Just Words
Grace
Mercy and Peace from God our Father, and Savior Jesus Christ. AMEN
In the
Beginning was …
1 In
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was
without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be” and there
was. Words have power. Words have so much power that we teach our
children sayings like, “Sticks and Stones may break my bone, but Words will
never hurt me.” Or, “I’m rubber, You’re Glue, Whatever you say bounces off me,
and sticks to you.” Or, “Don’t worry, they didn’t mean anything by that, it was
just words.” If it were really true that
what others said did not affect us, would we really need those sayings. Words can hurt more than cuts, and words can
heal more than a bandaid. We as
Christians especially need to remember that the Word, is more than just words.
A few
years ago there was a TV show called Firefly, which managed to create a future
that combined the genres space and cowboys.
The show didn’t last all that long, but it was interesting how the shows
creator took a view on traditions and faith.
One of the characters was called Shepherd, and he could be likened to a
future Franciscan monk. His order does
not believe in possessions or marriage, he has rules on how he must dress and
look, and he is called to reach out to the lost. In his travels, he ends up on a space ship of
questionable morality and one of its passengers is a girl who is a genius in
her own right, but is unable to function in normal everyday life. He sees it as his mission to reach to this
crew and this girl. Unfortunately for
him, to the girl, his bible was broken.
In one of my favorite scenes with these two characters, he walks in and
she is furiously trying to “fix” his bible by ripping out pages, scratching out
sections that don’t make sense, and rewriting other parts, mumbling and
babbling things like "So we'll integrate non-progressional evolution
theory with God's creation of Eden” and
"Noah's Ark is a problem - "We'll have to call it early quantumstate
phenomenon - Only way to fit five-thousand species of mammal on the same boat
-" In her highly logical mind she had to try and make the words make sense
in her own special way. Shepherd
attempts to tell her " You don't fix the Bible!" "It's not about
making sense. It's about believing in something, and letting that belief be
real enough to change your life. It's about 'faith'." "You don't fix
faith, River. It fixes you." In the
end though the girl just responds,
looking up at him, sweet, sincere, deadpan. "It's broken. It doesn't
make sense."
The
show’s writer, who claims to be an atheist, reveals a lot about how we view the
bible, and what happens when we underestimate God’s Word to be “just words”. Churches that focus on the pretty stories and
leave out the non-politically correct, do so in the name of education and
academic learning. The popular phrase, “the bible is just a book” attempts to reduce the Scriptures down to
just words, words that can be picked and chosen, and if they disagree with you,
discarded for something else. Learned
professors, and average people are attempting to figure out which words are
just words, and which words are worth listening to. They are trying to use reason to understand
the unknowable, because so often we as human beings hide behind the defense of
“its just words”.
Our
Words
We us
the defense of “just words” because many of our own words, whether intentional
or not are words of destruction, words of misrepresentation, and literally just
words, words without actions.
Words of
destruction
The
whole point of the children’s rhymes at the beginning of this sermon is to
protect ourselves from words of destruction.
Children say some mean things, and it hurts when you are the subject of
that criticizing. As bad as children can
be, Adults can be much worse though. A
child will call someone a “Meany Face” to their face, but an adult may not be
quite as direct. A few words here and
there out of ear shot of the victim can be much worse than any direct
insult. Even the truth can be used to
destroy someone unfairly. Words and
truths can be used as weapons, and it is not a pretty sight. A fist fight lasts at most a couple minutes,
but words of destruction last a very long time.
We destroy each other with our words, but it’s ok, it’s just words.
Words
without actions
Then
there are our words of promises but without actions. The popular, “I promise to be better about
picking up after myself honey.” Is
almost always followed by a, I’m sorry, I forgot. For I do not do the
good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. It is easy to make quick promises to
ourselves, to each other, and to God, but if they’re not followed through, we
might as well have said no. The empty
promises lead only to heart ache. They
were only just words.
Words of
misrepresentation
Finally there are the words of
misrepresentations. These is important
because some of the biggest deceptions come not from bold face lying, but a
simple twisting of the truth. White
lies, omissions, and exaggerations, all still misrepresent the truth. Jesus said, “Simply
let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from
the evil one.” One the first
“minor” deceptions was Adam to God “The
woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I
ate.” While this was technically truth,
it was not the whole truth. Many white
lies are intended to protect someone.
But what happens when the truth comes out? It is much worse on the person than finding
out in the first place. What does it
matter, its just a white lie, its just words.
God’s
Word
God’s
word is different though. John 1 is very
clear what that word is like. 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All
things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was
made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. They are words of creation, words of
Life, and words of light.
Words of
Creation
The
First spoken words of the bible, come from the mouth of God. “Let there be light,” and there was light. When ever God says, let there be, there is
the result of his words. Not only did he
simply create, he sustains, comforts and protects. He sent his spirit to be the counselor. We have his WORD. And just his Word brought forth a new creation,
the heavens and the earth and all that dwells in it.
Words of Life
And
his words to his creation Adam and Eve were words of life and promise. “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it,
and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens
and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” This was not a
hollow promise, instead we are the children of our first father and
mother. When the actions of humanity
brought forth death, God declared the truth, that death had entered the
world. But he did not leave humanity
alone. He sent his prophets into the
world promising a messiah that would lift them out of their despair, and he
would be called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and
Prince of Peace. Where our words reveal our inaction, his words reveal his
actions. All of his Words bring life.
Words of Light
The
light of God reveals the truth of his words. “If you
abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.” The
light that shines into the darkness reveals our sinfulness, our inability to
bring forth goodness or light. The light
that shines reveals that not everything is as good as we want to believe it
is. He promised death if Adam and Eve
ate of the fruit, and death did come.
But the light that reveals our brokenness also reveals himself to
us. Come to me, all who labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
His powerful word calls us his own.
Jesus is God’s Word
It was
in this power of speaking the Word of creation, life, and light that god spoke
to his people.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming
into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through
him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own
people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who
believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who
were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man,
but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have
seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and
truth.
That
true and faithful Word, is Jesus Christ our Lord, the one who came as a baby in
a town called Bethlehem, raised by the virgin mother and carpenter who adopted
him as his own. This was the Word of God
clothed in the flesh of man to fulfill his promises to all people that a new
heaven and a new earth shall rein. Where
there are no words of destruction, words without action, and words of
misrepresentation. And this cannot truly
make sense to us, because what have we done to be worthy of the grace of God in
Jesus Christ? Can we claim that we found
him through our own ability? No. Can we
claim an inherent goodness? No. Can we claim anything? Never. But it is through the Word that calls us by
the Gospel into new life that we have fellowship with him. He has washed us clean in the blood of the
lamb, invited us to his supper, and through the mysteries of the Word and
Sacraments, we have been made into a new Adam, we have life, and we have the
light that shines for all to see.
Our
words really are just words. They have
no truth or power. But the Word of God
goes beyond anything that we can understand.
Our understanding may be broken, but his Word never will. When he speaks it is more than just
words. Amen
