1ST READER-      GOD SAID, “LET THERE BE LIGHT.”  (GEN.1:3)
The Bible tells us that these are the first words ever spoken.  And they were not spoken by a person; they were spoken by Almighty God as He began to create the earth and everything on it.  These are the words that signal the beginning of life, the beginning of all things including human interaction, which is carried on with more words – the words that you and I say every day.
    How many words do you suppose you have spoken today?  Can’t even begin to guess, can you?  Speaking is one of those things that we do so automatically that we hardly even have to think about it.  But, of course, when we speak without thinking about what we are saying – now that’s when we really get into trouble!
    And certain words stick with us, sometimes for a lot longer than we would like.  Words that are put together into catchy slogans or songs – those are words we tend to remember.  For instance, can you finish these phrases?
- MAY THE FORCE ---BE WITH YOU.
- TOTO, I DON’T THINK WE’RE---IN KANSAS ANYMORE.
- I’LL MAKE HIM AN OFFER---HE CAN’T REFUSE.
- FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD---THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON.

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Interesting, isn’t it, how those words just spring to your mind.  You know them well even if you can’t really tell anyone why you even need to know them at all.
    And our words are closely tied to our emotions.  We can use our words to call up all sorts of feelings and memories to other folks and to ourselves as well.  We can use our words to bring feelings of happiness, contentment, and joy:
1ST READER – CONGRATULATIONS!
2ND READER -  YOU ARE SO TALENTED!
3RD READER – I LOVE YOU.
The book of Proverbs reminds us:
2ND READER - GRACIOUS WORDS ARE LIKE A HONEYCOMB, SWEETNESS TO THE SOUL AND HEALTH TO THE BODY. (PROVERBS 16:24)
By the words you say, you can change a gloomy day to a sunny one for someone you love.  When you speak positive words of encouragement and support to your spouse or your child or your parent, you tell them so much more than just what your words may convey.  You tell them that they are important to you and that you think they are worthwhile and wonderful.  Watch the faces of your children when you brag on how smart they are, how competent they are, how special they are.  Look into the eyes of your sweetheart as you tell them that your love for them is strong and that you will always be with them to support them and help them through life.  See what wonderful power your words possess in these instances. 

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    Of course, while it is true that words can convey happiness and love, words can also be used to make people feel sad, angry, worthless, and defeated.
1ST READER – YOU NEVER DO ANYTHING RIGHT!
2ND READER – I HATE YOU!
3RD – YOU ARE SO UGLY!
These words have the power to make those around us feel small and afraid and hopeless.  Someone once said that “sticks and stones may break my bones; but words will never harm me”.  Would that that were true!  It isn’t.  Perhaps the revised way of thinking of that phrase comes closer to the truth – “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can break my heart.”  Paul speaks to the Ephesians about it this way:
3RD READER - LET NO CORRUPTING TALK COME OUT OF YOUR MOUTH, BUT ONLY SUCH AS IS GOOD FOR BUILDING UP, AS FITS THE OCCASION, THAT IT MAY GIVE GRACE TO THOSE WHO HEAR.  (EPHESIANS 4:29)
Again, watch the faces of your children when you use hurtful words with them – when your words make them feel unlovely and stupid and worthless.  Look into the eyes of your sweetheart when you are saying words of anger and frustration to them.  Look and you will be able to see how your words have the power to tear people down, to not only make them feel small but to actually begin to look small.  You have great power over those who love you.  You can make them feel happy and accepted or you can cause them to feel lost and alone.  It is all in the power of your words.

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Close your eyes for a moment.  Now think of a time when someone was talking to you in a loud, angry voice.  Think of the words they were using.  Perhaps they were telling you that you were stupid, that you were slow, that you were awkward or weak.  Try to feel the feelings that came to you when this was happening.  They are not pleasant feelings.  Now think ahead, perhaps to a time more recently.  Is there a time in your memory when you have been the one with the angry voice, saying those words to another person.  Consider that they feel much as you felt when those things were directed at you.  Do you need to apologize to someone for the words you have used with them?  If so, will you pledge in a whisper to God right now that you will do that?  Now open your eyes.
    We have seen that words can be dangerous.  They can have tremendous effects on the lives of people.  Sometimes they also have the power to move groups of people to make changes that need to be made for the good of the entire group.
1ST READER – GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!
2ND READER – WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT; THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.
3RD READER – THERE IS NEITHER JEW NOR GREEK, SLAVE NOR FREE, MALE NOR FEMALE, FOR YOU ARE ALL ONE IN CHRIST JESUS.
These are words that called for a change in the ways people were thinking.  These are words that challenged the social norms of the day.  Many people thought of these as dangerous words for their time.  These are words that called for courage and risk.

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These are the kinds of things that Paul exhorts the Ephesians to embrace:
1ST READER - AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD.  (EPHESIANS 6:17)
There are times when such words are needed because change is needed. 
    I recently read this wonderful book, “The Help” by Kathryn Sockett.  The story is set in the deep south in a great time of change, the early 1960’s.  The focus is on the relationships between the southern white ladies and the black women they employ as housekeepers, nannies, cooks and maids.  While slavery as such has been ended for many years, the social system of these two groups of women still bears many unfortunate reminders of it.  One of the white women, Skeeter, has been commissioned by a New York publisher to write an expose’ of this situation by interviewing the black women who are employed by her friends and neighbors.  This, of course, would have to be done in secret so that the women being interviewed wouldn’t lose their jobs and perhaps their homes.  This is a dangerous project and any words that would be written in this context would be dangerous words indeed.  The following is a conversation between Skeeter and one of the women she hopes to include in the book,  Aibileen:
S – I want to interview you.  About what it’s like to work as a maid.  I’m writing a book.  Stories about what it’s like to work for a white family.  What it’s like to work for, say, Elizabeth.  (Aibileen’s employer)

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A – You think she’s going to agree to that?  Me telling stories about her?
S – I was thinking we wouldn’t tell her. 
A – Exactly what kind a stories you think you gone hear?
S – What you get paid, how they treat you, the bathrooms, the babies, all the things you’ve seen, good and bad.
A – Miss Skeeter, do that not sound kind of dangerous to you?
S – Not if we’re careful.
A – Do you know what would happen to me is Miss Lefolt find out I talked behind her back?
S – We won’t tell her, or anyone.  These will be private interviews.
A – Did you hear about the colored boy this morning?  The one they beat for ACCIDENTALLY using the white bathroom?
S – I know that things are a little unstable but…
A – And my cousin Shirelle down in Cauter County?  They burned up her car cause she WENT to the voting station.
S – No one’s ever written a book like this.  We’d be breaking new ground.  It’s a brand-new perspective.
A – Miss Skeeter, if I do this with you, I might as well burn my OWN house down.

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Aibileen understands clearly what is at stake if she agrees to have her words concerning her life put down on paper.  Skeeter just doesn’t get it because she has never really considered what is truly going on right under her nose.  Words can be
     dangerous – but when brave people use them as a way to call others, change can occur.
    Jesus knew that, of course.  Jesus was a genius in the use of words.  He used his own words carefully.  And many of his words got him into trouble:
1ST READER – LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, DO GOOD TO THOSE WHO HATE YOU, BLESS THOSE WHO CURSE YOU, PRAY FOR THOSE WHO MISTREAT YOU.
2ND READER – WOE TO YOU WHO ARE RICH, FOR YOU HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED YOUR COMFORT.
3RD READER – AS SURELY AS YOU HAVE DONE IT TO THE LEAST OF THESE, YOU HAVE DONE IT UNTO ME.
Jesus used his words to teach the people of his time and throughout the ages, just exactly what God is like and what God expects of us.  When we look at the person of Jesus, we see God.  This is why the Gospel of John speaks of him in this way:
2ND READER - THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.  WE HAVE SEEN HIS GLORY, THE GLORY OF THE ONE AND ONLY, WHO CAME FROM THE FATHER, FULL OF TRUTH.  (JOHN 1:14)

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Jesus was the Word of God in human form.  That same word that spoke at the beginning of all life and called the light forth was the Word that became the flesh and blood man, Jesus of Nazareth.  Jesus used his words and his actions and his very life to show us God.  This is the belief of Christian people everywhere.  And that is why we praise God and proclaim His greatness and give thanks to Him for the gift of Jesus.  Without Jesus, any words we speak will have very little power.  But with Jesus we can know that when we are speaking words of love and grace and peace and, yes, at times, words of challenge and change, we do so because Jesus has told us that this is what God expects of His children.  We can and must use our words to serve God every day of our lives.
    Tomorrow we celebrate the birthday of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the true prophets of our time.  Dr. King was a man who knew how to use his words to speak truth to people who needed to hear it.  He saw that change was needed in the world that God had created and he became a leader for that change.  We think of his work as the civil rights movement, which called for the true equality of all of God’s people, regardless of skin color, in this great nation of ours.  He, of course, made enemies with his words and was eventually assassinated because of them.  Perhaps his most well-known sermon is the “I Have A Dream” message, which has stirred the hearts of many people ever since the day he spoke it.  We will close this message today with an excerpt from that sermon.  I invite you to listen and to hear the words of Dr. King and consider how you are living out your own dream for God’s world. 
MLK VIDEO