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Predicting the Future

Jeremiah 28.5-9 (NRSVA)

This passage describes a battle of the prophets, a sort of prophesying contest which happened in the Temple. The Prophet Hananiah faced down Jeremiah and told him that he was getting it all wrong. The Kingdom of Judah wasn’t facing disaster, instead things were just about to get a lot better. The heavy yoke of the King of Babylon was about to be broken and the people who’d already been taken away into exile would be allowed to return, bringing with them the treasured sacred objects that had been looted from the Temple..

This put Jeremiah in a difficult position. He was convinced that Hananiah was mistaken, but to deny the truth of such a hopeful prophecy wasn’t going to increase his own dismal popularity ratings. So he’d no alternative but to solemnly endorse what Hananiah was saying. ‘Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord fulfil the words that you have prophesied.’ But he added a warning. The reputation of people who promise good times will always be measured by whether their promises come true. There’s no Book of Hananiah in the Bible, despite his huge popular following at the time.

This conflict resonates with our situation. In the media we find a conflict going on between Hananiahs and Jeremiahs, people who are convinced that - if we’re vigilant and careful - life can return to something more like ‘normality’, and rival experts and leaders who believe a more cautious approach would be sensible if we want to avoid repeated local lockdowns or, worse still, a second wave of the pandemic. Events in other countries which thought they’d overcome the Coronavirus are not particularly encouraging.

For prophets and forecasters there’s also the question of what life will look like after the pandemic is finally over. Will it be business as usual? Will people be desperate to reestablish loved and familiar patterns of life and work? Or will there be fundamental changes, such as more homeworking and a ‘greening’ of the economy? 

And what will Church look like? Will we find we’ve got a new relevance to people as they join in, in greater numbers, with online worship and prayer? Will more circuit and district meetings take place on Zoom? Will patterns of face-to-face worship and church life change forever as we try out new approaches in the absence of the traditional hymn-prayer sandwich? Or will we quickly revert back to what we’re familiar with?

Which sides would Jeremiah and Hananiah take in this debate? Would Hananiah be assuring people that normal service can be resumed, while Jeremiah continued to prophesy doom and gloom? Or would Hananiah be promising radical changes to church life and worship, while Jeremiah warned that we could all too easily lapse back into the comfort of old ways?

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