A Sermon preached in
Christ Church,
Grosse Pointe, Michigan
by The Reverend Vicki Hesse, Associate
by The Reverend Vicki Hesse, Associate
Christmas
Day, 2016
In the Name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
In the Name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Merry
Christmas!
In
his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell examines unusual factors that contribute
to high levels of success.[1]
Why are most Canadian ice hockey players born in the first few months of a
year? How did Bill Gates achieve his extreme wealth? How did The Beatles became
one of the most successful musical acts in human history?
Throughout
the book, Gladwell attributes success to the “10,000-hour rule.” Gladwell
claims that the key to world-class expertise in any skill is, to a large
extent, a matter of practicing the correct way for a total of around 10,000
hours.
And,
although this is a bit tangential, stick with me for a moment. Did you know that…There are approx. 470,000
words in the English dictionary? A college-educated English speaker might have
a vocabulary of 80,000 words? Typically, people have about 10,000 words in
written and 5,000 words in common spoken vocabulary.[2]
With
all these words flying around, have we become world-class experts in their use?
What are words for, I wonder? Some say
“as we speak, so we create.” Words matter.
Imagine….what
if there were no nouns?[3]
Would our world still be composed of distinct and separate things? What if our
only language for describing the world was dance? Would we constantly move around in
conversation? What if there were no pronouns, would you and I
cease to exist?
Consider
a visit to the zoo. The mother stops
before an enclosure and points out the animal to her daughter. “See the zebra? Zebra. Zebra. That is a
Zebra.” The girl, puzzled, looks at the shape and says, “horse.” “No,” the
mother replies, “not a horse. A zebra.” Slowly the girl repeats, “zebra.” Her
mother replies, “Right! Now you have it, Zebra! See the stripes?”
And
in that moment, words have changed their world. Before this, the world had only
horses. Through this exchange, Zebras have been born. Words matter.
The
Hebrew term for word is dabar, which
actually means both word and deed.[4] So, to say something is to do something. Words have the power of creation and of
discovery. Words and deeds enflesh our airy ideas that can dwell with us, and
can change our reality. Words elicit responses that can never be unheard. To say “I love you” Or “I forgive you” Or
“I’m afraid of you,” To say these things, we create a new reality. Something
that is hidden - is launched - through speech
into time and is given substance; is created; is made real.
And
how many times did God try to
create a world of Love, Truth and Justice? How many times did God try get
across to us?
At
least 10,000 times, word after word,
God tried saying it to Noah, saying it to Abraham, saying it to Moses, saying
it to David. And finally, toward the end of God’s rope, maybe the 9,999th
time, God tried John the Baptist with his locusts and honey and hellfire
preaching. And it almost worked. So God tried once more. The exact Word of God - Jesus.
And
in this flesh, Jesus, God finally manages to say what God is and what human
is. In this flesh, Jesus, God knows what
it is like to be human and we know what God is like. In One Word, God’s own
self – God’s everlasting commitment to and love for the whole
world – took shape in and through an ordinary and finite human. In One Word, in Jesus, we see the human
shape of God.
In
One Word, God’s own self became flesh so that all who are flesh
may know what it means to be God’s beloved children. So that all who are
flesh may know God’s love for all of creation So that all who are
flesh may also embody in word and in deed God’s world of Love, Truth and
Justice.
What
was hidden in the heart of God, with this One Word, was
irreversibly released through speech into time and was given substance.
And this is good news! Because out of all the possible 470,000 words,
through this One Word, God reinvented, rebirthed and renewed all of creation
and restored a fresh world for us and for those to come. Yes, we, too, are
changed by this new Word.
For
by God coming in the flesh and dwelling among us Shines in us a ray of light
that previously we did not see, Sews in us a word of hope that previously could
not grow, Surrounds us by a world of Love that previously we did not claim. Sustains
us with the success of a beginner’s mind that
cannot be achieved or earned but only lived with wonder.
And
there are not enough words to express or embody that kind of grace upon
grace upon grace. Except maybe one: Thanks.
Perhaps
it takes 10,000 practices to make perfect, but in God’s One Word, perfection
was made in the image of God, the
reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.
For
in God’s One Word, we are made new every day. And as God’s own beloved
children, we receive God’s promise to be with us into the New Year &
all that might bring: through all our living and struggling and yearning and
loving and dying.
In
God’s One Word, God promises, today, to be with us now and forever. That is the heart and the promise of
Christmas!
May
we, today, embody the many words of the prophet Isaiah that announce peace and
good news of God’s reign. And may all the ends of the earth see the salvation
of God’s One Perfect Word in human shape.
Amen.
Merry
Christmas!
[1] Inspired from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_(book)
[2] Cited at http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0073123587/student_view0/chapter3/how_much_do_you_know_about_vocabulary_.html On December 24, 2016
[3] Inspired by Kenneth Gergen,
Swathmore College
[4] Inspired by
Frederick Buechner essay “Word” at www.frederickbuechner.com, ~originally
published in Wishful Thinking and later in Beyond Words
