Have you ever said the phrase ‘I give you my word’. I have been reflecting on this phrase and what we mean by it.
When we say ‘I give you my word’ we are saying something very fundamental, something of supreme importance, because we are saying that we are a person to be trusted. We are saying that our words will be matched by our actions, that what we have spoken will be done. We are essentially saying that we are a person who keeps their promises.
Have you ever reflected how important our words are? Have you ever reflected on what happens when people no longer keep their words? On the impact of living in a society where we can no longer trust that people mean what they say?
When we think about ourselves, anyone with any length of experience in this life will know that in fact it is not easy to be a person who keeps their word, who stays true to their promises, their commitments. Most of us will know that there are many times when we have not lived up to our words, when our actions have fallen short.
In the garden of Eden the snake plants a seed of doubt into Eve’s mind about God’s word: ‘Did God actually say “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” The snake’s words are a negative spin on what God had said to Adam previously. Rather than the negative, the command is immensely positive: “You may surely eat of EVERY tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”. So there is only one tree, out of many, many varieties, that they are not to eat from.
We could say that God is setting a protective boundary, the kind of protective boundary that all good parents set around their children, when they know that that their children are not ready or prepared for certain experiences or ‘knowledge’. Perhaps at a later date, when they had grown in wisdom, Adam and Eve could have eaten of this tree, but in the story as it comes to us their desire to eat before the right time produces a catastrophic sense of alienation from God, each other and themselves, they are not ready for the knowledge of good and evil.
Christ goes into the wilderness to undo/overcome the disobedience of Adam and Eve. We cannot underestimate the intensity of the testing he undergoes at the end of his 40 days of fasting, the strength of the demonic power that is working to pull him off course, none of us could stand up under that temptation.
But Christ does. And in doing so changes the destiny of all of us.
In the intensity of the testing Christ proves his faith, his trust in God. He will not be diverted; corrupted or led astray. His weapon against Satan is not some kind of miraculous power not available to us, his weapon is what is available to all of us, the words of God in the scriptures. Three times Satan presents him with a corruption of his identity and mission, three times Christ quotes the scriptures.
What is happening in this moment?
Christ is showing us that humanity first and foremost was made to live in relationship to our creator and maker, a relationship based on trust. Humanity was made to walk and talk with God in the garden. We were not made as machines, as puppets, as mindless automatons, we are made with the capacity to choose, to walk away or draw near, we are made for relationship.
God wants to protect us from making wrong choices, choices that might harm us, but he won’t stop us from making those choices. And we all make them. And in God’s grace we can learn through them, even if this is at great cost to ourselves and others.
When it says that we are made ‘to live from every word that comes from the mouth of God’ it is indicating that we are to live out of an active listening and hearing what God might be saying to us, we were made to live out of a living conversation, that we have the capacity to hear and respond to God, but first we need to draw near, to get close enough to hear, because God does not shout, God speaks and relates in intimacy, with those who are close to his heart beat.
We can only act on what we hear if we trust the one who is speaking. If trust is broken you can’t really hear what a person is saying, because you don’t believe them.
The first step in re-establishing a broken relationship is to re-establish trust. It’s why we have to say sorry, we have to admit we didn’t keep our word before the bonds of trust can be reestablished. To be human is to learn to say sorry again and again.
God has never broken his word, but he still needs to re-gain our trust as we have become alienated and separated from him. It is why Christ goes to the cross. At its most basic it is about restoring our trust and with that our capacity to hear and believe, that what God says might be true and trustworthy. It is why St Paul speaks about salvation coming through the hearing of faith, our capacity to hear and trust has to be restored at the most fundamental level.
This Lent we are going to be turning to the gospel of John, on Sundays and on Tuesday evenings Lent study sessions. Ian, Sue and Krista are going to be offering their reflections in a series of sermons. The intention is that we might hear God speaking to us afresh. Lent is all about regaining our capacity to listen, it is why we seek to create space in silence, in simplicity, in turning from distractions and noise to pay attention to what the Holy Spirit wants to say to us.
Perhaps the first step of faith is to actually believe that God might be wanting to speak to you? Might have a word for you? That God is seeking a relationship, a conversation with us.
Are we ready, are we close enough to hear what the Holy Spirit might be wanting to say?
