In my sermon last Sunday (I didn’t post the manuscript here
because in all honesty I’m terrible at manuscripting a sermon and didn’t write
one) I hinted at my use of Scripture as I mature in the faith. I avoided the
words “inerrant” and “infallible” because those terms are so loaded and misused
that they had no meaning for me at the time. Instead, I tried to lead my
congregation to see that the Gospel permeates even the awful, terrible,
bloodthirsty passages of the Old Testament in hopes that they would see the
beauty of God’s redemptive plan.
However we treat the Scriptures, there is one thing that
cannot be interpreted away or perfectly resolved regardless of our syntactical
skill or hermeneutical expertise: we cannot perfectly recreate the tone of
voice used in the text. I realize that this is a prima face assumption of any textural interpretation, but in our
use of Scripture we are at a loss when it comes to the tone of voice Paul or
Moses or Jesus would have used were they speaking the words attributed to them.
One principal example will serve to illustrate this: my life would be made
considerably better if I could have heard
Jesus say those words recoded in Mark 7:25-30/Matthew 15:21-28. How did he
actually say “καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτῇ, Ἄφες πρῶτον χορτασθῆναι τὰ τέκνα, οὐ γάρ ἐστιν
καλὸν λαβεῖν τὸν ἄρτον τῶν τέκνων καὶ τοῖς κυναρίοις βαλεῖν.”[1]
The tone of voice, the facial expressions, the mountain of
information that exists just out of sight in the text would all make such passages
less troublesome. Alas, such context is absent. Thanks be to God that minds
much sharper than mine and souls much more faithful than mine can help to make
that context a little less murky.
In Galatians 1:24 I find another passage of such toneless-ness.
After Paul’s lengthy autobiographical piece earlier in the chapter we find him
coming full stop with the phrase “and they glorified God because of me.” There
are so many ways one could say that simple sentence, each changing the meaning
and emphasizing a different intention on the part of the writer. Consider just
two of those options.
First, let’s assume that Paul is concluding an argument
through which he wishes to convey his spiritual authority to the churches in
Galatia. Much as in his Philippian correspondence he could be demonstrating his
insufficiency to the task to which he has been set.[2] In
Philippians he counts all of his accomplishments as “rubbish,” clinging only to
the glory of Christ as his validation. In this introduction in Galatians, Paul
seems to brag that he received no assistance in his preparation and early days
of ministry. “and they glorified God because of me” could be read, then, as
braggadocio-cum-humility. The tone of Paul’s voice as he dictated this sentence
would tell us much about his intent.
Another alternative, though, is one of what I’d call
surprised humility. By invoking the readers’ memories of his vicious
persecution of the Church in years past (“You have heard, no doubt, of my
earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the Church of God and
trying to destroy it.”) Paul reminds the readers of just the sort of man he
used to be. He went through a drastic conversion and an even more drastic
formation experience, intentionally avoiding the goings-on of the young Church
headquartered in Jerusalem. What if this is a confession? What if Paul’s tone
in all of this was apologetic?
Hear those words again – “…and they glorified God because of
me.” Yes, this sounds so braggadocios as to turn the stomach. But emphasized in
another tone, this short phrase tugs on my soul. Allow me to paraphrase – “in
spite of all that I had done, in spite of my avoiding the Church in Jerusalem,
in spite of being known by reputation alone as a troublemaker and persecutor, still they praised God.” Paul (even
Paul!) could lead people to glorify the God who takes enemies and makes them
allies.
Oh, the tone. The tone of my life and my words often
undermines the grace that I’d hope to communicate to every person I meet. This
simple phrase of a verse bothers me,
probably because I want so badly for Paul to be standing before his skeptics
and testifying that in spite of all the hell he put the Church through God
still redeemed his past and negotiated his future for the good of the Kingdom.
That’s the story I want to tell – that regardless of the times I got it wrong,
God worked it for God’s glory. The tone of voice makes this and other phrases
cut to the bone or lift our heads.
Say it: “…and they glorified God because of me.”
Not in arrogance, but in surprised humility: “…and they
glorified God because of me.”
Not to curry favor or for self-righteousness, but in shock
and amazement: “…and they glorified God because of me.”
The tone makes all the difference.
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