February 5, 2012

What's In A Word?

Pastor Phil Holtan

Isaiah 55:10-11; 1 Corinthians 9:16-23; Mark 1:29-39

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Why do we come to worship each week? I’m sure we each have our own reasons, but I would guess that among them is certainly to meet God here. We are here because we need God in our lives, and we want to meet and thank God and learn to be aware of God in our lives all week long. In the last 3 weeks, we have explored three major elements of our worship, three ways that we meet God. First we spoke of the people, of you all as the primary sign of Christ’s presence here, then last week of baptism, of the bath as the way we enter the people of God, and are renewed as we remember our baptism. Today, we look at the Word of God, and next week, Holy Communion, the meal.

Last week I quoted Craig Satterlee, as saying, God is everywhere, and can encounter us in many ways and in many places, but in a pinch, if we just have to encounter God, it’s word and water, bread and wine. It’s the word of God, Holy Communion and baptism.

So what is the Word of God about when our lives are so full of words? Just imagine that you are a prehistoric family, thousands of years ago, living by hunting and fishing here in MN lakes country. Think about what words meant. How many of the words that you heard would have made you take some action? For example, you hear there are buffalo on the clearing south of here- And you respond, “Let’s take our spears and go.” Or you hear winter is coming, and you respond, “Let’s make new fur robes and clothing, Or, will you marry me? Those words demand action. Most, maybe all the words we heard would have moved us to action.

But today, just think out of all the words and messages you hear, how many will you respond to? Advertisements, news, political speeches and ads, and on and on. Probably a tiny fraction will move us to action, but still, we are so bombarded by words that we struggle to sort them out and evaluate. What should I respond to? It’s overwhelming.

And yet, here in the gospel story is Jesus coming into Simon Peter’s mother-in-law’s house, where she has a fever. She is very ill, and could very well die. Jesus enters her house, speaks his word of healing and “raises her up.” Last week in the gospel, he spoke a word to the demons, “Be quiet, come out of him,” and the demon came out. And it says that Jesus preached to the crowds, proclaiming the good news of God. “The Kingdom of God is near,” Jesus said, “Repent and believe the good news.” And it says that the people cried out, “A new teaching, and with authority.” They marveled because it was clear that God was in Jesus’ word and many followed Jesus.

The people knew that these words that Jesus spoke came from God. In fact, in John chapter 1 it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was from God, and the Word was God. One meaning of the Word of God is Jesus Christ. In his very self and actions and words, Jesus was a message from God, in fact, the clearest and most direct ever message from God. Jesus didn’t just speak the good news. Jesus was the good news from God.

But of course we also use the Word of God to refer to the Bible, the written word. And as you notice, scripture is front and center in every worship, anywhere in the world. That written word is very important, but we Lutherans are perhaps a bit unusual because we believe that even more than being a written word, the Bible, the Word of God is to be spoken, preached and shared out loud with others. Martin Luther used a very unusual phrase to describe the church. He said the church is a mouth-house, in German, a Mundhaus, not a pen-house. It’s more about hearing than about reading. That’s a way to say that the Christian Church in its worship has always had a time for reading the word and then a time for interpreting the word, for cracking open the word, or cracking us open for the word.

That’s not an easy task. It frightens me, as the preacher you have called to Calvary, that I have responsibility to try to understand and then to share the word, for it is life-giving. Without the word of God, we will wither and die. If we are only to live on a diet of advertising words or political words, we will surely die. But if we can hear a word of good news from God, that God gives us life, then we can hang on until he comes.

I want you to think about the words that you hear all day long. From each other, at home and work and school. I would say that they tend to be “If, then” words. If you do your work, then you will get an A, and be allowed to continue in school. Even in our homes, it’s hard not to make our words conditional. Clean your room and do your homework and you’re OK with mom and dad. And in advertising, we are absolutely barraged by words and images that say, “If you dress like this, or eat this food, or have this car, then you’ll be cool. But if not, you are a loser.” We buy designer jeans, have the right phone and the right music in our ears, and we expect that it will make us happy and content. But those words do not satisfy. They promise what they cannot deliver. Life becomes a succession of shopping trips to find a kind of health and salvation that will never satisfy. We are bombarded by those kinds of words and it wears down our resistance.

Do you want to be on an endless treadmill of consumption?

I heard in a conference this past week, that our young generation is in a very different place that we older generations. We all spend a lot of time looking at screens, TV screen, computer screen, cell phone and smartphone screens. Well, our young people are even more formed by the images on screens. Research says it has formed them. They find their salvation by consumption, and by seeking intimacy, not relationships, not commitment, but moments of intimacy, endlessly repeated.

Think of how different is God’s word. God says, “I created you for myself and you are mine. I am your God and you are my people. I will care for you and protect you.” Think of these words of Jesus, “Demon, come out. Repent and believe in the good news of God. Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Sometimes those words can seem puny in the face of our busy lives. In the face of the barrage of advertising designed to capture our hearts and minds. Most of all, in the face of death. But we come to this place, week after week because we believe the word has power. That God‘s word changes lives. It frees us as it did the demon possessed man. I was at a ministry in Detroit Lakes this past week, the Refuge, and saw the work they are doing with hunger and homelessness. It was impressive. And as I got to know the volunteers and staff, I was even more moved. Many are just out of prison, just out of treatment, but God’s word is changing them and now they reach out to others as they have been touched by God’s word of freedom.

This word is a cross-word. Now that can mean a bitter word, or a kind of puzzle, but here I mean that the Word always points to Jesus crucified, a cross which makes every other word thin and weak by comparison. But it means that the word is law and gospel, sometimes an accusing word, and other times, a word of comfort and unconditional acceptance. It is a word that looks death in the eye and doesn’t blink. In the midst of so many words in advertising that run from death and idolize youth and a kind of anemic beauty and thinness, the cross word is real and recognizes the whole of life. Only a cross word is strong enough for whatever life throws at us.

As I read the book by Foy Christopherson, The Place of Encounter, which we are studying this month, I was really caught by another use of the Word of God.

Two weeks ago I spoke of the people of God as the body of Christ, the primary sign of Christ’s presence in our worship space. That title, body of Christ, is from communion, and it means that the people of God have received Christ and show Christ. Christopherson suggests another title for the people, for you. He says that you could also be called the “Word of God.” For if the Word of God is going to live anywhere, it has be embodied and lived out in you.

Isaiah 55 says as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth, making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater. That makes sense, rain makes the seed be who it is, growing and yielding bread and fruit.

Isaiah continues that the word of God is like that. When it goes forth from God, it does not return empty but it accomplishes God’s purpose. When God created the world, there was nothing, but God spoke the word, and the world came into being.

And today, we hear God’s word again, and we believe that word goes out and lives in you. It takes root and grows in you and begins to accomplish its purpose. To transform the world into God’s kingdom. When Jesus spoke the word, there was healing for sickness, freedom from the demons, and repentance and hope from the good news. Things happened.

And here we are, not just the preacher, but the reader too, and the hymns, the liturgy, and our conversation of care toward each other. All of us, together lobbing that word out there week after week, like farmers throwing seed, praying that God will give it root in you and in all we meet.

So, how do we meet and know God? From hearing God’s word. From hearing God speak to us in scripture and sermon, in every shared word that speaks of Jesus, and for God’s cross and forgiveness and hope.

As we have each Sunday of this series, we also ask, “How does our worship place serve- today, how does it serve the word? Well, you need to be able to hear the word, so a sound system, and our special headsets for hard of hearing are very important.

We are recently using just one Word place, not a pulpit and lectern, but just one which might be called an ambo, and I don’t know how that seems. But certainly, the word spoken by a lay reader, or a lay preacher is the same word spoken by an ordained pastor, so they don’t need to be spoken from different places.

I don’t know what projecting the word will mean? And we hear that some people, especially in the overflow, can’t see the screen and miss some of the word that is shared. We need to do what we can about that. But how about projection? Does that help you hear the word? Does it change the word to see it as an image, or as written. Remember that Martin Luther said that the word of God is a “Mouth house.” That the main thing is that the word is not just the written word, but what happens when the word is spoken. And that’s not just by a preacher, but also by a friend at someone’s death bed, or by a parent putting their child to bed. Interpreting that word into our life. We want you to see and hear. We have lost a step of height with our experimentation and we may need to get it back so all can see and hear.

I have concern that our young people and older too, don’t know these stories of God’s word? I don’t worry so much if they don’t know the order of the books of the bible. But we need to know about Moses and Pharaoh and God setting them free. We need to know about Zacchaus and Simon Peter and Mary Magdalene.
Do we know these stories? How can each of us share the word if we don’t know the stories of God’s mighty acts.

So, finally, what is God saying to you? I hope, have no fear, I am near. But also, don’t cheat on your taxes. Don’t ignore the poor or the kid at school that everyone else is mean to. And maybe also, I could do that, and would find a lot of joy in being a teacher of special needs kids, or fighting cancer with my research, or feeding hungry people as I plant and harvest the seed.

Amen.