Sing and Speak; Worship and Witness
(Is 49:1-6; Ps 71; Jn 13:21-38)
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Sing and speak; worship and witness.
These two sentences contain the main message of the readings today: we are to sing of God’s salvation, and tell of his righteous acts – in short, to worship and witness.
The righteous acts come first. Isaiah continues to prophesy about Jesus as the New Israel; as God’s glory; the Messiah who will be a light to all nations, restore the temple and spread salvation to the end of the earth.
In the Gospel, we see Jesus fulfilling this prophecy through his hour, that is, his passion, death and resurrection. By that hour and his redemptive suffering, Jesus revealed the depth of the Father’s love for us and redeemed us from our sin and sinfulness.
His real suffering was not physical, but moral – here mentioned as betrayal by Judas and denial by Peter. His suffering was a moral loneliness – he would have to be faithful to his commitment to reveal the Father’s love alone, a stone’s throw away from everyone.
Yet this would be his glory, his hour. He would glorify the Father by revealing the Father’s immense love for the world through his suffering and death on the cross, leading to resurrection.
The key to this righteous act of Jesus was that he endured all that suffering, both moral and physical, without bitterness or resentment – just love and forgiveness.
This is what we must sing and speak about, the one we must worship and what we must witness to. How do we do that? We can ask ourselves how we might still be betraying and denying Jesus by our words and actions. We can also and especially accept some inconvenience and suffering in our lives as he did, without bitterness of resentment. Then we are in the kingdom of heaven.
Mary Johnson, interviewed by Steve Chapman on CBS News, is one such person. Because of her strong faith in Jesus, she was able to forgive the man who murdered her son, and even invited him to live in the same apartment building as her, once he was released. Because of her, he has changed his life, and speaks to churches and gatherings of all kinds about the power of forgiveness.
The Eucharist is both worship and witness. We hear of the righteous acts of God in Jesus, sing God’s praises, share in his love for us through communion, and are then commissioned to go out and to witness to this love for us by our lives.
This is praise and worship as we sing to the Lord and raise our voice up high. This is being closer to God and experience Jesus’ pain and suffering as we carry his Cross. This is also love, joy and peace as we step in Jesus’s foot steps and be like Jesus Christ. Thanks Bishop for the lovely message and teachings. Blessings! Blessings !
Once we sing to the Lord we should feel the presence of the Lord among us. Have the feeling of his sorrows and pain that he is about to be arrested and crucified on the cross. After he would be resurrected and appear to us in order to save us from our sins from sinned or not sins. Amen.