The other day a friend ordered her kids The Gen Z translation of the Bible. It’s like a regular Bible but it is written in the words of Gen Z…if you have no idea what I’m talking about don’t fret. I have no idea what I’m talking about either. And while I hold no delusions that my friend giving a Bible to her teens for Christmas is going to be the gift equivalent of getting new underwear from their grandmother my friend is still super excited about it.
You see it turns out that the teens who are running about these days have invented an entirely new language. This is more than the slang that you and I grew up with. Which was confusing enough…like when Bad meant good, Wicked, meant awesome and “shut up” mean tell me more. But the kids today…they’ve ramped it up! There’s even an on line Gen Z translator for those times we old folks get totally lost.
Let me give you a short example, reading last week’s text from Luke when the Angel Gabriel visited Mary…we know it as “the angel said “Greetings favoured one the Lord is with you” but Mary was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be”. Makes perfect sense right?
In Gen z however it would have gone more like this “Mary was a pick me girl for god and was simping for him in prayer when the angel gabriel appeared to her and said ayo you’re a real one and the top g is feelin you but she thought his compliment was sus and gave him the side eye so he said babygirl chill god sent me to tell you you’ve passed his vibe check. And low key he wants you to have the main character you’d name him jesus and they will say hes him the one prophesied in the divine dad lore who solos all and whose crushing it never ends”. (The Gospel by Gen Z)
Like I said utterly confusing and yet I am at the same time so completely delighted by it. Because as I was flipping through this new translation it dawned on me once again how significant, influential, long lasting, and adaptable our Sacred Text really is.
The Bible of course can be read in small bites and I would imagine that’s how most of us read it. Single Chapters, individual Verses, even solitary words can be pulled out and used to support, uphold, challenge, and encourage us on our faith journeys. And yet in truth the Bible as whole is an incredible piece of literature and when looked at through a wider lens we are able to see how interconnected everything really is.
Stories from the book of Genesis can be seen reflected in the Gospel of John. Mary draws from the words of Micah. The psalms are heard through Jesus’ own mouth. The Apostle Paul mirrors the wisdom of the prophets. And all of it highlights how our faith ancestors were constantly turning to the words of our sacred story, translating them into their own language, returning over and over again to the past, to the beginning of it all, so that they might better understand their present.
Today we turn our eyes to Bethlehem and a young girl who made her way there under scary and uncertain circumstances…The woman’s name was Ruth, and she lived 1000 years before a star would appear above the same small town, a millennia before Angels sang of the birth of a saviour. And yet her story sets in motion all that would come to pass for Mary and her child generations later.
As we heard in our reading Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi is overwhelmed with loss and steeped in grief, she even renames herself “mara” which means bitter. Ruth herself is not unfamiliar with sorrow having lost her husband as well. I imagine as she witnesses her mother in laws anguish her own deep feelings of loneliness and abandonment grow within her. The two women feel deeply isolated, lost, utterly alone. The future they had counted on has slipped through their fingers. And for anyone who has ever felt like this, ever felt truly alone and isolated, undone by your situation, and lonely, you’ll know how debilitating it is.
Loneliness is so devastating and so rampant in our society today that in 2023 the WHO declared it an epidemic. Dr Vivek H. Murthy, the current Surgeon General of the United States, wrote that “Loneliness is a major concern, and has been linked to high blood pressure, depression, heart disease, stroke, and more. Research has even found that lacking a social connection can be more dangerous than smoking 15 cigarettes a day, deadlier than obesity and increases the risk of premature death by nearly 30 per cent.”
In addition to this “a recent Cigna study shows that senior citizens…have historically been the loneliest demographic. But in 2018 young adults ages eighteen to twenty-two reported feeling lonely at significantly higher rates than seniors who are now the least lonely generation, while members of Gen Z (that’s the age my kids are) are lonely at rates of almost 50 percent” (Soul Boom pg?). And according to the WHO this is true regardless of geography, gender, or social economic status.
Now I for one like to blame the internet for pretty much everything which get’s the teens in my house in an absolute twist. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Facebook, and the google, Netflix and my high school friends text thread, and more than all of that I love and I’m thankful for those of you who join us on line. We’re so happy that you’re here and that the internet allows us to connect in this way. I fear, however, that under the guise of bringing the world together the world wide web has gotten really really good at isolating us, at keep us a part.
But, it’s not just the internet that has caused problems. In his book “Soul Boom” Rainn Wilson (yes that Rainn Wilson who played Dwight on the Office) suggests that the loneliness crisis is a direct result of not only social media but also Racism, Sexism, Materialism, Unjust Economic Extremes, Nationalism, and Climate Change. So basically, all the crises our modern society is facing right now have culminated in this one giant piece of human suffering…the idea that we are alone.
The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.” said Mother Teresa…I can feel the truth of these words floating in the air above the heads of Ruth and Naomi. But just as their despair is about to undo them Ruth does this incredible thing. She refuses to turn away. She simply refuses to allow her mother-in-law to leave without her. She refuses to turn her back on their shared sorrow and instead speaks powerful words of loyalty and connection: Where you go I will go. Where you live I will live. Your people shall be my people and your God my God (Ruth 1:16).
In her commentary on this text Kayla Craig wrote that “Ruth’s choice wasn’t merely about devotion it was the formation of a new family built not on blood but on kinship. On the daring belief that our lives are better intertwined”.
Flash forward 1000 years and the great great great…so many greats…grand child of Ruth is born into the world. Placed in the arms of his mother Mary one holy night this child becomes the culmination of all God’s love for humanity. His reason for being is quite simple and is proclaimed in the name the Angel gives him – Emmaneul, God is with us. And through him we are reminded that we can’t go alone…we were never meant to.
The very incarnation of God’s love into this world through Jesus is proof that God longs for us to live in relationship with God and with each other. And as that baby grew it would become clear that everything he did, every single thing, was about drawing people in, binding them to each other in loving and generous ways, opening doors and breaking down barriers.
It’s why this place and what we do here is so vital. We come here together, carrying our joys and our sorrows, and we lay it all down for a few moments. We allow this community to celebrate with us, we also allow it to grieve with us. Here we choose to intentionally walk this road together. And doing all of this, lifting our prayers of hope and healing, joining our voices in song, even gathering after service for coffee, we find ourselves stitched together in a way that makes life better.
This togetherness is the very foundation of our faith and it is woven throughout our sacred story from the very beginning. It’s there in the Torah, and the King James, and the Gen Z Version, in every language every translation it is there. It is the story that promises us we do not have to travel alone because we have God and through God, we have each other. Amen.
