They say the Pen is mightier than the Sword.
(It should be noted that "they" was actually Edward Bulwer-Lytton-- a man famous for his bad writing, not his swordplay. But, I digress.)
Unless they are planning to use the pen in some lethal ninja way, I have to believe they are actually talking about the words that eloquently, or not so eloquently, flow from the nib.
Because words have power.
A fact that his central to my indentity and my vocation.
I spend a good deal of thought and time weaving words into... well... how do I say this?... into SERMONS.
I hesitate in choosing that particular word because it is a mightily powerful word.
I didn't realize how powerful a word it was until most recently.
Lately, when people have been talking to me...they have taken great care to avoid this word.
Much the same way some people avoid racial slurs, or vularities, or embarassing topics.
There is this embarassed pause ... their eyes slide sideways and upwards... as if they are searching, searching for an "OK" word to use in its place.
"That was a very good... a ...uh...TALK... you gave today."
Talk? Well, yes, I was talking.
But I hope it was more than that.
More powerful than that.
I really hope it was a sermon.
Of course, one of the definitions of that word in our modern day is "a long, tedious speech" and that is definitely something I hope to avoid. I don't think that is the definition these folks are trying to avoid. I think they are trying to avoid "religious discourse, often on a moral issue, as part of a worship service."
More powerful words in that definition.
Religious. Moral. Worship.
Words that some of us try to avoid because of their power.
Words like...
Spiritual. Church.
Powerful words.
Yes and No.
For words, alone, have no power.
They are just ink on a page.
Words have power because we give it to them.
With our feelings, our thoughts, our intentions, our actions-- we give words power.
Power to hurt. Power to heal. Power to incite. Power to inspire.
Power.
Even those words we all avoid, those hurtful, divisive words of power--
get that power from us.
Just as the challenging, healing, connecting words of power do--
the words of a SERMON
in WORSHIP
at CHURCH.
What's in a word?
Whatever power we put there.
A sermon by any other name might sound just the same,
but would the purpose and the promise of the words remain?
Me?
I prefer the powerful words.
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2 comments:
I had noticed the tendency to avoid certain words before -- but even more so now that I Preach. I can casually tell someone, "I'm preaching at XYZ UU next Sunday." Darned if they won't aske me later how my "talk" went...
Even more breathtaking sometimes is having people come to me, or write to me, several weeks later to tell me how something I said in a sermon spoke to them. Sometimes it's not what I said, but how a reading worked with the theme and catalyzed some thought process that was already brewing in her/his soul.
Powerful stuff, indeed. One might even call it...
Sacred.
I gave the homily/message/"talk" at our quarterly memorial service at work this time, and I referred to it as a "homily" and one peer referred to it as a "message" and yet another referred to it as a "talk"... I was most pissed off by the thought that it was a talk.
Go figure.
Dame O
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