The Inadequacy of Words

Throughout this week, I have really felt the poverty, inadequacy, and potential emptiness of words. This is coming from someone who "proclaims the Word" for a living! I am sure that each of us have cherished or perhaps begrudgingly accepted silence as we have had occasion to sit with someone who is grieving. The events in Israel and Palestine have been one of those occasions where some of us are required to say something, yet anything we say leaves so much more unsaid. 

-       The PCUSA office of the stated clerk issued one statement - as they are expected to do - and almost immediately it evoked outrage from those who felt that it needed to be more full-throated. Still, it was an attempt to speak truthfully. 

-       Churches for Middle East Peace issued a statement, which some of my friends found too slanted in one direction. Still, it was an attempt to speak truthfully.

-       Presbyterian Peace Fellowship has issued a statement, which I would reckon would receive the same critiques. Still, it was an attempt to speak truthfully.

-       President Biden and others have issued statements, carefully crafted to appease as well as to express. Still, they are attempts to speak truthfully.

As one insightful writer said last weekend, finding a way to address an incident as well as its context is always hard. When there are atrocities involved – and the attacks and hostage-taking by Hamas are atrocious – it becomes pretty near impossible. 

 

One attempt to address the fullness of the context in Palestine and Israel, as well as the depth of horror of the moment, was a Facebook post by Ori Hanan Weisberg, which SueJeanne Koh and Susan Thornton (among others) shared on their page. It is long and it is pointed and nobody can come out of it feeling easy about their involvement in the Middle East. Even so, it could have been twice as long and still would not have addressed all the human nonsense and evil that has contributed to the horrors of this week. Words simply cannot get it done sometimes. 

 

So, for those of you who struggle to offer your condolences, to say your piece, to offer your perspective, to speak truth to power, to proclaim the Word, or even to voice your prayers - it's not you, it's life and death, which is often unspeakable. May you experience a still small voice that lets you know that it's okay if your words seem inadequate to the moment. 

 

I think the most profound text of scripture might be Revelation 8:1, "When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour." The next reference to sound comes when prayers are offered mixed with the smoke of the incense. Perhaps that is the best we can do. 

 

Mark of St. Mark