From The Same Mouth

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Ordinary 24/Pentecost 16B

Jerusalem Baptist Church (Emmerton) Warsaw VA

James 3:1-12

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. ²For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. ³If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. ⁴Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. ⁵So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! ⁶And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. ⁷For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, ⁸but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. ¹⁰From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. ¹¹Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? ¹²Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.

James is continuing the conversation – the instruction, as it were, on what constitutes true religion – pure and undefiled. Here he is tackling an issue that is still as relevant today as it was two thousand years ago – bridling the tongue.

In many ways, the observations he makes about what the tongue is capable of – and just to be clear, when we read ‘the tongue’, what we are talking about is the words that come out of our mouths – echoes passages we are familiar with from Paul – when he speaks in his letter to the Romans, in chapter 7 about doing things he doesn’t want to do, and yet does them anyway, and DOESN’T do what he WANTS to do… at least I HOPE it echoes some of the same thoughts …

The issue with our words is that, we only have one mouth. It would’ve been helpful if God had given us two mouths – one out of which to speak kindness and grace, and the other for judgment and hatred, for unkind words and spirit-tearing barbs. But we are what we are. We were only given one mouth. We were not consulted in our design.

I’m being facetious – I’m teasing, of course. The point that James is making is that we tend to be duplicitous beings – two-sided. The same mouth that speaks or sings praises to God for his goodness to us, thanks him for his blessings, and CAN speak grace and kindness into a given situation can, quicker than the blink of an eye, turn and speak words that totally contradict all we DO hold dear in our heart of hearts – or that can uncover true feelings regarding a situation or a person, to their destruction, and ours as well.

How often have words come out of our mouths that we have regretted, that we wish we had held back, that we wish had never been uttered?

James took Jesus’ five words that summarized the Hebrew Law: You Shall Love Your Neighbor As Yourself – and expounded on them in this letter.

How do you love your neighbor? Here are some ways:

He’s has tackled hypocrisy, in dealing with the wealthy in his congregation, as well as the treatment of the poor and the needy – specifically, the widows and the orphans – folks who in first century Palestine had no standing in society – none – zero, nada, zilch, goose egg. And now he is taking on how words are used.

One of the things discovered in the field of psychology is how words influence how thoughts and attitudes are formed. This is not about how words affect the ones who hear them, but the ones who speak them. I only took one psychology course in college, and the single phrase that stands out in my mind from that class is this: Fallible Human Being. The professor made that distinction on the first or second day of class. He abbreviated it FHB. He asked us to replace what we might usually call someone with whom we had an issue with those letters, and it really did make a difference.

If, instead of referring to someone as an ignorant fool, or a stupid idiot, we referred to them as that – a fallible human being – we would be reminded of the fact that we are all more alike than different, when it comes to stuff like this. That simple change of word choice – from one that sets us above the person with whom we have a disagreement to one that sets us alongside them – gives us a perspective that allows us to relate to them in a completely different way – as equals – as equally susceptible to making mistakes and coming to wrong conclusions as they are.

What it boils down to is this: we are capable.

We are capable of extreme cruelty.

We are capable of extreme generosity.

We are capable of extreme indifference.

We are capable of unbelievable grace.

And overwhelming kindness.

We can, each of us, make an incredible impact on how the world is perceived by another person. Whether through our actions or our words, we have the ability to transform perceptions.

The question for us, as it was for the congregation that James was writing to, is, how will we choose to affect those perceptions? More to the point, will we submit our speech to the Lordship of Jesus Christ?

Will we choose to further the notion that everyone is out for themselves? That looking out for number one is the order of the day? Or will we be standard bearers for the proposition that we are called to live in community, and that living in community involves caring for each other, tending TO each other, working together to overcome differences with love, and to allow grace to dictate our words and our actions rather than pure self-interest or greed?

Included in that ‘caring for each other and tending to each other’ part is speaking of each other with caring words, words intended to uplift and encourage each other, not words that tear at a person’s reputation or relationships, that are designed to put someone down in the eyes of others, but which, in love, place the speaker next to the one being spoken of – acknowledging that we are all capable (again) of making poor choices as well as good, Godly ones, that we are each capable of doing that which pleases God rather than the opposite, that we can be instruments of light as readily as we can be part of the darkness that infects the world.

For us here at Jerusalem Baptist Church in Emmerton, this means we are called to a diligent submission – to each other, to the Holy Spirit and to Jesus Christ. It means that we are to be living examples of circumspect humility, that when we speak, our words not be intemperate – immoderate, extreme, or hotheaded – but that they be thoughtful, caring, measured words – words that have been thought through, that reflect the father’s love for his children, that bring healing, that communicate love. That transfer Grace.

Let’s pray.