York Minster

The using of words. Jeremiah 7. 1- 16; Romans 9. 14-26

Date: 14th June 2009
Preacher: The Reverend Canon Jeremy Fletcher

There was a degree of excitement this week when a ‘language monitoring group’ officially announced the 1 millionth word in the English language.  Evidently the Texas-based Global Language Monitor acknowledges new words once they have been used 25,000 times on media and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. When an email came around the office this week using the word ‘farinaceous’ I thought that must be it, but that turned out to be about the School Fete’s cake stall. Depressingly the millionth ‘word’ was ‘Web 2.0’, which seems like a word and a number to me, but there it is.

I studied and taught English, and researched the use of language in worship, so you’d expect me to be interested in these things. How we employ words, what we mean by them and what they do when we use them is important. You can change things with a word. A dignitary can name a ship. A groom and bride marry each other using words like “I will”, and “I give you this ring”. You can say a word which damages someone for ever, and you can’t take it back. So getting words right, using them well, being understood and giving them meaning is vital.

When the Minster choir was on tour to Italy last year we were taken round a vineyard. The guide had had to learn a word I’m sure he had never expected to when he first learnt his English: the symbol of the vineyard was the implement gardeners use for dibbing, for planting new vines. I have to say that ‘dibber’ said with a heavy Tuscan accent sounds a lot better than in English. But we knew what he meant. The wrong translation can cause havoc.  There’s a good one in the Prayer Book version of Psalm 42, where Coverdale’s translation of the sound of cascading waters becomes ‘the noise of the water-pipes’. I think that the psalmist had raging waterfalls in mind, not malfunctioning plumbing.

Once meaning is clear, the purpose of words becomes vital. Jeremiah the prophet, in our Old Testament reading, attacks the people for fooling themselves with words. They declare that their wrongdoing, their following other gods and offensive practices will not cause them harm, because they can comfort themselves with words, making an oath by the ‘temple of the Lord’, as if it was a charm or a spell, convincing themselves they are safe. Their words are understandable, but they are not rooted in right behaviour and moral, ethical and religious standards. The words are deceptive. Words fail us when they don’t connect with intention and behaviour.

Paul the Apostle in his letter to the Romans reminds his listeners that words which come clearly from God, which are not deceptive, bring life. God’s compassion and forgiveness for us do not depend on humans persuading God with beautiful words or hard work. Divine compassion depends only on God’s love for us, God’s decision to set us free and give us life. Listen to these words from the prophet Hosea, says Paul. Your name has been ‘not my people’, but now I call you ‘my people, children of the living God’. Perhaps the cruellest use of a word is in name-calling. You can think that a nickname, or a word used in anger, is the truth about you. Listen to the truth from God, says Paul. You were called ‘not beloved’. You are now ‘beloved’.

And if we are called by that name, if we are loved by God, then we are called to live lives where our words and actions join up, where our meanings are unambiguous, where we are not fooling ourselves, and where our dependence is seen to be only on God. We can trust the words God speaks to us, because his love was shown for us in that Christ died for us. Now we should be able to be trusted in our turn, so we can make known to people the riches of God’s glory, and live for God’s praise, now and for ever. Amen.