Words of Power

The Word of God. The actual phrase written down in St. Luke's Gospel is

These words stir our imagination to the heights beginning in Genesis and the Psalms and then rising to a blinding brilliance in the Prologue of St. John's Gospel:

These words point back to an ancient tradition whose high mountain peaks are seen in Psalm 33:

Shall we call this awesome display, Words of Power? Our poor words stumble and fall before this majesty. What can we call it?

That such concepts were active in the minds of the Disciples is certain.

"Who then is this?" they ask each other in wild surmise:

We might well replym "Let all the earth fear the Lord." For here are Words of undoubted power.

Did they remember all this when the Risen Christ turned to them and said,

Who could doubt it? Who, upon receiving the Holy Spirit, could fail to understand that Jesus was founding the imperishable Church, emplanting the sacraments within the Sacred Persons of the Apostles, with Words of power?

In our earliest record after Eden of Divine life touching a human, we read,

Notice that is does not say, "the Lord came to Abram," but rather the Word of the Lord came to Abram."

We find something similar during the Creation story. God does not create light as a single, atomic action. Rather,

God said .... Our attention is directed to His Word first and then to light and creation.

For a reason that is never explained, God suspends His creation of the beasts of the field and then directs Adam to complete it by naming the animals:

This no simple, declarative act of speech. Our attention is directed to the power of Adam's Word: "Whatever he called [it] .... that was its name" .... This is a speech-act, words that engender a new reality.

Throughout the Holy Scriptures, we find that the formula "the Word of God" or "the Word of the Lord" designates a Divine act: God's power alighting on His chosen vessel, followed by that greatest marvel, God Himself speaking to His people:

Or

In this latter passage, the tropes of meter and parallelism mark an equation:

They are one and the same. And this Divine communion with God is called, "the Word of the Lord."

All of these things form the spiritual background for our Gospel lesson this morning. Jesus describes the "Word of God" as if it were living sparks of Divine fire scattered throughout our lifeworld, which He calls seed. Should our lives fill with distraction and unworthy debris, then the sparks dim down and become cold. Yet, should we empty our lives of debris and practice daily mindfulness, then we too would experience that special communion with God known by the prophets, which is clarity of God's Word and will: God speaking.

He calls everyone whom He has made. But we must attend to His Word in a state of readiness. What is that signature phrase of God's? "Their heart was not right .... They were not steadfast" (Ps 78:37-38).

When Jesus enunciates these principles in His Parable of the Sower, He does not tell us anything we do not already know. When we stray, we separate ourselves from God and by that fact invite demons in. Do you see? Not only does a nature abhor a vacuum, the spiritual world abhors a vacuum, as well. As soon as God and His angels depart, demons flood in. We say, "Perhaps they will not notice me" .... we whistle past the graveyard.

When we live superficial lives, flitting from one thing to the next, we ignore the Holy Spirit and the angels of God, never becoming mindful and rooted. When we choose for our carnal desires, we choose the world, the flesh, and the devil over God, and His Word is never received.

Jesus says it this way:

Or, as the St. John the Theologian would later write,

You see, the intimacy with God known by the prophets awaits each one of us. His Word is scattered through the world. It is that magic which causes each created thing to stir and shine. Moses was attentive to it in the Midian wilderness, beholding its brilliant fire in the night. And he removed his sandals.

These words unlock the mystery for the Disciples .... two "Words" from God: Word of God and seed. Jesus draws our attention to the latter with repetition:

My more literal translation sounds like this in the original Greek:

The repetition of one word (in three forms) summons our attention upon the single word: sporos, "seed." The Greek word for seed σπερματικος (spermatikos) was a rich word in Classical Antiquity. The Judeo-Hellenic thought-world for centuries held that the λογος σπερματικος   (logos spermatikos),   literally, the "seminal word," or "seed of reason," lay at the heart of all moving, conscious beings. Certainly, it formed the kernel of St. Justin Martyr's writings (early second century). It was this spark which was the crucial difference between sentient life and insensate lifelessness. The Divine seed was understood to be our share in the Holy fire. And we should note that in first-century Greek, the words for "sower of seed," "sowing of seed," and the "individual seed" are virtually the same. That is, the Sower and the Seed are one.

It is a dynamic process. The seed is constantly being scattered as God brings new life into being. God is One with the seed. We participate in His Holy Fire by attending to it.

As the logos spermatikos is the lively spark of rationality and of intellect, it is opposed to the generative seed of the body, the seed we see and touch. The ancients would have seen such material seed as being little different from the stuff that generates the dog or the goat. But the seed or spark underlying mind and soul is a spiritual reality.

As St. John of Damascus would write six centuries later, the entrance of God into the human lifeworld did not take place through generative seed, developing "bit by bit" as a human would, but rather through the indivisible unity of the Divine seed, perfect, One:

As Jesus articulated at the conclusion of the Parable, the Word of God and the Logos spermatikos are two aspects of the same indivisible reality.

This distinction — between material seed and spiritual seed — we hear echoing through the Gospels. The Spiritual Seed, the Word of God, and the faithful people who receive it and reverence it .... these constitute the Kingdom of Heaven. Again, ..... whole, One, indivisible. Once you participate in the Holy Fire, you are part of this perfect unity.

Repeatedly, Jesus and the Apostles preach of a Kingdom of God which is family. As the Apostle Paul said on Mars Hill, "one blood .... offspring of God" (Acts 17:26,28). As the medievals would say, "Who might claim noble blood when we all descend from the same parents, Adam and Eve?" (And I hasten to add that geneticists of our own period hold that all human on earth life proceeds from one woman joined to one man.)

We are one blood and then children of God by adoption, predestined to claim our royal lineage by living with our Heavenly Father in His Kingdom. I say, All are predestined for Heaven. Yet, in the mystery of our own sovereign power of will, God has granted the royal prerogative of choice: to stray from the path or to hold to it. Do you see? We need do nothing. We are born alreadfy on the path. All we need do is follow it. We must choose to stray. We must make this active choice. We must commit this action.

Is it not true that every crown prince can ruin himself? Can ruin his life and future?

Exactly how do we succeed in securing our predestined happiness? Jesus announces the answer with unusual directness and clarity. No one misses this:

As if ensuring that we get it right, He repeats it a little later:

This is family: one blood and offspring of God. Ours to have unless we choose to reject it. Here is the Kingdom of Heaven: Who hear the Word of God and keep it!

Jesus admonishes us to be mindful, for the Word of God is all around us in its glory and shimmer. The seed is scattered everywhere, everwhere life stirs and shines. "Receive it!" Jesus exhorts. And then, "Keep it!"

Let nothing pollute this pristine goodness and purity! Do not become distracted! Do not let the debris of unwholesome curiosity snuff out the flame. Guard your thoughts!

Here is an Orthodox teaching: guard your thoughts. In the Skete of St. Demetrios overseen by His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah, the monks confess their thoughts .... sometimes multiple times every day. Here is where the war takes place: our thoughts.

Be ever mindful to His Divine command:

As He did the prophets, God made each of us to be holy vessels (Eph 2:21, 1 Cor 6:19, 1 Peter 2:5). He made us to be lamps that give light to the whole house (Mt 5:15). He calls us to be shining cities upon a hill (Mt 5:14). For the whole world was made with the Word of God, and it continues to shimmer in its Divine power.

Yes, I know we live at a time when many strive to bury it. Many have covered their souls and their bodies with the litter of evil distractions. (We know a young woman who has gone off to Oahu to have some of this evil scribbling removed from her holy body.)

But God's pure light cannot be hid. Neither can any school board or technology or federal courthouse extinguish it. The Lord of All adjures you to be this life-giving light and power. And all you need do is .... nothing at all. Only to call upon the Lord and to be true to Him. For He calls to you. He calls you in the night with His Holy Fire.

Receive it!   Guard it!   Keep it!

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.