“Word up?” one of my seminary friends asked me when I called him
on the phone. I had absolutely no idea what that meant but I also had too much
pride to admit that I’m not “with it.” So when I got off the phone, I googled the phrase and it referred me to “The Urban
Dictionary.” The Urban Dictionary is one of those open sites where people
can add their own definitions. The word of the day was “meanderthal.” That’s what you call those people
who wander around aimlessly and always seem to get in your way in stores or on
the highway, chatting on their cell phones and paying no attention to their
surroundings. “Cool,” I thought, so I looked around. Not a
site for children! The language of the streets is pretty rough. Found out
I’m really not “with it” at all. According to them I’m
totally unfresh. I learned a “smokeapotamus” is a person who smokes too much. And
that, “When someone unexpectedly tells you they love you … out of
the blue … when you least expect it and are not prepared to
respond,” they’ve dropped the “L-bomb.” A “two-bulb”
is a police car. “Word up” it turns out, can be either a question,
meaning “What’s up?” or an exclamation, meaning “Right
on!” “How true!” or That’s for
sure!”
Language is always changing. It’s a living thing. Always
tricky, too, because communication gets garbled so easily. You remember
the remark attributed to State Department spokesman Robert McCloskey during the
Vietnam War? “I know that you believe that you understood what you think
I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I
meant.” I get that because I’m a preacher. And a
spouse. Sometimes, getting our thoughts down from our heads, up from our
hearts, out through our mouths, in through their ears and up to their heads
with any chance of success is nearly impossible to do! It’s a wonder any
of us accomplish anything together.
The author of Hebrews tells us, “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in
many and various ways by the prophets” (Heb 1:1). Think a moment on the
essence of that sentence, and it will astound you. “God spoke.” We
take this for granted. Yet it need not have been so. Why should God bother to
break the eternal silence? But God did speak, and the universe was formed. God
spoke, and humanity was created in God’s image, male and female, and
“it was good.” “God spoke,” Hebrews says, “to our
ancestors.” This is even more astounding. Why would the Almighty Eternal
Creator of all things, speak to us, of all people? Yet:
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them (Psalm 8:3-4)?
“God spoke to our ancestors” says Hebrews, “in many and
various ways.” You get the picture of someone desperately trying to
communicate … like a motorist trying to signal speeding cars on the
highway that the bridge is out ahead. God uses every possible means to get
through to us, but we are speeding down the highway fiddling with our radios
… talking on our cells phones … not paying attention most of the
time. We are “meandrathals!”
“The heavens declare the glory of
God,” but our eyes are to the ground. God speaks through our own bodies,
but we ignore the warning signs. God speaks through the voices of friends -
also enemies - and especially the people who love us, but we refuse to hear. As
a non-believing friend of mine used to say, “You can always tell a Christian,
but you can’t tell him much.” God speaks through our lives, in
every opportunity and disaster, but we are oblivious.
“God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets,” Hebrews reminds
us, and what did God say through these messengers? God said, “What’s
going on down there? Can’t you get along? Is anybody listening to
me?” In the Bible the message is always contextual, specific to the
people and time and situation of that particular prophet. Yet the message is
always the same. The Bible sums it up with two words: “justice” and
“righteousness,” that is, our relationship with each other and our
relationship with God. Always the two are inextricably connected. But we are
hard of hearing. We do not listen. We do not listen to the prophets, we do not
listen to the heavens declaring the glory of God, we do not listen to the many
and various ways God calls us to right relationship with God and with our
fellow human beings, so God has to find another way.
And what does God do? God drops the “L-bomb.” “But in these
last days,” declares Hebrews, “God has spoken to us by a
Son.” This is the most amazing word of all. After centuries of being for
the most part ignored, God sees that a physical intervention is necessary. God
comes in person and takes hold of us. God speaks as directly as God can through
a man named Jesus. And what does Jesus say that God wants to say to us? He
says, “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). The
volume is as high as God can raise it. The word is as plain as God can make it.
The message is personal and specific to that day, and it is the same message that
God has whispered and spoken and shouted in all times and places: justice and righteousness, “Love one
another as I have loved you.” But who listens, even to this glorious good
news? How do we respond to the word of God in Jesus? In the name of God, we
crucify him. And he lays down his life willingly to show us how far God’s
love goes. What do we do? We kill him. What does God do? God raises him, to
tell us nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even our childish
squabbling, not even our hardheartededness, not even our hardheadedness, not even our tragic addiction
to violence. This, truly, is amazing grace.
“Long ago God spoke in many and various ways,” Hebrews says.
“God spoke.” Past tense. And that is part
of our problem. Despite our UCC banners that proclaim that “God is still
speaking,” for the most part, we think we’ve already heard what God
has to say. Writes Ron Starenko:
Whatever God spoke "long ago" is no longer considered a living
speech, but rather a word of God reduced to a code of living or spiritual
encounters. Our long-standing religious traditions and legends… idolize a
"speechless" God, as if the promise didn't exist or hasn't been fulfilled.
Bogged down with the past, we remain unprepared for the word that is spoken
"in these last days."
We relate to God’s Word as dead words on a page from a time long, long
ago.
“But in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son.” This is
God’s last word on the subject. But it is a different kind of word, a
word which continues to speak, a word that connects to every circumstance and
situation for all time to come. Jesus, the Christ, crucified and risen, lives
among us still, speaks still, the living Word of God. We are not stuck simply
reinterpreting the dead words of generations past, but listening to a living
God whose language changes, evolves, connects with each new generation,
including our own. Yet this new word is not inconsistent with the word of old
as if God were capricious and unreliable. It is a word always new yet still the same spoken by the one God who is the same
yesterday, today and forever. And the word he brings – always the same
… always new - is love.
I began my college career as a philosophy major. That was before I met John Biggs in my
sophomore year and changed my major so that I would be in every one of his
classes. But I remember the instructions
on my first philosophy exam … it said, “Define God. Be
brief.” With equal parts arrogance and ignorance I failed to see the
impossibility in the task… I now know that all the paper in the world
wouldn’t be enough to do the job. We can’t contain God in words.
The best we can do is art and music. The best we can do is ritual and symbol.
And so we have this sacred supper which helps us remember, gets our attention, tells us to listen up. Jesus is alive and among us, still
speaking, dropping the L-bomb left and right to tell us one by one “You
are not forgotten, you are not abandoned, you are not despised and rejected,
no! You are beloved of God.” So come to the table and hear God’s
word for you today. Come to the table and encounter the word … experience
the word … consume the word. Come to the table and absorb the word into
your deepest being. Come to the table and receive the gift of God’s life
changing love for you. Come to the table and hear what God is saying.
May we pray?
Speak to our hearts, Lord Jesus. Speak, and we will hear. Speak and we will
follow. Speak and we will rejoice in your unfailing love. Amen.
Rev. Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa