“Are Church Words Dead?”
Frederick Buechner is a writer who has had great influence in the world of the church and in the world of writing and literature. You won’t regret reading Buechner. He is one of the too rare writers on matters of faith who is well respected outside of religious publishing and writing circles. In a recent online post, Buechner offered up a passage from one of his books. The passage was about words and the concept that words can become overused, seemingly losing their meaning as a result.
He said, try repeating any word twenty times in a row and listen to how absurd the word sounds well before you are done. He suggests this exercise with the word, “umbrella”.
The question that Buechner then asks is if religious words, church words, are worth using anymore. He comes to conclude that they are. Before telling you why Buechner reaches such a conclusion, I offer up some words that you may or may not have heard. If you grew up in particular religious contexts you may have heard these words so often that they lost their meaning. It is possible to not know the meaning of a word because you have not heard the word before. It is also possible to not know the meaning of a word because you have heard it too many times.
Anglican Words
altar, archdeacon, rector, episcopal, nave, vicar, diaconate, canon, eucharist
Presbyterian Words
layperson, sacrament, presbytery, liturgy, parishioner, sanctuary, synod
Evangelical Words
intercession, discipleship, spiritual disciplines, youth group, fellowship, salvation, repentance, spiritual warfare, the Lord’s supper
Of course some of the words above are shared by all three religious groups, some might fit better in another list.
Buechner describes how religious words have lost their meaning and why he is committed to keep using them:
“There was a time when such words as faith, sin, redemption, and atonement had great depth of meaning, great reality; but through centuries of handling and mishandling they have tended to become such empty banalities that just the mention of them is apt to turn people's minds off like a switch. But I keep on using them. I keep plugging away at the same old words. I keep on speaking the language of the Christian faith because, although the words themselves may well be mostly dead, the longer I use them, the more convinced I become that the realities that the words point to are very real and un-dead, and because I do not happen to know any other language that for me points to these realities so well.”
Evangelical Word of the Week takes, at least in part, an approach that acknowledges the humour and banality in many of the words that evangelicals heard quite often. The more important determination and hope of “EWW” is along the lines of Buechner’s conclusion. So many of the words from evangelical culture pointed to things that matter for humanity, things in which there is life and beauty.
What do you think? What might “faith” mean in the world today?
How might we be able to speak about “redemption” in a way that is a blessing to all people, even those who think and believe differently than we do?
What does a word like “compassion” mean in regards to true spirituality?
How might you and I be able to see the promise of words like “forgiveness” or “hope” for the relationships in which we live our lives?
The tearing down has a place. Yelling at the world as if they just don’t appreciate what we think they need to hear shows a deficiency on our part. Part of recovering and uncovering the beautiful meaning of words is to acknowledge that in some cases religious communities have wound up sounding like, “umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella”.
Still though, if it’s raining...
I agree with Buechner. 'Church words' point to truth, even when we couch them in trite phrases, repeat them without paying attention, etc.
Not that Buechner limited himself to repeating such words. He wasn't afraid to shake us up a bit, with colourful (sometimes off colour) usages.
Critic Patrick Reardon reviewed The Book of Bebb (four short novels named after a shady pastor, which I read 30 years ago and enjoyed but have largely forgotten), saying:
"In the novel, his writing is often smart-alecky and poignant at the same time – sort of like human existence. Consider the letter to Jesus written by Bebb’s drink-addled, guilt-oppressed wife Lucille which reads, in part:
'[Bebb] says we are all washed clean in the Blood of the Lamb and so on and so forth. One time when I said to him, Bebb, the only thing I’ve been washed in is the shit of the horse. You know what he did? [Bebb kissed her injured little finger.]
That was when I first thought maybe he was from Outer Space. Mr. Jesus, is that where you are from too? . . . P.S. I haven’t said a single thing I wanted to.'"
We are sheep, often falling for easy answers - but we can keep asking, and we can trust Jesus to honour our honest seeking. (And yelling the answers can be a good thing, once in a while.)