For the Love of Words

Why do you listen to a sermon? Perhaps the better question is, Do you listen to a sermon? Or a speech? Or major address? Obviously, the reason we would give along expository lines is "To draw out the truth, to give proper attention, to be confirmed or challenged in my beliefs." Of course, those are good reasons. I'd like to share one more I've become more aware of lately.

Because we have an opportunity to savor language.

My daughter Lindsay bemoans that people are too caught up in their gizmos, gadgets, and videos, that information must be moving and visible, and no one (her words) makes time for poetry or creative writing anymore. While I would debate the "no one" charge, I think there is merit to the idea that fewer and fewer people are enjoying language anymore. And a scant minority of folks, I'd say, spend any time in wonder about the beautiful usage of the English language itself.

I've spent a great deal of time lately studying the English Reformation...and when I say "great deal of time" I mean "insane numbers of hours"...and what strikes me is two things:

1- How clearly and competently they understood biblical truth
2- How gorgeously passionate is their use of the English tongue.

You really can't get a grip on the development of the English language if you refuse to study the English Reformers, particularly Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and John Jewell.

Cranmer himself said once, "In the Scriptures be the fat pastures of the soul. Therein is no venomous meat, no unwholesome thing. They be the very dainty and pure feeding. He that is ignorant shall find there what he should learn."

Wow. On a scale of 1 to 10, that's a 46.

I've been reading through a newly-bought copy of The Book of Homilies, a collection of sermons written for English rectors and priests to preach in the critical years of the English Reformation, for the purpose of establishing the church's doctrine amongst the people in their own tongue.

In the first sermon, "An Exhortation to the Reading of Holy Scripture", the writer (likely Cranmer) says, "And concerning the hardness of Scripture: He that is so weak that he is not able to brook strong meat, yet he may suck the sweet and tender milk, and defer the rest until he wax stronger, and come to more knowledge."

Chills, people. That should give you pure chills.

In the second sermon, "On the Misery of Man", the writer speaks thusly about King David's bewailing of his sin in the Psalms: "He weigheth rightly his sins from the original root and spring-head, perceiving inclinations, provocations, stirrings, stingings, buds, branches, dregs, infections, tastes, feelings, and scents of them to continue in him still."

A more beautiful statement about the sinful nature of man would be hard to find. It's hard enough to get most preachers today to address the topic.

What we need today is not entertainment for enjoyment's sake or to make our educational classrooms a series of game shows. Rather, we need to re-discover these "fat pastures" of language and engage with texts that challenge rather than lower us.

Every day when I read a portion of the Homilies, I close by thanking God for two things--the truth revealed therein, and the beauty of the English language. It's there, you know, for those willing to chase its glory.