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My adult life, in many ways, has been about words. Lots of words. Words in sermons, words in reading, words in writings. I wonder how many words I have written over the years. I wonder how many different words I have used over time. Recently I was thinking of some words that have never been spoken by me nor appeared in any form of writing. Allow me to share some of these unused words:

Privation, yoke, vessel, eddy, Schadenfreude (I have used German words in past), oblate, platypus ( I did once see one in Australia), arrowhead, oblate, geriatric ( I may soon be needing to use this one), gratifyingly, nymph, sucrose, chapeau, (the only other French word I know is restaurant), catalo, and, to end here, zymurgy. This, of course is not an exhaustive list, just a small sampling of words I have not used from the array of vocabulary consisting of 171,000 + words in the English language.

Words communicate. Yes, a rose by any other name may still smell as sweet, but we would otherwise have no idea what the author/speaker was talking about without a word for it. I mean, in playing charades, how might one distinguish a rose, from, say, another fragrant flower with thorns?

Also, words, either because of who speaks them, and/or how they speak them, can be authoritative. Words can produce trust or mistrust. They can explain or confuse. What would our day-to-day life be without words? They are of great importance. This is why sign language has been developed…to show through gestures what words say. This is why those both deaf and blind also have a way of communicating words through brail or finger spelling.

One of the ways Genesis says God created is by word, “And then God said….”. John’s gospel, read at Christmas Eve and, in some years, in a Sunday after Christmas, says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word. We, like John, understand this Word, the Word, to be Jesus. And we understand this Jesus to be the ultimate communication of God to us. This Word, John tells us, became flesh and lived among us. A strict translation would say God pitched God’s tent among us.

There are many words about God. Reading through even just some of those words uttered or written by Christians, does not reveal the same God among us. Sometimes in our own congregations we hear different takes on this Word, differing understandings of God.

What is a Christian to do? The simple, yet profound thing to do is return to the Word of God: Jesus. What words being written and said match up with what God said to us in Jesus? What words make us recoil upon hearing them? What words can we never imagine being spoken by the mouth of Jesus?

I don’t know if God has a list of words never used. If so, God’s list would be extremely lengthy as God speaks God’s Word in all languages. I do know what word God has used and continues to use: The Word that still dwells among us. The Word that is still flesh and pitches its tent in our campground. It is a Word that was at the beginning, is in our present, and a Word that will have the last word about us. We can put that in our oblate, gratifying eddy. It will create a lot of Schadenfreude under our chapeaus.

Most of you who know me well, are not aware I was once a Girl Scout. Yes, I am serious, a proud, card-carrying member of the Girl Scouts of America. This was long before any scouting organization even thought about integrating genders in their scouting organization.

I had been asked to serve on the Board of Directors for the Zia Council of Southern New Mexico of the Girl Scouts of America. They officially made me a member of GSA right down to cookie selling privileges. As a young pastor, my time on this board taught me a great deal.

Mostly what I learned was about sexism. The Boy Scouts in my town had a nice newish facility for meetings and events. They also did not have to sell cookies to pay for it. The Girl Scouts had what can kindly be described as a large shed with a few hanging light bulbs from the ceiling. I had never been to a Southern NM Boy Scout camp, but had heard many fine stories from those who had. As a Boy Scout alum, I do remember camping in winter at Camp Rotawanis in Pennsylvania…a wonderful, fully equipped, camp. The Southern NM Girl Scout camp was a bit more austere…..many of the “cabins” were actually lean-tos with an open “wall”.

It was easy to see who controlled a lot of purse strings to direct the way charitable donations would go. Why did girls not receive the same value as boys? Too many Dad’s had walked only in their son’s shoes. Really, there was nothing scary about trying on those of their daughter…even the high heels could be learned, just take careful steps. It is not as big a risk as we might think.

Had I not had this experience, I am not sure I would have the awareness I have concerning many of the observances I make now that are remaining vestiges of those days. I was glad to be able, if only very superficially, “one of them.” Certainly the experience made me one with them. Yet today while the gap between genders may be smaller it remains still a gap.

Imagine! At Christmas we receive a God who does more than walk in our shoes. This God walks in our very bodies. For those unable to walk, this God wheels, lays, or sits in our very bodies. The point is, not only does this God, come to us in the baby Jesus, know what it is like to be us; this God was us. God did not pretend to be us, but went the gamut of human life even to death. What a risk!

With God the lean-tos and buildings of hanging light bulbs and leaking roofs were kept for God’s self. I don’t know if God would sell cookies, but I do know God provides the ingredients and is with those who sell them.

Those of us who will worship this baby come to earth that first Christmas can take heart in the God who came to be among and to be one with and of us. We are understood! We are known! We are loved by this God birthed in a feed trough! We can take heart and we can use that heart to try on another’s shoes…to be one with and of them. We need not agree with or be like those whose stilettos or penny loafers we don. (After all, God who walked in ours continues to call us sinners) Understanding is what we may gain, and respect for another as a fellow human can result. Difficult, yes. What has not understanding cost us?

(As an aside: Just to be clear, I have great respect for the Boy Scouts, having been one. Also because of so many who have been or are students here, my respect has grown. On a recent Wednesday night during dinner I looked around and there were only 7 male students present: all 7 were Eagle Scouts. I mentioned this and almost in unison, they just shrugged.)

By now we are all used to seeing people interviewed via Zoom, Skype, Cisco or other electronic means on television news, late night TV, and other such shows. Don’t we all, like most of the interviewers, find it interesting to see the backdrop for the interviewees?

Some speak from their bedroom, others their kitchen, a few speak from attics or basements, and still others in family rooms or living rooms, and of course, from an office or study. Over time we begin to anticipate where some will be for their interview. We may even have names for some of these folks. One frequent commentator I call Pineapple Man. He is always posed in his kitchen with a fresh pineapple on the counter forming his backdrop. Then there is Carnation Lady, for the woman who always poses in front of a large bouquet of said flower.

Well, I am a bit different as these folks are speaking. I thoroughly enjoy those who have bookshelves as a backdrop. When this is the case, I stand up, go over to the television, turn my head sideways, parallel to the floor, and begin to read the book bindings. I am always interested in what they have read. Sometimes I strike gold….that is, I discover a book I didn’t know existed, and put it on my list to read. Other times I hit silver….a book I already have read. It doesn’t do much for new insight on my part, but it can give just a small shot into the ego: “Oh, President Obama read that book too,” or “Look! Presidential historians Michael Beschloss and Jon Meacham have read that book!”

I sometimes learn something about the interviewee I did not know by spying on their books. With one woman I noticed a book, with her as author, on the subject of being a parent of a child with autism. Her picture and a young man I presume to be her son are on the cover. Rocket scientist that I am, quickly, I come to the conclusion she must be the parent of a child on the spectrum, and this young man must be her son.

Mostly what I have learned with my book binding espionage is that there is a tremendous array of knowledge out there. Name a subject, and there are books on it; generally books aplenty. I once had a church member, Frank, who taught forestry at Colorado State. In the history of the world at that time something like five books were ever written on mistletoe….not the Christmas hanging/kissing kind….the parasitic kind that kills trees and harm forests. Frank had written three of the five, them as I recall.

I am guessing I am not the only one who has ever walked through a bookstore, discovered a book on something I was not searching for, bought it, read it, and was more informed, perhaps even changed in perspective or outlook, because of it. This is what concerns me about “E” books. E books are found by searching for a particular topic or author. They don’t find you, you search for them. I must say Amazon with its algorithms does a great job of recommending books to me. Yet never do they recommend a book outside of my usual interests varied as my interests may be. It is in libraries and bookstores the books seem to call out to me, “Pssst! Over here! Check me out!” And I become the book’s obedient servant and do so. I find this a big downside to our electronic world. We go after the news we want to hear, the books we want to read, and, it would seem, the affirmation we wish to receive.

There is something theological here too. Too many times you and I search for God in a way to affirm what we already think and believe. Too often we resist God’s efforts to break in and change our perspective. We tend to love the Bible quotes that affirm and confirm some already held belief. When is the last time something in scripture spoke to you and you had to do a “180” from where you had once been? Remember, scripture is a Living Word….it does such things.

Looking for a Christmas present? Give yourself one. Walk through a library or bookstore; go to areas in those places where you normally would not travel. Look for something quite different from your usual read. Either buy or check out the book and read it, or at least read the inside of the book jacket to get the gist of it. If what you read there challenges you, take that as the book calling you to read all of it. Oh, and if you decide to crank your head sideways to read book titles during interviews….you might want to have plenty of Bengay handy. Just saying.