Word

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 42:1-9, Psalm 29 and Acts 10:34-43.

When I was a kid, I was taught that what separated humans from other animals was (1) our opposable thumbs, (2) our tool making, and (3) our use of language. Since then those supposedly unique traits have been diminished. Other primates and mammals also have opposable digits, though our thumbs are larger and allow for more dexterity. Other animals use sticks and rocks as tools, though none of them have ever created anything like a Swiss Army knife or a computer. And other animals do communicate vocally, though nowhere in the world is a non-human delivering a sermon. It seems to me that the difference between humans and other animals is not found in exclusive categories but in the much greater degree of complexity with which we have or can do these things.

I want to focus on one aspect in particular: words. While researchers have taught apes to use sign language and other animals to press buttons with symbols to indicate what they want, these things do not arise spontaneously in nonhumans. And there is the question of whether these animals actually understand what they are communicating, or do they just know that to get a treat or a toy from a human they have to perform this trick in this way. Perhaps these things were a more elaborate version of the Clever Hans effect. This is named for a horse in Germany a century ago who seemed to be able to do math problems by stamping his hoof the proper number of times. When investigated, it was found that the horse simply kept stamping until his trainer unwittingly indicated he had gotten to the correct number by relaxing. Then the horse would stop. A more sophisticated version of this might account for the apparent intelligence of AI. They are simply doing what they are programmed to do. They will not spontaneously wax poetic or philosophical. They just respond to prompts by scanning their database and stringing together words by using rules of grammar and normal usage. Google's AI is forever trying to correct my quotes from the Bible when they don't match its programmed style.

Our ability to use words is amazing. We can give precise descriptions, issue specific instructions, make logical arguments, tell jokes, create metaphors and create things that don't exist, like a plaid elephant. And now that you've read those two words, I have created a picture in your mind. More than that, I have caused synapses in your brain to make physical connections that didn't exist before. That is an astounding power for mere sounds or symbols on a page to have.

Last week in John's gospel we read about how Jesus is the living Word of God. We saw how in Genesis God created everything simply by speaking it into existence. In the second to last book of Narnia, The Magician's Nephew, C.S. Lewis describes how the Christ-figure of his books, Aslan, calls things into creation by singing. He recreates the magic of the first chapter of Genesis by using a different form of vocal expression.

Human attempts at magic also use words. The problem is that, unlike God, we cannot create reality just by speaking. But what we can do is reframe reality in people's minds using words. We can persuade people to help us in altering aspects of reality. We can tell people how to do things. We can explain problems and suggest solutions. We can start a movement using words. As we've seen, a person skillfully using words can get people to do things and change the world. That can seem like magic.

But like all powerful things, words can do great good and great harm. A person can disseminate truth or lies. Cult leaders, internet influencers and politicians can use the power of words to deceive. If they are charismatic enough, they can even get people to believe things that go against logic, common sense and even the evidence before their own eyes. George Orwell in his novel 1984 called this doublespeak. In the book the government's Ministry of Peace conducts wars, its Ministry of Love performs torture, its Ministry of Plenty obscures famine and its Ministry of Truth puts out propaganda. It uses slogans like “War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” and “Ignorance is Strength.” He nailed how authoritarian leaders misuse the power of words to deceive people.

Words can do great good as well. I think that's what Psalm 29 is about. The power of the voice of the Lord is the power of his words, the ideas he has expressed. We see them in our passage from Isaiah. Using images of verbal expression, God says, “I have called you in righteousness...new things I declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.”

Of course, what is important is the content of what is said. In our passage in Isaiah, God is talking about his servant who will “bring forth justice to the nations.” When we think of justice, we mainly think of bringing punishment to the bad guys. But the picture we get here is not of someone who swaggers around, dishing out God's wrath. Rather he “will not cry or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench.” This is someone who is gentle. The imagery of a bruised reed and a barely burning wick represent people who are almost broken and whose lives are on the verge of being snuffed out. In other words, these are the poor and the weak, those who are oppressed. The justice he will bring is restorative justice. It is about making things right.

Addressing the servant of the Lord, God says, “I have given you as a covenant to the people...” This is odd. The Hebrew for “you” in the singular. It is an individual. How is a person a covenant? A covenant is an agreement. In what way can a person be an agreement? It could if the person is Jesus Christ, who is both fully God and fully human, and who sealed his new covenant with his blood. When you make an agreement, you give your word and in this new covenant God gives us his Word, his Son, as the promise that he will do what he says: bring about his kingdom where his will is done on earth as it is in heaven. God expresses who he is in his Word. He is both just and merciful. As such Jesus is “a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, from prison those who sit in darkness.”

This Word from God is good news. And in our passage from Acts, Peter gives us a great summary of that good news. He is speaking to Cornelius, a centurion, and his household. This is the first group of Gentiles he has been called to preach the gospel to and baptize. First, Peter says that God shows no partiality when it comes to people. He accepts all people, whatever their nationality, provided they respect him and do what is right.

Then he gets right to the heart of the good news. “You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.” The Greek word for peace apparently comes from the word “to join or tie together into a whole.” So the message is preaching wholeness through Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of all. Last week in Ephesians and in John's gospel, we looked at how God's plan is to bring together everything in Christ, through whom all things were made and who is the ultimate pattern and design of all creation. Jesus Christ is the God who is love Incarnate. The creation is to reflect this love, which is the glory of God.

Peter goes on to say, “That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” Peter shows the power of the message in 2 ways. First, it is a good enough message to spread beyond Galilee, which was, in the eyes of Judeans, a somewhat suspect region where there are too many Gentiles and which held no great centers of Jewish learning. On the other hand Jerusalem, the city of David, where God's temple, the center of the Jewish faith, stood, was in Judea. Yet this message, about a handyman from an obscure town never mentioned in the Hebrew scriptures, spread all the way to the city of God.

Secondly, the content of this message was powerful. Jesus was anointed (the meaning of the word Messiah and its Greek version, Christ) with the Holy Spirit and with power. And how did he use this power? To make himself king? To make himself rich? No, instead, he went about doing good and healing people. He did not use his power to conquer others but to liberate those oppressed by the devil, the essence of evil. Jesus made people better, both physically and spiritually. Because God was with him. This last phrase seems to hint at the prophecy from Isaiah that predicts a child who is named Immanuel, which means “God is with us.”

The message is powerful because Jesus is powerful. In fact, Jesus is the message. As we saw in John's gospel, Jesus is the living Word of God. You can't have the gospel, the good news, without Jesus. He is the expression of the God who is love. And that expression is not simply in what he says but what he does: doing good and healing people.

After establishing that Peter and the apostles are not repeating hearsay but are eyewitnesses to Jesus and his ministry, Peter then says, “They put him to death by hanging him on a tree...” As we've discussed a few weeks ago, the Romans frequently saved themselves the trouble of making a whole cross by simply stripping a tree of its branches and then attaching a crossbar, and the condemned criminal, to it. But Peter may also be referring to Deuteronomy 21:23, which says that a person executed and hung on a tree is cursed by God. So this man who was anointed by God's Spirit because God was with him becomes cursed by God? Yes, and paradoxically Jesus turns this curse into a blessing by redeeming us from our slavery to sin, to the things that harm us, others and our relationship to God.

That is not the end of the story, however. Peter says, “But God raised him on the third day.” Many people have died for their faith in God. What makes Jesus special is that God raised him from the dead. This marks him out as more than a mere prophet. When prophets die, they stay dead like any human being. Jesus' resurrection vindicates his message. It shows that God is indeed with him and that the Spirit and power with which God anointed him are still active in him.

Peter says that this was no illusion or metaphorical resurrection but that the apostles “ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” They were chosen by God to be witnesses to not only Jesus' teachings but his life, death and resurrection. “He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.” That is quite an exalted position. How could a mere man be able to judge accurately the fate of every individual? He couldn't. He couldn't know everything everybody did or know what the intentions of their hearts were. But God could. In other words, Jesus is not merely a man but God as well. He knows every human's secrets but he also knows what it is like to be human. He will judge us with justice and mercy.

Finally Peter says, “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Jesus is the anointed prophet, priest and king the prophets of the Hebrew scriptures predicted. As God, only he has the authority to forgive sins. And you can't earn forgiveness. What you have done cannot be undone. Forgiveness is more than mercy; it is an act of grace. You don't deserve it. When it is offered, you can only accept it humbly.

Notice that Jesus did not send out his followers to fight for him or to establish any kingdoms in his name or to shed the blood of others. That is the way sinful humans spread their power. No, Jesus commanded us to testify about him. We are to use words, not fists, not swords, not guns. He calls us to be witnesses, not warriors. Which is why the Greek word for “witness”—martus—eventually came to mean “one who dies for a cause,”: a martyr. The greatest testimony is to trust Jesus with your life even when it can cost you your life.

When Paul lists the equipment of the armor of God, all of it defensive—except for one thing. He tells us to take up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17) Words are powerful. They can change hearts and minds. They can rally people to a cause. They can also do great damage if we let them. Let us only use words that do good and that heal and that liberate people who are oppressed by evil. And the only words that can do that are the words of God, coming from the living Word of God. As Jesus said, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” (John 6:63)