The Fifty Days of Easter are past, and Pentecost was celebrated last Sunday. As we move into what is often called “Ordinary Time”, we may let the grand events of Easter and Pentecost slip into the background. It’s “Ordinary Time” after all, right, when everything rolls along in a settled pattern? In fact, this time is anything but Ordinary. It’s when the real work of Kingdom building happens. It’s time planting and nurturing new growth of Love and Life and Hope to usher in the new Creation. In his Pentecost sermon, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church, called for a Revolution of Love to reshape the world.
How might we be love as we start to emerge into a world
traumatized by so many deaths, so much inequality, so much trauma? What will “Ordinary
Time” look like as we move out of our COVID restrictions and begin to move
about in a world that is trying to be the same as before a year of upheaval?
Can we really go back to “the way things were before”, to the “normal” that
existed in 2019? Do we want to put on the blinders that kept us happily oblivious
of the inequities and injustices that have be highlighted in the past 15
months? Or do we want to work for a new creation?
Maybe it starts with simply being aware of what
message(s) we are conveying with our Words… Words can be spoken in anger,
or to demean, or to suppress, or to inflict hurt. Words can also mend, restore,
encourage, bless, and offer hope.
I found myself struggling with the onslaught of rhetoric
that was prevalent even before COVID. I hear the many voices that challenge one
another and cause division with great sorrow. There is so much good that could
be done if we could pause and remember that our Words have great impact. As the
image from Facebook says, “Be careful with your words. Once they are said, they
can only be forgiven, not forgotten.”
It is so true that simple words can leave scars. We can
antagonize just by the way we phrase a response, or by the tone of voice. Like
the ‘mean girls’ we may not even know that we’ve hurt someone. As the picture
notes, “We must think before we speak.”
Offering hope and love in our words means we have to be
intentional about what and how we speak (or write). We have to pause and ask if
God is speaking through our words, through the way we respond to each Facebook
post, or to the clerk in the store, or the person cutting us off in traffic. It
means we need to stay connected to the One who is all Love. Jesus said Come
unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. The
pressures of daily life can make us snappy or snippy. Taking time with God can
reconnect us to Love. In her song, Leanna Crawford sings, Lord, I need to
you find me and remind me that my worth/ Is worth so much more than their words.
Like Eliza Doolittle in the 1960’s musical My Fair Lady,
I get frustrated with all the Words! Words! Words! I'm so sick of words! I
get words all day through; First from him, now from you! Is that all you
blighters can do?...Show me… Eliza is challenging her suitor,
Freddy, to act. In the world right now, it can feel like no one is taking any
action because each of us is so busy pushing our own agenda, no matter what
that might be. Too often we can’t even agree that the ‘other side’ has anything
good or important to add to the discussion. We repeat misinformation to
discredit those we disagree with, or we cover our own insecurities with lots of
words that are rationalizations or our own narrow viewpoint.
When I feel overwhelmed, I sense the Spirit nudging me to be
more gentle with my own words. I can be more aware and change the Words I use. The
image in this post is a reminder that I need to pause more often to ask the five
questions:
Is it True?
Is it Helpful?
Is it Inspiring?
Is it Necessary?
Is it Kind?
I would suggest another question: Does it express God’s Love?
When we can turn from the loud voices around us and seek
some quiet to listen to and for God, we get a new perspective. In the May 21 ThyKingdom Come reflection, the author noted, “When we do come to God. Or when we return to God…Or
when we see in each other a love that holds and sustains us. And when we know
we are loved, the only real response is silence. There is a place beyond
words, where the heart rests in peace, in the knowledge of being known and
loved. Not all of us experience such love in our lives. Some of
us have been very damaged by life’s injustices. But the love we receive from
Jesus, the love that is from God, is secure. It is waiting for us the other
side of words. We only need to turn.
I today with this prayer from the May 21 Thy Kingdom Come
reflection. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be exploring how Words define our Story,
our Culture and where Listening might take us.
Loving God, our hearts are restless till they find their
rest in you. Hold me, for the storms are raging and the waves crash over. Be my
rest and my security. And even though human touch and human love is so
beautiful and so longed for, help me to know today that it comes from you and,
like everything that is good and beautiful, will return to you in the silence
of your eternal and never changing love. Be with me as I hold myself and hold
others in your embrace. Amen.
