Words

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”

We say it to children to help them (supposedly) to deal with the cruelties of the school playground, although I’m not sure it ever helps much. Instinctively, children know the value of words and their results:

“Children who live with criticism, learn to condemn.”

The Judaeo-Christian tradition doesn’t think the aphorism about sticks and stones is worth much either. In the Bible, words mean everything:

“In the beginning, God said… and there was…” (Genesis 1: 3)

“In the beginning, the Word was with God and the Word was God… all things we made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:1, 3)

God’s word is event. Speech is act. It has an effect and it matters. And more than that, words create worlds. The nature of God’s Word (logos) is to take flesh, to become incarnate, to come into mortal being, to be God in our midst (Emmanuel—“God with us”).

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14)

The Epistle of James knows this and cautions Christians about the effects of the tongue—the effects of words, language, speech:

“With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God.” (James 3:9)

As followers of the Living Word, Jesus Christ, we are called to use our words and actions to embody the mission of Christ in the world: peace, reconciliation, justice, forgiveness, hope, love…

Words matter. They create worlds. Pray that, through our words and actions, it is God’s world that comes into being in our midst.