VDMA: Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum.
Four letters, five words.
"The Word of the Lord Endures Forever."
Few phrases have reverberated so emphatically throughout the whole of human history like this one. God spoke in the beginning, and creation crawled forth. Then God addressed His creation, and we tried to pay attention.
God kept on speaking and we kept barely listening, until finally God had no words left except His Son – the radiance of His glory and exact imprint of His being: the Word who was in the beginning. Even for some this still isn't enough.
This "Son Word" (Jesus) was indeed in the beginning with God, and he was God. Through him all things were made. He will have the last word over this creation and he is already the first of the re-creation.
We know because the other Word tells us so.
But our concern here is not with this "Son Word" but with the other Word – the Scripture, Holy Bible, Word of God Word.
Both the Son Word and the Scripture Word will endure forever; however the "Word" from VDMA is the Word of Scripture – which has been central to Jewish and Christian worshipping communities since their beginnings.
It is the Word of God Word.
It is paradoxically foundational to who we are, yet the first thing that we dismiss, distort, and disfigure.
We might not like it, but the Word of the Lord endures forever, standing at the centre of human reality and with the power to light up and transform the entire world.
To recapture, retain, and release its electrifying essence is an essential task of the Christian life – both for our sakes and for the world's.
God's Word to and for us.
Scripture is God's word to us. God addresses humanity as his loved and created ones, making meaning and speaking life into our fragile existences.
As we pore over the pages of Scripture, God's Holy Spirit animates its text as it becomes a vessel for God to approach, exhort, and initiate relationship with us.
We find out who we are in Scripture, and we also find out who God is. He reveals Himself as Creator, Deliver, Judge, and Redeemer.
This revelation demands a response. Scripture exposes us to a rich new world in which God is sovereign, and invites us in turn to step into this world and join the heavenly Story we see being played out – to recognise creation, sin, and salvation, to find our place in it, and to go on glorifying God in faithful obedience.
Scripture is also God's Word for us. It is "for us" in that it affirms God's resounding YES to creation – in spite of the mess we make. Scripture directs us to salvation, vividly storying God's love, grace, and desire to bless us.
God's Word gives us words. It gives us a language to speak, a story to tell, and becomes a powerful playground for prayer and obedience.
Scripture is God's Word to and for us that grips, comforts, challenges, and turns us repeatedly back to God our Father and Christ our Saviour.
The Word and the World
God speaks by His Word because language is the interface of creation.
Whether verbal or non-verbal, and Creator-to-creature or creature-to-creature, the entire cosmos is connected by an intricate web of linguistic exchanges: speaking and listening, calls and responses.
We inhabit a sprawling metropolis of words, messages, and ideas – each one striving for unrivalled attention. Amidst the torrent of voices, the Church is desperate to be heard.
Rightly so.
Our message of the mystery of Christ might sound like foolishness, but it is foolishness that gives hope to humanity and extends the one true reality that (a) explains and (b) can change the world.
In our eagerness to make ourselves heard, we continue (with most of Church history) to forget that Scripture asks only that we proclaim and obey it. Instead, we have become perpetual masters in the "Scripture Protection and Paintjob Service."
We give Scripture a paintjob by trying to improve how it appears. Like pre-teens embarrassed by dad's socks and sandals and who deck him out in more fashionable attire, we try hard to make the Bible more alluring – or at the very least acceptable – to others.
Except we forget that this is not the socks and sandals word of any earthly dad; it is the alive and active Word of our Father in Heaven.
When we try and dress it up, all that we really do is cramp its style. Our human improvements, beautiful as we think they may be, are nothing but rags when we drape them over the Holy Scriptures.
In a similar way, when we try to protect Scripture, we are like overly-anxious parents, terrified of danger and coddling their children fearfully away from any authentic interaction with the real world.
Scared that people will confront the Bible and tear it down – and not trusting it to fend for itself – we shelter Scripture, smothering it in bubble wrap, polishing its rough edges, and apologising for any offence it might cause – all whilst rabidly beating back anything which may cause reciprocal offence to Scripture.
But the Bible does not need our protection. It can protect itself. Nor does it need our paintjobs. It is enticing enough as it already is.
What Scripture requires of us is simply that we obey and proclaim it. We do this through word and deed, listening to God's voice in His Word and responding properly by faithful obedience.
This is what makes the Church's voice relevant.
When we look for our voice anywhere other than the Word of God listened to and lived-out, then we are like the fool who hunts high and low for their "lost" glasses without ever realising they were on their head the whole time.
Despite all our cracks, coarseness, and difficulty pitching, it is fun and fundamental to find this voice. It is a voice which carries the Gospel – the message of hope to a confused and self-combusting world; a voice which bites with God's truth and extends His mercy.
This voice is not just soundwaves. It dresses up as real human forgiveness, radical self-denial, revolutionary care for hurting, needy peoples, and resolute defiance against injustice.
The Word of the Lord endures forever.
Through every generation, culture, and kingdom, the Word of God to and for humanity stands firm.
It is this Word of God which addresses us, and invites us in to something more. It is the defining reality of the universe, the voice that sustains the community of faith and goes out from it into the world bringing love, truth and life.
I need this Word. You need this Word. The Church needs this Word.
The whole world needs this Word.
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum.
"The Word of the Lord Endures Forever."
Archie Catchpole is a student at London School of Theology.
