From Russia to the CofE, we need prophets!

If you want a suggestion for summer reading, how about Jeremiah or Ezekiel? If quite a lot of prophecy is too much, how about a shorter narrative like Esther or Daniel? I’m thinking, with all that is going on in the world and all that may happen in the Church of England this year, more familiarity with these great books of the Bible would be good.

Mind you, prophecy is not always (often?) easy reading. Remember the King of Israel’s greeting of the first of the great prophets, Elijah; ‘Is it you, you troubler of Israel?’ – to which the Lord puts into Elijah’s mouth these brilliant words: ‘I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord’ (1 Kings 18:17).

What if, among the churches of Russia, there were some prophets who had the courage to go before the President and declare how the commandments of the Lord are being treated with contempt every day in this unjust and terrible war in Ukraine? Where are the Jeremiahs and Ezekiels who will be the sentinels and call the people of God not to follow the Baals or gods of the land, but offer godly worship reflected in godly living?

I’ve been re-reading Jeremiah these last days and was struck by these well-known verses, beloved of a great 19th-century Anglican bishop, J.C. Ryle, ‘Stand at the crossroads, and look and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies: and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.’ (Jer. 6:16). Jeremiah was prophesying for over 40 years, long after Elijah, and then not just the King but the people would have none of it. Verse 16 ends ‘But they said, “We will not walk in it”. He prophesied, troubling Israel, for 40 years and no one took a blind bit of notice!

So why read the prophets this summer? Because this year, as in every other, the church has the choice of choosing to walk in God’s ways or in the ways of the gods of the land. Any church too closely aligned with the secular power is in grave danger of putting human authority above divine.

This summer there will be much reflecting on the process in the Church of England known as ‘Living in Love and Faith’; a Next Steps Group will be reporting to a meeting of bishops at the end of the summer, and they will then be proposing a way forward to the General Synod in 2023. For those not in the CofE, this Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process has consciously sought to present different convictions, understanding and experiences within the church in the realm of human identity, sexuality and marriage.

As well as this process, at the end of July the delayed Lambeth Conference will take place in Canterbury with bishops from all over the world coming, including bishops in same-sex marriages from those Provinces which declined to follow the overwhelming guidance of the Lambeth Conference in 1998. This summer, as at the last Lambeth Conference in 2008, significant numbers of bishops will not be present because they believe the ‘commandments of God’ have been abandoned; many who will come to this year’s Lambeth Conference will be coming wondering how ‘hearing the word of the Lord’ will be addressed.

I’m hoping the bishops in England and in many other parts of the world this summer will be helped in hearing the prophetic word by going back to Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the others.

The shorter books of Esther and Daniel are also to be heard. In different ways they both demonstrate how God’s word can be spoken in an alien, hostile, even lethal environment, and still make a decisive difference to the outcome for good, and who is to say that this might not happen at Lambeth or as the LLF process continues in the Church of England.

I’m in my second year as National Director of the Church of England Evangelical Council and we have just released some film resources to help churches hear the word of the Lord; we all need to hear the word of the Lord, and not be afraid of the consequences (even if those in power regard us as troublemakers)!