Our God is an action word!

J. Roughan

30 March 2010

Honiara    

Languages world wide use different bits and pieces. People who speak a language string bits and pieces like nouns (names of persons, places or things), verbs (action words), adjectives and adverbs (helps to change nouns and verbs) and other small things--pronouns (take the place of nouns), prepositions (help connect things), together. When a speaker or writer brings these different bits and pieces together in proper order, then, meaning comes clear. That's how we communicate--getting our thoughts out of inside our heads into the ears of others.

 

And God has done much the same with us as well. He used words and sentences to have us understand him, his plans, what he wants us to do. The Bible, both Old and New, the Koran and other sacred texts make it abundantly clear that the Almighty uses the human way of communicat- ing. He uses human language. In fact, one could say that the written word is God's normal and usual way to get his meaning over to us.

 

Yet, we know that people use other ways to communicate. Words/sentences are great but they are not the only way of telling others our story, what's going on inside us. A wide smile, a crunched up painful face, a child's cry, etc. are powerful ways of getting messages off to others as well. Words are not used, yet the message is quite clear. Can God not do the same? Must He always be limited to the printed or spoken word?

 

We Christians believe that Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, the Word, actually became man. The New Testament, the second part of the Bible, relates his life story in great detail. Words and sentences, especially Jesus' sayings, make up the bulk of the writing. Yet, some of Jesus' most powerful messages don't contain a sentence, not even a word. Yet, His message is crystal clear!

 

Take for instance Christ's clearest messages--befriend the down and out, sinners and worse still, tax collectors--when he actually ate with them and had all these awful people at table with him. No where in the New Testament are we told what was said while they eat, what he told them, what the table conversation was all about. Yet, His message is quite clear and compelling. Some call these events Silent Parables.

 

Christ loved using parables! It was his favorite teaching tool. Yes, parables are short stories but stories with a twist! The Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the mustard seed, etc. these parables are known far and wide. A parable story gets to the innermost part of the heart well before the listener has time to throw it out or disagree with its message.  But their long lasting effect comes through powerfully. Many Christians recite the traditional parable's very words by heart.

 

But His Silent Parables--washing the apostles feet at the Last Supper, his sand scribbles when the woman caught in adultery was being publicly humiliated, etc.--are powerful if less recognized teaching tools as well.

 

This week, Holy Week when the whole of Christ's life comes together as it were, is a continuous Silent Parable. His Easter story is about action words--suffering, dying, rising--with few words and sentences. The overwhelming feeling from the Garden of Gethsemane, through the court trial, carrying the cross, dying on Calvary and rising from the dead focuses on action words. It's as if the time for talking, words, explaining and clarifying have come to an end and only action words can make the point.          

 

These scenes from the Garden of Gethsemane to the Resurrection contain few words but the power of this Silent Parable is unmistakable. Our God is an action God. Of course words are important. That is never in question. But what is more important is action, work and deeds which must flow from words.

 

Our God then is really a VERB! As wonderful as words are and the beauty that they bring fall into something small compared to the need for action, work and doing. That is why at the very beginning of this essay it's stated that God is an action word and why it is important that we too use Silent Parables--working with the down and out, serving others, standing up for the outcast--as our normal and most usual way of working with Christ.