God's three words

Hebrews 1:1-4

How does God speak to us?

            That is the essential question that the book of Hebrews addresses in its opening verses. Once, by the prophets written down in the ancient scriptures, then by God’s Son—by an embodied word that we know in Jesus Christ.

            But how does God continue to speak to us today?

            There are three words of God alluded specifically mentioned in the Bible. The first is scripture itself—the Bible. God speaks to us as we read scripture and let it sit with us. It might be the words themselves that are speaking to you; it might be in, with, and under the words, between the words, or apart from the words altogether, but scripture is certainly one of God’s words for us.

Unfortunately, many people stop there. In fact, many Lutherans stop there. After all, wasn’t one of Luther’s big selling points the idea of sola scriptura—scripture alone? This is most certainly true, and, yet, the very scripture that stands alone also proclaims that God’s word is considerably more multi-faceted than words on a page. The Bible itself gives us two other examples of God’s word beyond scripture. If you think about it, it makes sense that scripture cannot be the one way that God speaks for a variety of reasons, not least because each of these books of the Bible existed in its own place in history. Think about it: When the author/s of Genesis wrote Genesis, how could s/he have any idea of how God might speak in the books that followed? Or that there would be any books that followed in the first place. Same with the prophets. Same, even, with the Gospels.

Jesus came and that feels like it should be the end of the story, but God hasn’t stopped speaking. In fact, in the book of Acts, God sends a further person of God’s own self into the world—the one we call the Holy Spirit—with a promise to continue speaking to us today.

            So, that leaves us with three distinct words of God: The Bible, Jesus himself who John called the word of God incarnate, and the Holy Spirit who continues to blow where it pleases amongst us today. Of course, it is awfully difficult to pin down what the Holy Spirit is doing. I imagine this is one reason why we like to focus on the Bible, because the Bible is simple, clear, and allows us to live without contradictions and debate, right? RIGHT?!

            Well, that’s the problem, isn’t it? The Bible itself is filled with so many contradictions and is probably the most debate-filled book in the history of history. Some Christians read the Bible and (faithfully, I believe) decide that they should be concerned primarily with following the law, that they should be the most socially conservative, ethically hardline Christian they can be, and other Christians read the Bible and (faithfully, I believe) decide that they should be the most grace-driven, socially liberal, ethically relative Christian they can be. The Bible holds every view from anarchism to theocracy and has been used to justify every good and evil that people have committed, including slavery, child abuse, and even genocide. The Bible remains a word of God, but it is subject to no end of interpretation and abuse.

            One of the reasons Jesus needed to come was to remind us that we don’t have a stinking clue about God. The Old Testament had a very limited view of God. The Jewish people thought they were waiting on a Messiah who would defeat their enemies, restore the temple, and return the Jewish people to their rightful place as God’s chosen ones. Instead, we got a Messiah who gave up his life, reinforced the harshest aspects of the law making the establishment happy, then ignored essential parts of the law entirely leading the same folks to crucify him, and in so doing he radically transformed the concept of chosenness, opening it to those on the outside of the Jewish tradition.

            Jesus’ coming should also be a reminder to those of us who claim the Christian faith—and who think we have it all figured out—that God is not bound by the rules we establish for him (or her). God is not bound to act as we interpret him (or her) to act. God is not bound to be who we imagine him (or her) to be—hence, the “or her.” God is who God is, and God’s word only reveals so much of this to us.

            So, what, then? Are we to throw up our hands and give up on God’s word entirely? Of course not! Instead, we are called to listen humbly. We are to listen knowing that God’s word will not make us all-knowing. Instead, it will do the same two things it always does: It will convict us, and it will free us.

            As we begin four weeks on the book of Hebrews today, this is a good reminder of what God’s word will do for us, because this is a book about a congregation of believers in need of reinvigoration. They are still a congregation, still going through the motions, still undoubtedly doing good things and preaching Jesus and all that, but they have lost their mojo. They aren’t what they once were.

            I have found that one of the limitations of treating God’s word as if it is confined to words written long ago is that we tend to ignore any sort of creative word being spoken to us right now. If we ask at all about how God is speaking to us today, we do so by trying to put ourselves into the scriptures—by going backwards. We try to become like Jonah or like Moses or like Ruth. But I am not Jonah or Moses or Ruth. I am Frank, and you are who you are, too, and God is speaking to you personally, individually, and God’s Holy Spirit is working through you to be who you are.

            The week before last while the fair was in town I had the pleasure of serving as the camp chaplain at Camp Emmaus in Menahga. For those who might not be familiar, Camp Emmaus is one of the two camps operated by Pathways, meaning it is our camp. It is the camp owned by this congregation (and nearly a hundred others). So, if you never knew we owned a camp, then at least you got something from this sermon. On Thursday night at the campfire worship service for high schoolers, the counselors talked about calling and vocation, asking the question of what God is calling you to be. I used to think this was a very hard question. I used to tie my head in knots wondering what God was expecting of me. After all, how would I know? I felt it must be hard, so I wondered about all sorts of things that made me uncomfortable. Should I be off in Cambodia serving people in a language I don’t know with a culture I don’t understand? I felt like my calling should be hard.

            I don’t want to completely ignore this. God is often calling us to step out of our comfort zones. But the place to start is not there. The place to start is by asking yourself: What do I love? What do I love to do? Who do I love to be with? What am I passionate about already? Maybe you love kids. Then, for goodness’ sake, work with kids. Maybe you love math. Then, go be a math teacher or an economist or a banker. Start with what you love, then let God’s word push to deeper into who you were created to be! It really isn’t hard. You will serve God by being who you were created to be. Martin Luther once said that a good Christian shoemaker does not show his faith by putting little crosses on the shoes that he makes, rather a good Christian shoemaker demonstrates his faithfulness to God by making good shoes.

            The word of God works through all these things. It works through whatever profession you seek, as long as you are following what you love to do. This is related to how we understand God’s word, because God’s word is not a monolithic code of rules to follow and beliefs to assent to. Rather, God’s word is creative and open-ended. That’s why I don’t have a lot of time for people telling me that it’s simple: Just do this—just do that—just be this. The person telling you that doesn’t have a clue what God is calling you to do or be. We can certainly listen to fellow Christians, and they certainly might carry God’s words on their lips, but they are not God themselves and we shouldn’t forget that.

            God’s word is unlimited. It’s an ocean. You’ll never see all of it, and when you wade into it you’ll discover something new and exciting every time. That’s probably the most important message from the book of Hebrews, actually. Don’t lose your joy. Keep wading in in wonder. Keep looking for new things that are beautiful. And let your wounds soak in the water that they might one day be healed.