Sermon Begins at 33:32
Good Morning St. Andrew’s
This morning I am moved to preach to you: Notice your Word.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but we use words every day;
hundreds and thousands of them.
But how often do we actually pay attention to the words we use?
By the end of this sermon, you will have heard somewhere around 1,555 words.
How do I know this, and why is this number so oddly specific?
Because I came back at the end and put the number for the total count, thank you Microsoft Word.
Also, in case you were wondering, that number includes all of these words that I’m speaking right now in this unnecessary digression.
Which ones will be the most important? Which will have the most impact? Which ones would be the ones, if you listened back tomorrow on the St. Andrew’s website, that you will have forgotten?
Finally, what do my words say about me?
Dr. James Pennebaker from the University of Texas at Austin spent his career looking at words and how people use them.
A psychologist by trade, Dr. Pennebaker was interested to see, if he and his research teams could discover how our words show us about our minds.
At the beginning of his research, he was interested in whether there were differences between the ways that men and women use their words.
Now, if you were to guess, which words do you think would be the most important in finding the differences between people?
(People who differ in socio-economic status, culture, race, gender, political persuasion)
I figured that it would be words of substance personally. I thought the biggest difference would be $5 words.
It turns out that our most important words, the ones that tells us about the inner working of our minds are the smallest words, the throw-away words; things like pronouns “I, we, they, that, those,” and prepositions.
In studying word-use based on gender, Dr. Pennebaker had assumed that women would use more words like “we, our, us” and that men would be more focused on themselves using words like “I, me, mine.”
What he found, however, was that men and women tend to use all of these words fairly similarly.
The differences that he did find were that women tend to use more words like “she, he, it, they, etc…”
(notice that I said “she” first; that was strategic. Not for any political reason, but really because if I don’t get the pause just right when I say he, she, it, you might think that your preacher was swearing. And nobody wants that.)
While men tend to use more prepositions like “to, for, in,” articles like “a, an, that, these,” and nouns; a person, place, or thing.
What he found is that women tended to use more relational words and be focused on people, while men tended to be focused on objects.
Now, these are subtle differences. It’s the difference of your words being 6% pronouns instead of 4%.
The obvious question in a world, where we are beginning to see and recognize how fluid gender is, how much culture defines what is masculine or feminine more than biology is…
Do these observations about word choice in men and women really hold up?
So, what Pennebaker did next was to study writing samples of people who used medical testosterone boosters.
He looked at their writings from before their use of testosterone and after.
He found a similar jump in the focus not on relational words, but on object words.
These were interesting findings;
But, what I found most fascinating in listening to Dr. Pennebaker describe his research on the Hidden Brain podcast with Shankar Vidantam
Was his research into how people’s words change when they are distressed or anxious.
What he found is that when we are stressed, or anxious, or depressed, our use of self-referential words goes up appreciably; “I, me, mine.”
Whereas you might think that we would think less of ourselves, when we aren’t feeling a lot of self-worth,
Dr. Pennebaker found that we actually become more focused on ourselves, our feelings, our perceptions, our perceived faults and failures.
When we are in distress, our self-referential words go up.
I have to say that I was more than a little skeptical listening to this research.
With any data that a scientist collects, there is always the possibility that their conclusions could just be their own hidden biases masquerading as results.
Pseudo-science thrives on this kind of manipulation of data, so do conspiracy theories;
Like the pseudo-science of John Morton’s brain studies in the 19th century, in which he claimed that white brains were bigger and thus intellectually superior;
Racism under the guise of scientific method and discovery.
How do we know that a study like Dr. Pennebaker’s is discovering something salient, or if it is just the researcher finding what they already believed implicitly?
I don’t know how the verdict of time will see Dr. Pennebaker’s work, but I do think that what he notices about our words can be useful in the meantime.
Let me show you what I mean.
Did you notice the words from our Scripture readings this morning?
We had Job wishing he could talk to God after enduring hardship, suffering, and friends who asked him what he did wrong; how he brought his suffering onto himself.
Those are the kinds of friends we want right?
Something bad happens and then they immediately come to our aid by saying, “I mean… but… do you deserve it?”
Our psalm reading from Psalm 22 is someone in deep distress, feeling forsaken.
I don’t know if you noticed, but this is the psalm that we read on Good Friday.
They are some of the words that Jesus says from the cross in Matthew and Mark.
Hebrews is a letter to a group of believers. It is an intellectual treatise written in Greek philosophical style using Jewish religious symbols to describe Jesus’ importance and status as Messiah.
And Mark’s gospel story about how difficult it is for rich people to enter the kingdom of heaven.
He’s on the road to Jerusalem, but he hasn’t come to the critical events of His crucifixion yet; He’s still teaching as he marches upward to Zion.
Is there a difference between the way that our first two lessons, the lessons where people are in deep distress, and our second two lessons, the lessons where the anxiety is lower, use their words?
Look how many times Job and the psalmist use personal pronouns, and references to themselves; how focused they are on their own plights.
Look how focused Jesus and the writer of Hebrews are on those around them, on the needs and interests of their listeners and disciples.
Even in this small sample of writing, I think we can see that Dr. Pennebaker’s research is not totally off base.
So, you might be wondering, what does this all mean?
If I use fewer “I” statements, I’ll be happier, less distressed, less anxious?
Actually, it doesn’t really work that way according to the research.
What’s the Good News then, or as the disciples asked the question, “Then who can be saved?”
What I hope this sermon will help you to hear is your own inner voice, and the power to pay attention to your words.
We have a funny way sometimes, when people ask us how we’re doing of saying, “I’m okay,” or “pretty good,” or something like that.
I wonder how often we stop to recognize within ourselves how we’re doing, or whether we are getting so focused on keeping one foot moving in front of the other to stop and notice our own state of being.
The writer to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus - our greatest Word - is a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, who has been tested in every way as we are.
Though he spent most of his life teaching and thinking about us, just like Job and the psalmist, in his time of sorrow Jesus spoke self-referential words of distress, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”
Just like you and me, His words changed and showed his anguish.
But he also showed us a way through.
He showed us that He is the mightiest Word and that these times of distress can pass.
Even in the midst of sorrow or stress, there is an other side.
As we sit with wars, hurricanes, and elections it is good to notice our words.
Whether you journal or simply notice how you speak, know that your words are acceptable to God and that God understands you in your joys and in your sorrows.
Jesus knows what it’s like when stress makes you more self-focused and what it’s like to be calm in the storm.
As you sit with whatever is on your heart this week, whether it’s strength or weakness, certainty or confusion, concern or confidence, thanksgiving or lamentation;
Whatever words come to you, or come out of you,
Notice your Word; Jesus, the firstborn of all creation, the author of salvation.
Know that He is with you, that you have the best Word within you, and as the old song says that He will carry you through.
Amen.
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