Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, May 22, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
We are all commanded to “preach” to the people. What an order! According to a million memes and quotes on the internet (which means it must be true! Ha!) people fear public speaking more than death. (Though a fact-checking rabbit hole by me revealed this isn’t exactly true. People just listed public speaking as a major fear more often than they mentioned death, but when asked to name their greatest fear, most said ‘death.’)
But I digress (which I’m sure you’re used to by now!). The point is that speaking to other people about faith, even one on one, is an anxiety-producing activity. Especially people outside of our own faith community. Considering how divided (and often nasty about it) we tend to be in our society at the present, how can we predict how anyone is going to respond to our confession of faith, even if it comes with powerful testimony of personal experience? Yet the early Christians saw this as not optional at all—it was God’s command that they proclaim Jesus the judge of the living and the dead. Are we ready to do the same?
Personally, I default to two things: 1) Audience: Sometimes you can just tell when someone needs a word of hope, a word of love, a testimony of personal experience of faith. I see these opportunities mostly in the area of my recovery community, but even here it can be super hard to reach out to someone who I think might be suffering from my disease. You still never know how they’re going to respond. In that case, a lot of prayer for guidance and motivation helps me make a decision. 2) Serendipity: Sometimes circumstances just line up perfectly and present the opportunity to speak a word of faith to even a complete stranger. We can watch for these situations and, again, pray for the willingness to speak up.
No, it’s not easy to talk publicly about our faith. But we can remember that we never speak alone. God is with us in the speaking, and God is the one responsible for the outcome.
Am I comfortable talking about my faith? Why or why not? What might help me be more open about it?
