Authentic Ambassadors

Authentic Ambassadors

Ash Wednesday – C

In baptism, the Spirit makes us ambassadors for Christ. To be an ambassador means we are sent to dwell in unfamiliar environments. Therefore, we are also diplomats committed to working together toward reconciliation through gracious and genuine dialogue.

As music ministers, we have a unique way of representing Christ. We sing the One we represent. Christ is embodied—given a body and breath!—through our song. God’s words, appealing through us, have resonance in music. Wedded to scripture and ritual texts and heightened by the spiritual force of melody and harmony, the music we make penetrates body, mind, and heart. They are not just heard. By God’s Spirit, they reverberate within stony hearts, breaking them open to make space for Christ’s message to echo from the inside out.

When we bicker, demonize, and demoralize, online or face-to-face, out loud or under our breath, we cease to speak Christ. Click To Tweet

But what if we envoys of Christ misrepresent God’s intent, not by wrong notes or missed cues but by daily words, thoughts, or actions out of tune with Christ’s mission of reconciliation? When we bicker, demonize, and demoralize, online or face-to-face, out loud or under our breath, we cease to speak Christ. When we amplify lies and silence the truth, we deaden the song of grace we have been given to sing.

This Lent, pray that we may be authentic ambassadors, so that when God opens our lips, our mouths shall only proclaim God’s praise.

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This post was first published in “GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal.”
Image credit: Photo by Pixelfit from Getty Images Signature.

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