DESERT PALMS PRESBYETRIAN CHURCH

Sun City West, Arizona

To Tangibilify

A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Dr. David S. Hodgson

April 25, 2010

Isaiah 55:6-13

Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 12 For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

James 1:19-27

You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act--they will be blessed in their doing. 26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

My text is taken from the Book of James, Chapter 1, v. 22: “Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only.” I know. In this church it’s sort of like preaching to the choir. Let us pray for inspiration. For the privilege of doing your word, O God, across these spans of years we thank you. We come to your word looking for you, for some sense of your encouragement, and your guidance, and your inspiration for all that you yet intend. To you be glory and praise, O Lord. Amen.

I love words; perhaps a little more than they love me. I mean, if words loved me half as much as I love them, they would all spell themselves phonetically. They would stop playing hide-and-seek in my mind when I call for them. This past week ago, Linda, Jan Ettele and I were in St. Louis, as you know, to go through the boot camp for the Stephen Ministries Leadership Training Conference. During that week we learned the word tangibilify. T-a-n-g-i-b-i-l-i-f-y. Tangibilify. The neat thing about that word is that Webster never found it, no matter how hard he tried to find it. The reason he couldn’t find it is simply because the folks at Stephen Ministry just made it up. Yet, hearing it for the first time we understood, as you surely understand, what it means. “To make tangible something that heretofore has been intangible.” To tangibilify. 

Well, that word has no official definition, and until I could stop her Tina spent at least two hours trying to find it before she put it in the bulletin. Even though it’s a word without a definition it is a concept that is familiar to all of us and is central to our life together, for our two sacraments have everything to do with tangibilifying spiritual realities. The water is a tangible symbol of the intangible spirit of God. The bread and the wine at communion are tangible symbols of the body and life of Christ so that we might be able to “touch and handle things unseen”, as the hymn goes, because the experience of the spiritual intangible realities is familiar to all of us and we spend our time making them tangible.

Even though we only have two sacraments in our church we use the word sacramental all the time, and for the same mystery. Whenever love becomes tangible with a hug that expresses forgiveness, or in a relationship that gives encouragement and becomes redemptive, whenever hope takes on form in lives and faith translates itself into plans and moves forward with confidence, we have been known to say of those experiences, they are sacramental in nature because something intangible—by a hug, by a life shared—becomes tangible. To tangibilify.

I like to think every time I use a word that Webster could never find, he rolls over in shame, which is partly why I enjoy saying it so much, and you know you’re just dying to try it. Tangibilify. Come on … [response] Tangibilify. Once more for Webster: tangibilify. And once more so they can hear it in St. Louis: tangibilify. It is a word without a definition, but it is also one of the most fundamental concepts of the entire Bible. Let me show you why and how.

From the very beginning one of the stories of creation is told. We find an image of God creating something out of nothing. God tangibilifying while speaking words that then came into existence. “Let there be light,” and light appeared. It was tangibilified. Let there be a firmament with vegetation, with fish to inhabit the seas, birds to inherit the skies, beasts to roam upon the fields, and with those words, existence happened. They were drawn into existence; something invisible, tangibilified. It’s right there; first spoke the Bible.

Move on into the prophets and another incredible discovery is made and that is this: God has not stopped creating with words. “My word shall not return to me empty,” said God, “but will accomplish that which I purpose.” And God compared it to rain falling upon the earth, sinking into the soil, producing growth, new life and great harvest. Then, the image of that word returning to God with the harvest, having accomplished that which God intended. The Hebrew word used for God speaking there is dabar. Enjoy that one and you can almost hear it echo down through the ages: dabar. It means that God had a thought and it went out, or God had a dream and it happened. God expressed God and it went forth into creation, and creation still happens. The prophets kept tabs on that creation and the rise and fall of a nation. They announced the word of God and where it was allowed to bear fruit, things prospered; where it was denied, the judgment of God returned. The word of God, going out with purpose, to accomplish work and return home. “My word shall not return to me empty,” from Isaiah.

Turn over into the gospels. This experience of tangibilifying things spiritual comes to its most beautiful expression in the Gospel of John, where once again a word is spoken: “In the beginning was the word and that word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The incarnation was God, tangibilifying, if you will, the word that became, and not only became flesh, but introduced us to all kinds of wonderful words: words of healing, words of comfort, words of encouragement, words of understanding, words of instruction in parables, words to bless in sermons.  I truly believe that word came, as every word from God, to accomplish work, and that that word will not return to God without having accomplished the work he came to do.

There are times when I feel a little bit sad for those who put so much stock in the second coming of Christ, as though they’re just waiting for the time when Christ will return and set things right, because there’s just nothing they can do in the meantime that makes the world a better place than it is. I have a feeling, nevertheless. I think that word that we saw incarnate in the life of Christ is still here, and that spirit, that word of God, is still working to touch this planet and this civilization into wholeness and to wellness. That’s God, tangibilifying divine purpose in human form. 

The end of the Bible just before it is bequeathed to the ages, we find James putting the caption beneath the experience of the early church: “Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only.” He understood the danger of soaking up the word of God and doing nothing with it. He seemed to understand that when the word of God goes down it never is a personal treasure to be hoarded and kept to oneself; it’s meant to be shared, implanted and empowered and used, because that word, by our doing of it, will be tangibilified. It will return to God.

The Stephen Ministry leader’s conference: the three of us were asked to stand and accept applause from the three hundred and fifty people who were there on behalf of all of you as a church that has had the Stephen Ministry program for twenty years. Their applause was heartwarming. In that time more than one hundred of you have been trained as Stephen Ministers, so you understand the experience that transbilifies. That’s more than ten percent of our congregation, trained to listen to words of fear and touch them with hope and transform them into relationships that are strong, supportive and redemptive. More than ten percent of our congregation, professionally trained to take loneliness, touch it with love and transform it into a covenant relationship that brings life where there had been despair. People specifically trained to put faith into action, hope into implementation, and love into transformation, all of them experiences we understand by the word tangibilify.

Long before there was a Stephen Ministry program in existence, I needed a Stephen minister, but didn’t know what it was I needed. Obviously, as there was no such program, but one day, a more mature gentleman than I appeared in my door and I ushered him in, assuming there was something he needed me to do for him. Very gently and gradually I became aware of the fact that he was there to see what he could for me. When he made the offer of a listening ear, someone to share the load, I thanked him very much for his concern, but said no. He said, “You know, sometimes it helps to have someone to talk to, to be able to trust that confidentiality. Sometimes it does help to laugh with someone, cry with someone and pray with someone.” I said no. Then he said to me, “Why won’t you let me do for you what you would do in a heartbeat for anyone of us?” That’s where I got this notion that my words all play hide-and-seek in my mind. You see, I had many words I could have used to explain why I had to refuse or why I didn’t want it to happen, but there was just one word poking around in my mind and it was pride. And so I spoke the word, accepted his friendship and his love as a gift from God. 

In that experience, you see, the word that I had been preaching in my pulpit was tangibilified for me. I know it’s like preaching to the choir, about being doers of the word and not hearers only, because all of you have found so many extraordinary ways to live your faith, to let the word of God excite your minds and fill your hearts, challenge your daily schedules with one experience after another of giving yourselves away. This church is a place where the word of God takes on form, function and purpose, and that to me is tangibilification. T-a-n-g-i-b-i-l-i-f-i-c-a-t-i-o-n.!      Remember where you heard it the first time. You can practice saying that on your own, because that’s where you will give it meaning, though it is a word that has no viable definition. To God be the glory.

Let us pray. For all those little moments, O God, when something spiritual becomes temporal, when something immortal has a taste of mortality, when something intangible takes on form and we discover that your word is at work in the present moment. Help us to celebrate, to be able to hear your word and share it, and in sharing your word to do it, for all that you are accomplishing among us, that the life of Christ may return in all fullness, having accomplished the work it came here to do. In his name we humbly pray, Amen.