+Z’ev

Commemoration of Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, & Thomas Cranmer, Martyrs.

Today’s assigned readings:

Jeremiah 36:27-37:2, 1 Corinthians 14:1-12, Matthew 10:16-23

When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Matthew 10:19-20

All three of the readings today are about God breaking human silence. The Tanach reading is about God breaking silence imposed on him by a King. The Gospel is a promise that God will not leave us silent in the face of our enemies. The Epistle is a promise that God will not leave us silent in the face of our friends (Prophecy) or ourselves (Tongues).

What does it mean to worship a God who speaks?

One of the main tenants not of Christianity, per se, but of all the Abrahamic faiths (including those such as Samaritans that we don’t normally think of), is this quality of a God who speaks. Think especially of the words of scripture which constantly reminds him who has ears to hear or of the comment on idols that they have ears and mouths and eyes but neither hear, speak or see. The constant claim is that YHVH is one who speaks to us. The prophets and the NT add the special amplification that God can speak though us as well as to us.

While I know of ancient Greek tales of gods appearing to various parties, I don’t know of any where they speak. Socrates mentions a voice, which we might call his conscience, and he attributes this to a daemon or “guardian angel”. But not to a god. (Curiously, it only says “No” when he wants to do something. Never “Yes”.) The Celts have visions in some of the tales but actual bodiless speaking waits until after the arrival of Christianity. In his space trilogy, CS Lewis touches on the curious ideas of speech coming from spiritual beings without bodies - or not breathing air.

One of the curious qualities of this speaking God is that he creates through his word. His words are all verbs: to speak is the same as to do for God. This is so true that later Christians would see Jesus as God’s Word. There are icons of Jesus present at the Creation of the World: God speaks and the word spoken is Jesus. The word of creation itself is Jesus. The Orthodox Church caries this forward in her theology, understanding the pre-incarnate Word to have been present wherever God is said to speak/act in the Tanach.

What does God say to us today? How do we know that God is speaking? For some groups the assumption is that God always says the same thing. If we hear something new, it clearly can not be God. For others, this sort of pious thinking makes no sense: why would God bother to say the same thing over and over? If God is speaking it must be something new! For some groups God stopped speaking 1600 years ago when the the scriptures were assembled in a canonical sequence. For others he continues to give prophecy but, again, nothing new. These seem to be the same thing, really. God has gone on vacation and left us his podcast archives.

To the three martyrs that Anglicans remember today, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, & Thomas Cranmer, God had spoken a new thing: the Protestant Reformation. To many Roman Catholics - including those killed at the orders of Cranmer and others - God had not changed his mind. For some today, called “Emergent”, God is saying something new. For others - Jack Spong comes to mind - God doesn’t speak any more so it’s time for a new thing.

We’re in an interesting time: if God were ver to say something new, now would be a good time to do so. His people (all of them) are wrestling with problems of religion-based violence and fundamentalism. They struggle with issue of sexuality and questions of life, ethics and morality. The continuing struggle of what it means to “‘be’ a true ____”. We debate the roles of women and men, we worry about issues of peace and war.

This would be a good time for God to speak.

Much love,

Huw