Today’s Scripture Reading (August 16, 2018): Exodus 6
The phrase was coined in the 1950’s by the Quakers. It was
short, which probably lends to its power. And the phrase is needed today more
than ever. Here is the phrase – “Speaking Truth to Power.” The phrase is
powerful, but it is never easy. There are many reasons why we shouldn’t do it.
We might get ridiculed or called stupid. Whenever I attempt to speak truth to
power, invariably someone tells me that I am wasting my time, after all, power
isn’t listening. And that is the truth, and yet, sometimes, something special does
happen when we decide to remind power of
truth.
Over the past few
years, there have been several movements that have caught the eye of many
powerless people. #BlackLivesMatter and #SayHerName have tried to focus
attention on police violence against Black people in the United States. #LoveWins
has tried to focus attention on the issue of marriage equality between LGBTQ and
traditional marriages in our society (and the truth even within the church and
notwithstanding our stand on the Gay Marriage issue is that God created all of
us equal, and equality is an essential part of what we believe. None of us are
saints; we are all sinners standing in
need of the forgiveness of God.) #MeToo has focused attention on sexual harassment and rape. Just the word
#Charlottesville has become a message of racial equality and a stand against
racial violence. In every one of these situations
and many more, there is a truth that needs to be spoken to power – even if
power is not listening.
God gave Moses a
truth that needed to be spoken to power. Moses complained that no one was going to
listen; that he did not have a voice that commanded attention. The complaint
that he spoke with “faltering lips” has caused many to wonder if he had a
problem with stuttering, which might have caused people to question his intelligence
and made him an object of ridicule. But the message of God was clear. Moses
possessed a truth he had discovered at the burning bush. He also had an intelligence that would result in him
becoming Israel’s Law Giver. His responsibility was to speak the truth to
Pharaoh. What happened to that truth was in the hands of God, and was not part
of Moses’s responsibility.
We have the same
responsibility. Each one of us needs to be a speaker of truth, especially a
speaker of inconvenient truths that may cause us to suffer disdain from power.
What comes of that truth is in the hands of someone else. And maybe no one will
listen. But that does not mean that we do not have to speak and speak repeatedly,
of the truth that we have come to know.
Tomorrow’s Scripture
Reading: Exodus 7
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