When my kids were little they thought the store I got wood from was called, “Nofo Glumber.” That's the way it sounds and lots of names don't mean anything as words. We don't expect to know what the word Abe means or the word Rempel, but we know that those two meaningless words together refer to a person who we do know. So in my house, it came as a bit of a revelation to learn that Norfolk Lumber was the name of the store but also refers to the municipality in which the store is located and the product that the store sells.  

When I was in college an exchange student from China who was just learning English put up his hand and very politely told the professor, “I don't know what the f--- you are talking about.” He had learned English by watching North American movies and he thought that word was a common way to add emphasis to a sentence. That's true, but it's also important to know other things about a word besides how it is commonly used – in this case, that it's obscene. A lot of people who have learned a second language have some equivalent story of tripping over the many layers of meaning that words can have.

This also happens in the church and not only for kids and newcomers. In fact, sometimes I think that the people who struggle most with the meaning of words that we use in the church are those of us who have been around them a long time. For example, around Easter, we sometimes talk and sing about the way that the resurrection of Jesus “conquered death”. What do we mean when we say that? Do we mean that Jesus pounded death into submission in a cosmic mixed martial arts match or maybe that Jesus literally killed death in hand-to-hand combat? Or do we mean that Jesus conquered death in the way that we might conquer the fear of heights by skydiving – by going through an experience its fearful power can be taken away? To use the biblical analogy from Psalm 23, does the resurrection of Jesus clear cut the valley of the shadow of death and burn what remains into a post-apocalyptic wasteland or does Jesus' resurrection create a path through the valley of the shadow of death so that our fear of it goes away because Jesus has been there before us to establish a safe path? In that way, we might return through Jesus to a way of thinking about death similar to the writer of the book of 1 Kings who notes that first David and then Solomon 'rested with their ancestors and were buried'. After long full lives, they moved on into the restful presence of God without fear or regret.

All sorts of words that we use in church regularly are like that, including the word 'resurrection' itself along with words like 'salvation' and 'evangelical'. What do we mean when we use them? What do we also mean in addition to what we mean on the surface? Is it possible that sometimes we don't know anymore and use words out of habit or as a way of posing? Is it possible that different people mean different things without realizing it? If we discover that we are using some words as a kind of secret code would it be okay to stop? Would it be okay to explore those words together and have a good laugh at the results of the conversation in the same way we would if we were learning a new language?

Sometimes I end these blog posts with abstract questions to think about but this time I'd like to end with a request for you to help me in practical ways. It's the season right after Easter and it's springtime. This is the time of year to begin again and look for signs of new life after death. Can you help me? I would like to speak more clearly and listen more carefully. I would like to assume less and ask more. I would like to learn how to speak the language of faith together even if it means some funny and embarrassing stumbles. I would like to attend a church in which we can speak to one another and understand what the other one has to say even if it takes a few tries. When we trip on different understandings I would like to laugh about it and have our connection grow stronger as a result.