Words are Commitments

I have had the occasion again to read the bold words of the late Jewish rabbi and theologian, Abraham Joshua Heschel. Heschel was one of the dominant Jewish figures in the middle of the last century. He had lived through the experience of the Nazi era---surely an experience for a Jew which would be unlike any other person.

When I think about Heschel, I think about a man---a religious man of the modern era---standing firmly in his world and his culture and, yet, a man addressing the God of the universe. He stood within an ancient tradition, Judaism, but also knew the potentialities and problems of modernity. To me he has always been a model of piety.

It took me a long time to learn to appreciate and, even, to like the idea of piety. For a long time in my life, pious meant a very conservative, narrow-minded religious fuddy duddy. As usual, it began to change for me when I studied some foreign languages and began to appreciate its root meaning. It comes from the Latin, pietas, which means devotion or reverence.

To me Heschel is a pious man---a pious Jew. He also values words. And this hit me again when I landed on these words in his book, Quest for God. The book is really a focused look at prayer and worship. He has much to teach me, a Christian and Quaker. This was the sentence that thrilled me. “We shall never be able to understand that the spirit is revealed in the form of words, unless we discover the vital truth that speech has power, that words are commitments.”(25) That last phrase hit me powerfully: that words are commitments.

Of course, words are commitments. This is true between honorable people. But I also was forced to admit that this is not always true. If I lie to you, my words are not my commitments; my words are my deception. It is easy to see how the entire foundation of trust is built on words as commitments.

One way I look at it, words are our currency. When I am talking to you, I am spending my money…I am making an investment. My words set expectations for you. If I say I care about you, you have legitimately some expectations. So if something tough comes along for you and I am nowhere to be found, you have a right to wonder if my words were my commitment. Trust is called into question, if not eroded a little.

I worry about words in our culture today. Words are abundantly everywhere: television, music, emails, policy statements, text messages, phone calls…words are everywhere. But how many of them are commitments?

For me this is very spiritual. As a Christian, I take seriously what John’s Gospel tells me: “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The very Word of God

came into humanity and that Word made a commitment. The Divine Commitment to love the world such that we are all brought into loving relationship and that we become makers of the kingdom of God.

I worry that too many of us through our words and actions are makers of our own kingdoms. Somehow we have to twist our words, we make misleading statements which are not commitments, but coercive interventions to get our own way. That is not pious; it is pitiable.

I am drawn to the idea that words are commitments. I want words to be the cement of trust. I want to be a kingdom maker and want you to be a co-kingdom maker. Trust me!