“Say What You Need to Say”

Say What You Need to Say

Whenever I hear that song “Say What You Need to Say” by John Mayer, I think, “ugh, here is that song with only one lyric. ‘Say what you need to say.’ I get it! Enough, already! ” Then I end up singing it all day, not just humming it, but singing that one line lyric. It’s as if the words and the tune are inseparable. It’s very annoying.

My husband flew on South West Airlines from Dallas to Denver on a business trip a few days ago. This is an Airline known not only for its “bags fly free” commercials, but also for the comic talents of its flight attendants. This particular flight attendant’s shtick was seeing how little he could say. “Everybody sit down. We’re taking off.” This, instead of the usual instructions about how to put a roller board into an overhead bin, how to fasten your seat belt and how to operate an oxygen mask. He continued his taciturnity throughout the flight. “Seatbelt sign is on. Hold it.” “Drink cart coming down the aisle. Chocolate chip cookie $10.00. Bag of Sunchips $8.00.”

My favorite was his closing remarks. “We’re here. Get off.” No gate information. No report of the temperature and wind speed. No reminder to be careful getting bags out of the overhead bins because items may have shifted during the flight. No baggage claim location or connecting flight information. No expression of gratitude for flying his airline or heartfelt wishes that passengers have a pleasant evening wherever their final destination might be. Just “We’re here. Get off.” There is an art to saying what you need to say, nothing more, nothing less.

At Creation God said what God needed to say. The Hebrew word for “to say” (dabar) also signifies “to make.” God’s words make things happen. The Prologue to the Gospel of John introduces Jesus as the Word of God. The Incarnation is a Word-Event that makes things happen! In Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, God says what God needs to say. Nothing more. Nothing less.

It occurs to me that everybody in the story of the Birth of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke says just what they need to say and nothing more. Zechariah (Luke 1:18) says just enough to express his doubts and be rendered speechless. The angel Gabriel, in his encounter with Mary, is eloquent but to the point. He greets, commands not to fear, delivers the news, and then departs from her. (Luke 1:26-28) Mary asks the pertinent question (“How can this be?”), but then she listens more than she talks. When, after hearing Gabriel out, she says “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word,” she says what she needs to say to signal faith and obedience. Nothing less. Nothing more. In the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) Mary says just what she needs to say to honor the character of the God whose life is now taking shape within her. Mary is primarily a listener. She treasures the shepherds’ words and ponders them in her heart (Luke 2:19).

The angels say what they needs to say to the shepherds (Luke 2:10-15), first a single angel, then a whole chorus. “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” That about sums it up.

In Matthew’s gospel, an angel, again in an eloquent but on-point speech, tells Joseph how it is (1:20-23). Joseph never says anything in Matthew’s gospel. He doesn’t need to. He says all he needs to say with his actions. The wise men, warned by an angel, go home from the manger without reporting back to Herod. They say what they need to say in asking for directions to the baby but not what they don’t, the baby’s GPS coordinates to a paranoid, barbaric ruler.

I asked my colleague Richard Nelson, who teaches Old Testament at Perkins School of Theology, if he could think of anybody in the Bible who says too much. He immediately came up 2 answers. “Job’s friends” in the Book of Job and Stephen in the Book of Acts. I’m not sure what to make of that!

Sometimes we talk too much with our lips and say too little with our actions. This Advent we would do well to take a page out of John Mayer’s lyric book, our SW flight attendant’s comedy shtick and the people of Matthew and Luke’s “Living Nativity.” Saying what we need to say, with our talk but also our walk, is our calling this Advent. To whom do we need to speak love? Forgiveness? To whom do we need to speak justice? To whom do we need to speak repentance and remorse? This baby hasn’t learned to talk yet, but when he does, He’ll know how to speak repentance and forgiveness and healing into being. He’ll know to say “This is my body which is given for you” and “This is my blood of the new covenant that is shed for you.” This baby hasn’t learned to talk yet but when he does, he’ll know how to say what he needs to say, nothing less, nothing more. Because he is God’s Word.