Today is both a preacher's dream and a preacher's nightmare.  A dream because of the richness of themes for the day, a nightmare for the temptation to attempt too much.

Corpus Christi follows the doctrinal assault course that is Trinity Sunday, and while for all its complexity, the mysteries of Trinity are wrestled with endlessly, Corpus Christi is often skirted around for its perceived doctrinal ambiguities.  Yet surely it is entirely about celebrating what informs and inspires the whole of life, what gives it shape and meaning.  At Corpus Christi, once a year, we celebrate the miracles of grace that are at work in the ordinary stuff of life, rejoicing that God floods into our lives, loving us back into wholeness.  That Jesus gives us his flesh to eat because he promises us that he will, and that it will fill us with life when we open our hearts to receive the Word made flesh.  To believers this is the promise and the essence of faith.

The readings today obligingly connect with this invitation to faith through openness to what God offers us, if only we will let him.  We have Paul in one of his great rousing rallying cries, this time to the Galations, proclaiming truth through the revelation of Jesus Christ.  And the little story which forms the gospel, told only by Luke, is the 7 verse gem that takes place in Nain, as Jesus raises the widow's son from the dead.  A story that neatly echoes the OT account of Elijah reviving the dead child and restoring him to his mother.

And the gospel says of the people of Nain “Fear seized all of them.  And they glorified God.  God has looked favourably upon his people.  A great prophet has risen among us”?  Today we contemplate the scope of the question.  Is it a man, is it a bird, is it a prophet?  Who is this God, and who is He, incarnate in this Jesus Christ?

The story of the widow of Nain, and the Old Testament one about Elijah and the widow of Zarephath both tell us of God's power to bring about transforming change in people’s lives and circumstances.  That they might believe, and in Paul's words “glorify God and proclaim him.”

Paul’s letter to the Christians in Galatia is a powerful autobiographical testimonial.  In it he doesn't claim to be a prophet, but he is very clearly setting out his stall, proclaiming his sense of prophetic vocation.  God, Paul says, set me apart before I was born, and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him.  This reminds us of other prophets having revelations of being called and chosen by God.  Jeremiah  and Isaiah in particular come to mind.

Prophetic identity is a complex and multifaceted vocation.  What did the Nain bystanders see in Jesus that made them conclude that Jesus must be a prophet?

Prophets through the ages had taken various forms.  Remember how Saul meets a band of ecstatic prophets at Gibeah, who were, let's say, a little the worse for wear “As you come to the town, you will meet a band of prophets coming down from the shrine with harp, tambourine, flute and lyre playing in front of them; they will be in a prophetic frenzy.  Then the spirit of the Lord will possess you and you will be in a prophetic frenzy along with them and be turned into a different person... do whatever you see fit to do.  For God is with you” (1Samuel 10.5-6).

In other instances, prophets belonged to the royal entourage and were establishment figures, whom the king consulted on matters of state policy, The King gathered the prophets together, about four hundred of them, and said, shall I go to battle or shall I refrain.  They said Go up, for he Lord will give it into the hand of the King (1 Kings 22.5-12).

And then there are prophets like Jonah, who have particular stories to tell that illustrate their prophetic vocation, in his case ignoring God's instruction to go and sort out the wicked inhabitants of Nineveh, and paying the price by getting shipwrecked and ending up in the belly of a big smelly fish (Jonah 1.1-3).  There are also collections of sayings and actions that are attributed to a single personality given an identity and a single name as a great prophet, for all time, notably Isaiah.

And in a league of his own, Moses, in many ways the great prophet.  He is also a teacher of the law, and a leader and judge of the Israelites.  Reading today's gospel, we find ourselves asking:  are the townspeople of Nain comparing Jesus with Moses, or with one of the other prophets who also brought about healing and miracles for the people?

In fact, they do not suggest that Jesus is the prophet, who has been promised since the book of Deuteronomy, “to be raised up from among your own people”.  But given the wonder of his actions, prophet is probably the best description they can come up with for someone who brings alive the quality of encounter with God that they associate with prophets of history, like Elijah and Elisha.

I would hazard a guess that they say that Jesus is a prophet because they don’t know quite how to put into words what they have just experienced.

Describing Jesus as a prophet implies something more general than suggesting Jesus was simply another Moses, Samuel, or Jonah.  The Nain people get it that Jesus is like the prophets, but at the same time is qualitatively different.  His vocation was to bring about what the prophets had described as characteristic of the activity of God:  good news for the poor, release for captives, sight for the blind, and freedom for the oppressed (Luke 4.18).  These were signs of the coming of the messianic age of the Kingdom of God.

Through the miracle at Nain, Jesus creates an environment of prophetic word and action, where life is seen in different terms.  The limitations of the mundane are suspended, as God reveals new and unexpected potential.

We can understand why the people respond with fear.  But not the incapacitating fear that stifles love and generosity.  Rather, it was fear that is rooted in a disturbing wonderment that typifies encounter with God in the excitement and inexplicable awe of worship.

So the description of Jesus as a prophet is really a statement about the effect of the presence of Jesus, rather than a definition of who he is.

In the miracle at Nain, there is a distinct sense of being favored by God, with a vocation of witness, an experience also shared by Paul.  Similarly, in the person and action of Jesus, the people are enabled to see the nature of God’s redemptive love.  They themselves become prophetic by seeing and proclaiming the presence of God in their midst.

The Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann writes that the task of prophetic ministry is “to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us”.

Instead of deprivation and death, Jesus shows the people hope and life.  What does this mean for us?  Well, surely it follows that our own prophetic calling is to a patient and persistent engagement with the gospel of Jesus Christ:  meaning life not death; meaning hope not despair; and meaning instead of waste – assurance of glory.

Jesus accepts us as we are, and believes in whom we can become.  What we have to do is be humble, open and transparent with Him, and let Him come into our lives to redeem us and to heal us, our prophet, priest and king.  It happens at every celebration of the Holy Eucharist.  That is why we surrender ourselves our souls and bodies to the blessed sacrifice that is given freely to us as Jesus promised and promises for all time.  And that is why today we celebrate on the day instituted as Corpus Christi and we pray with confidence and faith:  “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come unto me.  But only say but the word, and my soul shall be healed.”

AMEN

Return to Grace Church Newsletter Page