In the Name of God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

How do we talk to each other?  What do we say?  What language do we use?

Since I’m standing up here, wearing these clothes, you may have already guessed that I’m not asking whether or not you use English primarily, or if you spend your day speaking the technical jargon of computers, or the law, or academia, or high finance.  I’m inquiring about a deeper level of speech.

How do we COMMUNICATE with each other?  How do we CONNECT?  And what IS it that we’re trying to say?

All of the readings appointed for today are about speech, about communication.  In the reading from Jeremiah, we hear a description of the prophet’s call.  Jeremiah says, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.”  But the Lord responds, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.  Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord”  The Lord puts out a hand and touches Jeremiah’s mouth and says, “Now I have put my words in your mouth. . . .”

Jeremiah is given inspired speech.

In this morning’s passage from his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul is addressing a problem in the community.  It seems that some members of the church in Corinth have received the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues.  And this seems to be causing division.  Perhaps these members have become rather full of themselves.  Perhaps the community is beginning to value the gift of tongues over other spiritual gifts.  But WHATEVER the case, Paul makes it clear that the gift of tongues without interpretation – you might say meaning without sense – is no help to the community.  Paul goes on to explain to the Corinthians, in the passage we heard this morning, that all spiritual gifts are nothing if they are not informed by love.  Love is the greatest gift of all . . . love is the center of all.

Paul is speaking lovingly instructive speech.

In the passage from the Gospel according to Luke we heard this morning, Jesus says things in his hometown – in the synagogue – that so infuriate his neighbors that they are prepared to KILL him . . . to throw him over a cliff.

Here we have maddening, painful, truthful speech.

Recently a fellow – not a member of the parish – came by the church and wanted to see a priest.  Every so often this happens.  This particular fellow is a street person, homeless, trying to cope with a set of addictions, deeply troubled.  The day I saw him, he was wearing enough clothes to keep warm, his shoes were in tolerable condition, and he seemed to know more about city shelters and soup kitchens than I did . . . on a “practical level” there seemed to be very little for me to do for him.  He wanted to talk.  One thing I COULD do for him was listen.

The professional term for his condition, I suppose, is paranoid schizophrenia.  As I listened to him, it became quite clear that we were in two different realities.  I did not recognize the world he described, and the more I heard of his story, the less I had to say.  The more he spoke the more it seemed to me that if I wanted to reach him, I had to enter his world.  A world I did not recognize; a terrifying place.  I’m not a therapist, so I could be wrong about all this.  But that’s the way it seemed to me.  And I knew that I didn’t want to enter his world, even if I knew how.  So I was quiet.  I listened.  I wondered what Jesus would do.  Eventually our meeting ended and I sent him on his way.  I said a prayer for him.

Silent speech?  Is there such a thing as ‘silent speech’?

In the readings today people are trying to speak truth, DEEP truth.  People are really trying to touch others, to communicate, to establish connections, to explain our human reality, if you will.  But this kind of information, this news, is not always welcome.  Prophets . . . like Jeremiah, like Jesus, learn this.

After the Lord calls Jeremiah, after the Lord puts words in Jeremiah’s mouth, Jeremiah quickly learns that his message – a message of repentance, a message of the need to turn to God to avert national disaster – this message is not welcome to his compatriots.  Jeremiah tries to swallow the words, to dam them up, but they burn within and he cannot stop their flow.  The people around him revile him.  Eventually Jeremiah charges God with rape.  “O Lord, you have seduced me, and I was seduced; you are stronger than me and you overpowered me.”  Rather like the way that people speaking in tongues seem to be overwhelmed by the Spirit.

And Jesus?  Jesus occasionally refers to himself as a prophet.  In this morning’s reading, Jesus has just told his fellow townspeople that the Scripture is fulfilled.  The Lord’s anointed one has come with good news for the poor and the oppressed.  Yet before the people around him can become too excited, Jesus turns on them.  He reminds his neighbors that in the time of Elijah and Elisha there were many people starving and many lepers in Israel, but God’s miracles came only in neighboring countries, Israel’s sometimes enemies.  Jesus’ neighbors become furious . . . how dare Jesus suggest that the messiah may not have come specifically for them and for them ONLY.

We don’t always want to hear the truth – deep truth – God’s truth, do we?  Sometimes this truth seems too difficult, too demanding, too impossible to be . . . true.  Sometimes this truth seems unintelligible, as if it were spoken in another language.  I suspect that in our lack of comprehension, the fault lies with us . . . not with God.  For God’s language, God’s speech, is love.  Our failure to listen, our failure to believe, our failure to comprehend is a failure of love.

I’ve been told that I talk a lot about God’s love.  This is probably true.  And of course there’s a danger in this . . . the danger that because of my lack of eloquence, because of my own lack of understanding, God’s love might start to sound sappy or saccharine . . . it might begin to sound THIN.  But God’s love is constant and strong.  God’s love is TRUTH.  God’s love is sometimes frightening.  It is a love that sometimes delivers a message that we don’t want to hear.

I suspect that just like Jeremiah’s listeners we find it hard to believe that we really need to repent, to turn our lives around completely, because just like the people in Jesus’ home town, we all want to believe that somehow we’re set apart . . . that somehow God’s love, God’s saving grace is meant ESPECIALLY for us.  It’s not.  It’s meant for EVERYONE.  And, according to the Gospels, it’s meant ESPECIALLY for those who need it most:  the poor, the sick, the oppressed, the outcast.

We humans seem to have a drive to set apart, to divide, to categorize.  We can see this in Jeremiah’s story, in the church in Corinth, and in Jesus’ hometown.  I certainly felt a division between myself and the fellow I told you about earlier who came to see me.  Me.  Him.  Two different worlds.  But this is not truth . . . truth with a capital ‘T’.  We are ALL God’s children.  God’s love is present for everyone.  Jesus came for the WORLD.  If you take it seriously, this can be frightening information.  It’s frightening for me to sit with a dirty, homeless, mentally unbalanced person and realize that in God’s eyes we are one.  We are not divided.  In God’s love we are joined in our humanity . . . this is my brother . . . this is my sister.

God’s language, Spirit speech, if you will, is love.  A never ending call to love God and love our neighbor.

When we really try to communicate with each other, what are we trying to say?  Me?  You?  Or US . . . ALL of us?  Are we noisy gongs or clanging cymbals . . . or . . . are we speaking the language of love?

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