In today’s social media driven community, the courage to speak one’s mind has been greatly hampered by the fear of being bullied, aka cancel culture. When Simon and Garfunkel wrote the Sound of Silence in the very early 1960’s, do you think they would have even contemplated the extent of the silence today?
And in the naked light, I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more People talking without speaking People hearing without listening People writing songs that voices never shared And no one dared Disturb the sound of silence
Again, this was in the early sixties but think of how this relates to our communities today. Millions of people so locked into their own preferences and wants that they forget to listen to the needs all around and if one makes comment against a single belief or preference, the backlash is quick, the walls go up and the act of compromise and debate is silenced. Is there an opportunity to reverse the trend, for the voices to be heard and not silenced?
Jesus stood before the masses in Luke 4 and gave all hope, showed them a way to help them move forward and spoke in a language that was contrary to what the pharisees were preaching in their position of power. When they could no longer argue against the Truth, they rallied the group and decided to bully the Lord by coming against Him physically.
When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. Jumping up, they mobbed Him and forced Him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push Him over the cliff, but He passed right through the crowd and went on His way. Luke 4:28-30
Over and over again, the crowd tried to silence the sound of hope, they did not want to hear but rather embraced the sound of silence by shouting down the song of joy. In the end, Christ silenced the naysayers when He rose from the grave, when He walked through the crowd fully alive and declared by His action “I AM GOD”. Tens of thousands of people around the world have been unable to hear the Truth because they have not heard, have chosen to remain deaf to the declaration or refuse to participate in active conversation or even debate and the sound of silence continues to be the norm. Remember, you can try to silence the message of God but in the end, He will walk through the chaos of this world and embrace those who have tried to speak into the silence for the wellness of all.
This Sunday, we welcome Rev Bob Hillock as Pastor Todd and Natalie are away on holidays. We would love for you to join us either in person or online Sunday at 10:30 AM MST.
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We look forward to seeing you this Sunday.
Blessings,
Pastor Todd
www.mainavefellowship.ca
Our Mission “To live the love of Christ”
A postscript from Natalie:
One definition says that “Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.” Why would that concept ever be put with the word cancel!? Why would we want to take the array of colours and shades in our world and try to make everything a shade of beige?
