Sound the trumpet
Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?
St Paul to the Corinthian Church
As I type out this article, I am on a United States Air Force Base. And not just any base, but one which controls 450 Inter-Continental Nuclear Ballistic Missiles. Four thousand five hundred air force personnel run this base, and needless to say, every one of them plays a vital role in what has to be a well-drilled team. From the base commander to the cook, every single one plays a role. If, God forbid, the decision to use these weapons was ever made, the time from the order to launch to actual launch is sixty seconds, hence the term “Minuteman Missile”.
This team, therefore, must be constantly at peak readiness, and everyone must be aware of their role. You would perhaps expect the atmosphere to be tense, but in fact, this is one of the calmest places, and if not for the helicopters, it is one of the quietest places I have ever been. There is a rhythm here. Each morning at 7.00 a.m.a trumpet sounds reveille – a sharp, clear call that slices through the stillness and summons life into motion. At 4:30 p.m., the National Anthem plays, and for a moment everything stops: engines idle, conversations pause, and the flag waves in the silence of attention. Then at 10 p.m., Taps is sounded-slow, sorrowful, and comforting. The day is done, Mission has been accomplished, and tomorrow it will begin again.
Needless to say, my thoughts turned to the Mission of the church and the trumpets reminded me of the many references in scripture to trumpets. The Apostle Paul references trumpets, reminding us of the need for clarity. Contextually, Paul addresses prophecy, but he also speaks of teaching and revelation, his overall point being that whatever is given voice in the church should be clear and edifying. Our Mission is clear “Go make disciples of all men”. But what of our Trumpets?
It is impossible to live and lead in this cultural moment without being aware of the noise of our times. Everywhere, it seems, the Church is being told to take a side —to trumpet certain causes, to defend certain values, to speak loudly into the political winds. Many of those values align with biblical morality, and yet I find myself uneasy when our voice begins to sound more like a movement than a message, more like a campaign than a calling. There is a subtle danger in confusing moral alignment with spiritual renewal. The Right may speak of virtue, and the Left of justice, but neither can raise the dead. Only Christ can do that. The gospel does not come to endorse our own righteousness; it comes to reveal that we have none apart from grace.
Christian leaders, especially in times like ours, may be tempted to blow the trumpet of outrage. It’s easier to call them out than to call them home. That strident call that pushes back may be an attractive call that rallies unfranchised young men to a cause, but we fail them if that call does not call them to the humble life of a servant of Christ.
The voice the world most needs to hear from us is not one of condemnation. That has been done already; the world lost through Adam stands condemned, but John 3:17 tells us, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” What remains is proclamation: the good news that God was in Christ reconciling man to Himself, that He so loved the world, that every sinner, every self-righteous soul, every right-wing and every left-wing person is invited home through the cross. Our task is not to preserve an ideology or defend a moral order, but to announce a kingdom that is breaking in even now.
The daily rhythm of the base reminded me of this: the gospel sounds through the ordinary, through discipline, through pauses and silences. It calls the world to awaken to grace. I believe that is the true Mission – to lift not the trumpet of anger or pride, but the trumpet of hope. To sound again and again, those beautiful notes that say: Christ is risen and mercy is real.
P R Carley