SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Prayer of the Day: O God, you are the source of life and the ground of our being. By the power of your Spirit bring healing to this wounded world, and raise us to the new life of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
“Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
I have killed them by the words of my mouth,
and my judgment goes forth as the light.
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Hosea 6:5-6.
This text is yet another reminder that the power behind God’s judgement, God’s wrath and God’s punishment is God’s Word. The violence implied in the words “killed” and “hewn” pertains not to weapons of war designed to destroy human flesh, but to preaching, parables and poetic utterances crafted to break hearts, change minds and restore relationships. As the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, “the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12.
The point is further illustrated in Saint Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians in which Paul urges his readers to “take up the whole armor of God.” Ephesians 6:13. For a people living under Roman occupation, the sight of soldiers armed with swords, shields and helmets was a common one and a reminder of Rome’s military supremacy. Seeing Rome’s well suited troops on their streets sent a clear message to everyone that they lived at the base of a hierarchical pyramid of power on which the emperor stood at the apex. Paul stands that pyramid on its head, reminding the church at Ephesus that their enemies are not “blood and flesh,” “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12. Against such powers, weapons of steel are useless. Thus, Paul tells his readers to arm themselves with the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit “which is the Word of God.” Ephesians 6:14-17.
Speech is integral to our humanity. We claim that we have been created in God’s image and there has been no little debate over exactly what that means. In the Bible’s opening words, in the first chapter of Genesis, the first thing we learn about God is that God speaks. Perhaps that is what makes us human creatures uniquely Godlike. We have the power of endowing sounds and syllables with meanings, making our thoughts, feelings, ideas and opinions known to one another. With these building blocks called words, we erect poems, songs, stories, novels, speeches and sermons. Words are complex vectors of meaning capable of evoking imaginative worlds and bringing into focus the depth and complexity of the “real” one. Karl Marx is credited with saying, “give me twenty-six soldiers and I will conquer the world,” by which he meant the letters of the alphabet.
That brings me to the flip side of speech. Words are capable of incredible evil and destructiveness. Words can be used to insult, demean and intimidate. They are used to lie, construct hateful ideologies, reinforce racial prejudices, propagate dangerous misinformation and incite violence. Cruel and oppressive regimes have employed propaganda to whip up support for their reigns of terror. Words can be employed to label and scapegoat the most vulnerable among us. In our own United States, the words of the Bible are routinely stripped of their context and misappropriated by preachers of hate and corrupt politicians to justify their oppressive, unjust and frequently racist policies. Just as words can bring life and hope, they can ruin life and extinguish hope.
It is fashionable these days to rag on social media and AI for degrading our vocabularies, cheapening our dialogue and poisoning our civil discourse. Clearly, they have contributed to all these worrisome trends. The same, however, can be said for the invention of the printing press, the growth of radio and its subsequent displacement by television. Whenever you give a bigger voice to more people, you run the risk that the gift of language and speech might be abused. Our problem with hate speech, misinformation and abusive online conduct is not a technical one. It is a malady of the human heart. We are a people with a decreasing vocabulary, shrinking imagination and growing lack of linguistic competence.
The collapse of language is nowhere better illustrated than by our own government which tells us repeatedly that there is a ceasefire between the United States and Iran even though we are shooting missals and drones at each other. Our secretary of defense insists that the massive bombing campaign against Iran was not a war. The president tells us the mob that stormed our capital on January 6, 2021 are patriots. It is as though language has been thoroughly drained of meaning. This is all reminiscent of Alice’s encounter with Humpty Dumpty:
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master-that’s all.
Alice Through the Looking Glass, (Lewis Carroll).
Accordingly, terms like “war,” “ceasefire” and “patriot” mean whatever the loudest and most powerful voice says they mean. Words are no longer vessels of meaning. To the contrary, they are bereft of meaning, so much so that antonyms become synonyms. We are living into George Orwell’s dystopia where the government’s slogan is:
“War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery” and “Ignorance is Strength.” 1984,(George Orwell).
It is hardly surprising, then, that our government is unable to function. How is it possible to formulate policy, draft legislation, enforce or interpret law where words have no meaning and language is little more than noise? How can nations resolve conflicts, make and honor treaties or collaborate in addressing global problems if their agreements consist of words without meaning? Is it surprising that our online discourse so often amounts to little more than an exchange of insults and competing memes? Moreover, it should not surprise us that our violent rhetoric often evolves into violent acts. When language no longer works, what is left other than to silence your opponents by lethal means?
As disciples of Jesus, the Word made flesh, we have a keen interest in redeeming words and restoring language. The healing of language needs to begin with us. We need a renewed respect for words.[1] We need a deeper appreciation and understanding of the meanings they carry, how they are heard differently by different audiences who have learned them in very different contexts. We who preach need to work harder at developing our vocabulary so that we avoid religious jargon, partisan clichés and worn out rhetoric. We need to develop our linguistic skills so that we can speak clearly, directly and imaginatively. We need to practice constructing sentences where words are well placed so that their intended meaning is clear and well expressed. We need to work harder at crafting paragraphs that serve as building blocks for the construction of the “big idea” that our congregations need to hear. Beyond that, we need to be mindful of our use of words on social media, at public gatherings where we have the opportunity to speak to important issues and even in casual conversation. Preserving and improving our language is not simply a matter of good manners and social etiquette. It is a matter of preserving our very humanity.
Here is an anonymous poem that addresses the importance of words and speech.
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
Source: Anonymous
[1] In this regard, I have noted a recent trend among some preachers to employ the “F” word in their preaching. I am not sure what the rationale for that is. The word has become so ubiquitous in our culture that it has lost its shock value even in church. If the preacher’s objective is to show the congregation that they are “real” or “earthy” and so enhance their credibility, well, good luck with that. My objection to the use of the “F” word generally has nothing to do with its meaning, but with its total lack thereof. When you say to me, “F” you, all I can surmise is that you are angry but that you lack the vocabulary, conceptual tools and emotional maturity to understand or explain why you are angry or what your anger has to do with me. Either that or you are just too lazy to bother with all that. Thus, the “F” word is nothing more than the inarticulate grunt of a person unable or unwilling to employ intelligible speech.
Peter's Outer Cape Portico 