Day 282 Christians and Other Aliens

Jesus said, "For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45). Jesus is making a profound observation. The "overflow" from which we speak flows both ways. We can speak words of death as well as life. It all depends on what speaks our heart into being.

This is not a moral teaching about the need for wholesome language in everyday life. It is not about thinking good thoughts so that we can speak good words. No, Jesus is addressing something much more radical. 

Jesus is speaking in not-so-subtle terms to the religious establishment who spoke from the overflow of their heart. He is speaking to those who controlled the language of the Torah and Temple--the very heart of the people. The sacred language system of Jesus' day not only misrepresented God as a tribal and transactional God, but also called people into a terrifying relationship with that god, a false god, thereby breaking the first commandment. Out of the overflow of its heart, the religious system spewed language of exclusion and retribution.

In stark contrast, God speaks to the heart of humanity through an entirely new language of incarnation, "the Word became flesh." It is the language of with-ness and embrace. God inducts us into the language of life by the Word at work in us, forming and shaping our hearts in love. We are learning to speak according to the Word who speaks us into existence. We speak as ones who have been spoken to. This is our call.

William Stringfellow urges us to speak out of the overflow of a transformed heart: In the face of death, live humanly. In the middle of chaos, celebrate the Word. Amidst Babel, speak the truth. Confront the noise and verbiage and falsehood of death with the truth and potency and the efficacy of the Word of God. Know the Word, teach the Word, nurture the Word, preach the Word, defend. And more than that, in the Word of God, expose death and all death's works and wiles, rebuke lies, cast out demons, exorcise, cleanse the possessed, raise those who are dead in mind and conscience. (An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land)