Sermon for St Edward’s, Readings James 3:1-12, Matthew 12: 33-37
Chapter 3 is all about the tongue – the words we use and their impact. It makes me think of that old playground rhyme ‘sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me?’ It’s total nonsense of course, we can all be hurt by words spoken over us. I am sure we can all remember unkind things that have been said to us or about us. They stick with us and where physical wounds heal, trauma from words can take a life time. And that is what James is trying to get across, that our words have power and if we aren’t careful that power will not be a force of good.
Speech/words are important in the bible. God speaks things in to being, words of prophecy carry power. The first sin came into being through speech – the serpent tricked Eve and she said but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die (not what God said) as we looked at a few weeks ago.
Paul says of the unrighteous in Romans 3:13-14
Their throats are opened graves; they use their tongues to deceive.’
‘The venom of vipers is under their lips.’ ‘Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.’
He’s quoting from the Psalms
And Isaiah talked about being a man of unclean lips (6:5)
Peter talking about doing right (1 Peter 3:10) quoting Ps 34: says:
‘Those who desire life and desire to see good days,
let them keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking deceit;
And Jesus himself says in Matt 12:
for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.’
So James is echoing OT scripture, Jesus and other early Christian teachers.
And right at the start of his letter he says:
6 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.
1:26
The words we use carry power. Our speech is important. It is the key to holy living.
James doesn’t expect us to be perfect – he says as such – v2 For all of us make many mistakes. But we should be seeking to be like Christ. As he says in Ch 1:4: and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
We have an aim. We are not there yet but we aim for the best. Our speech and our words are part of that.
And James starts out by talking about leaders – teachers and the responsibility they have with their words but this is a message for us all. And he knows it is hard to ‘tame the tongue’ as he says:
For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, 8 but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
No one can tame the tongue!
And it’s so true, how hard is it sometimes to just keep our mouths shut!? To not say what we are thinking? Or not to snap at someone. To share gossip. Innuendo. Things we don’t know to be true. Or even things we haven’t fully thought through. Things we think are funny but someone else might not. And do I get started on what we share on social media?!
And do we think about how our words will be read or heard? We may have something to say but what is our tone? We can deliver difficult information or passionate thought without being rude.
In the first few verses James uses these examples of a horse and a ship:
Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 4 Or 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. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.
He’s saying that the tongue is like a bit/bridle and a rudder. That the words we use carry power to steer the rest of our lives. Sometimes a wrong word or something said in haste takes on a life of its own. Others are offended, hurt. That affects our relationship with them. Who knows for how long. There are those who have lost jobs for things they have posted ill-advisedly on social media. What we say gives people an impression of who we are.
For example I was once told that I am a very critical person. Now I don’t think I am, I am just the kind of person who wants to improve things, change them for the better, and I now realise that can come across at critical. I now know I have to work at how I share thoughts in this way. But when I was told that, I had a choice – to recognise how I can sound and change my tone or my words – turn the rudder as it were – or carry on as I was and potentially alienate people.
We have a choice.
The tongue is a spark or a fire – as James says: v5
How great a forest is set ablaze by a small 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..
So the words we use, have the capacity to set in process a chain reaction. We need to see this and think through the results of our actions.
We have a responsibility for our words. Gossip and rumour for example are so damaging. Let’s ask ourselves how often do we say to one another, well She said X or he said Y happened. When we do this, we are sharing things we don’t know to be true, we weren’t there, we don’t know what happened or what was said. We are hearing one person’s version of events through their experiences, their lenses. We all see things differently, we all remember things differently. And when we share that we are not sharing things that we know to be true.
And that goes wider –
In this day and age with fake news and bias in the media, social media algorithms
altered by the rich men who own them, no real fact checkers. When we share things we have read or heard via social media or podcasts etc we should really fact check them first. Rather than sharing something we don’t know is accurate. Some of our world leaders need to learn this one!
But it’s not just us, James says the tongue
… is itself set on fire by hell v6
Vs 8
a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
And the devil loves to stir doesn’t he?! How often can we be led by angry thoughts or by our hurt and pain and we say things we don’t really mean. I am sure the enemy loves to use our emotions to stir up trouble.
We talked a few weeks ago about anger – in Ephesians Paul doesn’t say don’t be angry, he says don’t let it draw you into sin. 4:46 – in that he says, do not make room for the devil.
As I said earlier that is hard, I know that, so does James. We need to remember that God is with us in all things, Psalm 23:
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Philippians 4:5-7
The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God…
Romans 12:21 says: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
And Jesus said as we heard in our gospel reading: Matt 12
How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgement you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.’
So for a moment let’s think about how we can intentionally use words for good, for the glory of God.
For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person brings good things out of a good treasure
I want to talk a little about prophecy. I’ve talked about this before. The prophetic has grown from Old Testament prophets who God used to share God’s message with humanity. They were the ones that heard directly from God. But now, we can all hear from God.
Some of us might have a specific gift of prophecy, sharing a word from God, the Bible says that some will be called to different things (as we read in Ephesians 4), but we can all be used in this way. We can all hear from God. As a church I’d love us to think about this more. To allow space for God to speak to us and to build each other up with words from God.
This is one way that our words can flow from the abundance of the heart as James says, carrying the power of the Holy Spirit and bringing glory to God.
Then led into a term of prayer and listening to God…
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