For People with Bishop Rob Wright
For People with Bishop Rob Wright
Speech
Words create worlds. From Genesis where God speaks creation into being, to Jesus asking a paralyzed man, "Do you want to be made well?", speech carries the power to transform reality. But what happens when certain topics become unspeakable?
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation that explores how modern society increasingly avoids difficult conversations. Using Jesus' healing story, Bishop Wright reveals how bringing things into speech opens pathways to healing and resurrection. They also discuss more recent examples including the evolution of Malcolm X's speech as his heart expanded, the way Muhammad Ali voiced what many thought but dared not say about Vietnam, and how Pope Francis's humble question "Who am I to judge?" transformed Catholic discourse. At its core lies a powerful truth: authentic speech flows from the heart's abundance. Listen in for the full conversation.
Read For Faith, the companion devotional.
What's falling out of speech is our ability to demonstrate our love for our democracy by asking critical, catalytic questions about the direction we find ourselves in. You don't have to be a partisan, but love, I believe, demands speech. Maybe the journey with God for some of us is then to walk away from those ways and to adopt different ways which speak life over people and which speak up for those who don't have a voice.
Melissa:Welcome to For People with Bishop Rob Wright. I'm Melissa Rau, your host, and this is a conversation inspired by For Faith, a weekly devotion sent out every Friday. You can find a link to this week's For Faith and a link to subscribe in the episode's description. Hey, hey, Bishop.
Bishop Wright:Hey Melissa.
Melissa:So this week's devotion you called speech, based off or inspired by Proverbs 18, verse 21, and John chapter five, verses one through nine. It's really about the story of the man at the healing, the healing fountain, um, who wasn't able to be healed. Jesus comes upon him and says do you want to be well, right, all right. So you have something to say about speech and language, about what that means. So you want to kind of package that up for us.
Bishop Wright:Well, I'll give it a shot. So the thing about reading the Bible over many, many years is that while the stories don't change, you change and you begin to see these same stories, familiar stories, from different vantage points. And so I've always been fascinated by this story, john, the fifth chapter. You know, this guy's been laying infirmed, paralyzed the Bible says laying by pools of water for 38 years. He might be the most senior infirmed person there at the pools. He watches other people get healing. The angel comes, troubles the water, other people gets healing. And you know, on the faithful day, jesus finds him by the pools, walks up to him and brings something into speech. And so, you know, I've always been dazzled by the miracles. A lot of people are.
Bishop Wright:You can get really fixated on the, on the miracles, but I I sort of want to deconstruct and I want to look at the formula Um. And so you know, while we're not Jesus, um, it does seem like um, bringing things into reality through speech has healing properties. And so Jesus simply asked him a question Do you want to be made well In other translations, what do you want? Important questions. And then Jesus says at the end of the story rise, take up your mat and walk, and so none of this happens without Jesus bringing it alive in words, and I'm thinking a lot about that. I'm thinking a lot about freedom of speech these days in our own country. I'm thinking a lot about the suppression of different kinds of speech. I'm thinking about what is unspeakable these days, and so, yeah, that's how I get there.
Melissa:All right. Well, I'm really also fascinated by the proverb that says the tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Bishop Wright:Yeah.
Melissa:It's like that second part, bishop, where it's like, okay, yes, and power of life and death. Like, how often do we use speech to tear down rather than build up?
Bishop Wright:Too many times, too much, too much. And also we tear down things, I guess sort of passively, gently, by not allowing in our imagination there and then later our speech for new possibilities. So we stay in ruts because we can't imagine something more. So, you know, imagination and speech go together. Some people imagine things but it never makes their way to speech. Some people have no imagination and they're talking all the time. So it seems like the most generative combination is to sort of sit down, you know, with scripture, with our quietness, with God, and then begin to take a look at God's imagination for situations.
Bishop Wright:So this guy again, had been infirm for 38 years. It stuck, and Jesus asked him what he wants and he began to tell him about all the things that he can't control. Johnson, he began to tell him about all the things that he can't control, and you know, so you know you might say he was really trapped in shoulda, woulda, coulda, right, as we like to say, I should have, I would have, I could have. And Jesus, you know, cuts right to the bone here and says, yeah, but what do you want, right? And so one, as I've said about this text, and I love this text, as I've said about this text previously, you know, was the infirmity in the man's outlook or was it in his limbs, right? Either way, somehow Jesus's miracle rides in on Jesus's breath, his bringing things to speech.
Bishop Wright:You know, maybe people thought politely not to bring it up to this gentleman, right? I mean, we do that sometimes. Or maybe people were afraid not to bring it up. And I'm not saying we ought to be rude and run rush out over times when silence is better than a lot of talking, and I think we should proceed gently and sensitively, contextually, all of that. But at the same time, you know, at least as a person of faith, or one who endeavors to be a person of faith, there are things we have to bring to speech. You know, there was a study not long ago about how the word poverty has fallen out of lots of Christian sermonizing and Christian teaching. And so what are we not saying?
Bishop Wright:A lot is not being said right now about the Palestinians, that there's a full scale genocide happening and that we have decided to capitulate to the fact that we are being told not to speak up on behalf of a people, and so that is falling by the wayside when we need to talk about safety and security for the state of Israel, and safety and security and human dignity also for the Palestinian people. But that's not being born into speech, it's becoming unspeakable. And when things become unspeakable things fall into indifference and neglect, and then that's a bad road, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I think what's falling out of speech is our ability to demonstrate our love for our democracy by asking critical, catalytic questions about the direction we find ourselves in. You don't have to be antagonistic, you don't have to be a partisan, but love, I believe, demands speech.
Bishop Wright:You know we are told in creation that God spoke the world into being. Another translation of that is God sung the world into being. There is this thing about breath being applied that creates wholeness. Now, of course we know, and you've already articulated, that oftentimes with our breath and our mouth and our words, we demoralize, we diminish and we injure. But what, if you know? Maybe the journey with God for some of us is then to walk away from those ways and to adopt different ways which speak life over people, which speak healing over people, even our own selves, and which speak up for those who don't have a voice.
Melissa:You know, I'm also reminded that Jesus asked a question, and I know you love questions, and, bishop, it's not so much, sometimes, what we say, but how we say it matters, right, and, and I'm also I love that you call out the fact that Jesus has a formula to our dazzling miracles, that we are invited and even, I'd say, expected. Jesus says that we will do these and more like when we're talking about miracles, right, so like, we have the power, and what is the power if we follow the formula? Jesus asked questions, though, and I'm curious what your thoughts are about how we might approach speaking truth to power or standing up, maybe deploying questions rather than attack.
Bishop Wright:You know, I think there's a formula, you know, behind the formula, right? I mean, you know how this thing just keeps zooming out, right? And so I think one of the things that I'm aware of is is that you know another Bible verse right Out of the abundance of the heart, doth the mouth speak right. And so I think there's an audit that has to happen for us what's in our heart? Because our mouth can't help to sort of give way to what's really dominating our heart, and that's why political correctness is a big joke and a lie, because you can have a politically correct mouth but have a politically incorrect heart, and so we can be nice and therefore we're not authentic. What is a better work and Jesus gave us this work is to pray for those folks that you struggle to love. It is to be about realizing that if we abide in God, then we are connected and overlap with one another. Therefore, you are my sibling, and so, on our way to speaking, you know we have to stop by the deep well of what's in my heart. You know, because nobody needs more hacks, and you know, arrogance, hacks and arrogance masquerading as spirituality Nobody needs more of that. I mean.
Bishop Wright:Again, one of my great examples, of course, is the way in which Desmond Tutu talked to and about the people who were driving apartheid. It never dawned on him that, for all of their behavior, that they were not his siblings. And so there's a spiritual reality here which is more than the technique of speaking, and the spiritual reality is to get to that place where we realize that, ultimately, we are absolutely connected. There is no separation right and there is no superiority. We're in this together, whether we like it or not. Dr King said it again and again, and that was, you know, the day we're celebrating this week, the 100th birthday of Malcolm X.
Bishop Wright:And it was interesting to watch Malcolm X, if you, if you paid any attention to him. It was interesting for him, for us, to watch his journey to this reality. Reality, you know, he started off in one place, but then had the audacity to grow up right before our very eyes and finally came to the place where he realized that we were all ultimately in this thing together and that that was the best expression of Islam for him and that that put him beside now people previously he could not work with and could only be critical of, and so there's a journey of the heart that ends up in the mouth. One wonders what tone Jesus struck to speak to the man, by the pools of 38 years that this man maybe heard. Maybe heard it not as critical, maybe heard it as deeply caring.
Bishop Wright:You know, there was something, it seems, in the way that Jesus spoke to him that was mobilizing. I'm not condescending, not patronizing, but something. And so I think that or at least I'm only able to thread those needles when I'm paying attention to where my heart is and how I actually feel, when I'm paying attention to where my heart is and how I actually feel. If 70% of communication is nonverbal, then we really need to get to the heart, which means people know what is BS and what is not BS even before we open up our mouths. Yeah, daunting thought.
Melissa:Again, I feel like the exchange is one of power and to me this passage reeks of dignity and that Jesus saw the dignity in this man and perhaps made this man, or helped this man, believe in himself, and his own ability Like I don't know. I don't I'm, we weren't there.
Bishop Wright:You know, I think I think one of the things that you know, you, you again, you go over and over all these sort of ways in which Jesus interacts with people and Jesus helps people to see their own agency.
Bishop Wright:I mean, that's that's interesting dynamic, isn't it? We sort of think that faith is really kind of outsourcing our lives to God for some sort of magic, you know, instant popcorn sort of thing, when what we're really being invited to is a deeper life down into our own agency, right, and so God meets us there. So, you know, one of the formulas I like to use is, before I start begging God for anything, have I done everything that I can do with all the gifts, benefits, blessings, intellect, reason, memory, skill that God has given me? That, I think, is the intersection, because that celebrates the fact that I am fearfully and wonderfully made as you are. That's God has made us fearfully and wonderfully made. Are that's God has made us fearfully and wonderfully made. And I know that I will happen upon situations and circumstances where even all of that is not enough, and so it just seems like it really does end up as a partnership. Jesus calls people down into a deep partnership with God, and not this magic, magic sort of nonsensical version of faith.
Melissa:You know you were talking about Malcolm X too, and it's like, yeah, I wonder if that's when he realized his own power to go from the arc of anger and rise up and, by the way, I'm not saying any of this is bad and yet had an arc to to really be more about grace and about empowerment of others, not as angry, at least in the beginning of I'm going to call it ministry, because it was important in the life of our country. I don't know Any thoughts on that.
Bishop Wright:Well, I mean, I mean he's, he's really a fascinating character, and I mean it started with his ability to see his own dignity, right. I mean, I think his faith helped him to see who he was and to begin to define himself as God defined him, rather than bouncing back and forth from the ways in which he, as an African-American, have been described in literature, in politics, you know, in religion, et cetera, et cetera. So so, to be able to reclaim one's dignity is, I think, in some ways on the way to being able to see the dignity of other people Right. And so then we just watch his journey really unfold. But you know, his great contribution was being able to speak the unspeakable right, and then, later on, his great friend, you know, then Cassius Clay.
Bishop Wright:Later, our beloved Muhammad Ali begins to bring things into reality through speech which, again, previously were not able to be said. Like I love my country, and you know, no Vietnamese person has ever denied me a seat on the bus, denied me a cup of coffee at a lunch counter, or called me a racial slur. So therefore, why am I making war against him? Which is what a lot of people thought? But people didn't bring that into speech. It was unspeakable or reserved only for quiet spaces and whispered tones. And so we thank God for these people who come along and say things are possible.
Bishop Wright:I mean, you know, again, sister Helen Prejean, someone who has spoken on this podcast before, brought into speech the fact that if we are pro-life then we cannot be for capital punishment, and she changed the whole Catholic Church's teaching and now they had to amend their teaching and included pro-life to include being against teaching, against capital punishment. So, you know, heretofore or previous to that, you know again, people might have had that in their mind, some people may be afraid to say it, et cetera, et cetera. And now they're. You know, look what Francis did. Pope Francis of blessed memory now, I mean, he is the Pope with spiritual authority, for, you know, a billion, 1.1 billion Catholics in the world, early on in his ministry, was asked questions about gay and lesbian persons and said, you know, added this wonderful question, whom I had judged born out of humility, and so he brought humility to speech about something that was really, really difficult.
Melissa:So final question how does speech or speaking kind of go along with the Easter arc?
Bishop Wright:Yeah, right, well, I mean, it's about resurrection, right, I mean. So if speech has got to participate in some degree in resurrection, that's what's happening in this story life, a resurrected sense of himself, maybe even a resurrected sense of who God is, you know in this Easter story about. I was stuck, tragically stuck, for nearly four decades. I mean it's just mind boggling to think of. And somehow I got a new life, life changed for me. And we find Jesus at the bottom of that speaking, speaking over him, wellness, healing, possibility.
Melissa:I love it. So, friends, use your words and use them well, bishop, thank you, and thank you for listening to For People. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Bishop Rob Wright, or by visiting www. for people. digital. Please subscribe, leave a review and we'll be back with you next week.