Crying out in the modern desert

Crying out in the modern desert

Second Sunday of Advent

By this time of year, the election campaign season in the United States will be in full swing. If it’s anything like recent years, it will be ugly, brutal, and on full display across our media outlets. If John the Baptist were around today, I could imagine him yelling at his iThingy, “You brood of vipers!”

We who are ministers of music and of the word carry a unique responsibility when it comes to our voice. The word of God is always truth and light. Yet that word is also connected to the one who bears it, Christ and Christ’s followers—us.

The word of God is always truth and light. Yet that word is also connected to the one who bears it, Christ and Christ’s followers—us. Click To Tweet

Because we speak and sing God’s word in our communal prayer, the way we use our voices outside of liturgy is a reflection of the authenticity of what we have proclaimed. Are we adding to the cacophony through gossip, snap judgments, or words that demonize another? Do we think we stand on the side of righteousness because of our silence, even though we had the power to speak up when witnessing an injustice?

As the church’s ministers, we have been given the privilege of being a voice crying out in the desert of people’s lives Sunday after Sunday. Let us use our voices in our daily lives carefully and courageously, “that with one accord [we] may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 15:6).

This post was first published in “GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal.”

Image credit: Arto Marttinen, Unsplash, CC0.

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