By CHARLES WHATLEY Guest Columnist
A shofar is a ram’s horn blown like a bugle during Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year), every day except Shabbat (Jewish Sabbath), and at the end of Yom Kippur (Jewish Day of Atonement).
It’s made by hollowing out a ram’s horn and it makes four sounds — “tekiah, shevarim, teruah, and tekiah gedolah.” Hearing the sounds of the shofar reminds us to look into our hearts and repent of our sins.
I don’t remember where I bought it, but I’ve had a “shofar” for many years. It’s right now laying on the altar at our church, and we used it recently for a wedding.
The word “shofar” means “clear,” which is proper for a wedding where one man and one woman stand at God’s altar making “clear” their love for and commitment to each other.
And like any horn, someone’s “ruach” meaning “breath” or “spirit” creates the sound of the shofar. But if there’s some obstruction in the shofar, the “ruach” can’t go through it and there’ll be no sound or there’ll be a muffled, unclear sound.
All this is critically important when we come the close of Revelation.
“And he said to me, ‘Do not keep the prophetic words of this book a secret, because the time is near when all this will happen. Whoever is evil must go on doing evil, and whoever is filthy must go on being filthy; whoever is good must go on doing good, and whoever is holy must go on being holy.’” — Revelation 22: 10-11
John, in the gospel of John and here in Revelation, likes contrasts, and we’ve seen the back-and-forth struggle between Jesus as Lord of Lords and King of Kings and Satan as a wanna-be lord and king.
So, John closes Revelation with those choices, and we’d be remiss to keep them to ourselves. Everybody ought to have the opportunity to know about and make their own choices, even if they make the wrong choices.
So, you and I, if we’re living in the light, have a responsibility to at least tell people there are choices and what they are. Jesus didn’t come to our world to force us to follow him, but to give us a choice.
And Christmas is a time to celebrate Jesus coming into the world and “blow the shofar” — making clear what choices we’ve made about our relationship to Jesus.
Charles “Buddy” Whatley is a retired United Methodist pastor serving Dawson Street Methodist Church in Thomasville, Ga.
