Can you imagine silent corporate worship? No music, no hymns, no sermon? For ten years, I taught at a Quaker school and attended weekly Meeting for Worship with middle school students who couldn’t stay still in their classroom seats, but managed to sit in silence for 45 minutes. The silence is what the Quakers call, “expectant waiting,” holding the possibility that the “still small voice of God” might prompt one of them to speak out loud.
The Great Commission given to the Disciples in Mark 16:15 did not require waiting, but action. Jesus told His followers in no uncertain terms that they were “ to go out into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (NIV). It was a tall order for uneducated fishermen! Jesus told them the miracles they would do in His name: cast out demons, speak in tongues, and heal the sick. The Book of Mark tells us the Lord was with the Disciples as they wandered and preached. Wow! What fervor they showed! The Acts of the Apostles speaks of the many people they brought to salvation.
What happened to that passion for spreading the Gospel? Philemon 6 tells us to be active in sharing our faith, but how many of us actually DO IT?
In the 1500’s. Sister Teresa of Avila, a Spanish nun, penned these words:
Christ has no body but yours.
He has no hands, no feet on earth but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which He looks compassion on the world.
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good.
Yours are the hands through which He blessed all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are His body.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
The poem should give you pause. WE are the body of Christ in the world. WE are here to do His work. WE are ALL called to the Great Commission. Telling others about your faith can be frightening.
But also fulfilling. Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, wil be poured into your lap” (NIV).
Give, and you will get. Give more, and you will get more.
During my years teaching at a Quaker school, meetings for worship were conducted in mostly absolute silence. Once in a while, someone would be led by the Spirit to speak into the silence. We need not wait for a church service or a meeting. We can speak into the void, into the silence, anytime, anywhere.
Because we are not only the feet and hands of Christ, we are His voice.
