"A Prophet's Reward"
At one point Jesus was talking to His disciples and He made this statement:  "He who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward." The night after the children's conference here at church recently where they talked about prophecy, I couldn't fall asleep. While lying awake at 1 A.M. in the morning, unable to put my mind to rest, and unable to find anything to do with it either, a picture flashed across my mind like lightning across the sky.

 I saw with my mind's eye, Ezekiel, the prophet, as pastor of a church. I grinned, as I lay there in the dark. You talk about a church full of people with a bad case of nerves. Having Ezekiel as your pastor would unnerve the best pillars of the church. I could hear the talk, "What's Pastor Zeke up to now?" The chairman of the pastoral relations committee says, "Well, he used a butcher knife and cut off his hair and beard, and then he went down by the courthouse and weighed his hair on scales. Then, he lit part of it with lighter fluid and threw the rest into a stiff wind. Really weird!" 

A week later during old Zeke's sermon, he threw two suitcases down the center aisle of the church, telling the congregation that they were a bunch of rebellious people who have eyes to see, but see not, and who have ears to hear, but
hear not. At the end of the service, he walked down the center aisle, picked up his bags and left.

A month later, one of the women asks a deacon what Pastor Zeke is up to, and the deacon says, "Strange. Really strange. He is lying on his side on the front porch of the parsonage with a structure built of brick and iron plates, which he says is our denomination. He says he is going to stay on his side for forty days. I have no idea what he is going to do about church services during this period of time."

I wonder if this is what Jesus meant by a prophet's reward?
Prophets like Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Amos must have been nerveracking at best to the people near to them. Consider Jeremiah. One day he sees an almond tree in early bloom, and Jeremiah freaks out, and sees a hidden message from God. To anybody else it would appear to be just a tree beginning to bloom in early spring. Jeremiah knows that the word for an almond tree is very similar to the Hebrew word "to watch", and WA-LA, divine extrapolation enters the picture. Obviously, the almond tree speaks to the fact that God is watching to make sure His will takes place.

Makes sense to me. How about you? Then there is Pastor Amos who is a candidate for a drug test. He must have been using recreational pharmaceuticals.  He comes by a roadside fruit stand, and sees some over ripe fruit and decides that it is a SIGN FROM GOD that the nation is about to rot and he "blows in, blows off, and blows out" like the first hurricane of the season.

And Jesus says, "He who receives a prophet because he is a prophet receives a prophet's reward." I guess what Jesus meant is that when you provide hospitality to a prophet it is
like entertaining whoever is on the front page of the NATIONAL INQUIRER. The person is described with words like  "continually speculated about", "sought after", or the "Notorious."

Then there is, of course, ST. John the Divine, the author of the gospel, who obviously "had slipped over the edge" when he penned the Book of Revelation, don't you think? A book that is written in the middle of the night while lying awake at 1AY EM in the morning, John was unable to put his mind to rest, and unable to find anything else to do with it either, and a picture flashed across his mind like lightning across the sky.

At which point, I decided that maybe I ought to write a newsletter on the prophetic mind, and also to help all of us keep things in perspective.

What perspective, you ask? Well, I haven't thrown suitcases into the sanctuary, or run naked in the streets, like some prophets I know. I haven't looked at Doug Davidson using a plumb line and seen a message for the church. ( or did I? ) I haven't seen any messages in trees either ( like someone I know), or in the fruit section of the local grocery, but . . . !

Are you sure you really want to hear this? I did walk into the arcade in the mall one time And see this flashing machine in among all the computer games. It was a pinball machine, and the lights were flashing, bells were ringing, and I KNEW there was a message for us as a church. "Operation Pinball". My
philosophy of ministry.

The message from God was try new things, and do new ministries. If we get the ball rolling and hit enough bells and whistles, and score enough points, maybe, just maybe we will get to play another game. Try something. Anything. Do something new, and it just may be the way the Lord wants to work in the future in a mighty way. And just to prove that I'm not just whistling in the dark, we are starting a prison ministry with the Great Banquet. We are going to the women's correctional facility here in Decatur, IL in September and we are going to cater the Great Banquet to a group of women in prison.

Not only that, but sometime in the near future ( a date to be determined) we will be taking the Great
Banquet to the men's prison in Taylorville, IL. We are trying something new, catering.

So, I guess you don't get Pastor Amos, or Pastor Jeremiah, or even the wild-eyed Ezekiel, but you did get a "weird one" of sorts. And Jesus said, "He who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward." In the  background registered the sound of a pinball machine that said, MATCH!

See you some time at a Great Banquet . . . . . Jack
P.S. Now you understand my license plate. Pinball turned 80 last year.