Part 1 can be found here.
Guglielmo Marconi was the person largely responsible for making radio technology at great distances possible. Marconi had an interesting theory about sound. He believed that it was never really gone. He hoped that technology might be developed so that we could go back and listen to the Sermon on the Mount. An intriguing thought. Of course, science has largely debunked his theory, noting that sound waves eventually dissipate and turn into other kinds of energy that is dispersed in the atmosphere so that it cannot be distinguished any longer from other kinds of energy.
Although the theory was disproved, it has led me to think about God's speech in a new way (new to me, at least). But, in order to get to my conclusion, I want to put a couple of pieces on the playing board. This will be done by reflecting on both God's act of speaking Creation into being and some of the very basic physics of words as sound. After these two pieces are given, I hope to synthesize these two pieces and further posit some assumptions concerning a theology of preaching.
First, let me say I'm not a physicist. I took some training in my very early years to be an engineer, so I've had my share of physics classes, and it's remained an interest. But all I really know are the basics. For instance, sound is created through vibrations, waves that cause ripple disturbances in the atmosphere. Sound is movement. Spoken words are heard as air passes over our vocal chords, making them vibrate. Those vibrations then contact our eardrums, causing them to vibrate, which our brain is able to decode as sound. Sound is waves of energy released and received. If you think about it, sound, much less sounds of communication, is an incredible phenomenon. For our purposes, it's sufficient enough to highlight that sound is energy that causes vibrations in atoms and molecules. It is energy transference.
"In the beginning, when God began to create" opens the scriptural narrative of God's activity. The text says that the ruach of God hovered over the waters. Ruach is a Hebrew word which can mean wind, breath, or spirit. The Genesis 1 text is often translated to mean God's Spirit is hovering over the waters. I don't deny this translation, but I think wind and breath are not excluded by that interpretation. Although God doesn't have a larynx, the breath of God blows out over the waters and begins to create space where life can happen. God begins to speak and things pop into existence. God's speaking and creating are inextricably connected.
In some sense, Creation is God's sermon, which is pronounced with a benediction: "It is very good!"
God's voice, spirit, wind, breath echoes throughout the universe, releasing energy by which the world comes into existence. Unlike our own words, I do not think God's speech disappears. It continues to reverberate, thus creating and sustaining life, throughout all of Creation. Jesus says this, "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word from the mouth of God". I don't think Jesus is making a scientific claim here. But, I do think Marconi's theory is appropriately applied here to say that God's act of speaking Creation into being is an ongoing act of speech that has not dissipated into non-existence. The very speech of God that caused the universe to vibrate with life continues to echo and reverberate through the hallways of time and space. I feel like Spock should appear at this point and exclaim: "Live long and prosper".
If my my reflections aren't mere fantasy, I think it opens some exciting venues for theological reflection, much less reflection on preaching as a whole. First, it suggests that God's word never dies, never returns void, but accomplishes what it sets forth to do. It implies that God's speech is an act of Creation that continues to sustain life and open up space where life may flourish. It suggests that God's sermonic performance is characterized by the blessing of that life. And, it suggests that all of life reverberates with the pulse of God's voice.
Now, to throw one more piece into the mix concerning sound: Harmony and disharmony. If all of life reverberates, pulses with the energy of God's speech, then why is life so broken? Scripture relates the idea of sin as the discord of God's Creation with God's purposes for that Creation. We're singing out of tune, in disharmony with God's speech. This manifests itself in violence and vitriol in both act and word against God, against fellow creatures, and against Creation itself (of which we are a part). This dissonance in our world has powerful impact, but is ultimately entropic (that is, it contains the seeds of its own destruction). When our words are not in harmony with God's speech, they are cut off from Life itself.
The preaching moment, in the most ideal sense, is singing in harmony with God's intended purposes for the Creation. It is a life-opening space where we encounter God's life-giving speech.
That is a sermon in its truest sense. It is an act of creation and blessing in the life of a community. Faithful sermons allow a community to practice singing in tune with God's life-giving, life-sustaining, life-blessing symphony. We join the chorus as a voice, as a small part of God's great orchestral re-ordering of Creation. When this happens, we are sent back out into the world pulsing with God's life and reverberating with that hope of new creation in the midst of a world entrenched in death and decay. We sing a song of transformation and teach others the song we are learning together. Sermons, ultimately, are prayers that God would "tune our hearts to sing Thy praise", the song of Creation which God has been singing all along.
Guglielmo Marconi was the person largely responsible for making radio technology at great distances possible. Marconi had an interesting theory about sound. He believed that it was never really gone. He hoped that technology might be developed so that we could go back and listen to the Sermon on the Mount. An intriguing thought. Of course, science has largely debunked his theory, noting that sound waves eventually dissipate and turn into other kinds of energy that is dispersed in the atmosphere so that it cannot be distinguished any longer from other kinds of energy.
Although the theory was disproved, it has led me to think about God's speech in a new way (new to me, at least). But, in order to get to my conclusion, I want to put a couple of pieces on the playing board. This will be done by reflecting on both God's act of speaking Creation into being and some of the very basic physics of words as sound. After these two pieces are given, I hope to synthesize these two pieces and further posit some assumptions concerning a theology of preaching.
First, let me say I'm not a physicist. I took some training in my very early years to be an engineer, so I've had my share of physics classes, and it's remained an interest. But all I really know are the basics. For instance, sound is created through vibrations, waves that cause ripple disturbances in the atmosphere. Sound is movement. Spoken words are heard as air passes over our vocal chords, making them vibrate. Those vibrations then contact our eardrums, causing them to vibrate, which our brain is able to decode as sound. Sound is waves of energy released and received. If you think about it, sound, much less sounds of communication, is an incredible phenomenon. For our purposes, it's sufficient enough to highlight that sound is energy that causes vibrations in atoms and molecules. It is energy transference.
"In the beginning, when God began to create" opens the scriptural narrative of God's activity. The text says that the ruach of God hovered over the waters. Ruach is a Hebrew word which can mean wind, breath, or spirit. The Genesis 1 text is often translated to mean God's Spirit is hovering over the waters. I don't deny this translation, but I think wind and breath are not excluded by that interpretation. Although God doesn't have a larynx, the breath of God blows out over the waters and begins to create space where life can happen. God begins to speak and things pop into existence. God's speaking and creating are inextricably connected.
In some sense, Creation is God's sermon, which is pronounced with a benediction: "It is very good!"
God's voice, spirit, wind, breath echoes throughout the universe, releasing energy by which the world comes into existence. Unlike our own words, I do not think God's speech disappears. It continues to reverberate, thus creating and sustaining life, throughout all of Creation. Jesus says this, "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word from the mouth of God". I don't think Jesus is making a scientific claim here. But, I do think Marconi's theory is appropriately applied here to say that God's act of speaking Creation into being is an ongoing act of speech that has not dissipated into non-existence. The very speech of God that caused the universe to vibrate with life continues to echo and reverberate through the hallways of time and space. I feel like Spock should appear at this point and exclaim: "Live long and prosper".
If my my reflections aren't mere fantasy, I think it opens some exciting venues for theological reflection, much less reflection on preaching as a whole. First, it suggests that God's word never dies, never returns void, but accomplishes what it sets forth to do. It implies that God's speech is an act of Creation that continues to sustain life and open up space where life may flourish. It suggests that God's sermonic performance is characterized by the blessing of that life. And, it suggests that all of life reverberates with the pulse of God's voice.
Now, to throw one more piece into the mix concerning sound: Harmony and disharmony. If all of life reverberates, pulses with the energy of God's speech, then why is life so broken? Scripture relates the idea of sin as the discord of God's Creation with God's purposes for that Creation. We're singing out of tune, in disharmony with God's speech. This manifests itself in violence and vitriol in both act and word against God, against fellow creatures, and against Creation itself (of which we are a part). This dissonance in our world has powerful impact, but is ultimately entropic (that is, it contains the seeds of its own destruction). When our words are not in harmony with God's speech, they are cut off from Life itself.
The preaching moment, in the most ideal sense, is singing in harmony with God's intended purposes for the Creation. It is a life-opening space where we encounter God's life-giving speech.
That is a sermon in its truest sense. It is an act of creation and blessing in the life of a community. Faithful sermons allow a community to practice singing in tune with God's life-giving, life-sustaining, life-blessing symphony. We join the chorus as a voice, as a small part of God's great orchestral re-ordering of Creation. When this happens, we are sent back out into the world pulsing with God's life and reverberating with that hope of new creation in the midst of a world entrenched in death and decay. We sing a song of transformation and teach others the song we are learning together. Sermons, ultimately, are prayers that God would "tune our hearts to sing Thy praise", the song of Creation which God has been singing all along.