Yesterday I got into a twitter conversation with someone who said that words have power. I disagreed, and I still disagree. Words do not have power. The actions we have, the decisions we make, the ways we see the world has power. But the words, well a rose by any other name still smells sweet.
The idea that we can coerce God by the use of formulae occurs among two groups. The first is those who believe in the occult, wiccans. They think they can control the powers of the air by their ritual and formulae. Hence spells, not prayers.
But we are not strong enough, nor wise enough. The second group is those at the Pentecostal fringe who start thinking that certain formulae will force God to heal. And that also is not the case: at some points the Pentecostal TV preachers content sounds remarkably like that of a witch.
Finally, there are the greater fools. Those who deny the power of any spiritual realm, who function as materialists but talk spirituality and ritual. Among those are the practitioners of publick religion, and the liberals: the Sadducees of this age.
1Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.
2We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly3remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, 5because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. 6And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, 7so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. 9For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.
If we consider words and stories, and think of the gospel as myth we are missing the point. Firstly, the biblical literature is not mythical. The heroes of Greek mythos are perfect pawns, moved by the Gods to do horrific “noble” things with no conscience, but no freedom. And among the Northerners the iron laws of revenge lead to nations breaking into bloody shards. But there is no inner life. There are no flaws.
The Bible has Abraham lying about his wife (in case another kills him to marry her) and David organizing the death of Uriah to marry Bathsheba. And we have Christ, who is not that nice, but is confrontational.
And who speaks with power, for the spirit of God is always with the incarnate God.
And in this we move beyond the idea of formulae and ritual. It is not the sacrifice on the altar that saves, but the God who acts in mercy. It is not the words we say or write that save, but the spirit of God calling people to himself. It is not in our power that we become better, truer, more authentically ourselves as we slowly and reluctantly let those sins that comfort us go, but the work of the Spirit of God that drives us to where we do not want to go.
For we serve not words, but a living and true God.
