophetic symbols that God continues to use in hopes of awakening humanity to the truth of the Universe and reality all around us, in us and available to us. We live in a culture that lies to us — the church included. We do not speak the truth about each other and the things that are important because we value self preservation more than we long for freedom for all people. 

We do not tell the truth about ourselves.

The cross tells the truth about us. It shows us what we’re capable of at our worst. The resurrection tells the truth about God and God’s intentions for us — that we are not too far gone, not too dead, and not beyond repair. God’s raising of Jesus prophetically paves the way to show us what happens to all things that are done in secret, corruption, and kept in the dark. 

Most all of the ancient prophets were murdered. People react one of two ways to the truth– they hide in shame or confront their brokenness and recognize their powerlessness, vice, or mistake. You do not stay stagnant. You do not remain neutral. You are shrinking from the person you’re invited to be or you grow more into the picture of Love. Jesus told the truth about humanity and it reversed the socio-economic powers, military, and religious systems. It royally pissed off the religious powers. It got him killed. Prophecy is dangerous. It sets people free. It releases them from confusion about God and themselves. It empowers people who were once limited and beat down. It upsets the powers that be. It is radically inclusive and demands all of our trust. It exposes, illumines, and divides. It unites, enlivens and celebrates. 

The universe is brimming with prophetic possibility. We enter into possible prophetic places every day. We are asleep, though. We cannot see. We cannot hear. 

The truth will cost you. But it will cost you much more to be untrue. To withhold the symbol and pattern of the universe from a world that is desperate to taste something different.