Your Sons and Your Daughters Shall Prophesy

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
Joel 2:28-29

This is one of my favorite verses of scripture because it describes a wonderful outpouring of revelation that is to exist in the last days. This revelation is to be poured out on both young and old and without regard to gender or social class. It's a realization of Moses's wish that all of God's people should be prophets.

Would God that all the LORD'S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!
Numbers 11:29

These are supposed to be the last days. Where are our prophesying sons and daughters?

Then it hit me. Throughout time, what have people done when confronted with prophets? At best, they ignore them, and at worst, they stone them.

At least in the western world, it is rare for someone to be subject to physical violence for prophesying. However, it leaves me wondering. Are we ignoring or metaphorically stoning our prophesying sons and daughters?

Prophets throughout time have called on people and institutions to repent. Are we stoning them because we don't like what they're saying? Are we persecuting and reviling them because they shine an uncomfortable light on our flaws? Do we feel safe in dismissing them because their only authority comes from the hard truth of their words and not from any high place in an institution?

But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
Mark 6:4

Who of our own kin, and in our own house are we dishonoring? What good fruits are we rejecting because they come from an unexpected tree?

Let us not be the people Jesus laments when he says:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Matthew 23: 37

For if we stone our prophesying sons and daughters, this is the reward we will reap:

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Matthew 23:38

The Parable of the Bad Shepherd

There was a shepherd who had 100 sheep in a fenced in pasture. The shepherd fed the sheep and did his best to keep them inside the fence. A few of the sheep began to question whether the boundaries of the fence could be expanded, and some even thought they would be better off without the fence altogether.

A black sheep in the flock spoke with the questioning sheep and said that the fence, while imperfect, was overall good. She said that the architectural plans for the farm included the possibility of expansion in the future, but that for now, the sheep should stay in the fold.

The bad shepherd caught wind of this discussion and said that the pasture was perfect and that the design was unalterable. He took the black sheep, threw her outside the fence, and she was devoured by wolves.

When the other sheep expressed sorrow and concern at the fate of the black sheep, the shepherd said, "Yea, verily, the black sheep chose to leave the safety of the sheep fold of her own free will and is reaping her just reward."

What Battlestar Galactica Teaches Us About Faith and Prophecy

I love science fiction. It’s rich in allegory and can teach us many truths about life. In a way, I think that it can be our modern-day parables. I recently finished watching the 2003 reboot of Battlestar Galactica (hereafter abbreviated as BSG). It’s a television show filled with deep and rich commentary on matters of spirituality, the human condition, forgiveness, diversity, politics, life, death, and the mysterious workings of the divine. One major religious refrain that is repeated throughout the show is “All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.”

Today I’m going to talk about what BSG teaches us about the nature of faith and prophecy. In order to make this post comprehensible to someone who hasn’t seen the show, I’m going to be giving a great deal of background and detail. There will be spoilers in this post, but I’ve contained them all to after the jump.

I. Summary