So, What D’you Say?

I sometimes find myself in a position where nothing can possibly come out right. These speechless moments are scary, where words completely elude me–or I blurt out something stupid. There are times when spoken words seem inadequate, perhaps boorish. Lessons to be read on the upcoming weekend reassure the tongue-tied that God speaks for and into them, acknowledging our human proclivity to say the wrong thing.

EXODUS 19:2-8 finds the Hebrew desert wanderers camped near Mt. Sinai, long thought to be a holy place. Words are exchanged: God calling to Moses with the terms of the covenant, and Moses telling the elders and leaders what God has planned, that they would be “a priestly kingdom and a holy nation”. We notice here that GOD is the initiator of this interchange, as it should be. The premise here is that if God has called those in the desert to a covenant of liberation and righteousness, so shall God call even us to a similar covenant! What do we say about our faith, and how do we do it?

Paul speaks of this faith as bringing us into line with the Christian doctrine, with peace/wholeness with God as its outcome. “…we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.” This doesn’t depend on OUR goodness, but on GOD’s. When those awful silences descend on us, when we’ve blown it again and no words spring to our defense, then we recognize that only God can speak for us. Our only refuge is in announcing that we, too, share in this holy glory.

The Gospel of the day is that of St. MATTHEW, 9:35-10-23, the sending of the Twelve into the crowded and waiting nation. These were told, “Bloom where you’re planted”, that they were to begin nearby and work outwardly, healing the sick and casting out the unclean spirits. Travelling light, they were to rely only on the hospitality of God’s people. And when they got into trouble for all this–as they were surely going to–they shouldn’t plan their defense but know that God would speak through them: “…what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your Father speaking through you.” Alexander Wimberly has commented, “The followers of Jesus continue to be challenged to take little more than faith out into the world and get Christ’s work done….It is Christ who enables us to do what we could not do on our own.” (FEASTING on the WORD, A 3:143-l45)

An old proverb says that “It’s better not to speak and be thought a fool than to say something to prove it!” And Francis of Assisi is credited with the quote, “Preach always; use words if you must!”

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Join me each Tuesday to explore (and be explored by) the Scriptural readings for the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com