May 19, 2013
Even if you aren’t all that interested in language, you might still
know who Richard Lederer is since he is a San Diegan and has somewhat of a
celebrity status. Those of us who love him, though, don’t because he shares the
same city we do, but because he’s such a fun writer with a passion for language.
He has a way with words and uses them to capture the fun and richness of
language.
So when two Saturdays ago in his weekly column in the Union-Tribune he
gave his ‘creed’, so to speak, of language and why it means so much to him, it
caught my eye. And no sooner had I gotten through part of the second paragraph
that I knew I wanted to incorporate his thoughts into the sermon for Pentecost
Day. For a couple paragraphs there, even, I thought he was almost writing my
sermon for me, including Bible passages and everything.
He looks at language and communication as a very human thing. He loves
it because it is what sets us apart from the rest of the animal world. In his
words,
I have always felt
that I was writing about the most deeply human of inventions — language. Words
and people are inextricably bound together. Whether the ground of your being is
religion or science, you find that language is the hallmark, the defining
characteristic that distinguishes humankind from the other creatures that walk
and run and crawl and swim and fly and burrow in our world. [©
Copyright 2013 The San Diego Union-Tribune, LLC. An MLIM LLC Company. All
rights reserved.]
Now in his way of speaking, our ground is religion. And when he says
that whether it’s this or science, that we find that language is the hallmark,
or defining characteristic, that distinguishes us from, say cows, I am very
tempted to go along with him. Not quite in the way he sees the origination of
it, though. In that the Word of God tells us that God is the author of
language, just as He is the author of us, we see this defining characteristic,
as he calls it, as coming from God. And if you look at God, who He is, what defines
Him, you see that language is inextricably bound up in Him as a being; as, in
fact, the Triune God. God isn’t just some being, like others. He is God. He is
the Triune God who is One and in three Persons; talking, communicating, being
in perfect relationship with each other; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Now, I’m not sure it’s the best practice to recite long quotes, but
listen to this amazing insight from a man who isn’t speaking from a theological
standpoint, but simply as one who loves language, again in the words of Richard
Lederer:
In the Genesis
creation story that so majestically begins the Bible (Genesis 1:1-31 ; 2:1-6 ), we note the frequency
and importance of verbs of speaking: “And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. … And God called the light Day, and the darkness
he called Night. … And God said, Let there be a firmament in the
midst of the waters. … And God called
the firmament Heaven. … And God said,
Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let
the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called
the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas; And God saw that it was
good.” (Emphasis mine.) Note those verbs of speaking and naming. God doesn’t
just snap his fingers to bring the things of the universe into existence. He
speaks them into being and then names each one. [© Copyright
2013 The San Diego Union-Tribune, LLC. An MLIM LLC Company. All rights
reserved.]
Now this is right up our alley. Seeing who God is, what He is like. How
He does what He does. Hear how Lederer continues:
And what happens when
God creates Adam?: “And out of the ground the lord God formed every beast of
the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he
would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the
name thereof” (Genesis 2:19-22 ).
In other words, Adam (Hebrew for “humankind”) does what God has done: He names
things; he names voraciously; he names everything.
Perhaps this is what the Bible means in Genesis 1:26-27 : “And God said, Let us make man in our
own image, after our likeness … So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him, male and female created he them.” Like God, man is
a speaker and a namer. [© Copyright 2013 The San Diego
Union-Tribune, LLC. An MLIM LLC Company. All rights reserved.]
Now notice how the Word of God, the Bible, bears this out. Just with
three Scripture passages as we have heard them this morning, from the Old Testament
reading in Genesis 11
and the Tower of Babel, to the second reading in Acts 2 and the Day of Pentecost, to
the Gospel reading in John 14
and Jesus speaking to His beloved disciples shortly before He would leave them
and send them the Holy Spirit, what do we see? Or better, what do we hear?
Language. Words. Communication. We hear speaking. We hear God talking
to us and we receive those words with our ears and our heart. Richard Lederer
speaks of the humanness of language, that that is what defines us; what sets us
apart; what makes us what, or rather, who, we are. Fair enough. But he quoted
the passage himself, we are made in the image of God. God is the God of
language. We are human, true, but who we are as human beings, as people, is
being created in the image of God. God created us. He spoke to us, drawing us
into relationship with Him, just as He is in relationship with Himself, the
Triune God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
The language of God isn’t just that there’s got to be some way of communicating
between beings, whether people to people or God to people or people to God. The
language of God is that He has created us and since we have fallen into sin and
have cut off our relationship with Him, He becomes human. He uses language. In
other words, He becomes flesh. He becomes a man. Jesus Christ is the eternal
Word, the Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us. This is the language of
God, it is Christ, in the world, for us. It is Christ, in the flesh, loving us
by coming to us and forgiving us for so great of sins that we are even unaware
of ourselves that we need Him to speak to us. To speak to us that word of
forgiveness. The Peace that passes all understanding. Peace that is not as the
world gives, that uses simply language and words to state things, but peace
that actually brings Christ to us, He uniting Himself with us so that we have
true peace.
Now, Richard Lederer I’m sure would be the first to say that he is not
a Biblical scholar. But he sure talks like a Lutheran with his emphasis on the
words of God, on God speaking. We Lutherans look at Genesis 1 and see that pattern that
has begun. God is constantly involved in the activity of speaking, and His Word
brings about what it says. We could do the same thing Lederer did with his
little exposition of Genesis 1
with the three Scripture readings before us today.
In the Old Testament reading we find that everyone shared the same
language. Boy, that sure would make a lot less confusion in this world. But the
problem is that we people are sinful and we scheme to make a name for
ourselves. In short, to be our own god. You want to know how the languages of
the world came about? It’s right there in Genesis 11 . God confused their language. He dispersed
them. They couldn’t understand each other anymore. They had used their one
language to speak evil of God. Remember, God is the God of language, He uses it
to communicate to us His love for us and we use it to take His name in vain.
Fast forward to the Day of Pentecost, ten days after Jesus ascended
into heaven, fifty days after He rose from the grave, and fifty-three days after
He promised to send the Holy Spirit, and you see God’s use of language to each
person, despite the fact that there are many languages. The Holy Spirit came
rushing in with a mighty sound and that sound manifested itself in, guess
what?, language. Words. Communication in clear, simple speech. The Gospel,
proclaimed clearly and distinctly in individual languages so that all could
hear.
And what is Jesus’ emphasis on in the Gospel reading? His Word. We keep
His Word. We treasure it. We hold fast to it. What that leads to is speaking it
ourselves. Speaking it to those we know and don’t know. To those who speak the
same language we do and sending missionaries to speak it to people who speak
languages we don’t know.
In the Gospel reading Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit. It is in the
context of this language of God. If you want to know who the Holy Spirit is and
what He does, you need look no further than what your Lord says of Him. He is
the one, in the words of the Gospel reading, as He says, “whom the Father will
send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all
that I have said to you.” This, my dear Friends in Christ, is the language of
God. It is God the Father and God the Holy Spirit speaking to you the Word;
that is, the Word made flesh. It is the Father sending the Holy Spirit to bring
Christ to you.
It’s not just that we’re human, and that’s a great and wonderful thing;
after all, God created us! It’s that God loves us. It’s that He speaks to us,
and communicates to us, and gives us His Son. This is the language of God. It
is God, when we attempt to lift ourselves up by disregarding His Word, sending
His Son and lifting Him up on the cross only to strike Him down; doing such a
thing so that we may not be struck down and left without hope forever. It is
God, sending then His Holy Spirit to seize on the very words of His written
Word the Bible and make them come about in things like your Baptism; where He
says, Baptism now saves you—and it does. In things like the Holy Supper of your
Lord; where Christ Himself, using simple, clear language, says, “This is My
body, given for you.” “This is My blood, shed for you.”
The language of God. The Holy Spirit speaking into your ears Christ
crucified and delivered to you in your Baptism and His Holy Supper so that your
very heart and soul and mouth may speak in response to the language of God, the
language of faith; captured in a simple, yet profound word, “Amen.” It is so.
He has said it.
SDG
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