Psalm 145:21; Haggai 2:2, 3a; Luke 20:39

The Power of the Spoken Word

How are you?  How are you doing this morning?  I know one thing you don’t want to hear about is the election.  Why do we get put through this for a year and a half every four years, you wonder?  People wind up feeling bruised and battered emotionally, and this year even violated perhaps.  Relatives argue with each other.  This year thanksgiving is going to be particularly awkward for a lot of Americans. So I won’t talk about, because today I think you need a refuge from it. A place to breathe and find a place of peace.  I hope that works for you today.  Maybe today’s texts will help you, because they speak of the opposite of what you have been hearing.  “Don’t be alarmed by what you hear either through word of mouth or letter as if it were coming from us,” says Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians.  It’s hard not to be alarmed these days.  “Hold on to the traditions you received from us either through the spoken word or by letter.”  As words meant to provoke anger and fear reverberate through you, let us try to refocus and think of the spoken word and how we all here may be better at wielding it.  How do we speak?

Friends, if we think back at the people we have known, we associate them with actions AND with words.  We remember them as kind or smart or determined or funny or attentive or compassionate or irritable or angry.  The picture we have of them comes together in a sense have captions.  The people we have know have known come with certain words.  A lot of the people at Parkview whom I have had the privilege of knowing over the past two decades come with certain sayings. For instance our long time clerk of session Carnie Ouye whenever he became passionate would say “for crying out loud.”  A beloved member like Osame Doi would so often say:”you’re great” to people. These sayings and words become captions under the picture of the person we have.  That makes us wonder, what is the caption people have of the image of us? I don’t know if you have ever used a Dictionary of Quotations.  That is full of quotes of famous people from days gone by.  Let’s take Napoleon, there are not that many quotes in the Oxford Book of Quotations from him, but here is one: “there is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.”  How about Benjamin Franklin:”He who lives on hope will die fasting;” “remember that time is money.”  Alexander Hamilton:”A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to  us a national blessing.” This is his only quote. Elizabeth I of Britain: “If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.” And “I would not open windows into men’s souls.”  The bad thing about these books of quotations is that they mostly quote white men.  The good thing about them that they have a lot a quotations  from the Bible.  So let’s return to that.  Let us think of these verses as captions under an image of people.  The verses on our program cover are of Paul who desperately tries to keep his congregation in Northern Greece from leaving the path of faith he has taught them.  People hear so many things.  They can easily lose their way. Such small congregations in such a diverse world of cultures and religions.  But this is a good caption for a picture of Paul. These words fit with him. They express his worry. Then there is the verse in Psalm which is all about praising God. This is a good caption for a person who spends much of his (or her) life reminding people to glorify God.  Then there is the verse in Luke which is a caption of a Pharisee who admits that Jesus has spoken truthfully and in a genuine way.  He explains straightforwardly without destroying anyone.  Then there is the verse in Haggai where the focus is on remembering, reminding people truthfully what their story has been.  This would be a good caption for the image of a prophet.

Friends, among my sons and my wife, I am known as the designated worrywart.  Yet I don’t really relish that caption of me.  I don’t want people to remember me as the guy who always said: “be careful.”  But then it’s kind of my job with them.  They leave the worrying to me.  I want other words that I speak also to be a caption.

What about you? What are the words you speak?  Do you speak honestly and genuinely like Jesus?  Are your words full of praise or do they break people down? Do your words correctly speak of the past?  Words matter.  The way we speak matters.  Who we are and what we say in people’s minds become one.  And they’d better fit together.  They’d better not be at odds.  May God give us courage and wisdom.