“JESUS PROPHETS TO YOU THROUGH PROPHETS”
Saint Matthew 7: 15-23
8th Sunday after Trinity: 11 August Anno Domini 2019
Father Jay Watson SSP
Holy Scripture is rife with warnings. The Bible is the perfect will of God reduced to print. These warnings are serious. They are meant to be taken as literal life-and-death alarms. They are Law—things which must be done, period! Ignore them at your own peril.
Prophets are men God choses to speak His Word. He does not “beam” His “thoughts” directly into people’s brains. He has flesh and blood men speak normal words of divine intents. The visible making manifest the invisible. The Patriarchs, Adam, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel were prophets. Moses, Aaron, The Judges, King David and Solomon were prophets. And the kings also had prophets such as Nathan, Gad, Iddo, Micaiah, and others. There were the major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. There were the minor prophets, Hosea, Micah, Jonah and the others. These men spoke God’s Commandments and His Mercy to His people. There calling was a public one. There office was an official one. But also, every Hebrew Father was a prophet for his family.
John the Baptist was the greatest of these Prophets: “repent and believe; the Kingdom of God is at hand.” But even John’s greatness was surpassed by Jesus’ own hand-picked New Testament prophets. They are better known to us as His Disciples. They became His Apostles at Pentecost in their own official public ordinations. Two of them became Holy Evangelists, along with two other of His Church’s new Bishops.
If God’s spokesmen and “Bible-talkers” are only those men found in the pages of Scripture itself, then one indeed can refrain from coming to Mass. One could stay home every Lord’s Day and just read the Bible and avoid needless vexations.
But the Church teaches that her pastors are also prophets. They teach God’s Word and they preach God’s word.
Beware of false teachers and preachers. Avoid them. Mark them as misguided at best or diabolical at worst.
Yes, of course, the “requirements” for bishops and deacons (New Testament prophets) are found in Paul’s Letter to Prophet Saint Timothy. And yes, life-styles must be Christian. Deportment and language should be cruciform. But the burden of the Prophet is not to be sinless. The Commandments themselves, The Law, demands that he be sinless. The Law demands that you and all men be sinless. Prophets do sin. Kyrie Eleison.
That which separates the true Prophet from the false prophet, is The Truth. It’s Doctrine. It’s application of said Doctrine. It’s about declaring to you The Truth and then giving to you The Truth. The Truth is Christ crucified for the forgiveness of your sins.
A prophet has to be bold and brave, if not so much in personality and demeanor, as in delivering the goods in homily and sacrament. Your own Augsburg Confession, which is simply a correct commentary on God’s Word, makes this clear in its definition of what the Church is! A prophet’s own words may at times be hazy or lazy, and that of course needs to be tightened up and corrected. But his words must never be crazy—i.e. heretical and anti-Christian, anti- Christ. Were that to occur he needs to not just be marked and avoided, but also removed, absent confession and correction.
Jesus tells you, however, that it’s not by an inquisitorial, self-appointed, committee of overseeing morality purists, that will judge the prophet. No. It is by the flock themselves. It will be the people, the parishioners, who will be the living proof of what the prophet has been doing. Not whether they’re happy and getting their way, but rather have they been taught the faith from The Faithful One Christ Jesus. Have they been fed the True Body and Real Blood of The Lamb Who was slain for their transgressions? Has the condemning Torah has been placed in their ears to kill their “old Adam?” Has the loosing Gospel of merciful forgiveness been trumpeted into their ears to give them Peace and place of family safety? Has the water of + life has been washed on to them and continually doled out to them in Holy Absolution, and the Bread of Life placed on their tongues in Eucharistic nourishment? If Christ’s Person and Work has been “fed” them, then they will by God’s Work be good fruits of He Who is The Fruit of The Living Tree. If The Word here is true, if the Supper here is true, then the people gathered here by the Spirit, YOU, will be true—and not false!
Are you not succulent grapes? Are you not delicious figs? Are you not The Lord’s brothers and sisters? Are you not sons and daughters of “Our Father” Who art in heaven?
No sheep’s clothing here, praise the Lord. Only nourished and protected sheep. “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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