A man and his ten year old son were on a fishing trip miles away from home. At the boy’s insistence, they decided to attend church in the small rural town. The father forgot to bring any cash, so he reached in his pocket and gave his son a dime to drop in the offering plate as it was passed.
As they walked back to their car after the service, the father complained. “The service was too long,” he said, “The sermon was boring and the singing was off key.” The boy replied, “Daddy, I thought it was pretty good for a dime.”
I found that joke while preparing to be the humorist at my new Toastmasters International club. Friday I told my first joke, and I have already won a table topics ribbon. When I told a friend about joining she mused, “I thought you already do public speaking.” I do, but there is so much more to learn. The power of a good story, getting feedback on how I communicate, intentionally practicing my craft. Words are used to share the good news. Words bear witness to all that God has done. The words of Holy Scripture inspire us to be faithful
Our gospel lesson this morning is a prayer, a “high-priestly prayer” from Jesus to God. It speaks of the world, Jesus and God’s intimate relationship and what Jesus has given to us. Jesus prayed to God, “They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word…I have given them your word… your word is truth.” Jesus has given us the word. The parables, the stories, the narratives of how to be in relationship with God, all of this is captured in words; sounds that communicate, utterances that connect us to the one who is speaking. Jesus gave us the word. Jesus also IS the Word. John’s gospel starts with “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Relationship and word; finding fulfillment in Father and Son. In that same chapter, John declares, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; full of grace and truth.” The Word that was with God is now in relationship with us, connecting us; Word, relationship and truth.
Eugene Peterson, in his book Working the Angles, really transformed my understanding of the word. Speaking to pastors, he starts with a triangle- the three sides are preaching, teaching and administration. Things you can see, the things we get evaluated on. He believes that true pastoring happens in the angles of prayer, being in the word, and spiritual direction. As we interact with God’s word, the Holy Scriptures, he argues that reading and listening are not the same thing. Reading we do to get information, reading newspapers, text books, articles, as part of teaching: but listening involves relationship. He writes, “Listening is an interpersonal act; it involves two or more people in fairly close proximity. Reading involves one person with a book written by someone who can be miles away or centuries dead, or both” (pg. 88). Scripture is certainly both. Through prayer the written word becomes living word. The question for us is, do we simply read scripture or do we listen to God, listen for God, in the pages of this book? Do these words deepen a relationship with you and God, with you and Christ, as you listen to them?
Every one of us is seen; lots of people know us from our outward appearance. It is a visual thing, much like reading. For you to be truly known, you get to share who you are with those you trust. They listen to your thoughts and feelings, they share history with you, they know your fears. They know you through your words. The words you share with them. So it is with God’s word. For God’s Word to become testimony in our hearts it needs to be heard, it needs to be relational and not simply informational. That is why prayer is so important. Brevard Childs writes, “Prayer is an integral part in the study of Scripture because it anticipates the Spirit’s carrying its reader through the written page to God himself” (Peterson 136). Prayer is the bridge creating the relationship with God. We listen to God and then we share our words, our prayers, with God, creating relationships. Jesus gave us God’s words. The words you gave me, I have given to them. That is powerful Holy Scripture. Peterson calls us back to the psalms to rebuild our relationship with God. God speaks to us through the psalms and we learn to share all of our selves with God, like the psalmist do. So I am reading a psalm every morning and night to re-engage in my relationship with God, to become saturated in the prayers of God and our community, seeking to move beyond the written page to God, to God’s very self.
Jesus tells us the goal of this sharing; this revealing of God through scripture is so that we may be one as Jesus and God are one (vs. 11). Through the spoken word we become one in our relationship with Christ, just as Jesus is one with God. That is because God’s Word shapes you upon hearing and engaging- not simply reading. This is how we become sanctified, changed for the better after being shaped by God’s word. The shaping revelation is that through Jesus Christ God gave us eternal life. When that is written on your heart, you are joined with God, you live in the communion of truth.
Scripture was written years ago, yet sharing the spoken word continues to be valuable today. Group therapy, 12 step programs, grief support groups all join together through the sharing of spoken word and common experience. An exceptional witness to this was, “In the late 1960’s, when U.S. prisoners of war in a North Vietnamese prison camp met secretly for heartfelt communion through the spoken word. Ten men dressed in blackened underwear and drenched in sweat took turns giving speeches…. Just 18 when he joined the U.S Army Air Corps, Laird Guttersen was 42 when a Chinese Mig-21 fighter shot down his plane. After months in solitary confinement he organized what they sarcastically called the ‘Hanoi Hilton Toastmasters Club.’ The activities were aimed at helping the men rebuild their dignity. They spoke to feel themselves alive, to activate the elegance and nobility of the human spirit under impossible circumstances.” They met in between sessions of torture, and were beaten when the leaders were discovered. After years of torture, “Guttersen knew that if he were to survive, he had to learn to feel even the smallest spark of love again. Daily, he began summoning the image of his young daughter throwing her arms around his neck saying, ‘I love you daddy.’ Eventually, he began superimposing this love symbol on the guards, especially ‘Big Ug’ who’d been particularly savage with him. Twice daily for three years, he practiced this vision of love until he actually began to feel sorry for his captors. Guttersen said, ‘By forgiving Big Ug, there is no way he could destroy me. I couldn’t hurt myself or my loved ones over him’” (Toastmaster Magazine, 5/15, pg. 20, 26).
A Father’s love changed his world, his reality, his truth. We certainly know the love of our Heavenly Father- the one we seek to hear, whose words we listen to every time we open the pages of the Holy Word, hoping to hear God – God’s very self. Amen.
