The Word, Part 4

The Word, Part 4

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…All things came into being through (the Word). What came into being through (the Word) was life, and the life was the light of all people. No one has ever seen God. It is (the Word) who has made (God) known.[1]

During the past weeks I have gone to great lengths to make the case that neither the Bible nor Jesus can correctly be understood as the Word of God. This week I will (sort of) argue against that stance. There is certainly a sense in which the spoken or written word can be a creative and/or destructive force. When we speak or sing, the air forced through our vocal cords produces waves of energy which, as they make contact with the inner structures in our ears, creates vibrations that we perceive as sound. While we don’t normally think of the sounds we hear from the mouths of others as necessarily destructive, at least not physically, on a larger scale, waves of energy can be very destructive – think earthquakes and tsunamis. Such vibrations create waves of energy emanating out from their source like a pebble thrown in a pond or a hurricane sweeping across the Florida coast.

My point is that speech produces sound waves, and sound waves impact whatever is in relative proximity to the source. When Genesis 1 describes the process of creation as God speaking the universe into being (“And God said, ‘Let there be…’”), we might imagine creative waves of energy acting on matter and resulting in dramatic changes to the materials acted upon. Perhaps even resulting in a Big Bang! In a similar way, words that are spoken produce waves of physical energy that impact the materials around the source. In that sense, reading scripture aloud may produce an impact we might associate with the Word of God, not because of the words on the page but because of the vibrations created by the speaker interacting with the listener. Energy powers change, and sound waves are a form of energy.

But words, whether spoken or read aloud, also have non-physical impacts because their vibrations have emotional and spiritual components, too. The childhood saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt them,” is patently untrue in the sense that emotional wounds from careless words can scar a person for life. One can argue that Jesus’ words, along with his life-style, sent social waves of energy throughout the area that, as received, changed things. Roman and church leaders noted, correctly, that the energy emanating from Jesus threatened their status quo. To others, the energy emanating from Jesus was healing, comforting, and insightful. Either way, Jesus’ energy brought about change in ways similar, perhaps identical, to how the Bible describes God’s creating Word bringing about the changes we recognize as the world around us.

If there is to be such a thing as a living Word of God, however, it must evidence itself as existing in and beyond our space-and-time existence. In other words, its waves of energy must not only impact what is across the room and across the planet, but also penetrate between what we experience as past, present, and future. Certainly, the Bible continues to have a significant impact on some folks after a couple of millennia, as do the words and teachings of Jesus.

My main point is that the Word of God is not a single thing, like the Bible or Jesus. It is a relationship or interaction formed between something outside of ourselves, like scripture or Jesus, and the Spirit of God within us. In many of Jesus’ healings he told the one he healed, “Your faith has made you well.” Healing occurred in the relational energy exchange between the healer and the healee and would not occur without both. It is the uniting or reuniting of the two where the power of the Word manifests. Until that happens, scripture is just words on a page and Jesus is just an enlightened dude who lived in a region long ago and far away. If it does not have movement or power, if it is not bothsent and received, if it does not change anything, how could it possibly be the Word of God?

If we believe the Word of God was spoken only once at creation, or only once in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, ours is a static and feckless faith. No, the Word continues to speak and will continue throughout eternity. Its influence and strength is in its power over and within our three-dimensional, space-and-time limitations. Like the Christ of God, the Word is eternal and manifests from our conscious awareness of the presence of the Spirit within, which secures us in a give-and-take relationship between that Spirit and the world around us.

This is the 43^rd in a series titled Crucifying Christianity, Resurrecting the Way.Life Notes are my explorations into mysteries that interest me. They are invitations for readers to explore more deeply into life’s mysteries. Engage with me or explore contemplative spiritual direction at ghildenbrand@outlook.com.

---

[1] John 1:1,3-4,18