Words to Live By

“Of the writing of books there is no end.”  These words from the Biblical Ecclesiastes, suggests a certain futility in the art of literature.  Words piled upon words --- and has anything really come of it?  “There is nothing new under the sun,” expresses the opinion of this Biblical writer.

In the Gospel of John, the evangelist gives his own spin on the limitations of literature.  As he concludes his version of the life and ministry of Jesus he implies that he could have written much more but he had to stop somewhere (John 21:25). The books that have been written about Jesus since John’s epilogue testifies to our human need to get in the last word, and is proof of the wisdom of Ecclesiastes.

The book of Revelation, traditionally attributed to John but likely written by one of the members of the Christian community influenced by John, adds a more strident warning about the limitations of words.  He ends his Revelation by cautioning anyone from adding or taking away anything to his words.  His counsel, coming as it does not only at the end of his book, but also curiously placed at the end of the Bible, has been interpreted as a warning against messing with scripture unnecessarily.

Still, well-meaning Christians have been “messing with” scripture from its very beginnings.  There is no end to the words that have been added to and taken away from the original texts.  In some measure this is healthy.  These books of the Bible and the way we respond to them witness to the fact that words on a page actually are a living testimony.  They breathe with life and continue to breathe life into the Christian community.  And we cannot help talking and writing about it. One of the liturgical responses that Christians make in response to hearing the scriptures read in worship is, “The Word of God for the people of God!”  To which the people respond, “Thanks be to God!”  This Word from God has so shaped the Christian community that gratitude is the appropriate response. 

But there are so many words in this Word.  Sometimes, perhaps often, people get so lost in the words that they lose any sense of The Word.  Kathleen Norris, in her book Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, describes a woman celebrating her 101st birthday and being asked her favorite Bible verse.  She responded with a verse she had memorized while a child, Mark 14:8, “She hath done what she could:  she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.”  In the verse Jesus is defending a woman who has done an extravagant act of kindness for him. When the 101 year-old was asked what it was about the verse that had captured her attention for over ninety years, she responded, “She did what she could.” (Page 256, Riverhead Books, New York).

So many words.  But sometimes all one needs are a few to sustain a life.