Dear Caldwell,
One of the more thoughtful and well balanced conversations in our community happens each day on the radio when Mike Collins hosts his one-hour interview program called “Charlotte Talks.” Yesterday, he had panel discussing the role in our society and culture of those things called “emojis.” They are the small, digital images that are used increasingly in the place of words in texts and on all of the various social media platforms.
Mike Collins’ panel discussed everything from whether they are making society dumber, as another excuse to not use the actual English language, to whether there is racial or gender bias among those who create the emojis we have available on our phones. As with all things, tech, I admit to trying to avoid looking too much like a completely hopeless old man. You may have received a text or email from me with only a thumbs up, hands praying or halo-headed smiley face. But that’s nothing, it seems. Some have even re-written the classic Moby Dick in emojis.
It comes as no surprise to you that I have mixed feelings about all of this. As the son of an English teacher and a journalist/journalism professor, I am an unapologetic word man. I don’t know if someone is re-writing the Bible with emojis, but I’ll stick with words. Words still matter, which brings us to our journey this week from Sunday to Sunday.
Last Sunday, Trinity Sunday, we considered how the Apostle Paul drew on the fullness of the Triune God (God in three persons) to express his prayer for the first-century church in Corinth. He stretched beyond his characteristic prayer for God’s “grace” to be upon the Corinthians. He ended his letter to them more robustly with the now-familiar phrase, the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
This Sunday, we move from the Trinity to the “Triad” of “faith, hope and love.” These three words appear in several places in Paul’s letters that make up the latter half of the New Testament. Faith. Hope. Love. We need those things now just as much as those struggling first believers.
Perhaps one of our youth will show me how to express “faith, hope and love” in emojis. But I think I will still stick with real words, if it’s all the same.
Look for Caldwell This Week soon.
In Christ,
John