Food for the Journey
"The Power of Words"
Pastor Dianne Loufman
March 18, 2021
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . .
–John 1:14
I preached on this text a few months ago. It is a Christmas season reading because it reminds us that we worship a God who comes to live among us. It also reminds us that words themselves take on flesh and have the power to create as well as the power to destroy.
As important as it is for our words of love, grace and forgiveness to become enfleshed in our actions, it is equally important to understand the way our words of hatred, guilt and revenge also take on flesh and live among us.
This week we heard damning words come out of the Roman Catholic church when the Pope said the church would not support gay marriage because they “could not bless sin.”
As a friend of mine, who happens to be gay, texted me: “the sad thing is the Catholic kids who will die from suicide and self-loathing and the increased violence against gay people in loads of places—no sense of the impact of their words.”
We gather every week around the Word—we listen to the Word in Scripture, in preaching and in song; and yet, we fail to give credence to the power of our words.
It would be disingenuous of us to be surprised by the murder this week of six Asian women in Atlanta. Violence against Americans of Asian descent has been rising precipitously as the Coronavirus has been given racist Asian names. In NYC alone, hate crimes motivated by anti-Asian sentiment have increased by 1900% in one year.
Our words become flesh and we dwell among them – it matters whether they are words full of grace and truth or something else.
God of Spirit and Word and Flesh, we pray for those among us who are injured in body and spirit by the careless words of others. Be with the families of the women murdered in Atlanta. Be with us that the words we speak into one another’s lives are words worthy of our Christian calling. Amen.