December 28, 2020
Sharing from the congregation – David Petty
At that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord ... the remnant of Israel: they have shall do no wrong and utter no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths. Then they will pasture and lie down, and no one shall make them afraid. — Zephaniah 3: 9,13
Although Zephaniah is one of the shortest books in the Bible (53 verses), I won’t try to reproduce much of it here. Instead, I have just cited two verses that I think are important to understanding the movement of the book.
Unlike some of the other books of prophecy which move back and forth between hope and complaint or despair, Zephaniah has a simple structure. Much of the book filled with death and devastation, but at about three fourths of the way through there is a turning point to hope and peace.
That turning point occurs exactly at verse 3:9.
I think it’s significant that the turn begins with a change of speech. Verse 13 re-emphasizes the importance of speech. This is consistent with a common theme in the Bible, the power of speech itself to achieve things. It goes back to the first chapter of Genesis, where God speaks the world and the cosmos into being. The Word of God is necessary for life (Deuteronomy 8:3, a verse cited by Jesus during his wilderness temptation) and can kill (Hosea 6:5). Human speech is not like the Word of God, but still can be very powerful.
We have to decide for ourselves whether we believe this. Maybe the idea of transformative speech is just magical thinking, rooted in ancient Middle Eastern superstition.
Maybe it’s an enduring truth.
After a year of pandemic, unrest at home and abroad, a record number of hurricanes, new splintering of the Methodist church, and capped by a bitter election season, we could all stand a turning point. Can we bring that about with speech alone?
Of course we know that changed speech usually occurs along with with changed attitudes. The logical assumption would be that the attitude change effects the speech change. Some studies, however, indicate that the reverse can be the case. Simply changing our speech can apparently alter our thinking.
Maybe what the Bible says about this could apply to us. Maybe in this new year we could turn the world around with our speech. Maybe we should at least give it a try.
Gracefully submitted,
David Petty