Rev. N. Adiel A. DePano Lenten message from FUMC Pasadena.
Words have the power to create. Henri
Nouwen writes:
When
God speaks, God creates. When God says, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3),
light is. God speaks light. For God, speaking and creating are the same. It is
this creative power of the word we need to reclaim. What we say is very
important. When we say, “I love you,” and say it from the heart, we can give
another person new life, new hope, new courage.
Stories of healing abound in the
gospels. One such story describes how Jesus went to minister to Jairus’
daughter who had just died (Mark 5:35ff). Let’s pick up the story from verse
38:
When
they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with
people crying and wailing loudly.... After he put them all out, he took the
child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in
where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!”
(which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood
up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were
completely astonished.
What strikes me about the healing
stories in the gospels is that people sought Jesus and flocked to him in
droves! They recognized the power of his words spoken in compassion. The
experience so compelling that they recognized in Jesus a great prophet! In Mark 6:53-56 we read:
When
Jesus and the disciples had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and
moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him,
and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to
wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or
farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might
touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
You might be saying, “What do I need
healing for?”
Our society is full of words: on
billboards, on television screens, in newspapers and books. Words whispered,
shouted, and sung. Words that move, dance, and change in size and color. Words
that say, “Taste me, smell me, eat me, drink me, sleep with me,” but most of
all, “buy me.” With so many words around us, we quickly say: “Well, they're
just words.” Thus, words have lost much of their power.
But it seems that we have not lost a
beat on our ability to inflict harm with our words. Words also have the
potential to destroy as Henri Nouwen writes:
When
we say, “I hate you,” we can destroy another person.
Our internal dialogue with the self
could be anything but affirming and nurturing of the seed of God that is
planted in our hearts. We are so capable of bombarding our inner self with
words that harm – I’m not good enough. I’m an idiot. I’m a failure. I can’t do
it. I don’t have what it takes. Our lives can be messy, filled with addiction,
fretfulness, and fears.
For God, speaking and creating are the
same. The holy season of Lent is a rich and potent season to experience the
transformative and creative power of words of the Word of God! The Word that
was made flesh at Christmas speaks volumes of God’s love, forgiveness, healing,
acceptance, joy, and hope to us. Lent invites us to prepare for Easter by
observing a period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline
in order to make room for the indwelling of the Spirit. The purpose is to set
aside time for reflection on Jesus Christ – his suffering and his sacrifice,
his life, death, burial and resurrection – so that his life-giving words and
life-affirming teachings can take root in our lives and increase our capacity
to speak and love as he did.
John Wesley gave Methodists “three
simple rules” to abide by in growing our ability to be Christ-like in our
lifestyle:
- Do no
harm.
- Do
good.
- Stay
in love with God.
John
Wesley believed that living a holy and good life required help from a caring
community, commitment to the practice of spiritual discipline, and ongoing
instruction.
Wesley
gave the Methodist movement General Rules which were the practical application
of what it meant to follow Christ – they were outlined and the people were
instructed on them within the class structure. Accountability for practice was
centered in the classes that formed the United Societies. Thus, the General Rules became distilled into
this “behavioral trinity” we refer to as the “three simple rules”.
Living
in a new way, becoming a new creation is risky business. Learning and speaking
words that build up rather than tear down is hard work. It requires sacrifice – the willingness to
undergo a radical transformation – it requires creating a way through the
wilderness where there was no way before. Richard Rohr, OFM brings it home for
me:
Christianity is a lifestyle—a way of
being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared, and loving. However, we
made it into an established “religion” (and all that goes with that) and
avoided the lifestyle change itself. One could be warlike, greedy, racist,
selfish, and vain in most of Christian history, and still believe that Jesus is
one’s “personal Lord and Savior” or continue to receive the sacraments in good
standing. The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on
Earth is too great.
In
closing, let me share this invitation straight out of The Book of Worship:
I invite you, therefore, in the name
of the Church, to observe a holy Lent: by self-examination and repentance; by
prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s Holy
Word.
There’s
that ‘Word’ again!
