You Are What You Say: The Word Incarnate And Human Words
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Dear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
So for this installment of The Immediate Word, we've asked team member Carter Shelley to write about the power of words not only to create chasms, but also to bridge them, and of the power of the Word for redemption. She is using the lectionary's gospel text for January 5, and the epistle text for Epiphany as the basis.
There are also team comments, illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
You Are What You Say: The Word Incarnate and Human Words
By Carter Shelley
John 1:1-18
Ephesians 3:1-12
Author's note: In preliminary study of John 1: 1-18 and Ephesians 3: 1-12, I found homiletical possibilities pertinent to our current concerns about racism and Christian inclusiveness, but I also found John's words about the Word so compelling that it inspired me to explore the power language possesses to separate us not only from one another but also from our God and also the power of language to convey love and unity among human beings and with our God.
In the beginning was the Word ... we are at the beginning of a new calendar year. We also remain in the infant stages of the liturgical year with Epiphany, Jesus' baptism, ministry, and Passion yet to occur. At the beginning of a new calendar year many of us make resolutions: to eat less, to exercise more, to not get so stressed out about things, to pray daily, to give of ourselves more to others, etc. If those resolutions remain where they often do, just words written on a notepad or declarations announced to friends and family, these words have no power, no impact, no life. They remain meaningless. They are meaningless.
Yet the Word that John announces in the first chapter of his Gospel has all the power not only of Christ's birth and life behind it, but also all of God behind it and in it. The Word becomes flesh, is flesh, and is coddled, nursed, and nurtured from infancy to adulthood as a flesh and blood man. The Word incarnate lives a dynamic life in the flesh, interacts with others who also reside in the concrete world of work and food and relationships and pain. The Word suffers the agonies of the flesh on the cross and enjoys a final victory over the flesh, thereby returning from whence he came as the Alpha and Omega of life on earth and life beyond it.
John understood the transformative power of the Word incarnate. Words have the potential to redeem or condemn, to express love and encouragement or to demean and shame. Words can unite us or lead to chasms so deep their crossing seems impossible: Arab and Israeli, terrorist and peace worker, capitalist and union organizer, segregationist and desegregationist, and American and Iraqi.
Most of us have heard more than we care to about Trent Lott and his words of tribute to Strom Thurmond at the latter's 100th birthday celebration. Our responses to Lott's comments probably run the gamut from "Much ado about nothing" to "He shouldn't just resign as majority leader; he should resign from the Senate as well!" Perhaps the most damaging reality of Lott's words was not that he intentionally uttered them with the racist meaning many ascribe to him -- "The United States would be a whole lot better off today if Strom Thurmond had been elected president and had enforced segregation in the U.S.A." It's highly unlikely someone as politically astute as Trent Lott consciously intended to say exactly that, because he never would have made it to the post of majority leader had he voiced or promoted such beliefs in the past 20 years. It's the very fact that Lott himself didn't realize the impact of words that his unconscious may have allowed to slip from his lips. He also did not appreciate fully what his words revealed about himself.
Human words possess the power to separate and alienate people from one another. Words have the power to wreck a political career when the words spoken are ill-considered or divisive exactly because words have the power to separate and divide us from one another and often do.
First, we'll look at some of the ways human words can destroy relationships and human lives. Then, with help from John's Gospel and Paul's letter to the Ephesians, we'll consider ways the Divine Word possesses the power to establish community and affirm individuality. We'll conclude with an examination of ways Christians like ourselves can work to reverse the trend of human words to separate and hurt ourselves and others.
Words have the power to command others to acts of evil and aggression. Just hearing the Wise Men's words about the birth of the Messiah was sufficient incentive for Herod to order the slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem. Just a few coded words to terrorists who've remained silent and in dormant cells for years can lead to the murder of innocent people in Indonesia, New York, or Germany. Just a few words from an American president declaring an Iraqi king's failure to reveal the whereabouts of all materials for mass destruction can mean war for many innocent folks in Iraq and our own armed services. Words have the power to command others to acts of evil and aggression.
Words have the power to exclude people. Secret societies with secret passwords and secret intentions not only exclude people who aren't of the same economic class or cultural background -- they can also reinforce and lead to more evil forms of exclusion such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazi "Final Solution" to the Jewish problem in Europe. Immigrants living in a land not their own often are excluded from educational advancement, job opportunities, and integration into the dominant society because they do not speak the language of their adopted country. I'm not sure myself what educational policy would best serve new immigrants to the United States, but regardless of one's stance, the reality is that inability to speak English fluently excludes Spanish-speaking Latinos from greater opportunities and acceptance in our culture. Words have the power to exclude people.
Words have the power to offend. Will Campbell, a Baptist minister and author, was on a call-in talk show one time to discuss his book Glad River and his friend Charlie Daniels. A woman called and asked him as a preacher what did Campbell think about Daniels using bad words on the television.
Campbell: "I don't know, ma'am; what did he say?"
Woman: "Well, I couldn't repeat that," she answered.
Campbell: So I offered to call off some bad words and let her just indicate the bad ones with a yes or no. "You don't have to say them," I told her. "Did he say prejudice?" Woman: "No."
Campbell: "War?" "Nuclear bomb?"
Woman: "Why no."
Campbell: "If I don't know what he said and you can't tell me, I can't very well express what I think about it." He finally told her, "Those are the worst words I can think of."
Words have the power to offend.
Words have the power to hurt. In the heat of the moment in a marital fight, one partner might say to the other, "I don't love you. I never loved you." Or a parent might say to his child, "You are stupid. You are worthless. You will never amount to anything." Perhaps you would never say such a thing to your spouse or child, but many people do, and the results can be devastating. "If you hear something often enough, you begin to believe it," observes the teenage girl labeled a "slut" by a group of boys in her ninth-grade class. "Yes," agrees the kid from Mexico who never hears his name used in the middle-school hallways -- only the sneer, "Go home, wetback." Words have the power to hurt -- and they do: "spic," "fool," "slob," "kike" all limit one human being by turning the person into a negative stereotype rather than seeking to know and understand the individual for who she or he really is. Words have the power to hurt.
Finally, words have the power to lie or mislead. "Pastor, I never did tell you what a good sermon you preached last Sunday," says the church member who wants to leave the impression that she has offered a comment when in fact her words, carefully examined, imply the very opposite. In the current Steven Spielberg movie Catch Me If You Can, the father, played by Christopher Walken, is all about appearances and believes and teaches his son (Leonardo DiCaprio) that the way one presents oneself to the world is who you are perceived to be by the world. Thus, it isn't who you really are that counts, it's who you pretend to be that matters. If the son presents himself as a Pan Am pilot or an emergency room physician or an attorney in a courtroom, and other people believe that's who he is, the son has been a success. Misleading other people, lying about who one is, doesn't pose an ethical problem for the father, because he believes the power to use words, clothes, and different personas is a talent, not a sin. In the film both father and son pay a high price for their deceptions not only of others but also of themselves. Words have the power to lie or mislead.
Such usages of words as these are foreign to the Divine Word that John introduces in John 1:1-18. The Divine Word is God -- the source of truth and grace for humanity. In reading John's description of God's Word as embodied in Jesus Christ, the reader is struck by the incredible openness of the Divine Word. It is filled with grace and truth. It is the creative source of all things. "And God said, 'Let there be light...'" The Word is the source of all life that exists on earth. "All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people" (1:3-4). God is the source of our own lives, and God is the source of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. "And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth" (1:14). The Word sent by God is the light that "shines in the darkness" of human reality, for Jesus, not John the Baptist, but Jesus is "the true light, which enlightens everyone." Jesus, the Word made flesh, is the light of hope, and as such the darkness of this world cannot overcome it. The Word of God enters our world to save us from the dark ways of the world and the dark language of the world so that we may be liberated from our misuse and abuse of each other.
A quick overview of John 1:1-18 and Ephesians 3: 1-12 shows meaningful connections between the words of the evangelist gospel writer John and the words of the missionary epistle writer Paul in Ephesians.1 Both texts affirm the creative power of God: "through him all things came into being" (John);"God created all things" (Ephesians). Both texts affirm God as eternal, without a beginning or end: "In the beginning was the Word" (John); "Jesus carried out God's eternal purposes" (Ephesians). Both authors understand that previous generations of the faithful did not understand God's plan and purpose: "He came into the world and the world knew him not ... the Law of Moses" (John); "In former generations the mystery was not made known to humanity" (Ephesians). The true light God offers is Jesus Christ, who "enlightens everyone coming into the world born not of blood, but of God" (John); including "the Gentiles (who are) fellow heirs and members and share in the promises of Jesus Christ" (Ephesians). Because Jesus "was life and the life was the light to all peoples" (John); for "God's plan was to make everyone see (the light)" (Ephesians).
The power of God's word heard and believed leads to redemption. "All who receive him are given the power to become children of God and to enjoy grace upon grace and grace and truth" (John). The "good news of God's grace is understood as God's generosity to undeserving humanity that is brought into focus and actualized in Jesus Christ."2 Paradoxically, God imprisons and liberates us at the same time. Jesus, God incarnate in human form, can be said literally to have been imprisoned in a human body in order to reveal God most fully to fellow human beings. Moreover, the incarnation imprisons the Son in a human body so he may experience all that it means to be human, including physical temptations and physical suffering. If the Word becomes flesh and readily assumes the limitations of the physical body, Paul readily accepts his physical incarceration, understanding that he is a prisoner for Christ, because Paul cannot release the tight grip of his call and witness to the Gentiles.
Paul and John both recognize the significance of the Incarnation. Only through God's immediate presence on earth can God's grace and truth be experienced by humanity. Thus, "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us in grace and truth." Paul realizes it is through Jesus, as both man and as the resurrected Christ, that Paul and other Christians have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith. Consequently, having encountered the truth of the Divine Word in all its power of openness, light, power, redemption, and freedom, we as Christians have the opportunity to express, live, and witness to the positive power of words, as our words are inspired by the Divine Word. As a result we can take the kind of aggressive, damaging, excluding, hurting, lying words that humans use and we can translate them into words of healing and restoration that help lead ourselves and others out of the darkness of today's word into the light of God's Holy Word.
Words offer us the power to forgive the one who speaks rashly and unwisely. Words allow those who are at war with one another to collaborate instead and find alternative ways to resolve problems. Words have the power to include those formerly excluded through name-calling, stereotyping, and unexamined assumptions. Words have the power to inspire when the words spoken are reinforced with actions consistent with those words. Words have the power to heal wounds. Words have the power to speak the truth in love.
The greatest truth ever spoken in love is evident in John's words in the first chapter of his Gospel. Without those Divine Words we too are addicted to the things of this world and the ways of this world. Without God's Word made flesh we cannot recover and we too may die. Thanks be to God for words and the Word incarnate as love, hope, joy, and light.
Notes
1 There is significant debate as to the authorship of Ephesians. Much of it sounds Pauline in style and theological content, yet there are sections of it that cause many biblical scholars to claim a later date for it. I am more comfortable ascribing Pauline authorship to Ephesians than I am making that claim for some of the other epistles credited to him, such as Colossians.
2 C. Leslie Mitton, Ephesians: New Century Bible Commentary (Eerdmans, 1973), p. 120.
Team Comments
George Murphy responds:
1) In the Bible, even human words have an objective quality and can't just be revoked once they're spoken. After Isaac has given his blessing to Jacob, he can't take it back and give it to Esau.
2) The classical concept that in the Incarnation God assumed human nature but not a human person (anhypostasis) is hard to make sense of in modern categories and a lot of modern theologians don't like it. But its implication is that God assumed whatever is proper to all human beings regardless of gender, race, etc. The picture I have next to my desk of Christ healing the sick -- all portrayed as Koreans in traditional Korean garb -- is a nice illustration of this.
3) In Ephesians, it is not only all human beings who are the object of God's plan but "all things" (1:10). And in the Epiphany text, the church even seems to be called (albeit in mythological language) to a cosmic mission.
4) It's worth noting that the concept of "race" as popularly used is, from a scientific standpoint, quite artificial.
Stan Purdum responds: Your discussion of the Word as life and light in general, and this specific comment, "The Word of God enters our world to save us from the dark ways of the world and the dark language of the world so that we may liberated from our misuse and abuse of each other," sounds very churchy -- but what does it mean in plain speech? How does the Word save us from those things? Where can the average person connect with these concepts?
On another point, I would note, perhaps in addition to what you've said, how cheap words have become today, what with telemarketing, advertising, hip-hop, internet, etc., words flow so freely that the streetwise person takes none of them too seriously. Does even the phrase "I give you my word" have any value for many people today? The fact that John called Jesus the Word should add weight and importance to what we say, but often it does not.
Carlos Wilton responds: I especially appreciate the way you explore the complexities of language. As the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein points out (in Philosophical Investigations), the many ways we use language are akin to games -- all of which function according to rules of one kind or another, either explicit or implicit. Yet we can't assume that the rules for one "language game" will apply to another use. Poker, Scrabble, Charades, Darts and Ring-Around-the-Rosie are all games, yet they are so different from one another that it's hard to see the common denominator.
Wittgenstein says there is no common denominator -- that these different functions of language have a "family resemblance," no more. Family resemblance, to him, is an extremely slippery concept to pin down -- just as it's hard to say whether it's the nose or the ears or the way one raises an eyebrow that constitutes a "family resemblance" between people. Somehow we do recognize kinship, although we'd be hard-pressed to identify how we do so.
Maybe what unites our varied uses of language and God's speaking of the eternal, pre-existent Word is a "family resemblance." By sheer grace, we are adopted as members of God's family.
Related Illustrations
In case you're wondering about how powerful a word can be, ask Robert Mickens.
This 37-year-old bus driver was trying to get his Philadelphia-to-Manhattan Greyhound out of a traffic jam on the New Jersey Turnpike this past Thanksgiving weekend. By taking back roads, he figured he could escape the traffic snarls.
Except for a few passengers up front, Mickens failed to tell most of his riders what he was doing. When one of them asked, he reached for the microphone and announced, "I'm taking you to the Taliban."
Mickens thought he was making a light-hearted quip, but his passengers were not amused. More than that, they were alarmed. At least three of them dialed 911 on their cell phones. In no time at all, 18 police cars had converged on Mickens' bus near Marlboro, New Jersey.
The officers, who emerged from their cars with guns drawn, described it as "a high-risk stop." Traffic in both directions on U.S. Route 9 was halted for more than 30 minutes. Mickens got a temporary suspension from his duties, followed by criminal charges.
It took just one word -- the emotion-laden word "Taliban" -- to call out 18 police cars, put a busload of passengers in harm's way and forever damage a bus driver's career. If a mere human word can accomplish such things, then how much more can God's Word, the divine Logos, make a difference in this world of ours!
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The theologian Karl Rahner once wrote: "When we say 'it is Christmas' we mean that God has spoken into the world his last, his deepest, his most beautiful word in the incarnate Word, a word that can no longer be revoked because it is God's definitive deed, because it is God himself in the world. And this word means: I love you, you, the world and humankind. And God has spoken this word by being himself born as a creature."
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"Theologian Karl Barth, thus said that the main difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is a 'noetic difference.' That is, Christians are not necessarily better people than non-Christians, nor smarter. We are simply those who have heard something, whereas non-Christians have not yet heard. As Isaiah says, light has come into our darkness, light not of our own devising, and that makes us see differently."
(William Willimon, from a sermon "Fishing With Jesus"; Duke University Chapel, January 24, 1999.)
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"The human word is only one among billions of words that God has spoken and that therefore emanate from the divine splendor. To make contact with wisdom is to go beyond human words, which have, after all, existed for only about four million years -- and have appeared on paper for only a few thousand years and in print for only five hundred. We are invited to return to the many billions of years of ongoing creation that also constitute God's talking."
(Matthew Fox, Original Blessing [Santa Fe: Bear and Co., 1983], 36-37.)
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You can lock up the bold men,
Go and lock up your bold men
And hold men in tow.
You can stifle all adventure
For a century or so.
Smother hope before it's risen,
Watch it wizen like a gourd.
But you cannot imprison
The Word of the Lord.
No, you cannot imprison
The Word of the Lord.
(From the Mass by Leonard Bernstein; text by Stephen Schwartz and Leonard Bernstein)
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Pythagorean theorem: 24 words
The Lord's Prayer: 66 words
Archimedes' Principle: 67 words
The Ten Commandments: 179 words
The Gettysburg Address: 286 words
The Declaration of Independence: 1,300 words
The U.S. government regulations on the sale of cabbage: 26,911 words
(Item circulating anonymously on the Internet)
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Here is a link to an article from the New York Times, written two days after 9/11 about when words failed: www.nytimes.com/2001/09/13/books/13NOTE.html.
Worship Resources
By Larry Hard
For the Processional, carry a large white Christ candle. Place the candle in the chancel to be lit as a sign that Christ comes as light to the world. As the candle is lit, the words of Scripture are read:
"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." (Isaiah 60:1)
"What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it." (John 1:3b-5)
Ask a soloist to sing without accompaniment: "Arise, Shine" (words and music by Gary Alan Smith)
INVOCATION
O God, come as light to us during this time of worship. Bring understanding to our minds through the words we hear in worship, and bring light to your world through our words and actions this year. Amen.
Ask the choir or soloist to sing without accompaniment the words of "Carol of Epiphany" (Words and music by John Bell) or the first stanza of "Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies."
CALL TO AWARENESS
Leader: We live in a world of words.
People: Where do we find God's words?
Leader: Words have the power to hurt and heal.
People: How do God's words help and heal us?
Leader: Words can increase darkness or bring light.
People: Why do we say God's Word is light?
Leader: We say God's Word became flesh.
People: How can God's Word be made flesh in Jesus?
Leader: The Word became incarnate when Jesus was born.
People: How does this Word become our light and salvation?
OPENING HYMN
"O Word of God Incarnate" or "Christ Is the World's Light"
CONFESSION
Personal Confession
Reflect in silence on words you have spoken that you wish you could retrieve. Be aware of pain caused by your words. Ask God to forgive you.
General Confession
God of infinite mercy, you know words we have spoken that have hurt others. We sense the separation that came between us and others. Forgive us for what we said in anger, or without thinking how our words would be heard. Forgive us, and guide us in knowing what we can say and do to heal the hurt and be reconciled.
Prayer for Pardon
God's Word is clear: we are forgiven through the Holy One born in Bethlehem, who came to be light to us and to our world. May this light overcome the darkness caused by what we have said or done. Amen.
AFFIRMATIONS AND RESPONSES
Leader: God speaks through the wonder of creation.
People: Open our eyes to see and our ears to hear.
Leader: God speaks through the Law and the Commandments.
People: Open our minds to receive and to understand.
Leader: God speaks through the prophets of yesterday and today.
People: Open our hearts to be a people of justice and compassion.
Leader: God speaks through Jesus, the Word made flesh.
People: Open our whole being to the Living Word of God in Jesus.
Song: "Amen, Amen" (African American Spiritual) or "He Came Down" (words and music by Cameroon)
PASTORAL PRAYER
God of light, we need wisdom for this new year. We pray that the light which has come in Christ will shine in and through us. Each day of this year we need to be aware of what you would say to us, and what we should say to each other, that your renewing and redeeming love be communicated in our words and deeds.
This year, make us bearers of grace-filled words that heal and reconcile, hope-filled words that affirm and encourage, faith-filled words that inspire belief and godly action. We pray Your light for all people of the earth, that the darkness will turn to dawning, as the darkness of fear is overcome by the light of peace and good will. Amen.
(Invite silent prayers for ourselves and our world)
CLOSING HYMN
"Go, Tell It on the Mountain"
Children's Sermon
By Wesley Runk
Text: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being." (John 1:1-3)
Objects: Two sets of cutouts -- one set with scotch tape on the back of each object and one set without the scotch tape. The objects are an orange sun, a yellow moon, a white cloud, a black cloud, a blue sky, blue stars, a black sky, a rainbow, and a large piece of posterboard.
Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to explore the world and how things happen. Are you aware that a lot of things are happening in this world? (let them answer) Did you ever ask yourself how they happen? (let them answer) Something is going on every minute and it means a lot of change. Let's take a look and see how things are changing. (Take out your piece of posterboard and try putting your objects that have no tape on them up on the posterboard.)
Boys and girls, I brought along a few things that we see all of the time. Pretend you are sitting on your porch or in your back yard and that you are just kind of looking around. Let's pretend we want to see a big blue sky with a sun in it. (Use the pieces without scotch tape. Try to hang some blue sky and a sun on the posterboard. It will immediately fall to the ground.) Well, maybe we should start with a black sky and a big moon and some stars. (try to hang the black sky, moon, and stars, and then watch each of them fall to the ground) Maybe I will just put up a dark cloud with a rainbow over here. (same results) I wonder what is missing. Why don't my sky, sun, moon, stars, rainbow and black cloud hang up here? Is there something missing? (pretend that you are looking around for the missing part) I think I know what is missing. Do you know what is missing? (let them answer) The missing part to all of this is the Word. Do you know who the Word is? (let them answer) The Word is God and God is the Word. We don't make sky, sun, moon, stars, rainbows, or clouds, do we? (let them answer) It is the Word that makes this happen. When God speaks, it happens. God is behind everything. When God speaks, there is action. That is why we call God The Word.
Look at the difference. God said there should be a sky. (put up the sky with scotch tape) God said there would be a sun. (make the sun happen with the tape) And when the Word said there should be a cloud there was a cloud, or if he wanted a moon then there was a moon. When the Word began to move, there were other clouds and rainbows and all sorts of things. It is the Word that makes things happen. The Word makes the wind and the mountains and the fields of grass and the animals and everything in the world. The Word even made us as human beings. It is the Word because the Word is God and God is the Word.
Here is the best part. One day God decided that the Word should become flesh. The Word would become something very special, and when the Word decided it would become something very special it chose to become a child, a baby. The Word even chose a mother! Do you know who the mother was? (let them answer) That's right, the Word chose Mary to be the mother and the Word was born into the world. Do you know who the Word was? (let them answer) That's right, the Word is Jesus and Jesus is the Word.
Does the Word make things happen? (let them answer) The Word is very active and it is working among us today. So now you know that God makes it happen. God is the Word and the Word is God.
The Immediate Word January 5, 2003, issue.
Copyright 2002 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
Dear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
So
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
So for this installment of The Immediate Word, we've asked team member Carter Shelley to write about the power of words not only to create chasms, but also to bridge them, and of the power of the Word for redemption. She is using the lectionary's gospel text for January 5, and the epistle text for Epiphany as the basis.
There are also team comments, illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
You Are What You Say: The Word Incarnate and Human Words
By Carter Shelley
John 1:1-18
Ephesians 3:1-12
Author's note: In preliminary study of John 1: 1-18 and Ephesians 3: 1-12, I found homiletical possibilities pertinent to our current concerns about racism and Christian inclusiveness, but I also found John's words about the Word so compelling that it inspired me to explore the power language possesses to separate us not only from one another but also from our God and also the power of language to convey love and unity among human beings and with our God.
In the beginning was the Word ... we are at the beginning of a new calendar year. We also remain in the infant stages of the liturgical year with Epiphany, Jesus' baptism, ministry, and Passion yet to occur. At the beginning of a new calendar year many of us make resolutions: to eat less, to exercise more, to not get so stressed out about things, to pray daily, to give of ourselves more to others, etc. If those resolutions remain where they often do, just words written on a notepad or declarations announced to friends and family, these words have no power, no impact, no life. They remain meaningless. They are meaningless.
Yet the Word that John announces in the first chapter of his Gospel has all the power not only of Christ's birth and life behind it, but also all of God behind it and in it. The Word becomes flesh, is flesh, and is coddled, nursed, and nurtured from infancy to adulthood as a flesh and blood man. The Word incarnate lives a dynamic life in the flesh, interacts with others who also reside in the concrete world of work and food and relationships and pain. The Word suffers the agonies of the flesh on the cross and enjoys a final victory over the flesh, thereby returning from whence he came as the Alpha and Omega of life on earth and life beyond it.
John understood the transformative power of the Word incarnate. Words have the potential to redeem or condemn, to express love and encouragement or to demean and shame. Words can unite us or lead to chasms so deep their crossing seems impossible: Arab and Israeli, terrorist and peace worker, capitalist and union organizer, segregationist and desegregationist, and American and Iraqi.
Most of us have heard more than we care to about Trent Lott and his words of tribute to Strom Thurmond at the latter's 100th birthday celebration. Our responses to Lott's comments probably run the gamut from "Much ado about nothing" to "He shouldn't just resign as majority leader; he should resign from the Senate as well!" Perhaps the most damaging reality of Lott's words was not that he intentionally uttered them with the racist meaning many ascribe to him -- "The United States would be a whole lot better off today if Strom Thurmond had been elected president and had enforced segregation in the U.S.A." It's highly unlikely someone as politically astute as Trent Lott consciously intended to say exactly that, because he never would have made it to the post of majority leader had he voiced or promoted such beliefs in the past 20 years. It's the very fact that Lott himself didn't realize the impact of words that his unconscious may have allowed to slip from his lips. He also did not appreciate fully what his words revealed about himself.
Human words possess the power to separate and alienate people from one another. Words have the power to wreck a political career when the words spoken are ill-considered or divisive exactly because words have the power to separate and divide us from one another and often do.
First, we'll look at some of the ways human words can destroy relationships and human lives. Then, with help from John's Gospel and Paul's letter to the Ephesians, we'll consider ways the Divine Word possesses the power to establish community and affirm individuality. We'll conclude with an examination of ways Christians like ourselves can work to reverse the trend of human words to separate and hurt ourselves and others.
Words have the power to command others to acts of evil and aggression. Just hearing the Wise Men's words about the birth of the Messiah was sufficient incentive for Herod to order the slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem. Just a few coded words to terrorists who've remained silent and in dormant cells for years can lead to the murder of innocent people in Indonesia, New York, or Germany. Just a few words from an American president declaring an Iraqi king's failure to reveal the whereabouts of all materials for mass destruction can mean war for many innocent folks in Iraq and our own armed services. Words have the power to command others to acts of evil and aggression.
Words have the power to exclude people. Secret societies with secret passwords and secret intentions not only exclude people who aren't of the same economic class or cultural background -- they can also reinforce and lead to more evil forms of exclusion such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazi "Final Solution" to the Jewish problem in Europe. Immigrants living in a land not their own often are excluded from educational advancement, job opportunities, and integration into the dominant society because they do not speak the language of their adopted country. I'm not sure myself what educational policy would best serve new immigrants to the United States, but regardless of one's stance, the reality is that inability to speak English fluently excludes Spanish-speaking Latinos from greater opportunities and acceptance in our culture. Words have the power to exclude people.
Words have the power to offend. Will Campbell, a Baptist minister and author, was on a call-in talk show one time to discuss his book Glad River and his friend Charlie Daniels. A woman called and asked him as a preacher what did Campbell think about Daniels using bad words on the television.
Campbell: "I don't know, ma'am; what did he say?"
Woman: "Well, I couldn't repeat that," she answered.
Campbell: So I offered to call off some bad words and let her just indicate the bad ones with a yes or no. "You don't have to say them," I told her. "Did he say prejudice?" Woman: "No."
Campbell: "War?" "Nuclear bomb?"
Woman: "Why no."
Campbell: "If I don't know what he said and you can't tell me, I can't very well express what I think about it." He finally told her, "Those are the worst words I can think of."
Words have the power to offend.
Words have the power to hurt. In the heat of the moment in a marital fight, one partner might say to the other, "I don't love you. I never loved you." Or a parent might say to his child, "You are stupid. You are worthless. You will never amount to anything." Perhaps you would never say such a thing to your spouse or child, but many people do, and the results can be devastating. "If you hear something often enough, you begin to believe it," observes the teenage girl labeled a "slut" by a group of boys in her ninth-grade class. "Yes," agrees the kid from Mexico who never hears his name used in the middle-school hallways -- only the sneer, "Go home, wetback." Words have the power to hurt -- and they do: "spic," "fool," "slob," "kike" all limit one human being by turning the person into a negative stereotype rather than seeking to know and understand the individual for who she or he really is. Words have the power to hurt.
Finally, words have the power to lie or mislead. "Pastor, I never did tell you what a good sermon you preached last Sunday," says the church member who wants to leave the impression that she has offered a comment when in fact her words, carefully examined, imply the very opposite. In the current Steven Spielberg movie Catch Me If You Can, the father, played by Christopher Walken, is all about appearances and believes and teaches his son (Leonardo DiCaprio) that the way one presents oneself to the world is who you are perceived to be by the world. Thus, it isn't who you really are that counts, it's who you pretend to be that matters. If the son presents himself as a Pan Am pilot or an emergency room physician or an attorney in a courtroom, and other people believe that's who he is, the son has been a success. Misleading other people, lying about who one is, doesn't pose an ethical problem for the father, because he believes the power to use words, clothes, and different personas is a talent, not a sin. In the film both father and son pay a high price for their deceptions not only of others but also of themselves. Words have the power to lie or mislead.
Such usages of words as these are foreign to the Divine Word that John introduces in John 1:1-18. The Divine Word is God -- the source of truth and grace for humanity. In reading John's description of God's Word as embodied in Jesus Christ, the reader is struck by the incredible openness of the Divine Word. It is filled with grace and truth. It is the creative source of all things. "And God said, 'Let there be light...'" The Word is the source of all life that exists on earth. "All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people" (1:3-4). God is the source of our own lives, and God is the source of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. "And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth" (1:14). The Word sent by God is the light that "shines in the darkness" of human reality, for Jesus, not John the Baptist, but Jesus is "the true light, which enlightens everyone." Jesus, the Word made flesh, is the light of hope, and as such the darkness of this world cannot overcome it. The Word of God enters our world to save us from the dark ways of the world and the dark language of the world so that we may be liberated from our misuse and abuse of each other.
A quick overview of John 1:1-18 and Ephesians 3: 1-12 shows meaningful connections between the words of the evangelist gospel writer John and the words of the missionary epistle writer Paul in Ephesians.1 Both texts affirm the creative power of God: "through him all things came into being" (John);"God created all things" (Ephesians). Both texts affirm God as eternal, without a beginning or end: "In the beginning was the Word" (John); "Jesus carried out God's eternal purposes" (Ephesians). Both authors understand that previous generations of the faithful did not understand God's plan and purpose: "He came into the world and the world knew him not ... the Law of Moses" (John); "In former generations the mystery was not made known to humanity" (Ephesians). The true light God offers is Jesus Christ, who "enlightens everyone coming into the world born not of blood, but of God" (John); including "the Gentiles (who are) fellow heirs and members and share in the promises of Jesus Christ" (Ephesians). Because Jesus "was life and the life was the light to all peoples" (John); for "God's plan was to make everyone see (the light)" (Ephesians).
The power of God's word heard and believed leads to redemption. "All who receive him are given the power to become children of God and to enjoy grace upon grace and grace and truth" (John). The "good news of God's grace is understood as God's generosity to undeserving humanity that is brought into focus and actualized in Jesus Christ."2 Paradoxically, God imprisons and liberates us at the same time. Jesus, God incarnate in human form, can be said literally to have been imprisoned in a human body in order to reveal God most fully to fellow human beings. Moreover, the incarnation imprisons the Son in a human body so he may experience all that it means to be human, including physical temptations and physical suffering. If the Word becomes flesh and readily assumes the limitations of the physical body, Paul readily accepts his physical incarceration, understanding that he is a prisoner for Christ, because Paul cannot release the tight grip of his call and witness to the Gentiles.
Paul and John both recognize the significance of the Incarnation. Only through God's immediate presence on earth can God's grace and truth be experienced by humanity. Thus, "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us in grace and truth." Paul realizes it is through Jesus, as both man and as the resurrected Christ, that Paul and other Christians have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith. Consequently, having encountered the truth of the Divine Word in all its power of openness, light, power, redemption, and freedom, we as Christians have the opportunity to express, live, and witness to the positive power of words, as our words are inspired by the Divine Word. As a result we can take the kind of aggressive, damaging, excluding, hurting, lying words that humans use and we can translate them into words of healing and restoration that help lead ourselves and others out of the darkness of today's word into the light of God's Holy Word.
Words offer us the power to forgive the one who speaks rashly and unwisely. Words allow those who are at war with one another to collaborate instead and find alternative ways to resolve problems. Words have the power to include those formerly excluded through name-calling, stereotyping, and unexamined assumptions. Words have the power to inspire when the words spoken are reinforced with actions consistent with those words. Words have the power to heal wounds. Words have the power to speak the truth in love.
The greatest truth ever spoken in love is evident in John's words in the first chapter of his Gospel. Without those Divine Words we too are addicted to the things of this world and the ways of this world. Without God's Word made flesh we cannot recover and we too may die. Thanks be to God for words and the Word incarnate as love, hope, joy, and light.
Notes
1 There is significant debate as to the authorship of Ephesians. Much of it sounds Pauline in style and theological content, yet there are sections of it that cause many biblical scholars to claim a later date for it. I am more comfortable ascribing Pauline authorship to Ephesians than I am making that claim for some of the other epistles credited to him, such as Colossians.
2 C. Leslie Mitton, Ephesians: New Century Bible Commentary (Eerdmans, 1973), p. 120.
Team Comments
George Murphy responds:
1) In the Bible, even human words have an objective quality and can't just be revoked once they're spoken. After Isaac has given his blessing to Jacob, he can't take it back and give it to Esau.
2) The classical concept that in the Incarnation God assumed human nature but not a human person (anhypostasis) is hard to make sense of in modern categories and a lot of modern theologians don't like it. But its implication is that God assumed whatever is proper to all human beings regardless of gender, race, etc. The picture I have next to my desk of Christ healing the sick -- all portrayed as Koreans in traditional Korean garb -- is a nice illustration of this.
3) In Ephesians, it is not only all human beings who are the object of God's plan but "all things" (1:10). And in the Epiphany text, the church even seems to be called (albeit in mythological language) to a cosmic mission.
4) It's worth noting that the concept of "race" as popularly used is, from a scientific standpoint, quite artificial.
Stan Purdum responds: Your discussion of the Word as life and light in general, and this specific comment, "The Word of God enters our world to save us from the dark ways of the world and the dark language of the world so that we may liberated from our misuse and abuse of each other," sounds very churchy -- but what does it mean in plain speech? How does the Word save us from those things? Where can the average person connect with these concepts?
On another point, I would note, perhaps in addition to what you've said, how cheap words have become today, what with telemarketing, advertising, hip-hop, internet, etc., words flow so freely that the streetwise person takes none of them too seriously. Does even the phrase "I give you my word" have any value for many people today? The fact that John called Jesus the Word should add weight and importance to what we say, but often it does not.
Carlos Wilton responds: I especially appreciate the way you explore the complexities of language. As the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein points out (in Philosophical Investigations), the many ways we use language are akin to games -- all of which function according to rules of one kind or another, either explicit or implicit. Yet we can't assume that the rules for one "language game" will apply to another use. Poker, Scrabble, Charades, Darts and Ring-Around-the-Rosie are all games, yet they are so different from one another that it's hard to see the common denominator.
Wittgenstein says there is no common denominator -- that these different functions of language have a "family resemblance," no more. Family resemblance, to him, is an extremely slippery concept to pin down -- just as it's hard to say whether it's the nose or the ears or the way one raises an eyebrow that constitutes a "family resemblance" between people. Somehow we do recognize kinship, although we'd be hard-pressed to identify how we do so.
Maybe what unites our varied uses of language and God's speaking of the eternal, pre-existent Word is a "family resemblance." By sheer grace, we are adopted as members of God's family.
Related Illustrations
In case you're wondering about how powerful a word can be, ask Robert Mickens.
This 37-year-old bus driver was trying to get his Philadelphia-to-Manhattan Greyhound out of a traffic jam on the New Jersey Turnpike this past Thanksgiving weekend. By taking back roads, he figured he could escape the traffic snarls.
Except for a few passengers up front, Mickens failed to tell most of his riders what he was doing. When one of them asked, he reached for the microphone and announced, "I'm taking you to the Taliban."
Mickens thought he was making a light-hearted quip, but his passengers were not amused. More than that, they were alarmed. At least three of them dialed 911 on their cell phones. In no time at all, 18 police cars had converged on Mickens' bus near Marlboro, New Jersey.
The officers, who emerged from their cars with guns drawn, described it as "a high-risk stop." Traffic in both directions on U.S. Route 9 was halted for more than 30 minutes. Mickens got a temporary suspension from his duties, followed by criminal charges.
It took just one word -- the emotion-laden word "Taliban" -- to call out 18 police cars, put a busload of passengers in harm's way and forever damage a bus driver's career. If a mere human word can accomplish such things, then how much more can God's Word, the divine Logos, make a difference in this world of ours!
----------
The theologian Karl Rahner once wrote: "When we say 'it is Christmas' we mean that God has spoken into the world his last, his deepest, his most beautiful word in the incarnate Word, a word that can no longer be revoked because it is God's definitive deed, because it is God himself in the world. And this word means: I love you, you, the world and humankind. And God has spoken this word by being himself born as a creature."
----------
"Theologian Karl Barth, thus said that the main difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is a 'noetic difference.' That is, Christians are not necessarily better people than non-Christians, nor smarter. We are simply those who have heard something, whereas non-Christians have not yet heard. As Isaiah says, light has come into our darkness, light not of our own devising, and that makes us see differently."
(William Willimon, from a sermon "Fishing With Jesus"; Duke University Chapel, January 24, 1999.)
----------
"The human word is only one among billions of words that God has spoken and that therefore emanate from the divine splendor. To make contact with wisdom is to go beyond human words, which have, after all, existed for only about four million years -- and have appeared on paper for only a few thousand years and in print for only five hundred. We are invited to return to the many billions of years of ongoing creation that also constitute God's talking."
(Matthew Fox, Original Blessing [Santa Fe: Bear and Co., 1983], 36-37.)
----------
You can lock up the bold men,
Go and lock up your bold men
And hold men in tow.
You can stifle all adventure
For a century or so.
Smother hope before it's risen,
Watch it wizen like a gourd.
But you cannot imprison
The Word of the Lord.
No, you cannot imprison
The Word of the Lord.
(From the Mass by Leonard Bernstein; text by Stephen Schwartz and Leonard Bernstein)
----------
Pythagorean theorem: 24 words
The Lord's Prayer: 66 words
Archimedes' Principle: 67 words
The Ten Commandments: 179 words
The Gettysburg Address: 286 words
The Declaration of Independence: 1,300 words
The U.S. government regulations on the sale of cabbage: 26,911 words
(Item circulating anonymously on the Internet)
----------
Here is a link to an article from the New York Times, written two days after 9/11 about when words failed: www.nytimes.com/2001/09/13/books/13NOTE.html.
Worship Resources
By Larry Hard
For the Processional, carry a large white Christ candle. Place the candle in the chancel to be lit as a sign that Christ comes as light to the world. As the candle is lit, the words of Scripture are read:
"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." (Isaiah 60:1)
"What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it." (John 1:3b-5)
Ask a soloist to sing without accompaniment: "Arise, Shine" (words and music by Gary Alan Smith)
INVOCATION
O God, come as light to us during this time of worship. Bring understanding to our minds through the words we hear in worship, and bring light to your world through our words and actions this year. Amen.
Ask the choir or soloist to sing without accompaniment the words of "Carol of Epiphany" (Words and music by John Bell) or the first stanza of "Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies."
CALL TO AWARENESS
Leader: We live in a world of words.
People: Where do we find God's words?
Leader: Words have the power to hurt and heal.
People: How do God's words help and heal us?
Leader: Words can increase darkness or bring light.
People: Why do we say God's Word is light?
Leader: We say God's Word became flesh.
People: How can God's Word be made flesh in Jesus?
Leader: The Word became incarnate when Jesus was born.
People: How does this Word become our light and salvation?
OPENING HYMN
"O Word of God Incarnate" or "Christ Is the World's Light"
CONFESSION
Personal Confession
Reflect in silence on words you have spoken that you wish you could retrieve. Be aware of pain caused by your words. Ask God to forgive you.
General Confession
God of infinite mercy, you know words we have spoken that have hurt others. We sense the separation that came between us and others. Forgive us for what we said in anger, or without thinking how our words would be heard. Forgive us, and guide us in knowing what we can say and do to heal the hurt and be reconciled.
Prayer for Pardon
God's Word is clear: we are forgiven through the Holy One born in Bethlehem, who came to be light to us and to our world. May this light overcome the darkness caused by what we have said or done. Amen.
AFFIRMATIONS AND RESPONSES
Leader: God speaks through the wonder of creation.
People: Open our eyes to see and our ears to hear.
Leader: God speaks through the Law and the Commandments.
People: Open our minds to receive and to understand.
Leader: God speaks through the prophets of yesterday and today.
People: Open our hearts to be a people of justice and compassion.
Leader: God speaks through Jesus, the Word made flesh.
People: Open our whole being to the Living Word of God in Jesus.
Song: "Amen, Amen" (African American Spiritual) or "He Came Down" (words and music by Cameroon)
PASTORAL PRAYER
God of light, we need wisdom for this new year. We pray that the light which has come in Christ will shine in and through us. Each day of this year we need to be aware of what you would say to us, and what we should say to each other, that your renewing and redeeming love be communicated in our words and deeds.
This year, make us bearers of grace-filled words that heal and reconcile, hope-filled words that affirm and encourage, faith-filled words that inspire belief and godly action. We pray Your light for all people of the earth, that the darkness will turn to dawning, as the darkness of fear is overcome by the light of peace and good will. Amen.
(Invite silent prayers for ourselves and our world)
CLOSING HYMN
"Go, Tell It on the Mountain"
Children's Sermon
By Wesley Runk
Text: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being." (John 1:1-3)
Objects: Two sets of cutouts -- one set with scotch tape on the back of each object and one set without the scotch tape. The objects are an orange sun, a yellow moon, a white cloud, a black cloud, a blue sky, blue stars, a black sky, a rainbow, and a large piece of posterboard.
Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to explore the world and how things happen. Are you aware that a lot of things are happening in this world? (let them answer) Did you ever ask yourself how they happen? (let them answer) Something is going on every minute and it means a lot of change. Let's take a look and see how things are changing. (Take out your piece of posterboard and try putting your objects that have no tape on them up on the posterboard.)
Boys and girls, I brought along a few things that we see all of the time. Pretend you are sitting on your porch or in your back yard and that you are just kind of looking around. Let's pretend we want to see a big blue sky with a sun in it. (Use the pieces without scotch tape. Try to hang some blue sky and a sun on the posterboard. It will immediately fall to the ground.) Well, maybe we should start with a black sky and a big moon and some stars. (try to hang the black sky, moon, and stars, and then watch each of them fall to the ground) Maybe I will just put up a dark cloud with a rainbow over here. (same results) I wonder what is missing. Why don't my sky, sun, moon, stars, rainbow and black cloud hang up here? Is there something missing? (pretend that you are looking around for the missing part) I think I know what is missing. Do you know what is missing? (let them answer) The missing part to all of this is the Word. Do you know who the Word is? (let them answer) The Word is God and God is the Word. We don't make sky, sun, moon, stars, rainbows, or clouds, do we? (let them answer) It is the Word that makes this happen. When God speaks, it happens. God is behind everything. When God speaks, there is action. That is why we call God The Word.
Look at the difference. God said there should be a sky. (put up the sky with scotch tape) God said there would be a sun. (make the sun happen with the tape) And when the Word said there should be a cloud there was a cloud, or if he wanted a moon then there was a moon. When the Word began to move, there were other clouds and rainbows and all sorts of things. It is the Word that makes things happen. The Word makes the wind and the mountains and the fields of grass and the animals and everything in the world. The Word even made us as human beings. It is the Word because the Word is God and God is the Word.
Here is the best part. One day God decided that the Word should become flesh. The Word would become something very special, and when the Word decided it would become something very special it chose to become a child, a baby. The Word even chose a mother! Do you know who the mother was? (let them answer) That's right, the Word chose Mary to be the mother and the Word was born into the world. Do you know who the Word was? (let them answer) That's right, the Word is Jesus and Jesus is the Word.
Does the Word make things happen? (let them answer) The Word is very active and it is working among us today. So now you know that God makes it happen. God is the Word and the Word is God.
The Immediate Word January 5, 2003, issue.
Copyright 2002 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
Dear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
SoDear Fellow Preachers,
Have you noticed that despite the recent firestorm that followed Trent Lott's ill-conceived comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party that the matter is already fading from public consciousness? Lott has paid a heavy price for the remark and the news is moving on to the next hot thing. But before that incident drops completely off the public radar, it deserves some thoughtful treatment from the pulpit.
So
