Devoted: Tongue
Discipline Your Tongue with Praise
James 3:1-12
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. September 12th, 2021
When I was in grade school we had an old saying, perhaps you have heard of it. “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.” It’s one of those incantations that are especially devastating because it has a good rhythm or it rhymes. One could also say in the same moment “I am rubber and you are glue, everything you say bounces off me and sticks back to you.” And, I suppose, that’s how it is. But the idea was that whatever you might say, whatever anyone may say, can’t hurt. The only way you are going to get at me is if you pick up a rock. But then the teacher is more likely to notice.
The truth is “sticks and stones might break my bones but words will never hurt me” is one of those childish ideas that we soon outgrow. Of course words hurt. Words can be far more devastating than any stick or stone. A broken bone is easier to heal than a broken heart or a poisoned mind. The words we say, the words others say, can have tremendous consequences as we are reminded this morning. James tells us, “The tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire!”
Shortly before I started my ministry in the UP they had a large forest fire up by a place called Duck Lake. Almost 22,000 acres were burned down, $450,000 worth of damage. I used to preach at a little forest chapel near the mouth of the big two hearted river. In order to get there I passed through miles of burned down forest. It took a long time for the bushes and trees to begin to grow, so all you saw was ash and the skeletons of burned out trees. All that damage was caused, in the first, by a lightning strike and a small fire. The tongue, James reminds us, is a fire. It is small, but it can have big consequences if we use it falsely.
James compares the tongue to a bridle. If you want to control a horse you put the bridle in its mouth and you can direct the horse where to go. If you want to steer a large ship you can set its course with a very small rudder. And so too with our lives, the words we say, the way we choose to describe people and events, all help determine how we will act.
One of the stories from the exodus concerns spies who were sent to the promised land to search it out. The spies came back with two reports. Joshua and Caleb came back saying the land was everything God had promised. It was flowing with milk and honey. It had large fertile fields of produce, and much rich grazing land. There were large cities ready for the taking. They saw the land in terms of the promise of God. But the others came back with a different report. Where Joshua and Caleb saw the fruitfulness of a land ripe for the taking, they emphasized that there were giants in the land. They spoke fearfully about the large defenses of the cities, and how it would be impossible to take. The people of Israel listened to the others, and wailed. They grew fearful, certain that they had been led to the slaughter or to die in the wilderness.
All it took was the power of speech. Joshua and Caleb described the land faithfully. The others described the land in terms of their fears. Both were describing the same land. But one description was right, and the other was wrong. One would lead to life, and the other to death. In the end God chose not to lead that generation into the land he had promised, because they had in effect rejected it. It would be Joshua, not Moses, who would lead their children in to the land.
The words we say matter because description matters. It matters that I call myself stupid in my own self talk. Or it matters that I’m always talking down someone I don’t like behind my back. It matters that I’m always venting, and then always looking for more to vent. Our disciplines of speech can make us upset, and lead us down bad roads. We have to be careful with our speech. A stream doesn’t bring forth both fresh and brackish water, so how can a mouth both curse and praise? We need to be judicious with our words.
The need to be judicious with our words is one reason why worship is so important. Worship has a moral dimension, too. In worship we offer up our speech in praise to God. We show gratitude and thanksgiving. We are reminded of God’s deeds, and of God’s salvation. Our hearts are turned, once again, to Jesus on his cross giving himself up for us. And not just for us, but for that person we keep gossiping about. Not just for us, but for that coworker we can’t help but vent over. Not just for us, but for them, the people who cause all the worlds problems. And especially for ourselves at our most stupid. We turn our speech to God that we might re-learn how to talk about ourselves, our world, and others.
We are reminded of Jesus’ sacrifice, and God’s power. We are reminded of the Spirit among us, and our place in the body of Christ. And when we are so reminded we may learn to speak aright. Aright about ourselves, our God, each other, and our world.