Dai­ly Reflec­tion
Novem­ber 30, 1999

What Do YOU Have To Declare?

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.