A friend, Aaron Cummings, writes in response to my comments about Derrida and prodigal words:

“A few days ago, you alluded to Derrida, that words run prodigal from the speaker/writer. You said that this was true of Mankind’s words, but not of God’s. It seems to me that this is true of all word apart from the work of the Spirit. It is the Spirit who conveys the ultimate Word from the ultimate Speaker, to us, who are the Listeners. The Spirit enables and empowers the whole process of speech, hearing, and interpretation. God’s Word to us is empowered by the Spirit. Our response as well is empowered by the Spirit. Thus, we understand God’s Word only because the Spirit of the Speaker Himself is at work in our very hearts, stirring up desire to know, understand, and love the Speech of the Speaker.

“And it would seem to me that human communication must image this divinely Spiritual conveyance and equally Spiritual reception. When another speaks a human word to me, it is ultimately the Spirit of love that enables me to understand his speech. The Spirit unites human Speaker, human Word, and human Listener. If we are going to overcome Derrida’s prodigal words, we must trust the Spirit of faith, hope and love to make the sense plain to us. Additionally, we must submit ourselves to the “spirit” of the speaker, to make plain the sense of what he desired to say. We must trust that the word is accurately begotten of the speaker. By the power of the Spirit, the prodigal word comes home.”