The power of words and the Word
Commentary
Object:
The power of God’s word, spoken and written, is emphasized in several places in scripture. It is God’s word ? “Let there be light!” -- that calls the universe into being. Jesus is identified as the Word made Flesh, present at the creation, there from the beginning. And in today’s scripture passages the power of words and the Word are made apparent.
Yet we live in an age where people seem impervious to the power of words, and to God’s word. Whether in politics, society, families, or the church, one is expected to stake out an opinion and block out whatever anyone else says!
The Acts of the Apostles is built around rhetoric, the art of speaking clearly and convincingly, something that was prized in the Roman empire. In this passage the apostle Peter explains how a vision and visit have led to the baptism and inclusion of outsiders -- and not just any outsiders, but a member of the occupying Roman army, and his household!
God created the world with a word, and in Revelation God re-creates a new heaven and a new word with a word (gegenon, translated as three words, “It is done!”). The words of the prophets, quoted in this passage, come true at last. They were not empty words, because they are God’s words, and in their own time these words will be gloriously fulfilled!
And Jesus, the Word made Flesh in the gospel of John, tells his disciples that they will be known by one word -- love -- which they speak louder than words by loving each other. Love in the Hebrew is an active word. It’s about what you do, not what you say. We are called to live love, not just give it lip service, and if we are not seen as a loving people, if we are every bit as contentious as the world around us, how will the world know we are truly his disciples?
Acts 11:1-18
The miracle has already happened. The barrier between folks with different ethnic backgrounds, different ideas about what is food and what is yuck, different ideas of clean and unclean, has been kicked in and knocked down. In the previous chapter a vision to the apostle Peter (who is already treading on thin ice when it comes to offending the boundary-keepers by staying with Simon the Tanner, whose profession renders him unclean) receives a vision in which he is commanded to eat unclean animals. The command to eat and Peter’s protestations are repeated three times -- and the next thing you know, there’s a knock on the door, Peter’s off to visit Cornelius the centurion, and since the Holy Spirit seems to have arrived before him he has no problem with baptizing the household. Wonder of wonders!
Now comes the hard part -- justifying it to the others who weren’t there. Around one-third of the Acts of the Apostles consists of speeches (the sound bites of larger speeches really) designed to show the power of rhetoric, the ability to speak clearly and convincingly. Peter recounts his dream and his discovery that Cornelius had received an angelic visit in answer to his prayers, and obeyed the angel’s command, sending a delegation to Peter. At the climax of his speech Peter cuts to the chase and asks: Who am I to hinder God?
There are times when a member of our congregation runs ahead of where we’re at and we’re all huffing and puffing, trying to catch up. The same question ought to be asked -- who are we to hinder God? Perhaps that age-old saying -- “it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than to wait for forgiveness” -- might speak to the prophetic urge to rush ahead and allow the Holy Spirit to act in love.
An important challenge ought to be addressed to our own age -- we live in a time when people are immune to rhetoric. It seems we are incapable of listening to someone’s speech without having already decided to reject it if we don’t agree. We do not listen and evaluate before we either reject or accept another’s viewpoint, or perhaps engage in dialogue to discover whether we, as a people of God, are willing to receive new light. The questions we need to ask ourselves as congregations are: Are we listening to each other? Are we listening to our fellow believers? Are we listening to God, or are we speaking for God without having first listened?
Revelation 21:1-6
The new heaven and new earth were planned from the beginning. John the Revelator emphasizes this by quoting from a variety of sources found in the Hebrew scriptures: Isaiah, Leviticus, Ezekiel, and Zechariah. It is clear that God is not improvising, even now, when all may seem chaotic. Despite our choices, and the action of evil, the Word that was there at the beginning was made flesh and tented among us, and is still in our midst.
The word for “dwelt,” skene,is the word for “tent,” calling to mind the tabernacle or tent that served as the movable house of worship while God’s people traveled through the desert. Even now God is not tied down to one place, but moves with us.
We see the earth finally renewed and restored as it was meant to be from the beginning. In Daniel and Revelation the evil powers rule three and a half years. This is probably not meant literally, but is half of the symbolic perfection of seven. Three and a half years is a broken seven, and in contrast to the broken reigns of all tyrants, God follows a lengthy reign of a thousand years (see the previous chapter) with an eternal reign.
John 13:31-35
In these few verses, taken out of the farewell discourse of Jesus, the Savior speaks of his glory and warns the disciples they cannot follow for now. Love is presented as powerful -- in Revelation love is more powerful than the powers of hate that have their brief day. In the gospels the love of God, revealed in Jesus, is more powerful than death and the cross.
The Greek language had four words for love. The most powerful of the four, agape, a selfless, divine love, is the word used here. John’s word choice hearkens back to the Hebrew original -- where love is an action verb, a word about doing things, not simply an expression of feelings. Chesed, sometimes translated as “steadfast love,” is being called to mind here -- the steadfast love cited in Lamentations 3:33, the steadfast love that never ceases even when a nation has been destroyed, the buildings are rubble, and the people are being led away to a foreign land. This is the same love that so impressed Boaz, because it was personified in an outsider named Ruth who cared for her mother-in-law Naomi (who could do nothing for her in return).
That must be why, when Jesus gave his new commandment in this text to his disciples to love one another, he added “Just as I have loved you....” Jesus would soon demonstrate the dimension of doing when it comes to love by loving them even to death on a cross.
Yet we live in an age where people seem impervious to the power of words, and to God’s word. Whether in politics, society, families, or the church, one is expected to stake out an opinion and block out whatever anyone else says!
The Acts of the Apostles is built around rhetoric, the art of speaking clearly and convincingly, something that was prized in the Roman empire. In this passage the apostle Peter explains how a vision and visit have led to the baptism and inclusion of outsiders -- and not just any outsiders, but a member of the occupying Roman army, and his household!
God created the world with a word, and in Revelation God re-creates a new heaven and a new word with a word (gegenon, translated as three words, “It is done!”). The words of the prophets, quoted in this passage, come true at last. They were not empty words, because they are God’s words, and in their own time these words will be gloriously fulfilled!
And Jesus, the Word made Flesh in the gospel of John, tells his disciples that they will be known by one word -- love -- which they speak louder than words by loving each other. Love in the Hebrew is an active word. It’s about what you do, not what you say. We are called to live love, not just give it lip service, and if we are not seen as a loving people, if we are every bit as contentious as the world around us, how will the world know we are truly his disciples?
Acts 11:1-18
The miracle has already happened. The barrier between folks with different ethnic backgrounds, different ideas about what is food and what is yuck, different ideas of clean and unclean, has been kicked in and knocked down. In the previous chapter a vision to the apostle Peter (who is already treading on thin ice when it comes to offending the boundary-keepers by staying with Simon the Tanner, whose profession renders him unclean) receives a vision in which he is commanded to eat unclean animals. The command to eat and Peter’s protestations are repeated three times -- and the next thing you know, there’s a knock on the door, Peter’s off to visit Cornelius the centurion, and since the Holy Spirit seems to have arrived before him he has no problem with baptizing the household. Wonder of wonders!
Now comes the hard part -- justifying it to the others who weren’t there. Around one-third of the Acts of the Apostles consists of speeches (the sound bites of larger speeches really) designed to show the power of rhetoric, the ability to speak clearly and convincingly. Peter recounts his dream and his discovery that Cornelius had received an angelic visit in answer to his prayers, and obeyed the angel’s command, sending a delegation to Peter. At the climax of his speech Peter cuts to the chase and asks: Who am I to hinder God?
There are times when a member of our congregation runs ahead of where we’re at and we’re all huffing and puffing, trying to catch up. The same question ought to be asked -- who are we to hinder God? Perhaps that age-old saying -- “it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than to wait for forgiveness” -- might speak to the prophetic urge to rush ahead and allow the Holy Spirit to act in love.
An important challenge ought to be addressed to our own age -- we live in a time when people are immune to rhetoric. It seems we are incapable of listening to someone’s speech without having already decided to reject it if we don’t agree. We do not listen and evaluate before we either reject or accept another’s viewpoint, or perhaps engage in dialogue to discover whether we, as a people of God, are willing to receive new light. The questions we need to ask ourselves as congregations are: Are we listening to each other? Are we listening to our fellow believers? Are we listening to God, or are we speaking for God without having first listened?
Revelation 21:1-6
The new heaven and new earth were planned from the beginning. John the Revelator emphasizes this by quoting from a variety of sources found in the Hebrew scriptures: Isaiah, Leviticus, Ezekiel, and Zechariah. It is clear that God is not improvising, even now, when all may seem chaotic. Despite our choices, and the action of evil, the Word that was there at the beginning was made flesh and tented among us, and is still in our midst.
The word for “dwelt,” skene,is the word for “tent,” calling to mind the tabernacle or tent that served as the movable house of worship while God’s people traveled through the desert. Even now God is not tied down to one place, but moves with us.
We see the earth finally renewed and restored as it was meant to be from the beginning. In Daniel and Revelation the evil powers rule three and a half years. This is probably not meant literally, but is half of the symbolic perfection of seven. Three and a half years is a broken seven, and in contrast to the broken reigns of all tyrants, God follows a lengthy reign of a thousand years (see the previous chapter) with an eternal reign.
John 13:31-35
In these few verses, taken out of the farewell discourse of Jesus, the Savior speaks of his glory and warns the disciples they cannot follow for now. Love is presented as powerful -- in Revelation love is more powerful than the powers of hate that have their brief day. In the gospels the love of God, revealed in Jesus, is more powerful than death and the cross.
The Greek language had four words for love. The most powerful of the four, agape, a selfless, divine love, is the word used here. John’s word choice hearkens back to the Hebrew original -- where love is an action verb, a word about doing things, not simply an expression of feelings. Chesed, sometimes translated as “steadfast love,” is being called to mind here -- the steadfast love cited in Lamentations 3:33, the steadfast love that never ceases even when a nation has been destroyed, the buildings are rubble, and the people are being led away to a foreign land. This is the same love that so impressed Boaz, because it was personified in an outsider named Ruth who cared for her mother-in-law Naomi (who could do nothing for her in return).
That must be why, when Jesus gave his new commandment in this text to his disciples to love one another, he added “Just as I have loved you....” Jesus would soon demonstrate the dimension of doing when it comes to love by loving them even to death on a cross.
