Thank you for those excellent recitations.  And welcome, grandparents – we’re glad you’re here.

This week in our morning assemblies, we’ve been reflecting on the virtue of silence—that it is important to spend time in silence; that there is often great merit in remaining silent ourselves; and that sometimes, God speaks in a low whisper that we will not hear, except in silence.

But, for those of you dispositionally quiet ones who, like Abraham Lincoln, find yourself “rather inclined to silence,” don’t think for a second that this one will be easy for you.  The writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us that “[f]or everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven,” including “a time to keep silence and a time to speak.”  And Proverbs instructs us: “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.  Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the right of the poor and needy.”

For as Lincoln himself knew all too well, there are times when we must speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.  German Pastor Martin Niemoller, writing about his own failure to speak out against the Nazis, famously recalled:

“First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.  Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.  Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.  Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

So, remember the virtue of silence.  But also remember the words of Benjamin Franklin: “As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.” 

Have a wonderful day.