Advocacy of this kind certainly begins in worship, where people learn to lend their mouths to other people in principle, unasked. Advocacy does not consist primarily of spectacular actions which in general peter out quite quickly; it means speaking up ‘perseveringly’ on behalf of others, as is to be the case in intercession (Ephesians 6.18) Advocacy of this kind is not a natural ability – ‘we do not know how to pray as we ought’; it must be learnt. And the Spirit as the Parakletos, the advocate per se, represents believers (Romans 8.26) and teaches them as it does so. Advocacy must be learnt in the intercessory practice of the community, but it can also be a guide to mediation, to ‘good offices’ apart from prayer. Anyone who before God opens his mouth for the dumb can also raise his voice before the world and the powerful on behalf of the people who have no voice of their own, or whose voices are not listened to.
Bernd Wannenwetsch Political Worship
