WHAT LANGUAGE IS
Recently I read a review by Kevin Canfield of a book entitled What Language Is (and what it isn't and what it could be) by John McWhorter. He says in his review. "The parts of "What Language is" that will connect with most readers are those that deal with the patchwork that is English in its spoken form. A linguist who has published more than a dozen books. McWhorter is obviously devoted to the written word, but he argues that speech is more vibrant. "Dance is a useful analogy," he writes. "There are systems available to transcribe ballets on paper for future dancers to use for re-creations. Yet none would think of these transcriptions, despite their usefulness, tidiness, and accessibility, as the ballet itself."

PATCHWORK
I like this word patchwork for describing the spoken word. What bothers a lot of preachers about speaking freely is that things are never perfect. There are so many stops and starts and interruptions of thought that the sermon indeed feels like a patchwork quilt rather that a seamless garment. This can be very frustrating at times and yet it is often what makes the spoken word so much more compelling than the written word.

THE BALLET OF LANGUAGE
What a great analogy for describing the difference between the written and the oral word. The written word is like the systems available for transcribing ballets on paper. They are helpful for future generations who want to perform these ballets but they are not the ballets themselves.

In a similar sense, the written manuscripts we prepare to guide us in preaching are not the sermons themselves. I would even suggest that the Gospel in it's written form can only serve as a guide and an inspiration for proclamation and not as the proclamation itself. Luther was very quick to point this out on numerous occasions. He believed that if the preaching of the Gospel ever ceased and only the written word continued, Christianity would be dead in the matter of a generation or two.