Old Testament: Jeremiah 26:1-16
Psalm 131, 132, [133] * 140, 142
Epistle: Romans 11:1-12
Gospel: John 10:19-42
“Speak to them all the words that I command you; do not hold back a word.” Jeremiah 26:2b
Words. Words. Words. These readings today are so full of words — and about words. Words from the prophet Jeremiah, telling his people to amend their ways. Words from the writer of Romans, reminding readers what “scripture says of Elijah.” Words from the psalmist, telling the Lord, “You are my God.” And words from John’s Gospel recalling, “Again the Jews were divided because of these words.”
My 18-month old grandson Teddy is beginning to learn words, delighting in realizing what hot, light, mama, dada, and car mean. The just-turned-six twins George and Arthur are presently discovering how to read and write words, excited to distinguish between he and she, purple and gold, bright and dull. The more advanced nine-year old Emmeline is rehearsing words to songs that she will sing in Annie.
Words are powerful: they can inform and mislead, build up or tear down, cheer or depress. But what do words have to do with our observance of Lent? Maybe everything! Lent itself is a word, (which means “spring”), and in this season, we give up the word “Alleluia,” as we take on words like fasting, penance, sacrifice.
What are words? Some philosophers like Judith Butler suggest that language acts as a form of social action and has the ability to effect reality. For instance, after the Confession in our Eucharist service, Fr. Tommie pronounces words of absolution, signaling God’s forgiving us of our private and communal sins. In the first chapter of Genesis, we hear that when the earth was a formless void surrounded by darkness, God spoke words to create light, and then the sky, waters, land, and earth’s creatures. The famous opening to John 1 echoes the beginning of Genesis: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Emily Dickinson utters some great lines in William Luce’s play The Belle of Amherst: “Words are my life. I look at words as if they were entities, sacred beings. There are words to which I lift my hat when I see them sitting on a page.”
I think one of my Lenten disciplines this year will be to think more about words, and which ones are to me those “sacred beings” that take on a life of their own. Which ones stir me and activate my feelings of empathy? Which ones enlighten and illuminate my brain? Which ones might I revere and hold close to my soul?
Barbara Sloan
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