The power of word.
Words have power. We have the power to build or to destroy with our words. Our words express our being in a way that no other creation may express. I can sing with joy, or curse with venom. I can build up my neighbor in faith and express love, or I can slander them or bear false witness, making fear real. Scripture begins with an exploration of the power of language:
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. (Gen. 1: 1-3).
Creation happened through the power of God’s word. He spoke and it was true. The Son of God, as an expression of God’s perfection become human, was Him through whom creation happened. It was in the love of Father and Son that creation happened as an overflow of divine love. In the second person of the Trinity, we have an expression of this eternal and infinite love made flesh in Jesus Christ. We can experience this love as gift by the Holy Spirit, that third Trinitarian person who doesn’t seem to get the attention that Jesus and his Dad do.
God’s divine Word is truly powerful. It is energy and love itself. Our words, however always seem limited and limiting. This is one of the paradoxes of human being. Yet there is a transcendent power to our expression. Our words may live on beyond ourselves. we have the power of expression in media which can outlast our mortal bodies. Music, art, literature, religion: all of these are expressions of human longing for life. Sometimes these expressions seem twisted and darkened, and sometimes they soar to the heights of almost divine beauty.
When we create, we play along with God in a sense. We become instruments of creation. Sometimes it seems we must destroy the old in order to make room for the new. But, this is an illusion, because even in our rejection of something, we are affected by it and it lives on in our refusal to accept it. This is why I am fascinated with atheism. Atheism presupposes a theos (a God) in order to reject it. Human beings are religious by nature. We just have many gods we worship, some more inadequate than others. In the end, all our understandings of God are inadequate. Because if God is truly God, our words can never enclose him. So we live our art by worshiping and serving one another that we might become His hands and feet and heart in the world. Endeavoring to understand one-another that we might begin to understand better that love which died for all of us, not just the ones who agree with us.
So let your words be true. Let them be words of love. “Whoever can love, loves God implicitly.”
Leave a comment and try to guess who said that last line.
1 comment:
Hi Ian, great articles. I hope you continue them and wish you the best in Pakistan...I ran into your bro Adam while surfing at Delray public and he gave me the name of this site...
The very first thing this particular article reminded me of was a story that I heard in Tzfat, Israel several years ago...I hope you don't mind me sharing it because it also shows the duality of the power of the spoken word to create and destroy:
from Yiddish folklore on gossip:
One such man had told so many malicious untruths about the local rabbi that, overcome by remorse, he begged the rabbi to forgive him. “And, Rebbe, tell me how I can make amends.”
The rabbi sighed, “Take two pillows, go to the public square and there cut the pillows open. Wave them in the air. Then come back.”
The rumormonger quickly went home, got two pillows and a knife, hastened to the square, cut the pillows open, waved them in the air and hastened back to the rabbi’s chambers. “I did just what you said, Rebbe!”
“Good.” The rabbi smiled. “Now, to realize how much harm is done by gossip, go back to the square...”
“And?”
“And collect all your feathers.”
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