A meditation based on Jeremiah 1:4-10, Luke 4:21-30, and 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Don Friesen
January 31, 2010
Ottawa Mennonite Church
Years ago the Ottawa Citizen ran a column by Harry Bruce, simply entitled "Words". I enjoyed the column, probably because I like words, but also because Harry used them well. He was quick to point out, in an entertaining fashion, that many people use words badly. I discovered that Bruce just published a book entitled Page Fright: Foibles and Fetishes of Famous Writers. (2009) In it he reveals that writers are a strange lot, particularly when it comes to their methods of writing. Truman Capote (1924-1984), for example, wrote only in bed. (Page Fright, page 167) Schiller (1759-1805), the German poet, could only write if the drawer in his desk was full of rotten apples. (page 152) Balzac (1799-1850) drank up to fifty cups of sludgy coffee per night of writing. (page 203) Isabel Allende (1942- ), the most widely read Spanish-language author, is incapable of beginning a new writing project unless it's January 8 (page 153), and Victor Hugo (1802-1885) wrote his novels without the benefit of clothes, while sitting in a glass cage affixed to the roof of his house! (page 141) Strange lot, these writers.
Working with words can be a daunting task. Margaret Atwood confesses that blank pages fill her with terror! (Page Fright, page 33) It's not surprising, then, that when God called Jeremiah to use words in the service of God, Jeremiah balked. God tried to convince Jeremiah that it was a foregone conclusion. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you," God said to Jeremiah, "and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5) Jeremiah, like many other writers and word-smiths, tried to avoid the task. "I'm not a good speaker, Lord," he said, "and I'm too young" (1:6, CEV), he added, suddenly remembering that Moses had already used the I'm-not-a-good-speaker routine.
God didn't take Jeremiah's protestations too seriously, telling him, "Don't say you're too young. If I tell you to go and speak to someone, then go! And when I tell you what to say, don't leave out a word!" (Jeremiah 1:7, CEV) And then God touched Jeremiah's mouth, and God said to Jeremiah, "I have put my words in your mouth." (1:9) Those words, it appears, would have great power – the power to uproot and tear down nations and kingdoms, as well as to build them up. (1:10, NIV, NIRV)
Working with words is a formidable task, even for experienced writers, but to have to work with God's words is a fearful task indeed. When God said to Jeremiah, "I have put my words in your mouth" (1:9), I don't think that meant that Jeremiah was merely a mouthpiece. God wanted to speak through Jeremiah, but Jeremiah still bore a lot of responsibility for what came out of his mouth.
Mouths are not always the most responsible members of our bodies! One of the absurd "deep thoughts" to come out of Jack Handey's mouth when he was on Saturday Night Live was this: "The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face." The biblical authors are just as blunt when it comes to their assessment of the human mouth. Isaiah talks of mouths that speak folly! (Isaiah 9:17) Jeremiah complains of those whose mouths are not in sync with other body parts, those, for example, who "speak friendly words to their neighbours, but inwardly are planning to lay an ambush." (Jeremiah 9:8) The Apostle Paul advises Christians to "get rid of ...anger, wrath, malice," and very specifically, "slander, and abusive language from your mouth." (Colossians 3:8) James expresses consternation that "from the same mouth come blessing and cursing" (James 3:10), and wonders aloud if some mouths might not benefit from the use of a horse's bit! (James 3:3)
The Old Testament psalms and proverbs, of course, have a lot to say about mouths, complaining of those who "give (their) mouth free rein for evil, and (whose) tongue frames deceit." (Psalm 50:19) "The mouths of fools are their ruin," advises Proverbs, "and their lips a snare to themselves." (Proverbs 18:7) At one point the psalmist, perhaps distrustful of what may come of his own mouth, says, "I will keep a muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence." (Psalm 39:1)
If strangeness is the mark of a good word-smith, Jeremiah certainly qualified on occasion, like the time he paraded up and down the street with a big, ugly yoke around his neck to reinforce the words he'd written to that effect, trying to warn his community of their imminent imprisonment! (Jeremiah 27) Then there was his very public purchase of real estate, just as a foreign army was invading and sending property values plummeting. But then Jeremiah also wrote for some strange people, like the king, who, as he perused one of Jeremiah's manuscripts, took out his penknife, and as the scroll was unrolled and read, sliced off the end of the scroll, piece by piece, and tossed the pieces into the fire! God may have put His words into Jeremiah's mouth, but the king put them straight into the fire! (36:20-26)
I can see why Jeremiah wasn't that crazy about being God's speech-writer, but there is a curious biblical motif here not unique to Jeremiah. His reluctance and uncertainty finds echoes in the call of Moses. God practically had to light a fire under Moses to get his attention, and even when God made plain what it was God wanted Moses to do, Moses said, Wait a minute! I'm a nobody! Like – the king of Egypt is going to listen to the words of a nobody! (Exodus 3:11, my paraphrase) And when God insisted that the people of God would listen to Moses' words (3:18), Moses said, Lord, I'm not any good with words. I can't utter a full sentence! I speak slowly, and hesitantly. (3:10, my paraphrase)
One could tell similar stories of other important biblical figures, and perhaps the lesson here is that the call to serve God has less to do with our amazing abilities than it has to do with God. There is nothing about Jeremiah to suggest immense talent, natural ability, or great potential. Even when Jeremiah was fully briefed, he didn't embrace the idea, or run with it. The whole thing was God's idea, not Jeremiah's.
I share Jeremiah's reluctance and uncertainty about his calling. I laughed when I was called to congregational ministry. Most of my seminary classmates laughed with me. Perhaps some of you also think it's funny. I remember, however, the comment of one of the people in this congregation when I was called to serve you. This was a man adept at personnel matters and administration – but who had a great respect for the mystery of God's calling. When all is said and done, and we've done our best work looking for someone to serve us, we must allow room for the movement and shaping of God's powerful Spirit. God, the Creator, who at creation made something out of nothing, continues to do it, again, and again, and again.
"I have put my words in your mouth" (Jeremiah 1:9), God told Jeremiah. God also put His words into the mouth of Jesus, whom we remember as the Word (John 1), and there is a beautiful line in our Gospel reading, where Luke notes that those who heard Jesus "spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth." (Luke 4:22) Another translation reads: "There was a general stir of admiration; they were surprised that words of such grace should fall from his lips." (NEB)
To be gracious is to be characterized by charm, good taste, warm courtesy, and generosity of spirit. Gracious words are kind words, gentle words, helpful and insightful words. One of the intertestamental books notes that "pleasant speech multiplies friends, and a gracious tongue multiplies courtesies." (Sirach 6:5) The Apostle Paul wrote, "Let your speech always be gracious...." (Colossians 4:6) "Let no evil talk come out of your mouths," he added, "but only what is useful for building up, ...so that your words may give grace to those who hear." (Ephesians 4:29)
Words are important. We use them often. And as we partake of communion in remembrance of our Lord, and pray that his nature will become our nature, his thoughts, our thoughts, we also pray that he will put his words in our mouths, that we may likewise give grace to those who hear us, and so that the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts will be acceptable to our Rock and our Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14) AMEN
A few weeks later, however, he received a note from her, thanking him for all he had done for her during his visit, and most especially for all the wonderful things he had told her, his words of comfort and wisdom. She would never forget them. She quoted some of what she had heard him say – at length! Years later he related this experience to a colleague, confessing, "Over these years I have learned that when I pray to be able to be of service to someone, sometimes God says ‘Yes' and sometimes God says ‘No,' but quite often God says, ‘Step aside, Patrick. I'll do it myself.'" (Rachel Naomi Remen, "Beyond Words," My Grandfather's Blessings, pages 331-332)
Some experiences transcend what we say, or don't say; they're beyond words, and we can only pray:
(Prayer found in the pocket of Father Mychal F. Judge, a fire department chaplain who was killed by falling debris while ministering to the fire fighters working at Ground Zero; cited by Jerry Fuller)
Our reading from the epistles also talks about words, telling us that words mean nothing if our hearts are void of love. I may have the most angelic speech, but without love my words sound harsh. Furthermore, it tells us that love does not use boastful, arrogant, or rude words. Love does not use irritable words, or words that betray our resentment. Love rejoices in the truth. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, but now I speak out of a heart of love, because that was the manner in which our Lord spoke, words of such grace that people were amazed and moved.
A young priest called to visit a woman in the hospital was anxious about what he would say to her. He no sooner pulled up a chair next to her hospital bed when she told him, "Father, I'm certain that I'm going to die tomorrow." Nothing in his training had prepared him for this, and he sat there with no idea of how to respond, what words to say. He reached out, took her hand, and she began to talk. Anything he had thought of on the way to the hospital had vanished from his mind, but it didn't matter, for the woman continued to talk, to cry a little, and his heart went out to her. At last she closed her eyes, and he asked God for the words he needed, but no words came. Eventually she fell asleep, and he left, convinced that he was not cut out to be a priest. He was too ashamed to visit her again.
"Lord, take me where You want me to go;
Sometimes God works through men and women of great talent and ability. Sometimes God works through the most unlikely people. And sometimes we are simply grateful that God accomplishes His holy purposes in spite of us.
Let me meet who You want me to meet;
Tell me what You want me to say, and
Keep me out of Your way."
Quotations of Scripture are from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.