Sticks and stones may break my bones….
No one really believes the rest of that, do they?
Words may not land us in the emergency room, but they will put us in therapy, to say the very least. Words, good and bad are powerful. John’s strange Christmas Gospel invites us to consider the power of words, and what ones we pay attention to now, in this Christmas season.
The Word became flesh…. No ordinary word, what John has in mind is what the Greek philosophers imagined was at the center of all that is. More real than regular reality, this Word, or logos, in Greek, constituted the core of reality. Philosophy sounds esoteric, but it really just describes in cosmic terms what we all know to be true: we create our own reality with words. It is no accident that the Biblical writers pictured God speaking reality into existence. On a smaller scale, we do this as well. What we name is what we notice. Our imaginations are limited to what we have seen and can name. This is because we think in words, even labeling the pictures in our minds. There is no other way. Our words construct our reality.
But it is God’s Word and Creation that concern us here. What word of God’s is at the core of Creation? Our tradition would tell us that God has spoken many words–a whole Bible full of them, in fact. The Bible tells us that God’s creative words had a purpose, to make a reality of community and wholeness. However, somehow it didn’t work out that way, a situation that inspired more words, words of commandment and instruction. Still more divine words followed, words of judgment and consequences, and ultimately of doom. So of all these divine words, which one does John have in mind?
So often Christians talk as if at the core of Creation are God’s words of judgment and consequences, as if God’s only purpose is to declare who is at fault for the trouble at hand. Too often we imagine that God’s words are words of division and destruction, as if we need God’s help in creating that sort of a world. In truth we’ve done pretty well finding ways to use words to divide, limit, and condemn, building up walls of words to separate us from those other, dangerous, different people. If these are the words lifted up in the Christmas Gospel, then we have nothing to celebrate and nothing new to see.
But the Christmas message is Good News. God has something new to say. Well, not new exactly, it is a re-creation, a return to the purpose at the foundation of all that is. At that core is God’s purpose of life, not overwhelmed by death. The birth of Christ brings this life into the world. Jesus doesn’t bring a roadmap to salvation–believe the right things and you get into heaven. No, it’s a new reality that is created with his birth, a reality where God’s purposes of light and life spoken anew. In those words, small and hidden in this birth, is the power of a new creation. With those words we can imagine and experience that new reality, with new connections we thought could never be made. Now life can come out of death, forgiveness can heal the past, hope can overcome despair. New words can define us.
What’s left now is for us to choose the word that defines this Christmas experience for us. Perhaps we are focused on the present, with words like Joy or Thanksgiving. The past might come to mind, with words of Healing or Remembrance. Or we might look to the future, with Hope or Calling. What word speaks Christmas to you in this season?