If you have ever traveled beyond our country’s borders, you have had the experience of having to declare (or disclose) the goods and/or money you are bringing into another country or back into the United States upon your return.  The question, ‘Do you have anything to declare?” requires you to state, disclose or proclaim what you have with you as you enter a country.

Today’s scriptures are about declarations and proclamations.  Psalm 19 begins with the heavens, the earth, and all that is in it and around it declaring the presence of God…declaring glory and proclaiming God’s handiwork in all of creation.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus extends an invitation to Simon and Andrew, James and John to, ‘…come follow after me”.  There is clearly a choice – follow this man Jesus, or remain with what they know best, fishing.  In hindsight, we know that their choices were ‘right on’, but at the time of Jesus’ invitation to them, the result of leaving the familiar (their livelihood and their families) was not so clear to them.  They were initiating their journey, and not sure what this might mean to them later.

In the letter to the Romans, there is another kind of call:  “…To confess with your lips…and believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead.”  Yet, the letter writer poignantly reminds us, “How can they call on the One in whom they have not believed?”  And, “How can they believe in the One unless they have heard?  But how can they hear unless someone preaches?”  And even more, “…how can they preach unless they are sent?”

How are you and I being called (sent) today?  What shall we declare by our lives?  Are we willing to declare what we believe ‘in our hearts and on our lips’?  Do we empower and support and/or send forth one another to preach (tell our stories) of God’s presence among us?

God’s presence IS among and within each of us.  I can know God’s presence in you as you share (proclaim) your story with me.  But if we do not invite one another to declare what we know, will we proclaim (share) our stories with others?  

I believe that each of us is called to preach (share) our stories…to make known (and declare) how God touches us in our everyday life.  Advent is perhaps a call to each of us, ‘to come’ follow…to call forth one another to declare our stories-what we bring from our journeys into today.  What will you and I declare on our Advent journeys this season?

Faith is on our lips and in our hearts, but becomes declared in our actions…in our telling and proclaiming our stories of the God in our lives.