This sermon is part six of a series, and was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 9/23/12.
James 3:1-12
The apostle James takes the opportunity in the first two chapters of his epistle to address very practical matters of faith and life with believers. We recall that James deals with matters like how to attain to real joy in life, how to confront and overcome testing and trials, how to live out faith in an active way, how faith without works is really no faith at all – it’s dead, and the power of prayer among believers.
In the third chapter of his letter to Christian believers in Jerusalem, James turns to yet another very important matter among Christians of his day - and certainly among us today. That regards the use of the tongue, and how Christians are to speak to and about each other, and how we are to use words and language in our daily lives.
Clearly, this is a very important matter for us today - as it was for James. There seems to be a societal epidemic of the vitriolic, poisonous use of language as a tool to destroy and hurt people in today’s society. We can measure this by the way people tend to talk to one another and about each other – and the way that some people tell lies on others, spread rumors and engage in gossip. We witness it in the use of words on the Internet, on Twitter, on Facebook, in text messaging and even in the way that many persons use emails today. The lack of civility in the way we communicate with each other seems to be pervasive.
This lack of civility – this lack of kindness and respect – as exemplified in our speech - has certainly slipped into political discourse, where today there appears to be nothing that political opponents can say about each other that is nice, or redeeming. We see it in the prevalence of so-called “attack ads” that permeate the airwaves. It matters little what level the political race is on – whether it is national or local – and it does not really matter the political affiliation of the candidate – Republican, Democratic or Independent - there just seems to be nothing that any one candidate can say that is nice or kind about her or his opponent.
We hear it in the proclivity of politicians today toward telling half-truths and little lies, as though as long as one is not telling an outright and big, bold-faced untruth, it is somehow permissible. And thus the need for what seems to be an ongoing cycle of “fact-checking” in the political realm.
I’m reminded of the story of a man who got sick and had to go to the hospital one day. He was there with his wife. And the wife was just going off on her husband, about everything he had done to deserve to be in the situation he was in, and that he had not done anything right for years. She didn’t realize it, but she was going on and on. Finally, the husband garnered the energy to stop his wife, and he said, “Honey, I certainly haven’t been perfect during our many years of marriage, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.”
Maybe, that’s the mindset of politicians today – that as long as they are right and truthful some of the time - and a portion of what they are saying is factual - then they pass muster and deserve the public’s trust.
I am one who believes that the destructive use of words is directly related to the proliferation of bullying, and the violence that we see among our youth in schools and on college campuses today. We hear it in much of contemporary music, with misogynistic words used to demean and diminish women, and in the “beefing” and “posturing” displayed by many hip-hop artists today.
Maybe this vitriolic, mean-spirited use of words and language today is not too much unlike what existed during the times of the apostle James. Maybe people in the days of James, those in Jerusalem, instead of using the cell phone or email to tell somebody off, they simply used a scroll to write a nasty, mean note to somebody they did not like, or somebody who had done them wrong.
In any event, James takes time here to address the matter of the use of the tongue, and how people in his day needed to develop the capacity to tame their tongue, and control what they were saying to each other, and how they were saying it.
James admonishes the people of his day to tame their tongues. James points out that the tongue is one of the smallest organs in the body, but there is more power in the tongue than perhaps anywhere else in our being. He compares the tongue to a little fire placed among a great deal of combustible matter, which soon raises a flame and consumes all before it. It stains the whole body. He teaches how difficult it is to tame and control the tongue: “For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, can be tamed, and has been tamed, of mankind. But no can tame the tongue.” And finally, the tongue, James points out, has great potential for both blessings and curse (good and evil).
And so what are a few of the lessons that we glean from the teachings of James?
First, the use of words has the potential to be sinful. If sin is defined as those acts that separate us from God (and by extension one another), then our inappropriate use of words and language has the potential to be sinful. That is why God took time to speak to Moses on Mt. Sinai, and to share with Moses in one of the Ten Commandments that we should not bear false witness (we should not lie and tell untruths). It not only shows a lack of integrity, but is an act of sinfulness to lie on someone, or about something.
That’s why it’s helpful to pause and think about what we are about to say before we say it. It is like the wise man who once said, that “the fish would not have gotten caught if he hadn’t opened his mouth.”
Second, our words can do real harm to our neighbor. The reality is that our words can really hurt others. That is why it is important to be careful what we say to each other and how we say it. Harmful words can indeed scar the soul, and have an impact on those we hurt long after we utter harmful words. That’s why I like the words of the song by Hezekiah Walker – “I need you to survive.” One of the verses says, “I won’t harm you with words from my mouth… I love you... I need you to survive...”
Third, the Good News is that there’s healing, redemptive power, and blessing in speaking well of one another. As people of God, we need to know that it is God’s intent for us is to speak well of each other – to speak life and possibility into existence. The biblical record indicates to us in the book of Genesis that God in God’s love for creation, spoke all of creation into existence.
In other words, God used God’s divine words – God spoke – to create all that is good. God spoke to create the birds in the air… God spoke to create the fish in the sea… God spoke to create the sun and the moon… God spoke to create animals... God spoke light into existence. God spoke to create you and me. And every time God spoke, and created something, God stopped and declare that it was good.
This lets us know that it is God’s divine intent – based on who God is - that we speak well of those around us, speak possibility and hope to our children, speak possibility and hope to our neighbors, and even if we can’t say anything positive to and about our enemy, we are called then to say nothing at all.
And in this day and age as Christians, it causes us to pause and wonder what Jesus would say to us today. Maybe Jesus would say that “I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” “I came that you might learn to love your neighbors (and talk to your neighbors) as yourself.” Thanks be to God for the possibilities we have to speak hope and possibility and blessing into one another.
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