Bible reading: Genesis 1:1-5.

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Message.
What is speech? Dictionaries define it in different ways. One says that it’s “the communication or expression of thoughts in spoken words”, another sees it as “the ability to talk, the activity of talking”, while a longer and more technical description tells us that speech is “a human vocal communication using languages; these use phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of words, and using those words in their semantic character as words in the lexicon of a language according to the syntactic constraints that govern lexical words’ function in a sentence” – whew! Well, whether we go for simple or sophisticated definitions, we all know without being told what speech really is: it’s us using words to communicate.

In one sense those words are nothing more than sequences of vibrations in the air or squiggles on a piece of paper, yet they have immense power. In business, words may close a lucrative deal or bring a company to collapse; in a court of law, words can send someone to prison for life or declare them innocent; in human relationships, words can declare undying love or unmitigated hate. Politicians, journalists, authors, teachers and – yes! – ministers live by words; national leaders use words to encourage their people or send them into battle; orators use words to stir up hysteria or bring calm. One person shouting, “Fire!” in a crowded auditorium can save the lives of hundreds or create terrible panic. Two people signing a peace treaty, full of words, can end a lengthy conflict. Martin Luther King stirred the world when he cried, “I have a dream”; while the other Martin Luther, centuries earlier, helped to trigger the Protestant Reformation by declaring, “Here I stand, I can do no other”.

The Bible is, like virtually every book, a book of words (I say “virtually” because, of course, there are books which have nothing in them except pictures). It starts with words – traditionally “In the beginning, God” and it continues with God himself saying, “Let there be light”. Of course, that simple phrase fills us with many questions: how does God, a spirit being without lungs, lips or vocal cords, speak; who or what could hear him, seeing that nothing had yet been created; how does his speaking bring physical matter into existence? These are of course unanswerable and we probably should think of the Genesis story using poetry and myth to explain things that are true but beyond our ability to understand.

One author – using words, of course! – writes about this chapter in a charming way. He says, “With a single word, God causes inanimate objects to leap into existence. At his command, matter, water, and something vaguely resembling the earth quietly step onto the universal stage. God then brings order to this chaotic formless blob of material. Like a potter moulding clay, he shapes the earth into a sphere. Then, with a sharp command, stars switch their nuclear engines onto full blast, the mountains dig their roots into the earth and storm out of the sea’s dark depths. With a song, he charts the skies and salutes the heavenly bodies as they begin their long voyages through space”. All that happens simply because God commands, orders, utters, speaks.

It’s clear, at least in this chapter, that when God speaks, he does so creatively. (I have to say, “in this chapter” because the Old Testament, in particular, also has God speaking words of judgement and destruction. That may well cause us a problem, but it’s a fact we can’t ignore). God here doesn’t seem to have any mechanism for creating apart from his word; he is bringing “stuff” into being where there was “nothing” before, not reshaping matter into something new. In that sense he is more like a composer or an author, conjuring words or a story into existence, than a carpenter or even artist, cutting and forming wood or applying paint to a surface. God, if you like – and I’m no cosmic physicist – is converting his infinite divine energy into tangible matter. How that can happen is probably the most basic mystery of the entire universe; but we see God as the one who was “there” before the Big Bang, and made it happen. He is the God of all beginning; his word is the starting-gun of all creation.

Now, of course, it’s not the actual words which God may or may not speak that have power; we’re not thinking of the magic words or spells which we come across in fairy-tales and which “do things” simply by being spoken in the correct way, irrespective of who says them. No; the power of God’s words comes because it’s God who speaks them, because his authority lies behind them. If I saw someone committing a criminal act and shouted, “Stop!” I’d get a two-fingered salute and some choice vocabulary for my pains; if a policeman in uniform shouted, “Stop!”, he might be obeyed (although possibly not). The word used by both of us would have been the same, the authority behind it completely different. God’s words, we are told, have power, “sharper than a two-edged sword” – not because they are special but because they are his.

I wonder how much we under-estimate the power and authority of God’s words, and so fail to use them ourselves? I’m not suggesting that we paint Bible texts on our cars to keep us safe – what’s needed there is good driving, not superstition! Nor am I saying that we should go back to the Victorian fashion of having samplers embroidered with Bible texts hanging. And I doubt if any of us, meeting a person in obvious distress, would dare to be as bold as Jesus and command sickness or evil spirits to leave them so they can become physically and mentally whole (I’m not saying that there aren’t people who have a gift for doing this, but we all know about the immense harm that’s been caused by over-zealous people trying to speak in God’s name but badly misjudging the situation).

But there are other ways of bringing God’s words to bear – and not only by tritely quoting random Bible texts at people! We can carefully offer Christian words to friends and neighbours who need encouragement or healing – although we mustn’t take advantage of vulnerable people by “ramming the Gospel down their throats”, however much we think they need to hear it. We can (and should) speak about Christian values in matters of politics and society; although we must always considered in what we say, never sounding bigoted, self-righteous or judgmental. We are often very nervous about making our views publicly known, fearing a barrage of criticism – yet we may well find that we are echoing the values held by a silent majority who were hoping that someone would speak on their behalf. God’s words can never be the only words spoken in a secular society – but they have as much right to be heard as any others, and may well possess a power to convince and change minds.

The young climate activist Greta Thunberg said something interesting about words at the 2021 COP26 conference, held in Milan – something which, I’m sure, has often rung true for us as well. She said that “fighting climate change calls for innovation, cooperation and willpower to make the changes that the world needs” and that “we need to walk the talk: if we do this together, we can do this”.

Thunberg then caustically quoted some of the politicians’ catch-phrases (and this is the bit I particularly want you to listen to):

“‘There is no planet B’ – blah, blah blah blah”.

“‘Build back better’ – blah blah blah”.

“‘Green economy’ – blah blah blah”.

“‘Net zero by 2050’ – blah blah blah”.

“‘Climate neutral’ – blah blah blah”.                            

“This is all we hear from our so-called leaders: words that sound great, but so far have led to no action. Our hopes and dreams drown in their empty words and promises. Of course we need constructive dialogue, but they’ve had 30 years of blah bah blah and where has that led us?” Not surprisingly, Thunberg received a rapturous ovation for her speech.

I’m not attacking politicians; I’m sure that many of them have excellent intentions and get very frustrated by their inability to change chings. But, sadly, their words sometimes do seem to be ineffectual, useless, nothing more than empty wind. God’s words, we believe are not: they are effective, powerful and eternal. The prophet Isaiah said, “The word that I speak will not fail to do what I plan for it; it will do everything I send it to do”. Let’s hope and pray that God’s word, spoken by people like us, will be free and active in our world in 2024.