Tuesday, August 18, 2026
The late Dr. Barbara Holmes (1943–2024), a beloved member of the CAC faculty, acknowledges the complicated feelings that prophets evoke in their listeners:
Prophets are difficult to have around. No one wants to claim the title or do the work because of it. In this postmodern age, everybody is uncomfortable with prophets. They yell when you don’t want them to. They ask for trouble when it could be avoided. They don’t have a politically correct bone in their bodies.…
Prophets are leaders, but not leaders of their own choosing. Inevitably, they have some sort of divine encounter. They meet a burning bush, a ram in the bush, or hear a call in the night. They have visions and dreams. They’re quirky and more than a little weird. As an example, take Jeremiah—he’s crying all the time. Isaiah fasts and lies in the dirt; John the Baptist eats locusts, and Huldah prophesies doom. Finally, one of the most important characteristics of prophets is that they are dangerous to the system.…
In bringing messages from God—and God doesn’t mince words—God speaks directly through them. They have a relationship and intimacy with the Divine. They communicate with God through prayer and direct speech. God walks and talks with them (perhaps not literally but in other ways). They have gifts, and they offer signs and wonders associated with the verification of the presence of God. They have communal connections. They act on behalf of community, not for their own gain, and are dependent on the community for help when they need it.
Though they are often portrayed as solitary figures, Holmes emphasizes the communal nature of the prophetic role:
There is a neglected but important aspect of the prophetic call. In Numbers 11:24–29, Moses is exhausted with the people. Basically, God says “Okay, okay, assemble the elders. Look to the community. You were never supposed to do this alone. I told you to do it; I didn’t tell you to do it alone.” How many of us are carrying burdens that are not ours, and are feeling pretty righteous about it? The work of living and dying, raising children, and leading congregations, was never meant to be solitary work. After the elders assemble, Joshua tells Moses that the elders are prophesying, and he says, “Moses, make this stop!” Moses’s reply in Numbers 11:29 is, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that God would put God’s Spirit on them!”
Let’s just sit with that for a minute. Have you ever felt as if God’s Spirit was on you? Although many of the prophets in the Bible are presented as single carriers of God’s word, often there was a community of other prophets that they came from or were associated with. Who is your community?… If you’re called to the prophetic task, and I think in some aspects all of us are—where is your prophetic community that will feed you and support you and guide you and help you?
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From Curt Thompson
| Dear friend, Every couple of years, I find myself returning to C.S. Lewis’s The Space Trilogy. People occasionally ask why. Surely, after reading the novels so many times, I know how the story ends. But that isn’t really the point. Yes, the through-line of the narrative continues to captivate me. The development of the central character—especially across the first two novels—is as compelling today as it was the first time I encountered it. And I continue to believe Lewis offers some of his richest theology in his fiction. The truths he entrusts to his characters often reach places that straightforward explanation cannot. |
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| But the deepest reason I return is this: These stories continue to train my imagination. They remind me that the world is far more alive than I often remember. * * * * * I first encountered The Space Trilogy in college, but it was the second novel, Perelandra, that took hold of me. Its vision of temptation, beauty, obedience, and the unseen conflict between good and evil did more than capture my attention—it shaped the way I began to understand the world. In fact, my first serious research paper was devoted to Perelandra. At the time, I was a chemistry major with very little exposure to literature or the humanities. Writing this kind of research paper felt impossible. The assignment had called for ten pages; somehow I wrote twenty. To my surprise, it earned high marks and awakened something in me that I hadn’t known was there. Later, one of my literature professors asked me a question I’ve never forgotten. “Why aren’t you an English major?” My response came almost instinctively. “Why didn’t someone tell me I should be?” I’ve often wondered if there was a deeper question hidden beneath those words. |
| Who is paying close enough attention to notice what is coming alive in another person? |
| Who sees gifts that the person carrying them cannot yet recognize? Formation often begins because someone notices. Perhaps that is another gift of stories like Perelandra. They do more than entertain us. They awaken our capacity to perceive what is most real—within the world, within ourselves, and within one another. Warmly, Curt |
Question for Reflection
Who has been someone who “noticed” something coming alive in you before you could see it yourself—and who might God be inviting you to notice in that way now?
