Ecclesiastes 3:7 says: there is time to keep silence and time to speak up.

Samuel Hoar was a United States politician. He was member of a prominent political family in Massachusetts and he also was a leading 19th century lawyer of that state. However, there was once a court case he lost just because he kept silence. This prominent lawyer was representing the defendant. When it was time to present his case, he told the jurors that the facts favoring his client were so evident that he would not insult their intelligence by arguing them and he did not say anything to defend his client. The jury retired to deliberate and returned in a few minutes with a verdict of guilty. 

Samuel Hoar was astonished, “How could you have reached such a verdict?”  He asked, the Juror’s foreman replied, “We all agreed that if anything could be said for a case, you would say it.  But since you did not present any evidence, we decided to rule against you.” Silence made him lost the case.

          There is much that can be said about silence. Poets speak well about it. Silence is recommended for keeping us out of trouble; “be quiet” is an expression we hear very often. On many occasions silence is good, but not when it comes to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because silence keeps people out of heaven; this is the kind of silence we must avoid. 

          Every message needs a messenger. This morning’s Gospel presents John the Baptist as the messenger of the Lord. John 1:6 says, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light.” Most of medieval art portrays him with the index finger pointing, directing others to Jesus. John was the one who recognized Jesus as the Lamb of God. John’s Gospel says that he provided the first two disciples for the Lord. He was the voice shouting in the wilderness announcing the Kingdom of God. John is the paradigm of Jesus’ followers.

          Last Sunday we read about other witnesses: Anna and Simeon; they told others about the baby Jesus. During Christmas we received and heard the message. Now is time to pass it on, time to “go and tell it on the mountains.” Our brothers and sisters the Early Church understood this. Paul put it in a simple way in his letter to the church in Rome.   

Romans 10:13-17, “for, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” End of Paul’s quote. Here, Paul has an invitation to speak up loud, clear and bold for Christ, not only as evidence of our salvation, but also as a mean of sharing God’s plan of salvation so that others will come to know Christ as their Savior.

Listening to Paul’s invitation to share the gospel, I have realized that there are expressions we should pay more attention to before fully embracing them. For instances, the expression, “we have to preach the good news with our actions.” I believe is important to preach with our action, but we must practice what we preach, and our actions must go along with words explaining our actions.  

We cannot preach the gospel with actions only; we cannot preach the gospel without speaking!  The word gospel means good news and the Church can preach the good news with actions about as well as any anchor news person can deliver the Evening News with mime and skits. In other words, not very well!  News need to be proclaimed, and to do that we need words!  That is why the Gospel, and the Apostle Paul says to each of us this morning: Be the voice shouting in the wilderness, speak up! Because “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”

The message of salvation in Christ, that we know and believe, needs to be heard by others who do not know and do not believe in Christ. Therefore, my brothers and sisters in Christ, is time to speak up!  Now, when we speak up, we must recognize the possibility of rejection, As Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” but speak up anyway, because our message is important.

In a little more than a month we will witness the power of the message with words and images. The Super Bowl -LV, I believe. – TV networks will charge millions of dollars for a 30-second message, and this message will reach hundreds of millions of people around the world. During this event we will see creative artists combining sight and sound to grab attention. Some will make us laugh so that we remember the product. Others will push the edge of shock, vulgarity, and obscenity just to leave a permanent impression in our minds.

Companies will invest so much money in spreading their message because according to them their message, their product is good, it is worthy. They invest millions because will give them profit, because it works. If they do not advertise, they do not expand, they do not grow.

Sisters and brothers, it is not a secret and as you know, Christianity is declining, and it is declining because we have stopped advertising our product; we have stopped sharing the message. I believe we have kept silence for too long and it is time to speak up using words and actions. My brothers and sisters our silence is food for evil. If it is something, we can learn from our brothers of the Early Church is that they never kept silence. They spoke up even when their leaders questioned them and asked them not to do it; they spoke up when they were in prison; they spoke up when they were persecuted. They knew that if they would have not talk, the stones would. Acts 4:18-20 is a great example of this “Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.  But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges!  As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

In the New Testament especially in the book of Acts we find that to hear the message, and believe the message are always together. They are sides of the same coin, that is the message Paul shared with the church in Rome, in chapter 10:17, “Consequently, -he says- faith, (or believe) comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” In other words, thru the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We are in the time of the year when we make resolutions for the New Year. I invite you to include this year in your resolutions to speak up and share the message of salvation with others who do not know it. Be the one shouting in the wilderness, be the one whose feet are beautiful because you are bringing the good news.