Words, Words, Words!

Readings;  Psalm 147:12-20, Jeremiah 31:7-14, Ephesians 1:3-14, John 1:1-18
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, January 5th 2014

A printable PDF file can be found here

Words, Words, Words.
Is there no end to them?
Words, Words, Words.
We teach our children to read and write but do we teach them to value words?

In my study are many books, full of words about this, words about that, words of challenge, words of hope, words of humor, words of description. But what do they all amount to?

I remember being on an airplane and the stewardess offering me a newspaper to read.  I picked up an "Atlanta Journal".  A Newspaper? More like a library! Who ever reads such a volume from cover to cover?

Words come so easily to us.  The written word.  The spoken word. They come so easily to us that they have become cheap.  So much talking, but so little listening.  A constant babble around us.  Shouting at us from advertisements. "Buy me - Be popular". "Use this - Find love".

On television, on radio, chatter, chatter, chatter and on and on and on, till we get to a point where the TV is left on and the radio is left talking, but no-ones watching and no-ones listening, just a constant murmuring going on in the background.

Words to songs.  We sing them. We sing them again. but often they don't mean anything. As a pop tune once declared "Video killed the radio star".

Even in church with our hymns. Some don't bother to pick up the book yet alone open their mouths. And when they are sung it is sometimes without imagination and without understanding. "Nice tune, but what's it all about?".  Where there is no engagement of the mind it becomes just empty noise.

Words from pulpits.  How many words have floated over pews, but have never been received, never been chewed upon nor contemplated. The Words of the Bible.  "Oh, I know that passage... but I'm not sure I like it in that translation, not sure what it means either, but I do like it."

Words, Words, Words.

In the workplace, they used to have typewriters. The aim of the typewriter was to present information clearly.  And you could have a carbon copy if you wanted. Now we have "Word Processors" that correct your spelling, reorganize your phrasing, analyze your outline etc., etc.

Could it be that words, in our day, have become devalued simply because there are so accessible? As we come to the Communion table on this first Sunday of the New Year I want to put before you two verses from the Prologue of John's gospel - Chapter 1, verses 1 & 14:

"In the beginning was the Word
The Word was with God
And the Word was God."
"And the Word became flesh
And dwelt among us."

I want to suggest to you this morning that to truly worship God, to truly find the sacrament as something meaningful and powerful, then we must go back to a time before the Word Processor, the TV word, the printing press, back to a time when there was so much silence that words still meant something significant.

In the beginning was the Word

In Greek "Logos". In Hebrew "Dabhar".

In the Old Testament the Dabhar of God was not simply something spoken or written down. It was nothing less than DIVINE CREATIVE ENERGY. "God said "Let there be light" and there was light".  The Psalmist writes, "By the word (Dabhar) of the Lord the heavens were created." (Psalm 33).

At a scenic overlook you don't find a sign that says "While you're here take a look at the view". A baby cradled in its' mothers arms doesn't have to say, "Hey, I'm here, Love me".  There are no spoken words in a sunset.

In the beginning was the Word.

In the later history of Israel, the Word was also seen as "Wisdom".  Not the wisdom of recorded words or philosophy, but the wisdom that gave birth to order in the midst of chaos, wisdom that brought forth light in the midst of darkness and made darkness itself nothing to fear.

Dabhar - Word - implies deeds and action, not just words. It is a something imaginative, active, playful, creative, healing and powerful.

The Word -something which brought things to life, something which created possibilities, something which caused people to open up and blossom like flowers in a desert.

The Word - Not the dullness of a carefully constructed concept, but flowing like a mighty river and with breathtaking significance.

In the beginning was the Word.
The Word was with God and the Word was God.

Have we damaged our understanding of God with our words? Have we tried to describe God or to contain God? Maybe we have thought that it was in our ability to put down on paper, once and for all, what God is truly like. 

The philosophers have tied themselves in knots trying with their words to prove or disprove the existence of God.  Theologians have taken the words of Scripture and tried to analyze them and then fallen out with each other because they didn't all reach the same conclusion. Scientists, by formula and observation, have given us their proven theories and then had to eat their words as newer proven theories have materialized.

What arrogance we display through our words.  How inadequate they are as a vehicle to convey the awesome mystery of God. - the Word that is God will not be contained by our words. We have become centered on Christianity as a religion of the book rather than a way of being.  Maybe if we could open our lives to embrace the life that is God then not only would the written words the Bible contains spring to new life but there would also be far less empty pews in our services of Worship.

Of course, embracing Divine life is a risky business.  You can't contain Divine Creative Energy.  Who knows where it could lead? The next verse gives us a clue.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Here is the statement that made Christmas worth celebrating. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." What an incredible thought this is.  All that Divine energy, which is God, becoming focused in Christ, and He, voluntarily allowing Himself to be subject to all the darkness and despair of Creation.  Born in the poverty of a dirty stable and dieing unjustly a criminals death.

Surely as we read the gospel accounts of Jesus work we see in His words, something more than just words.  So often His teaching is framed in visual images, in word-pictures, in parables.  So often His actions were totally unexpected.  Embracing lepers.  Befriending prostitutes.  Healing the sick.  Raising the dead.

Could anybody stop Him?  He carried in Himself all that unstoppable creativity that was characteristic of the Word which was God, all that 'Dabhar', Creative, powerful energy.  How tremendous was His impact.  Johns gospel hits the right button when He writes, "The Word became Flesh and dwelt amongst us"

The life of Jesus gives the creative Word a fuller revelation.  It was there all the time but only after Christ had ministered in the world of time would Johns letter describe the nature of God, with this simple phrase... 'GOD IS LOVE'.  There's a carol that declares, "Love came down at Christmas". And that was just the beginning.

The Cross. The Resurrection, Christ alive today, His Spirit that cannot be conquered by an unbelieving world, still creating, still bringing joy, still transforming hopeless situations into glorious opportunities of Grace.

But you see... now I'm struggling with the inadequacy of words. To explain things which are without explanation, to put into phrases things which are eternal....

Words, Words, Words.

Words are not enough.  Instead, let us come to a table laid with bread and wine and taste and see and know that the Lord is God.  Let us acknowledge our inadequacy and His sufficiency.  Let us allow the Holy Spirit to minister to us in a way that words can never express.

Here at the beginning of a New Year, is an opportunity to lay our lives before God, to seek for God's creative Word to write it's message on our lives and open our hearts to the love of our Savior Jesus Christ.

"In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God."
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.