The First Word
Sermon by the Revd Dr Brutus Green
Readings: Isaiah 52:7-10, Hebrews 1:1-4, John 1:1-14
I am learning about the power of words. Oberon, our fifteen-month-old boy, is slowly accumulating them. He has still not got to mummy and daddy, which doubtless speaks volumes about our parenting. As does the fact that he’s currently sleeping in the vestry. I just hope he gets to mummy and daddy before he learns ‘churchwarden’. His first word, months ago now, was “ZZ”. The dog’s name. ZZ’s name is often called in our house – usually to keep him safe from Oberon, or to stop him stealing cheese, but there is a delight evident in Oberon as he speaks the word, when ZZ arrives in the room, or when he is charging towards him. Other words include ‘wiggle, wiggle’, accompanied by peals of laughter as he shakes his head, and ‘gone’ as food drops from his chubby fingers into the waiting mouth of ZZ. This is a game they both enjoy.
Even ZZ, though, has some understanding of words. Words bring order, intelligibility. Walk, breakfast, garden, bed, give a structure to the day; These words through repetition make sense of ZZ’s life, give him expectations, confidence in what is coming, delight when the word walk is followed always by the jingle of the lead.
And with language also comes the sense of the other. When Oberon sees the dog he calls ‘ZZ’. When we call their names they turn. Oberon’s little head will tilt to the side to see where you are and what you want. The world is no more a mass of feelings and needs to Oberon. There are now discreet objects: ZZ, daddy, mummy; independent of him; other creatures he is in relationship, but not identical with.
And with meaning and rationality, and relationship, comes power. ZZ is not the cleverest or the most obedient, but Bed, spoken simply, sends him to his nest. His name – will bring him, more or less, straight away. Oberon is learning this power. This delight. Calling ZZ. Saying ‘gone’. And how long will it be before he learns the diabolic power; The power of man’s first disobedience; The power of the word, “NO.” ‘Christian children all must be, mild, obedient, good as He.’
Language: Gives us intelligibility, relationships, power.
In the beginning was the Word. Which is to say, In the beginning was intelligibility, relationship, power. It’s the first statement of faith. Even the utterance ‘in the beginning’ is a statement of faith. They are words themselves. And they say there was a beginning, a decisive moment, an act. As King Lear says – ‘nothing will come of nothing.’ And for all that there could be nothing, could be an infinitely shapeless void, This Gospel assures as that there was a beginning. And as with the beginning of a child, from indistinct objects and impulses, What Genesis describes in the beginning: ‘the formless void and darkness on the face of the deep’ From that comes a Word. And as the child names a dog, a feeling, a mother; So does a Word make sense of the world. A Word gives meaning to the world. That Word, which is from the beginning, says that the world has intelligibility. The universe is there to be discovered, to be understood; Its purpose and its ways are knowable.
I took a service twelve hours ago at Ashmead Care Home. It was both heartbreaking and heart warming. What struck me is that with age you can forget where you live, You can forget even the faces of your children; but you will not forget the Lord’s Prayer; you will not forget the old familiar carols. Still sung with remembered joy. So enjoy tonight, these words will be with you to the end.
In the beginning was the Word. In the beginning was relationship. There’s no Christian doctrine more misunderstood than the Trinity. It’s not the pagan notion of multiple gods; fundamental to all Judaeo-religions is the statement that God is one. The most important Hebrew prayer is the Shema – Which means ‘hear!’, as in ‘listen!’ To be written on doorposts, to be the last words of children before bed, of the living before dying; ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one.’
But the nature of this God is relationship. Language is between two; communication. Creation is an act of relationship. God speaks the world into being: “Let there be light, let there be sky and water, let there be dry land’ Man names the animals. In creation God has made an intelligible universe that gives itself to be known. But God has made it to share. Creatures can know one another, they can know God. You are not alone.
In the beginning was the Word. In the beginning was power. Freud talks about his grandson playing a game called ‘fort-da’ This infant would drop a small toy, exclaiming ‘fort’, which means ‘gone’ – as Oberon does with his food. He’d then pick it up again with delight exclaiming ‘Da!’ or “there” as in “there it is!” ‘Gone – there it is’ Freud observed that this is how the infant was learning emotional control over his mother leaving and returning. The game provided reassurance that mother was coming back. The words “gone!”, “there” let the child control the feelings of absence, fear, loneliness, and master himself against the unpredictability of the world.
And we also know the power of words to convince, to give orders, the power a name has. The power of the word ‘please’ which for children is so often the gateway for getting what they want – Of ‘thank you’ to make someone feel valued; ‘sorry’ to mend a broken relationship; Of ‘cancer’ and ‘HIV’ to cause fear; and, if you can’t say it at Christmas, when can you say it? of ‘I love you’ to change everything.
But while words have power they can also give power away. ‘I love you’ is a strange expression. It’s never just a statement. It can be many things, but above all it’s always a question. ‘I love you’ implies, ‘do you love me’? And it’s a formal statement. ‘Me too’ is a not a good enough response. Especially these days. You may remember in the seminal movie Ghost, Patrick Swayze’s ‘Ditto’ is not good enough. The formality of ‘I love you’, demands ‘I love you too’ back. It’s a reaching out. It makes the speaker vulnerable.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Power choosing vulnerability, to empower others, is a different power. What Frankie Goes to Hollywood called, ‘the power of love’.
Words can divide us: Words like ‘Marmite’, ‘Brexit’, ‘Ladbaby’ [I looked up Ladbaby, when I saw he had a second consecutive Christmas number one. There wasn’t much Scriptural reference in his song, though, and I do not believe there was a sausage roll at the birth of our Lord.] Words can divide, but Words can encourage, heal, strengthen, bring together, Words can be rejected, ignored, denounced; Or they can transform, promise and delight.
‘And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God’.
The Word came with meaning, offering relationship, with power, He came as God’s ‘I love you’ to the universe.
There is a sense in which every new child is a new creation. And in every new child we can see that cosmic beginning: A decisive moment when the world becomes intelligible, when a relationship begins, a moment of power and vulnerability. Christmas is about the birth of a child. It’s also about that decisive moment of creation, in the beginning and on a cold winter’s night in Bethlehem. Christmas is the Word made flesh; this child who gives meaning, relationship and power. You have a purpose, you are not alone, you have power. So what are the words you need to speak this Christmas, and to whom? And what is the Word you need to hear? Amen.