{"id":8362,"date":"2021-02-23T08:18:25","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T13:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/?p=8362"},"modified":"2021-02-26T12:51:02","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T17:51:02","slug":"february-28-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/february-28-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"February 28, 2021–Seeing Clearly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mary Houck, Decatur, GA<\/b><\/p>\n

Warm-up Question<\/b><\/p>\n

What do you predict will happen in 2021, and how certain are you that it will happen, on a scale of 1-10?<\/p>\n

Seeing Clearly<\/b><\/p>\n

Uncertainty is unsettling, and we\u2019ve had a LOT of uncertainty lately. We’ve had constantly changing conditions and predictions concerning \u00a0the pandemic, on top of \u00a0a highly charged presidential election. Businesses are closing and laying people off. Churches and schools open, close, and go hybrid. How many times over the past year have we all wished for a crystal ball that would tell us what the world will be like in a year, a few months, or even in a few weeks?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

According to a recent article<\/a>, by Ruth Graham of the New York Times, there has been a big surge in the popularity of prophecy among some Evangelical Christians. This is a role usually played in stories by gypsies, witches, people cursed by Greek Gods, and that one weird professor in Harry Potter. But even Harry Potter, while attending a school for wizardry<\/i>, was skeptical of prophecy. \u00a0Yet, some Christians in modern America look to pastors and other spiritual leaders to predict when the pandemic will end, who\u2019s going to win the World Series, and when they will find love.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They are frequently disappointed, as these self-proclaimed \u201cprophets\u201d are seldom right. However, people continue to support them. Even when they get things wrong, \u00a0followers stay loyal, hoping the next prophecy will prove true. A temporary feeling of certainty is so valuable that they give money to hear reassurances about the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One modern \u201cprophet\u201d described God like this:\u00a0<\/span>\u201c[If his] phone is on the table and he mentions wanting to go on a cruise, for example, the phone \u2018hears\u2019 him and starts offering advertisements for cruises, he said. \u2018God works the same way,\u2019 he explained. \u2018He\u2019s listening to everything you say.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s true that God is always listening and cares deeply about our prayers, God is not an automated service that caters to our desires like Siri or Alexa.<\/p>\n

Discussion Questions<\/b><\/p>\n