Volume 28, No. 35
September 21 , 2003
 
Word Association

   Hangnail:  inflammation along a partly separated piece of skin at the side of a nail.  But the word never had anything to do with a hanging nail.  Instead, the original term was angnail and the ang referred to the pain or ang (anguish) caused by the condition.

   Almost every word we use has undergone significant change.  Though some of the original thought often survives the evolution, much of it morphs into something barely recognizable.  Change the meaning of a word and it alters our original understanding of it.  Sometimes that’s good.  Sometimes it’s regrettable.  Here are some examples with implications for how we see ourselves and our faith.

   The word “sincere”  comes from two Latin words:  sine — “without” and sera — “wax”.  In early Rome, artists and furniture makers used wax to fill cracks and holes so “sine sera” came to mean “without flaw”, “pure” and “clean”.

   Even today, the opposite is often referred to as a “fiasco”, which is a term that got its start among Italian glassblowers centuries ago.  The making of a fine Venetian glass bottle was an extremely difficult task that demanded perfection.  If even the tiniest flaw was detected, the artisan turned the vessel into an ordinary household flask and called it, in Italian, a fiasco.

   When the finest quality in any workmanship is achieved, great care is taken to establish that the piece is “genuine”.  But when translated literally from the Latin, the word means “on the knee”. That’s because when a Roman man wanted to publicly declare a child to be his, he  placed the baby on his knee, signifying relationship and the right to inheritance.

   Inheritance was usually denied to children conceived with slaves.  In the Roman world, slaves were often given to soldiers as a reward for outstanding performance in battle.  Those slaves were called “addicts”.  Over time, an addict came to be known as anyone who was a slave to anything.  

   Latin is also the language from which we get our word “onion”, which is closely related to “union”.  Since an onion consists of many united layers, the Romans thought a variation of “union” was an appropriate description of the flavourful vegetable.  They not only used the word unio for the onion, it was also their word for “pearl”, because the oyster-generated jewel has many integrated layers too.

   In a real sense, the church must resemble that pearl or onion.  We must feel deeply our complete dependence on one another and stay steadfastly united if we hope to show the world the great value of our relationship with Jesus or flavour the world with his multi-layered love.  

   But true unity is only possible if we see ourselves and each other as we really are.  Pride can’t divide when all of us recognize we’re flawed and defective.  No matter how “sincere” we are, none of us can be perfect until the sacrificial love of Jesus fills the cracks and holes in our hearts.  Only then can we stand before God with blood-covered confidence, knowing that — even though we continue to sin — He doesn’t cast us aside like some kind of fiasco”, no matter how we feel about ourselves.

    That’s because we’re “genuine” Christians, not on the basis of our performance, but our parenthood.  When we’re born into the family of God through true faith, repentance and baptism, our Father sets us on his knee and proclaims us his child, bestowing unlimited love and a rich legacy we can’t even begin to imagine, let alone understand.

   From that point on, we’re no longer “addicts” enslaved by the fear of disapproval and death.  Rather, we’re free in Christ and the more we associate with him, the more we’ll understand the true meaning of the Word, who is the same yesterday, today and forever.

By Rick Gamble, published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the Followers of Christ congregation in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.  Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications.  To subscribe, contact sgamble@bfree.on.ca