‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’
John 1:1

I awoke early on Wednesday, I’m sure like some of you, and turned on the TV to listen to Barack Obama give his inaugural address as president to the people of America. And I wasn’t disappointed. His words, as expected, were greeted with applause. Those who braved a cold Washington day had come to be part of something important. It was an historic moment, a dream come true, for a country ready for change.
But what really caught my attention was a comment made later. A panelist on the TV, asked her opinion of the speech, said, ‘as a journalist, I like to believe words do matter.’
Those words have stuck with me this week. ‘I like to believe words do matter.’
And certainly her faith in words is true when you look at American history. There’ve been many fine inaugural speeches, and each has spoken into the heart of this nation.
Think of Abraham Lincoln. Amidst the cries of civil war, he said ‘We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.’
Think of Franklin Roosevelt. In the depths of the depression, he told the people, ‘let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’
And think of John F Kennedy. In the sea change of the sixties, he urged the public, ‘ask not what your country will do for you – ask what you can do for your country.’
Their words are remembered today, because what they said really mattered.
But you have to wonder, in this information saturated age, an age of blog-sites and Bebo, when everyone has much to say but less time to listen, if words have lost their power, and if the speechwriter’s, and preacher’s, days are numbered.
Do words still matter? It’s a question worth us considering today.
And I suggest a good place for us to begin looking for a response is in the Bible; for the scriptures remind us of the importance of words. Genesis opens with speech.
‘In the beginning… the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep… Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.’
God spoke and the world came into being.
And in Jeremiah, our first reading, the prophet resists God’s word, because he knows the power of words. But then God reaches out and touches his mouth. ‘I have put my words in your mouth,’ he says. ‘Today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.’
Words do matter.
One of the books I read over the holidays was ‘The Book Thief’. Written by Marcus Zusak, the story is about words. Zusak writes of the power of words to create and to destroy, to redeem and to cause irrevocable suffering.
The setting is Nazi Germany.
On the one hand, there’s a man determined to rule the world with words – Hitler.
‘His first plan of attack’, explains one of the characters; ‘was to plant the words in as many areas of his homeland as possible. He… cultivated them. He watched them grow, until… great forests of words had risen throughout Germany.’
Hatred. Fear. Right.
And on the other hand, there’s a young German girl, who knows just how powerless a person can be without words, but whose love for words grows as the story unfolds, and who sows a seed of love.
A tear falls on the face of a Jew kept hidden in her cellar. ‘The tear was made of friendship – a single word – which dried and became a seed.’ This she planted amongst the other trees and it became the tallest of them all; a tree no axe could cut down.
Zusak reminds us words do matter. When spoken with humility and love, they have the power to create and sustain our world; but the opposite is also true.
A word is spoken and six millions Jews are sentenced to death.
A word is spoken and tanks roll and foot soldiers march into Gaza.
And words are spoken, and relationships are ruined and friendships frayed.
As a quote on my computer says, ‘it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love, and it takes many years to heal them.’
Words do matter; when they are used for good, when they flow from the depths of God’s being, when they proclaim what is true and just and holy, we discover lives are transformed, and the forests of hatred and fear begin to fall.
We saw this on Wednesday morning.
‘On this day, we gather,’ declared the first black president of America, ‘because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.’
But let’s not forget, not so long ago this event would’ve been inconceivable.
I spoke last week of Martin Luther King, Jr. On the same spot as Obama spoke to the crowds, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he gave voice to the hopes of a people.
‘I have a dream’, he said back in 1963.
And without his words, without his influence on the hearts and minds of Americans, and without his stand for what he believed was right, what was true in the eyes of God, the civil rights movement may’ve gone in a very different direction.
And the dream may not have come true.
But the power of words to inspire and to bring change isn’t just true for those with the gift of speech, standing on life’s centre stage. It’s true for you and me.
No doubt you’ll recall words spoken to you which have transformed your life; words lifting you up when you’ve been down, and offering guidance when you’ve felt lost.
And no doubt there has been moments when what you’ve said has made all the difference to someone else: a word of welcome to a stranger; a word of encouragement to the travel weary; a word of hope to those caught in a cycle of despair.
Words do matter.
To give an example, at the end of last year, I went to the prize-giving at Wellesley. After the trophies had been handed out, and most of the formalities had come to an end, one boy, a school leaver, got up to speak. And what he said was memorable.
He spoke of what the school had given him.
Then he told a story. It was a story of a key moment in his schooling life.
He told of how one day he was in the library, not doing much, when his teacher came up to him and said quietly, ‘you know, if you stopped this mucking round and put your mind to it, you could win the academic prize this year’.
The teacher then moved on, probably thinking nothing more of his comments. But those words made all the difference. The boy, from that moment, determined to give his best, and not surprisingly went on to win the trophy that year.
Words do matter.
Today, as you’ll see in our pew sheet, is a day which marks the conversion of St Paul. Paul was a man with a lot to say, and he helped define the Christian faith through his speech. He wasn’t afraid to speak his mind; he was an engaging and forceful speaker, insightful and fearless, though it must be said he wasn’t always popular.
And Paul knew the power of words.
Before his Damascus road experience, before Saul’s name was changed to Paul, the writer of Acts tells us how Saul breathed ‘murderous threats’ against the followers of Jesus. He used words to condemn others.
But this was all to change.
In a moment of insight, of divine encounter, Saul was silenced; and his fear turned to faith, his words of hate to love, and a sinner became a saint. ‘If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I’m a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.’
So words do matter; but let’s not forget words alone are never enough.
No matter how eloquent and persuasive Martin Luther King, Jr, may’ve been; if no-one was there to listen and act on what he said, to seek change through non-violent protest, to believe ‘all are created equal’, the dream may never have come true.
No matter how inspiring Obama’s words may’ve been on Wednesday, a symbol of hope; if the people of America, as he clearly stated, do not rise up to the challenge and take responsibility for their actions, the much needed change will not happen.
And no matter how impressive are the giants of our faith, Jeremiah and Paul, and there are many others down through the ages; if we don’t allow their words and their lives to shape our own, the Christian faith will fall far short of what it seeks to proclaim.
St John tells us, in a text we hear read at Christmas, ‘in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’, but this isn’t where he ends. A few verses later he goes on to say, ‘and the Word became flesh and lived among us.’
God speaks and the world comes into being.
God speaks, through a man like Jeremiah, and nations rise and fall.
God speaks, in the flesh and blood of a human being, and we are restored.
And so too must we speak, words of love and truth and justice, for words do make a difference; but we must also put flesh on our words, so the world may understand the great hope we proclaim.
Words do matter; but, as the saying goes, ‘actions speak louder than words’.
A sermon preached in St Alban’s Anglican Church, Eastbourne, on Sunday, 25 January 2009 by the Ven Damon Plimmer.