What is a prophet, anyway? The Oxford English Dictionary says that a prophet is "one who speaks for God." Actually the definitions and their roots go on for most of a whole page, but the "one who speaks for God" sums it up as far as we are concerned. Now let me ask you if you have ever known anyone who speaks for God? It seems a pretty tall order, doesn't it? Indeed, we often will look at someone askance who merely speaks for other people, let alone God.

You've likely heard it before. "So and so said ..." and a person somehow puts themselves in the position of speaking for someone else. You can't help wondering if they asked permission. Were they present when this was said? Did they write it down? Is there exaggeration here? Is it really what that person would say? It's like the press secretary for the president speaking all the time for the president. For him it must be like having a second mouth. When there has been a bit of a gaffe, the press secretary will say something like, "What the president really meant to say was...."

Have you ever had anyone put themselves in the position of speaking for you? It's uncomfortable, isn't it? It's especially disturbing if whoever it is gets it wrong. If you've ever been quoted in the press you will know what this is like. Seldom, in my experience, does a press report ever accurately reflect what is said by whoever is saying it. Yet, millions of people see these reports and accept them as truth.

You can see the problems mounting as we humans endeavor to speak for one another. How then, does it go when someone decides that they are speaking for God? For my own part, the same questions emerge. Did the person get this information from the primary source? Was it a one-on-one meeting? Did the person write it down? Are they exaggerating? I mean, think about it. The prophet who exaggerates could have a really bad impact. God told him to tell the people it would be a good thing if they could take better care of one another. The prophet, maybe for good reasons of his own, turns and tells the people that if they don't shape up, God's going to take them down. Then there's always the possibility that the person is lying like a rug. He, or she, could be talking — but they aren't representing God.

This brings us, of course, to false prophets. False prophets. Those, according to Deuteronomy who "speak in the name of other gods or presume to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded the prophet to speak ..." (Deuteronomy 18:20). They have been around since the beginning. These are people who say they are speaking for God, but clearly haven't got a clue as to God's agenda for people and the world. Throughout scripture we are warned of such people.

But even as we say the words, "false prophets," our post-modern sensibilities start to kick in, and there are reactive rumblings deep inside. False? Who gets to decide who is false? Isn't it merely different? The trickling flow of relativism can become a flood very quickly. It is like Pilate sneering in the face of Jesus, asking, "What is truth?" (John 18:38), as though the question itself makes the statement that there is nothing, really, that's true. Let's not, after all, get too judgmental. So, there is no real truth: Hence, there could be nothing that is really false. Therefore, there can be no false prophets. You may know some folks who walk in that way.

The truth, though, is that as Christians we don't — or certainly shouldn't — get into relativism. We accept as truth certain principles and understandings. There are things, in our sense of the universe, that are right and wrong, true and false. The notion of false teachers or prophets ought not be strange or foreign to us.

 In this the question comes to us: Who are the false prophets? How do we recognize them? Who gets to name them? Well, some of the false prophets are pretty evident. Folks claiming that Elvis Presley has returned from the dead as the second coming are — we can say with certainty — false prophets. The gentleman that used to occupy my church office from time to time smelling of alcohol and claiming to have come from Jesus, I can assure you, was a false prophet. These determinations are easy.

But it's not always so simple. In general, it's important to listen to folks, and then, as scripture suggests, see if their words and their actions cohere or agree with what we already know to be the words and ways of God. For example, anyone who teaches that war and violence are the will of God, it's safe to say, is a false prophet.

Nowhere in our Christian Scripture can we legitimately produce the notion that God is in favor of war. Another example would be someone who stirs up anger and foments division in preaching and teaching. Our gospel calls us to unity and compassion, to getting along together and sharing our lives in love. People who say they are speaking for God and violate that love and compassion are false prophets. Preachers of the gospel of wealth and prosperity, those who say that their riches and their gluttony are a sign of God's blessings are false prophets.

You see how this works.

There are indeed false prophets abroad in the world. As a people we need to see this and we need to be aware of it, but as scripture tells this morning we don't need be "frightened by it." We have better things to do.

We have to speak and live God's Word for real. We have a church to grow, a faith to build, people to serve, a God to worship. We have hungry and hurting people to heal, peace to offer, and hope to create. All of this we do, not in our names or the name of our congregation, but in the name of Jesus Christ.

What's important is not the battles we can get into with people who disagree with us. What matters is that in the face of controversy and derision, through the slings and arrows of those who would deceive, we will continue our journey toward faithfulness. We hold our faith closely. It matters to us how things get said and done. But friends, if we get distracted, if we allow fear generated by false prophets to dictate our actions, they will have won. For we know that the perfect love of God we seek to share and grow casts out all fear (1 John 4:18).

Be aware of those who may be trying to speak for God without having checked with God first, but don't be afraid. Notice the teachings and the actions of others, and test them against what you know to be the love, grace, and wonder that God calls us to share. Rest, not in the conflict that could happen, but in the certainty of God's grace. False prophets will come. False prophets will fall away. False prophets will likely come again.

But we will center ourselves in the saving power of God's grace in Christ Jesus and move forward, come what may, in Jesus' name.

Amen.