Language experts tell us that on any given day, the average person speaks about 7,000 words. That includes conversations with other people, muttering under your breath in the grocery store, singing in the car, arguing with the radio, and yes, talking to yourself. Those words add up quickly. The words you speak in a single week could fill the pages of a fairly thick book.

Words matter.

Words shape our relationships. They shape our memories. They shape how we see ourselves and how we understand the world around us. Some words stay with us for years, sometimes for a lifetime. A kind word can lift someone’s spirits, and a careless word can linger far longer than we ever intended.

President Calvin Coolidge was famous for being a man of very few words. The story is told that his wife once made a bet with a friend that she could get Calvin to say three words in a conversation. When she told the president about the wager, he looked at her and said simply, “Not likely. ” And he walked away. Bet lost.

One of my seminary professors liked to say that words matter for our spirits as well:

• Words matter when we talk about faith. 
• Our words matter when we talk about God. 
• Words matter when we talk about our neighbor.
  

Today, on this first Sunday of the new year, I want to invite us to think about the words that shape our lives, and especially the Word, the Word that shapes everything.

The Gospel of John’s story of Jesus does not begin with a manger or angels or shepherds. It begins with words that feel ancient and enormous.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John takes us all the way back to the beginning. Before there was light or land or life, there was the Word. Before there was anything, God was already speaking. God was already creating. God was already loving. From the very beginning, God’s instinct was not silence, but speech.

Martin Luther once wrote, “God does not deal, nor has He ever dealt, with humanity otherwise than through a spoken word.” For Luther, God is a speaking God. Creation begins not with force, but with speech. 

• God speaks light into darkness. 
• God speaks life into emptiness. 
• God speaks grace into chaos.

And the Gospel of John tells us that this Word did not remain distant or abstract. “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” God chose not to shout from heaven or send instructions from afar. God came close. God moved into the neighborhood. God entered our world, our messiness, our fear, our joy, our pain.

This Word, Jesus Christ, enters into the shadows of our world and speaks light. He enters into confusion and speaks grace. He enters into brokenness and speaks life. This Word was and is the answer to sin, yours and mine and the world’s. Not through condemnation, but through love. Not through shame, but through mercy.

Words matter.

Some words stay with us for a long time. A single sentence spoken at the right moment can change everything.

Last spring here at Trinity, a visitor came up to me after worship out in the narthex.  She introduced herself and and said, “Can I tell you something?”   “Sure.”

She shared that it had taken a lot of courage to walk through the doors of this church for the first time. Life had been heavy. Past churches had not always been safe places. She was not sure what she was hoping to find, only that she needed something different.

She said, “The sermon was good. The music was great. But what made me come back today was something really small.” She paused…and smiled. “Last week, when I walked in, the person who greeted me said, “I’m really glad you’re here.” It wasn’t a generic “welcome,” and they didn’t try and talk me into signing up for something, they just said, ‘I’m really glad you’re here.’ And I could tell they meant it.”

This visitor went on to say, “I’ve thought about that sentence all week. It felt like permission to belong.”

Those were just a few simple words. Ordinary words. But they carried the weight of grace.

That is how the Word becomes flesh among us. Not only in what we preach or sing, but in what we say to one another. When we choose words that notice, that welcome, that speak belonging, we participate in the Word…the Christ…who came to dwell among us, full of grace and truth.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “God did not despise the weakness of human flesh, but entered into it.” That is what Christmas is really about. God did not avoid our humanity. God embraced it. God chose to be present right where we are.

We experience this Word in many ways:

• We experience the Word through scripture, the inspired Word of God that continues to speak across centuries. 
• We experience the Word through Holy Baptism, where God speaks a word of belonging over us before we can speak a single word ourselves. 
• We experience the Word through Holy Communion, where God uses ordinary bread and wine to speak forgiveness and life. 
• And we experience the Word through proclamation, through sermons like this one and countless others being preached around the world today.

Again and again, God speaks into our lives. And the Word God speaks is stronger than any other word we hear.

Let’s be honest.  There are so many voices competing for our attention. 

• Voices that tell us we are not enough. 
• Voices that tell us we need to do more, be more, prove more. 
• Voices that tell us we are only as valuable as our productivity, our appearance, or our success.

Into all that noise, the Word made flesh speaks something very different:

• Christ says, you are enough.  
• Christ says, you are loved.  
• Christ says, you matter.

God’s Word brings comfort and hope. God’s Word encourages when other words tear down. When the world tells people they do not matter…when the world tells people that they are garbage, God says, “No, you are my beloved.” When fear shouts loudly, grace speaks steadily.

Christ enters our lives precisely when we need the light most. He invites us to pause, to breathe, to receive hope again. He reminds us that darkness does not get the final word. Love does.

This world can feel a little messed up at times. Too often the words we hear are not life-giving. Too often the words we speak are sharp or careless. We speak before we think. We react instead of reflect.

As followers of the Word made flesh, we are called to something different. Jesus does not just speak the Word of God. He shows us how to live it. He teaches us to love God and love our neighbor. He teaches us that words have weight, and that love should guide them.

Not all of us have the same filter. Some of us think out loud more than others. But all of us can pause long enough to ask a simple question: Is the word I speak, shaped by love?

So here is my question for you. Out of the 7,000 words you will speak today, how many will reflect that Word? How many will offer kindness instead of criticism? How many will speak hope instead of fear?

John tells us, “The Word became flesh and lived among us, full of grace and truth.” Grace and truth belong together. Grace without truth becomes vague sentiment. Truth without grace becomes harsh and cold. In Christ, we receive both.

As we move into a new year, we carry many words with us. Resolutions. Hopes. Worries. Prayers spoken aloud and prayers held quietly in our hearts. Into all of it, God speaks again.

• The Word…Jesus Christ…is still with you.
• The light…is still shining, and;
• The love…is still stronger than the shadow.

May this Christmas season remind us to be the light others need to see. May our words point beyond ourselves to the glory of God. And may we never forget that the greatest gift we receive is not something we earn or achieve, but someone who comes to us in love.

Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, who loves you no matter what.

Amen.

* Thanks to Rev. Paul Amlin, whose good work and writing inspired chunks of this sermon!