The Tribune

Rev Angela Bosfield Palacious

WHEN we are busy and the phone begins to ring we often ask someone else to answer the call and take a message. This person stands in the gap as it were, and receives a message that was intended for our ears.

The cross is the way in which Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, takes the message of condemnation from Satan, takes the verdict of a death sentence for sin, and takes the punishment of spiritual separation from God His Father.

Another way in which the phrase “take a message” can be used is to have someone deliver a message to someone else. Many large businesses employ persons as messengers so that mail may be delivered personally to individuals or other companies.

Similarly, angels, who do God’s bidding, are sent to earth to bring messages to us. Think of some of the best known events in the Bible and the roles that heavenly messengers play:

The angel Gabriel announces to Mary, the mother of our Lord, that she had been selected by God to bear the Messiah in her womb.

A host of angels sing to shepherds of the birth of the Saviour in Bethlehem and offer praise and glory to God for this gracious act of love

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus reprimands Peter for drawing his sword and speaks of the legions of angels that would rescue him if He so desired.

Two angels announce to the women who come to the empty tomb that the crucified Christ is the Resurrected Lord.

The Old Testament describes the visit of three angels to Abraham and Sarah to tell of the son and heir to be born.

Jacob dreams of a ladder of angels who move back and forth from heaven to earth, while many years later he wrestles with an angel all night in order to be blessed.

We are also commissioned by God to take the message of salvation to those who have not heard it, and to show kindness to others as a message of God’s ‘hesed’, or unconditional loving kindness, to us by sending a Son to die for sinners. Our acts of worship and devotion send the message of faithful commitment to a most deserving Creator who made us in the divine image and destines us for eternal life if we accept the invitation.

In Isaiah 55 we are given such an invitation: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. 4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples.”

In our Anglican tradition, confirmation is the occasion when those baptised as infants receive additional prayers and commissioning to become more actively and intentionally engaged in the “message ministry”. Every Christian is expected to grow in Christlikeness by participating in acts of prayer, worship, work and witness.

By identifying our spiritual gifts we find our place in the Body of Christ and make a meaningful contribution to the building up of the church and the furthering of God’s Kingdom.

When you spend time with the Lord, you are in place to take a message wherever and whenever God chooses. “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:6-9)

Are you a reliable messenger who is attentive to hear and dedicated to delivering a word from the Lord? If not, why not?