October 30 - Proper 26, Year A (RCL)
“We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God's word, which is also at work in you believers.”
It’s one of those ambiguous phrases,
one that gets used
in a bunch of different ways
and a bunch of different places.
The word of God.
Some times you hear it used
to refer to scripture.
Sometimes
to something described in scripture.
Sometimes
to preaching.
Sometimes
to Jesus himself.
So what is the word of God?
It all begins
back in Genesis,
back at the beginning
of all things.
“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void
and darkness covered the face of the deep,
while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”
Back at the very beginning of all time,
God spoke, and creation came into being.
It was the word of God,
the first time God was heard,
a word of creation.
And God kept speaking; God’s word continued to be heard.
Sometimes the word of God
was a word of condemnation:
to Adam for eating the fruit;
to Cain for killing his brother;
but more often
it was a word of promise.
To Adam, giving him dominion over the earth and all that was in it, to delight in and care for,
inviting him to name the animals,
offering him
a partner.
To Noah, giving instructions to save him and his family and all the animals
from the flood.
To Abraham, promising land and descendants.
To Moses, leading him and the people
out of Egypt and back to the promised land.
And on and on,
through kings, with wisdom and guidance,
and psalms,
with words of lament and celebration.
and prophets, with calls to justice for all.
And the word of God
came in direct speech, and in dreams
and in visions.
In the beginning, God spoke. And then, God kept on speaking
And over time
those words of God
were written down,
and became
the word of God,
the scriptures that we now know
as the Old Testament.
And then came Jesus.
Remember how the Gospel according to St John describes it?
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
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.”
Or in the words of the letter to the Hebrews,
“Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.”
When Jesus was born,
the word of God
that had until now only been something spoken,
something heard,
something read,
became a person, Jesus Christ.
And because Jesus
was God incarnate,
when he spoke
it was God speaking.
And people could hear the words of God,
the word of God,
in ordinary conversation.
But then Jesus died,
and with him, it seemed, the word of God died as well.
But then he rose, and the word was back, at least for a time.
And the disciples were commissioned
to remember his words,
to remember the word,
and to pass it on to others.
And then, at Pentecost,
the word of God exploded.
Suddenly
it wasn’t just the words
of a man from Galilee
who had somehow cheated death,
repeated
by his friends.
Because now
people could hear it in their own languages.
And there was something different, something unique
about the words that people heard
from the mouths of the apostles,
the words came
with unusual power
and with the Spirit like wind and fire,
and it was clear
that it was God who was speaking.
And that’s how it continued,
Jesus’ followers
speaking God’s word
with power and authority.
Until we get to the Thessalonians.
Remember,
Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians
is most likely the first of the writings
that we know as the New Testament.
It was written down
less than twenty years
after Jesus’ death;
it was sent out
before the gospels
were put onto parchment.
The Thessalonians
don’t have anything else to go on
except the word of God
that has been preached
and the informal memories
of that man called Jesus.
This is the first time
that the word of God
is written.
And Paul is making the connection here,
he’s making it explicit,
the connection
between the words preached by him and by the other apostles,
and the word of God in Jesus Christ.
“We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God's word, which is also at work in you believers.”
Their words are not simply their own opinions.
Somehow, uniquely, peculiarly, they are God’s.
So what is the word of God,
It’s the word in creation,
the word to the patriarchs,
the word through the kings and prophets,
the word written in the Old Testament
the word that is Jesus Christ,
the word passed on by the apostles,
the word preached,
the word written in the epistles
and the word
received by all
who believe in Jesus Christ.
But that’s not the end of it.
The word of God
is not just something to be described, something to be defined.
The word of God
actually does something.
As Paul understands it,
the word of God
is at work
in believers.
At it’s described in the second letter to Timothy,
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
The word of God
is not just something that provides us with information. It’s something that shapes us, changes us, so that we are different for hearing it, so that we can live lives worthy
of our God and Savior.
So listen for the word of God.
Listen to it in scripture. Take the time to read each day, read from the bible
and hear as God speaks to you.
Listen to it spoken,
from one believer to another, whether it’s from the pulpit,
or at bible study, or in ordinary conversation.
Listen to it in Jesus, the Word made flesh
who comes to us
through his spirit,
and in the breaking
of the bread.
Listen.
© Raewynne J. Whiteley 2010