Sunday, May 10, 2020
Dear St. Luke Community,
I’ve been doing a lot of jogging and walking lately, which means I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts and music. Each week I look for guidance from God in sermon writing, and this week, the theme that keeps coming up is about finding one’s voice and speaking your truth, even when it means risking loss: loss of friends, community and belonging, especially in the context of faith. So many churches require followers to hold certain beliefs or risk no longer being a part of the community they once belonged to.
In the song I listened to this morning there’s this lyric… “So put your voice up to the test, Sing Lord, come soon.” What does it mean to put your voice up to the test? Stephen, the church’s first martyr, put his voice up to the test and it cost him his life (Acts 7:55-60). And while most of us will never have to face the decision Stephen did, what convictions of your own are you willing to speak up for and risk some kind of loss in the process?
In our second scripture we’re told to let our selves be made into spiritual houses (1Peter 2:2-5). Houses are built upon foundations. In the context of faith, this is like our voices being built upon our convictions. When we find what it true in faith, we build everything else in our life upon that foundation. We speak from there, make choices from there and at times, it can ostracize us from our own community, political party, family, club and even church.
What are you willing to speak up for? What are you willing to risk? What are the foundations of your spiritual house that your own voice speaks out from?
See you Sunday,
Nicole