12th November was a significant day. The day that made history and dramatically changed the future. 12th November 1955 was the day Marty McFly, having travelled into the past from 1985, made sure his parents meet each other and fall in love, so that he himself could be born 3 years later. If you have seen Robert Zemeckis’s film ‘Back to the Future’, you will know the story, but if you have not, here is the gist.
A time travel experiment goes wrong, and Marty accidentally ends up in the past, meets his young parents and disrupts the historic course of events which leads to them getting together, being married and having children, including Marty. Now his own future existence is no longer guaranteed. Having created this chaos, he has to work very hard to put it back into its historic order within the space of a week. 12th November marks the day when Marty’s mission is complete, and, with the help of his friend Doc Brown, the creator of the time machine, he can go back to the future.
12th November 2024 was also a significant day, but, it seems, with a reverse effect. The resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, whilst also making history, does not exactly sort out the chaos, very far from it. We seem to be descending deeper into chaos, with disputes and further fractions within the Church’s structures layering onto each other and pulling it further down into somewhere dark and unknown. In addition to the hurt already caused to those who have been abused and the injustice that continues to cause pain, there is now division over the resignation of the Archbishop, a lot of joy over his demise, and a zealous hunt for anyone else who may need to be punished, as quickly as possible. In the recent days, I have listened to many interviews on the subject, all of them without exception very painful for many reasons.
God created the world and Christ instituted the church, and I feel like at the moment humans are doing exceptionally well at dismantling both. As a society, we are excessively polarized, we can’t agree on anything, our climate targets are a mess, we are almost used to wars, terror and natural disasters, our Church is falling apart and we have also decided to add assisted dying to the mix. I frequently wonder how far we are from the state of utter chaos and think of Biblical prophesies like the ones we have heard today. Daniel promises resurrection and eternal splendour for the righteous at the end of time, but only following great anguish on the scale never seen before. Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and warns his listeners of wars, earthquakes and famine.
Are we living in what they are describing? I think a lot of people are in distress and anguish. With Jesus’ prophesy, we can even go through the list. Many coming in Jesus’ name and deceiving others? Numerous cult leaders – tick! Wars and rumours of wars – tick! Nations rising against nations – tick! Earthquakes, famines, storms and floods – tick! I understand if you also are wondering whether the prophesies are coming true and we are not far off the end time.
We often think of prophesy as a prediction of the future. There is this desire in us to know what will happen next, and while divination and fortune telling are condemned, clairvoyance is frequently a fraud and time travel is not available, prophesy is a valid way forward. Except this is not what prophesy actually means. The key component of a prophesy is the ability to listen to God and to convey His will. It is not really about predicting anything but rather about listening and directing. The only way king David was able to see his wrongdoing after falling for Bathseba and killing her husband is when prophet Nathan pointed it out to him. King Ahab couldn’t stand Elijah because he was constantly on his case telling him about his ungodly actions. Prophesy is a gift of finding a direction in the midst of confusion, darkness and wrongdoing. God created direction and order out of chaos, and prophesy mirrors His directive and creative power.
A prophetic stance is not about trying to find out what kind of future awaits us hoping for something good, like Ahab who only listened to those who predicted favourable things for him until prophet Micaiah came along. It is also not about dwelling on the perceived proximity of the end of the world and thinking ‘this is it’. Instead, in Christ’s prophetic words we read in Mark, in the same words that speak of wars and destruction, there is hope: perhaps we destroy this temple to raise it up, and the chaos of today is in fact the birth-pains of something new.
God created the universe but the story of creation is not something left in the very distant past – it is continually unfolding right before our eyes. Creation is not an event, it is a process, and any chaos and disorder always has a chance to be put right.
Marty McFly had the benefit of knowing exactly what the future looks like so he can construct it in the past. We don’t. But Marty McFly didn’t believe in God and we do. We believe that God speaks through people, like he did with the prophets of the past. But, as it was with the prophets of the past, prophesy is a costly gift: Jeremiah’s ministry was largely fruitless among his contemporaries, and Micaiah, having given an unfavourable prophesy to the king, was left to die in prison. In his book ‘Prophesy and discernment’, the Old Testament scholar Walter Moberly says that the stories of the prophets confirm that ‘true self-interest lies not in self-seeking but in self-giving for the welfare of others’. A prophet is not one glorified but one who serves.
The service of consecration of Bishops says that ‘following the example of the prophets and the teaching of the apostles, they [the Bishops] are to proclaim the gospel boldly, confront injustice and work for righteousness and peace in all the world.’ Using Professor Moberly’s definition, I would like to add that they are to be self-giving for the sake of others. And if the Church is to be prophetic, it ought to point in a direction that intends to follow God. However, pointing out a direction is not the same as pointing a finger away from oneself to make the horrors that have taken place in the church someone else’s responsibility. Neither is it pointing fingers at each other whist claiming to be more righteous than those who have stumbled.
The irresponsible lack of action against abusers when everyone knew but no one did anything is wrong. But jumping on the bandwagon and taking great pleasure in judging those who have failed is also wrong. Seeing failures and calling for repentance, following the example of Nathan, is Biblical and prophetic; making loud accusations from a place of extreme self-righteousness is not. Rowan Williams wrote years ago that if we are one body then when one part of the body is hurting the others surely feel it too, so there shouldn’t be any room for one part of the Church rejoicing when the other is in pain. However, at the moment it seems that all of our many different limbs keep on inflicting different kinds of pain on each other.
12th November is a point of departure for us when we travel into the future following some dramatic and turbulent events, but our relationship with both the past and the future is a lot messier than that of a historic narrative of a time traveller. Our notion of prophesy does not constitute a mere outline of what the future holds. It requires careful discernment and a dramatic shift in our attention from ourselves, our church and our future, to God. It will only be possible to hear God when, in the words of St Augustine, we learn to hate the sin but love the sinner, when we remember Jesus’ teaching that none of us are without sin and the last thing we should do is rejoice in throwing stones at each other, when we finally realise that we all are hurting. We pretend and imagine that we know the future, setting targets and drawing up visions, but instead, we are probably just a bit delirious from pain and fever we are in. Our future is not in the knowledge of what is going to happen tomorrow but in the hope that Jesus has made possible for us, in the hope of the new creation the prophesies point to. We can start healing when we let go of the arrogance of knowledge – and the arrogance of self-righteousness – and lean into the grace of hope. Love, humility and self-giving will be our medicine. God himself will be our physician. Amen.
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