But when we let our mouths off their leashes and let the world know what we really think of it, we end up cursing, insulting, abusing the very people Jesus loves and came to save. In those moments, we’re not praising our God and king. No, we’re testifying instead to the ongoing rule of everything in the world that opposes God. We’re saying that death, not life, is king. We’re proclaiming that, no, there isn’t enough to go around, so we better make clear what’s our due. We’re witnessing that God is not our king and defender--no, we have to defend ourselves with our words.
Friends, this shouldn’t be! We are the community that Jesus has saved! Our words should pour refreshing, living water into the lives of those we’re talking with. Jesus’ kindness and compassion should echo in the way we speak to one another. Salt water and fresh water can’t flow from the same spring without all the water becoming salty; in the same way, we can’t try to mix destructive, death-dealing speech in with our words without polluting all our witness. James is calling for us to consistently show love in how we use our words, to live up to the image of God we see in Jesus.
The sermon today is first and foremost a sermon I’m preaching to myself. Secondly, I’m preaching to anyone who’s in leadership, especially those who are appointed by our congregation as leaders. Finally, I’m preaching to all of us gathered here as believers.
Here’s a summary of James’ point: Those who have been rescued by Jesus’ powerful gospel word should use their words with care. They should never tear others down with their tongues or, worse, sew division with their speech. Our tongues are a small part of our bodies, but they are powerful, for evil, often, but also--sometimes--for good.
Early in grade school, most of us learn that words can hurt just as much as sticks and stones. If we missed that lesson on the playground, newscasts have brought stories about bullying to our attention once again in the last few years and even the last few days. In response, anti-bullying organizations have sprouted up, and schools have drawn-up anti-bullying policies. Two full pages in Warman High School’s student handbook deal with how students, staff, teachers, and parents should handle bullying.
Maybe we remember bullies as physically violent, the cuts and bruises and torn bookbags that we or our friends brought home from school. But often it’s bullies’ words that hurt the most. A grade five girl sits alone at the lunch table while all the popular girls point at her and snicker. A grade seven boy finds an unsigned note in his locker making fun of all the flaws he secretly hoped no one would notice. A grade ten girl finds her private conversations spread all over Facebook or Youtube. Kids who face this kind of unrelenting spoken or written verbal abuse often begin to fake sickness so they don’t have to go to school. Their performance in school drops. They may sink into depression or substance abuse to forget what they face everyday at school.
I don’t want to dwell on bullying too long this morning. Odds are that some of know this reality all to well. Verbal bullying, whether in school hallways or at work or in our marriages, is one painful area James speaks to this morning, but his concern for faithful discipleship in how we use our words is broader.
We’ve heard a lot about words as we’ve spent the last few weeks with James’ letter. James talks about the word planted in you, which can save you (1.21). He says God chose to give birth to us through the true word (1.18). He pleads with us not to be merely hearers of the word but to become doers of the word as well (1.22). James also has some things to say about how we use our speech. In ch 1, v 19, he says, Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. In v 26 of ch 1, he says, Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues but indulge their hearts--their religion is worthless. In ch 2, v 12, James says, Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom. If we were to read on through the end of ch 2, we’d hear James confronting those whose faith goes only as far as their words and doesn’t follow through into their actions (cf. 2.18).
One of the themes that comes up again and again in James is that, when it comes to faith in Jesus, talk is cheap. Our trust in and commitment to Jesus needs to go beyond mouthing the sinner’s prayer or cultivating a good religious vocabulary. Faith, if it’s taken root in our hearts, needs to be manifest in the way we live: we need to see it in our daily actions.
Faith can only begin once we’ve heard the “true word,” the good news message. Those who come to the meetinghouse for our Wednesday morning Bible study may remember how Jesus summed up this message at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel: “The time has come; the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mk 1.15). This kingdom of God message is the news, the word that is powerful to save us. Instead of having our lives shaped by the rules of sin, guilt, violence, selfishness, and death, Jesus is heralding a new ruler: God--our loving, merciful, and forgiving God is king.
Just like the Israelites enslaved in Egypt, there was nothing we could do to get ourselves free of the power of sin an death. We had turned away from God’s good instructions for life, rejected God as our sole king. Rather than depend on God’s abundant blessing--all the fruit trees in the garden for our dinner--we went after the one thing off limits to us--prideful equality with God. We rejected the world God had set in order for one where we could set the rules, fight it out on our own. And after we plucked the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil from the tree, what did we see? We found ourselves in a world where scarcity and sickness, drought and diseases drove us like slaves to compete with one another. With eyes opened, we saw that a world without God as king is a world where the king with the harshest army is god. We shut God out and found that we were also cut off from one another. Trying to be equal with God, we lost our ability to love unconditionally like God loves. In our hearts, in our work, in our relationships, in our politics, everything was ruled by death. And there was no way we could get free on our own.
So God came to us to rescue us. Jesus came announcing that God was finally coming to take the kingdom back. Jesus proclaimed that God would knock death off the throne so that he could rule over us once again. Just like when God freed the Israelites from Pharaoh’s oppressive rule, God was coming to free us--all of humanity and all of creation--from death’s tyranny. And through Jesus’ wholly obedient life--even to the point of execution by all the world’s rulers who fought against God’s reign--God once again reigns through the person of his Messiah and Son. Amen and Hallelujah!
But once we’ve heard this word, this good news message, we must choose whether to, in Jesus’ words, “repent and believe.” We’ve grown accustomed to living by the rules of death. We’ve developed strategies for looking out for ourselves. Like the kids faking illness or turning to alcohol or drugs to block out the bullies, we’ve got out own bag of tricks for coping with or ignoring the power of death in our lives. We shut our hearts to people around us. We hoard away our resources. We become people-pleasers. Jesus’ word confronts us: Repent! Turn around your life. Walk away from that way of living. Drop all your coping strategies, all the ways you protect your heart from getting damaged. Trust that God is king and that God will protect you. Live like God really is the one in charge.
James’ calls this receiving the word planted in you in 1.21. If we believe that Jesus is telling the truth, we have to let that message sink its roots down into our hearts and then watch as its shoots and leaves and flowers unfold in our changed actions and attitudes. I’ve called this discipleship. I’ve called this a life of worship. Call it by whatever name you like, this faith growing up into actions is the only kind of religion God cares for.
Two weeks ago we talked about how Jesus’ good news message leaves no room for prejudice. Instead we need to live with unconditional hospitality and generosity. Today James tells us we should speak to one another if we believe that Jesus’ message is true.
I said this sermon is primarily one I preach to myself. This is because James addressed his words first and foremost to teachers in the Jewish Christian home churches he wrote to. Listen again to Jas 3, vv 1 and 2:
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, since you know that we will receive a more severe judgment. For every one of us stumbles in many ways. If someone didn’t fail stumble in what he says, that person would be perfect, able to keep his whole body in check.I am one teacher in this congregation, probably one of the more visible teachers. To some degree, I mingle teaching and preaching from this pulpit most Sunday mornings. I lead the Wednesday morning Bible study on Mark. And every Thursday I go into the high school to teach one form of the grade six Bible knowledge class. Both in our church family and in our town, I stand out as a teacher.
James warns that standing out as a teacher means that I also stand out for a more rigorous inspection on Judgment Day for how I’ve handled my tongue in this position. This is a nerve-racking position. As James points out, only a perfect person could completely control his tongue, and there are no perfect people: Every one of us stumbles--not just a little bit, but in many ways. I am not a perfect person. I speak my mind too readily, I shoot off my mouth too often, sometimes my sense of humor gets the better of my common sense or my charity.
Thankfully, I don’t stand alone. Thank goodness S. preached last week. Thank goodness for the Sunday School teachers downstairs. Thank God for every single one of you who has led a Bible study, a devotion, or a committee meeting. We all stand as teachers in one way or another: we lead this community with our tongues. Even James counts himself in, using the first person “we” one of the few times in his letter.
But why would God evaluate teachers by a stricter standard? In the grade six Bible knowledge course, I find myself often pointing to comics to help translate stories from the Old Testament into eleven-year-olds’ experiences. The first issue of Spider-Man concluded with these words, “With great power there must also come great responsibility.” Deep words from a teenage entertainment. In the story, Peter Parker, a high school student who’s been given superpowers, realizes through tragedy that his abilities are not just for his private amusement or benefit. No, he is now responsibility to go out and do something good in the world. So, donning a superhero’s mask, he catches crooks and terrorists alike on the mean streets of New York City.
Now I don’t have to dress up in a mask and cape to preach on Sunday. Bible study leaders don’t wear special costumes or uniforms. Maybe some of the Sunday School teachers will dress up in robes as Bible characters to lead the kids in a Christmas pageant. But just as much as Peter Parker or any other hero from the Old Testament or the comics, you have given us teachers a power, a privilege. In my case its a microphone and pulpit. Often the gift is your attention. You listen as we talk, you follow as we lead you through Scripture or guide you in a committee meeting. And with that great privilege come great responsibility.
Preaching to myself, preaching to other leaders: your words have power. A microphone, a listening ear--they amplify the effect of what you say. Often we don’t consider what our words might do before they leave our mouths. Take care.
American president Teddy Roosevelt said that his office was a “bully pulpit” to attack the evils of his generation and to fight for the causes he believed in. Maybe we feel the same way. We think, “Well, I have the microphone, I have their attention, I should use it.” So we use our position to give extra weight when we wield our words like a club to attack those we disagree. It doesn’t matter whether our disagreement stems from some private squabble or from a basic theological conviction. James says church leaders are not to use their words this way. In saying this he echoes Jesus who told his first disciples, “Those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. Not so with you” (Mk 10.42-43). Instead, Jesus said that leadership in God’s kingdom looks like servanthood. Even he, the Son of Man, did not come to use his authority to bully through his cause. No, he came to serve and even to lay down his life to ransom us from that broken way of living.
Teachers and other leaders in our church-family must handles their words with care. But that doesn’t let all the rest of us off the hook. No, we must every one of us use our words carefully. Our words are hard to control; the smallest comment can wreak incredible destruction. Listen to the language James uses to describe our tongues in the next paragraphs, starting in v 3:
And if we place bits in the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can direct their whole bodies. See how great ships driven by strong winds are directed by a very small rudder wherever the steersman desires. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it can boast [of a great power].In our age of semi trucks and jet planes, we’re well accustomed to immense vehicles being guided by small steering wheels. And any of us who’ve worked with horses know the power of a bit and bridle to bring an unruly horse under control. Our tongues, our words are the same way. They’re small, sometimes seeming inconsequential, but they can change the course of our lives.
See how a small spark sets such a large forest on fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is the world’s wickedness set right in among the parts of the body. It pollutes the whole of the body and sets the whole course of life on fire, even as the tongue itself is set on fire by hell.
For every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature is being tamed, even has been tamed, by humans, but no once can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (3.3-8)
We may not think that the pleasantries we exchange with a checkout clerk amount to all that much. The automatic sales pitch of telemarketers may annoy us, but it’s doubtful that those words will affect much else in our lives. It’s true that we use so many empty words in a day. But even though we flood the market with words that don’t mean much, this verbal inflation doesn’t rob our tongues of their life-changing potential.
If you doubt this fact, picture the last romantic comedy you saw. The film industry makes much of the power of three little words: “I” and “love” and “you.” Whether on the screen or in our own life stories, those words can have life-changing effects. Relationships begin, engagements are announced, families are begun. Precious lives that otherwise would not exist come into existence out the union initiated by those words. But those same words can lead to heartache, relationships rejected or betrayed. Think about the power of other phrases, like, “I hate you,” or “I’m leaving” or “I want a divorce.”
I’m always surprised at how much attention the New Testament authors give to the way we talk. We could spend an entire morning reflecting on Jesus’ teaching on words and anger in Mt 5.22. He says, “I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Idiot!’ is answerable to the Court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” Paul, too, speaks out against the evil and abusive words that come out of our mouths in eight of his thirteen letters. Listen to his words in Col 3.8: Now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
Jesus and the New Testament authors address our speech habits because our words are powerful. I’ve seen a wild bronco trample a man and break his ribs. I’ve seen whole mountainsides go up in smoke, pines exploding in towers of flame. And I’ve seen the damage my own words can do. In honesty, sometimes we need a bridle or a muzzle, something to keep us from doing a world of hurt with our tongues. We tell our kids not to play with fire. We need someone to tell us the same thing about our tongues.
More than any animal, our tongues are difficult to tame. We have lions and tigers and bears and killer whales in circus and zoos. We train them to do tricks rather than to attacks us, maul us, and eat us. But our tongues? They’re like an untamed lion, rampaging from our mouths. The insults from bullies, the tirades of verbally abusive spouses or parents, the gossip that we pass over the telephone or a coffee, the times we complain about someone rather than talking to them personally--like wild animals, our words bite and tear at one another.
The tragedy of letting our mouths run untamed like this is that we’re lying about the God who saves us. Rather than embracing the good news words that sets us free to live like Jesus, we talk like people still enslaved to Pharaoh, still dominated by death. God has spoken a word of forgiveness and freedom to us, but we reply with the language of death, malice, bitterness, and hopelessness.
Listen to how James sets up this contrast in vv 9 through 12:
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, it ought not be this way. Can both fresh water and salt water come from the same opening? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.It matters to me that we control our tongues. It matters to me because our tongues should be praising God. Our mouths should be testifying to the great things God has done to save us, not just when we share that good news with another person, not just when we’re gathered in this meetinghouse on a Sunday morning, but every time we open our mouths. The character of our speech--its kindness and gentleness, its love--witnesses to our loving Lord Jesus who set us free.
But when we let our mouths off their leashes and let the world know what we really think of it, we end up cursing, insulting, abusing the very people Jesus loves and came to save. In those moments, we’re not praising our God and king. No, we’re testifying instead to the ongoing rule of everything in the world that opposes God. We’re saying that death, not life, is king. We’re proclaiming that, no, there isn’t enough to go around, so we better make clear what’s our due. We’re witnessing that God is not our king and defender--no, we have to defend ourselves with our words.
Friends, this shouldn’t be! We are the community that Jesus has saved! Our words should pour refreshing, living water into the lives of those we’re talking with. Jesus’ kindness and compassion should echo in the way we speak to one another. Salt water and fresh water can’t flow from the same spring without all the water becoming salty; in the same way, we can’t try to mix destructive, death-dealing speech in with our words without polluting all our witness. James is calling for us to consistently show love in how we use our words, to live up to the image of God we see in Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment