“Full to the Brim: Even the Stones Cry Out”
Preached Sunday, April 10, 2022
“Dare to declare who you are. It is not far from the shores of silence to the boundaries of speech. The path is not long but the way is deep. You must not only walk there, you must be prepared to leap.” - St. Hildegard of Bingen, who lived 1098 - 1179
I have this quote from Hildegard, my favorite saint, hanging on my office wall. It inspires me to say the things that need to be said. I actually feel like that’s a pretty apt job description for a pastor: to say things that need to be said.
To speak life in the midst of death
To speak love in a world of hate
To speak peace in times of war
To speak truth to power
To speak justice in a world of oppression
To speak God’s glory in a secular world
Of course this isn’t just the job of a pastor. It is a call of all Christians - to use our voices for God’s glory and God’s Kingdom. This is what Hildegard did. At the time of her life she was one of the only if not *the* only woman given permission by the Pope to speak in front of mixed gender audiences. As a woman, even as an abbess, she would have only been permitted to speak to other women. But she could speak in front of men and women. She was granted permission to speak and teach in front of men as she said she was not speaking as a woman but speaking as a “mouthpiece of God.”
We are all called to be mouthpieces of God - after all, it’s either us or the stones. Because some things NEED to be said - and if we don’t say them - God will still find a way to get it out. Now, that’s not to pass the buck or excuse those times we fail to speak up. Instead, I pray it may bolster you, give you courage to speak the words that God calls you to - speak or even shout them out!
From our Gospel lesson this morning:
“Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’
He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’”
The Greek word here for “shout out” is krazo which is an onomatopoeia for a crow. Our best translation today would be caw-caw. “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would caw out.” Krazo means to cry out with a loud and urgent scream or even a shriek. It’s “inarticulate shouts that express deep emotion.”
At what point in your life have you had to caw out like a crow? Something that needed to come out of you, expressing deep emotion?
Perhaps it was the first time you told someone you loved them. That’s something you never forget, the way the words feel in your mouth, how right it feels.
Or perhaps a celebratory shriek when you see a friend you haven’t seen in a long time, a cheer of celebration at a milestone.
And those times perhaps when you’ve lost a loved one, the guttural cries or wails that escape you, that you don’t know where that sound came from.
Or when you finally ask for help.
Finally confess.
Finally stand up for yourself…or finally stand up for someone who needs stood up for.
When you use your voice to advocate for others.
There are times when these words or sounds may just tumble out of your mouth - one minute they’re in your head or your heart and the next you’ve made that leap from silence to the boundaries of speech and you didn’t even think about it. Instantaneous.
Or there are other times when you spend time rehearsing the words. Going over them again and again. Saying them in the mirror. Piecing them together in your head.
Perhaps times like testifying in court. My friends shared he went over and over what he was going to say in court for the adoption of his daughter. Words that needed to be said, that came from a deep place of emotion, but words he needed to get just right and be said in the right time and place.
Perhaps you go over and over the words in your head when you’re about to do some conflict management, your heart pounding - you don’t WANT to do it but you know you need to. And you know the wrong word could be a minefield.
Any time you’re nervous, you want to get it right, you know you NEED to say them - the words just take longer to get out.
And still too there are those times you are walking into a situation and you have no clue what to say or what you’re going to say. Perhaps someone has a krazo moment to you. Where they confess something to you, ask you for help, or call you to stand up to injustice - and you’re at a loss for words but then the Holy Spirit gives you the words to say. I often feel this when I pray, when I hold the hand of someone grieving, when I am by a deathbed…all my words fail. But the Spirit has the words to give me. Or perhaps, the Spirit leads me to say nothing, just holding a hand - that too is a version of saying what needs to be said. Sometimes nothing needs to be said.
Our Christian siblings, the Quakers have much to teach us about saying only what needs to be said - and nothing more. In lieu of sermons and hymns, many Quakers have an unprogrammed meeting. They gather together, often in a circle, and wait expectantly for God’s voice. When and if someone has been given something to say by God, a mouthpiece for God, like Hildegard - they speak. Speaking not to fill the silence or to say it cause they like the sound of their own voice or to say it cause they’re convicted of how right they are - but to say it because they believe it is something that God has given them to say, that needs to be said, that would be for the benefit of all at the meeting - they break the silence, and they speak. They call this vocal ministry. Some meetings may be filled with the voice of God, coming out of the mouths of those gathered. Some may be all silence. It all depends on the need to - caw caw - at the direction of the Holy Spirit.
The crowds in our Gospel lesson this morning had something that they needed to say, needed to shout out.
“As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen,
saying, "’Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!’”
This is something they needed to say - words that needed to be shouted out.
So today I ask - what words need to be said? What words is God calling you to say?
To speak life in the midst of death
To speak love in a world of hate
To speak peace in times of war
To speak truth to power
To speak justice in a world of oppression
To speak God’s glory in a secular world
Are you using your voice for joyful praise, to testify to all that God has and will do? Like those who lined the streets on that day with palm branches - do you feel compelled to shout out how great our God is?
Speak out! Dare to declare. Make the jump from the shores of silence to the boundary of speech - it’s either us acting as mouthpieces of God or the rocks will cry out. Let it be us.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment