Sermon Library
“Love and Language”
Gregg R. Anderson
February 06, 2005
Service Theme: Epiphany V-2005 (Transfiguration)
Source: Psalm 119: 105 – 112
From Creation of the Universe to the Creation of Language
Fifteen billion years ago, give or take a billion years, there was a cataclysmic explosion which flung the galaxies, planets and stars into space and time. Energy and matter continued to swirl, combust and cool forming a planet which later became known as Earth about 5 billion years ago. At least the oldest rock scientists can measure on this planet date about 5 billion years ago, give or take a few hundred million years. Cells and bacteria go back about 4 billion years. Fossils and trilobites began forming 600 million years ago. Algae, fish and amphibians came along in the Paleozoic era about 400 million years ago. Trees and plants took root 300 million years ago. Dinosaurs showed up in the beginning of the Mesozoic era about 200 million years ago and birds during the Jurassic period about 180 million years ago. The Cenozoic era produced plants, reptiles and small mammals about 70 million years ago. Apes, elephants, horses, rhinos and rodents developed about 50 million years ago. It was only 2 million years ago that Homo Erectus or very primitive forms of human beings began to develop and the more modern Homo Sapiens a mere 500,000 years ago. Neanderthal man appeared 100,000 to 50,000 years ago and evidence demonstrates signs of making tools, hunting, fire, caring for the sick and burying the dead, crude language and ritual. 10,000 years ago hunting and gathering, planting and harvesting was well in order. Early cave pictures eventually developed into Egyptian hieroglyphics and Sumerian cuneiforms known about 3,000 years B.C. In the year 2,000 B.C. seven hundred symbols had been developed. Earliest writings make reference to previous life a millennium before, which was probably remembered only through oral tradition and transmission. Sanskrit became a little more sophisticated and slightly preceded Hebrew and Greek language in 1,500 B.C. With the discovery of Papyrus, writing became apparent 500 B.C and Parchment 100 B.C. Indo-European language began to emerge and branched out into 8 different types; Germanic-Teutonic, Latin-Romance, Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian, Greek, Celtic, Albanian and Armenian. It was not until after the Celts that Old English began to evolve around 500 A. D. English became a hybrid of Germanic, Celtic and Latin.
The Bible in English
The Bible was not translated into English until 1,380 A.D. by John Wycliffe. Some people today believe that the true Word of God is only found in the King James Authorized Version written in 1611 A.D. Somehow this omnipotent, omniscient, infinite and eternal creator of the universe who existed prior to 15 billion years ago and who was part of the evolution of all galaxies and planets, including the planet earth with its own 5 billion years of evolution, is only known through one English King 4 hundred years ago. There have been about 10,000 different known languages ever since language became language. Currently, an estimated 3,000 primary languages exist, each with derivations and dialects. And this is just language, not to mention all the other prolific ways in which communication happens through art and music.
As I mentioned in my last message on Love and Life, putting life into a bigger picture always seems to help me achieve a better perspective of things for today. Any of us can get caught up in our own English Christian version of the creation and creator and I think it is healthy and wiser to imagine God within the universe that we know about, let alone the space that we do not know. A bigger picture of God will eventually make our minute planet called earth a bit more loving. That may sound like a major cliché, but I still think it is a major truth. Our planet is getting smaller and to continue to evolve to see our human commonalities is far more important today than yesterday. Israeli and Palestinian extremists strictly see themselves as Israelis and Palestinians, not as human beings and neighbors. Even though they share a very similar, if not the same, creation story, they have been forever separated. Will there ever be hope? I am sure I am naive, but I still think putting ourselves into a bigger picture of the planet will begin to help.
Language and Humanity
So, this message is entitled Love and Language. Language has been used for love and it has been used for hate. Languages and cultures have been used to create different perspectives of God and different perspectives of people. If we go back to something even more basic, we are all human beings, we all think about reason and faith and all express ourselves through signs and languages. Mortimer Adler of the Aspen Institute and University of Chicago wrote a classic book entitled The Difference that Man Makes. There were seven differences of kind between human beings and animals. Reason, religion and language are the first three. Reason, religion and language are intimately connected. Remember that Philosophy is the love of Sophia or the love of Wisdom and this refers to the wisdom before creation or God. Wisdom with a capital “W” is the feminine noun of the creator or of God. Sophia means Wisdom. Hieroglyphics in Greek means “sacred carvings.” And Philology means love of “logos” or the Word with a capital “W” signifying the essence of God. Reason, religion and language are innately and intrinsically related. We, as evolved human beings, contemplate the very core of our existence through reason, religion and language.
As an aside, I need to clarify my use of the word religion because no one likes the word today due to a lot of baggage that has been stacked on top of religion. I do nderstand this, but remember that the root of the word religion means “to bind up that which has been sundered.” It means to reunite and bind together. One great definition of religion is “the vital fusion of myth and ritual in community.” (Charles Milligan) Now back to the message.
Which Comes First, Experience or Language?
The reason I am talking about love and language is because Ron James had a degree in Philology and I wanted to find out more about Philology. If this sermon seems a bit too didactic, it is entirely the fault of Ron James. I desperately wish Ron were here to give this sermon on the love of language, which is one definition of Philology. Ron loved language and used it with great skill. One of the basic questions of Philology is which comes first, the experience or the language? Linguists state that language shapes experience as well as being shaped by experience. George Lindbeck of Yale Divinity School wrote a book entitled The Nature of Doctrine, Religion and Theology in a Post-liberal Age. (Now there’s a mouthful.) He states that “through liturgies, rites and doctrines, religion creates what we today would call spiritual experience. In short, it is necessary to have the means for expressing an experience in order to have it.” (p. 37)
On the other hand we have writings from Helen Keller who professed a sense of spirit and God at a very early age and before she really had a way to read, hear or speak about her senses and experience. Anthropologists still wonder about the thinking world of primitive homo-sapiens. Without the evidence of primitive language – “What were they thinking?” As the brain evolved, reason, religion and language must have evolved. Or is it just the opposite? It is suspected that religion and language emerged simultaneously, at least with the Neanderthal man. Yet, other anthropologists suspect a sense of religion existing prior to language. We may never really know that answer, but archeologists keep digging. There are early mystics who report that any reporting of a spiritual experience dilutes the experience. God is ineffable and cannot be completely explained by reason, religion or language
Love and Language by Simone Weil
I am just beginning to learn about a philosopher who is becoming very well known posthumously through her writings and journals. Many people today are calling her a true modern day mystic and others a saint for our time. She was born in Paris in 1909 and even though she went through challenging and confusing personal trials, she mostly stood up to Nazism and the plight of the very destitute and poor. In her complete identification and compassion with the poor, she herself died of starvation. Her writings are becoming quite popular. Her name is Simone Weil.
One of her essays I read for the message this morning is entitled Love and Language. In this article she says that “Philosophy must speak about the unspeakable, then it must prepare itself for silence, for its retirement in favor of religion.” “Reason and faith are thought as complementary, although they play different roles. Reason, employing principles the correctness of which is guaranteed by God, delivers knowledge, while faith seeks redemption. After reason says all that can be said, faith comes and does its work.”
As a philosophy professor, she states that even though God is the object of thinking and the truth about reality is not simply a true proposition in the logical sense, although the truth of words can perhaps decide the logical value of a proposition, it cannot be reduced to the latter. The truth is, no one really possesses it. A mind enclosed only in language is in prison. Truth cannot be found in propositions which state a relation, as in God exists or God does not exist. Truth shines through the spaces which separate propositions; its real notes can be heard in their accentuations.
We can learn more today in the year 2005 about reason, religion and language. We know they are inseparable, but we can continue to explore their symbiosis, unity, synergy, even their mutual ineffability. Reason, religion and language are as basic as breathing, eating and sleeping. We can no longer make as many distinctions in this unitive world as we have done in our ancient past. Instead, we simply yearn for an experience within the greater experience. We can call it in-between the lines or beyond the lines. In the big picture, creation exists and we do our best to understand ourselves and our community within this indefinable universe. Life is both meaningful and mysterious, but mostly mysterious. So far, in the end there always seems to be more questions than answers. In the end, as Simone Weil suggests, faith prevails.
Faith, Love and Language
As this message comes to an end, I should have entitled it God and Language or Faith and Language. My point is that when we look at ourselves and our faith in the big picture of the universe and its history, we can only humble ourselves before the creator and before one another. Our reason, religion and language are always limited in comparison to creator and creation. Weil said, “Science is voiceless; it is the scientists who talk.” She also said, “Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.” Think about it. To think we can capture the creator and the ultimate meaning of life within language is presumptuous. The church of history has tried to do just this through its creeds and doctrines. Today those creeds and doctrines are suspect and people are looking for more of an experience of faith than an explanation of religion. Are we continuing to evolve?
Reason, religion and language are not going to go away, but in the big picture, perhaps a different perspective will evolve – a global perspective with a cosmic Christ. And this is not to say that the language of the past was wrong. It is just that the Hubel telescope was not available 2,000 years ago. Technology and science will change our faith perspective. History did not stand still, nor will the present or future. One thing which may be constant is that the goal of language is to be used toward love and compassion more than orthodox explanation.
Our life is but a flash on this fleeting time line and Jesus has come during a special moment to make our moments more meaningful. Where do you fit in this universe? When someone sees themselves as bigger than they are, there is danger of pride and greed. When we believe our reason, religion and language are greater than another reason, religion and language, we usually end up in war. When we see ourselves as an equal part of the whole, as I believe Jesus preached, then we learn to love not only with our language, but with our whole being. Jesus came to expand the world of his time. Jesus said God is not just a God of the Jews, but all people. I think we need to keep hearing that message today. I like the opening line of Cynthia Bourgeault’s profile of her Wisdom School. She quotes G. K. Chesterton statement that “Christianity is not a failure; it just hasn’t been tried yet.” I do believe that many, many great things have happened in the name of Christ, but I also believe we can continue to evolve. Martin Luther King said, “We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not yet learned the single art of living together as brothers.”
The Next Billion Years
A billion seconds ago it was 1959. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age. In the time it took me to deliver this sermon, our government has just spent 3 billion dollars. Where will we be in just another billion years from now? As I am speaking words to you this morning, there are very learned, scientific and sincere people with Project Phoenix who are putting out microwave signals in outer space, hoping for a return message. Project Phoenix is not science fiction. Initially NASA paid for the project. Today there are still NASA scientists running the communication, but with private funding mostly from Hewlett-Packard. This is the real thing. What will happen to us, our reason, religion and language, if or when the scientists do hear another language from someone or something? I’ll bet that will change our view of the planet and the universe and God. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson, Chaplain
Aspen Chapel
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