Just a Little Bit: 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. For 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. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 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. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And 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. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh." ~ James 3:1-12 

Wow, this was a hard text to bring to you this morning. I kept wanting to manage it somehow, to soften its blow, to pat your hand and say, “Don’t worry this won’t hurt a bit.” But then I realized that we were all sick and though it would hurt, it would also make us better.

1.      My first point is one word, “all.” No loopholes, no freebies, no get-out-of-jail-free cards, no exceptions. I didn’t want this to be my first word to you this morning. I like to be positive, to be heart-warming, to think of the spiritual life in hues of warm colors and fluffy blankets but the text wouldn’t let me. “All of us make many mistakes” the NRSV translates. “We all stumble in many ways,” the NIV says. And don’t try to weasel out because you want to say, “Hey, wait a minute, doesn’t it say in vs. 1, “we who teach will be judged with greater strictness”? Yes, it does, and I understand that many of us bear a greater responsibility but there is still that “all” and in this day and age – I would argue – all of us teach someone. All of us are in a position of some authority over another’s life. All of us share knowledge with others. In James’ day – literacy and education were probably no higher than 10% but that’s not our world – no exceptions. And this “all” doesn’t simply scoop us up in one guilty swoop but it names for all of us our problem – the tongue – and James heaps upon us a torrent of words associated with the tongue that I’d rather not say aloud: “fire,” “a world of iniquity,” “untamed,” “ablaze,” “a restless evil,” “stain,” “hell.” And I realized something that is particularly a struggle for me – when I hear this text read I find myself wanting to be silent. [PAUSE FOR 30 SECONDS] And as I have found myself this week sitting in silence - I realized more fully a very obvious truth for all of us- that speaking is dangerous and that words easily lead to sin.

We live in a wordy world where words hunt us from all avenues of our lives to buy, to vote, to believe. And these words they don’t care – they are just as likely to run us over as they are to lend a helping hand leaving us afraid, suspicious, with our mouths cocked ready to go off at a moments notice.

In a 2008 study, political researchers looked at thousands of presidential ads from the year before and found negativity in only nine percent of those ads. A more recent study through April 22 of this year found that 70 percent of presidential ads from both parties were negative. One researcher stated, "In negative ads, they make a narrative for you that is supposed to brand the person," he added. "People say, 'I hate negative ads, they do nothing for me,' while unconsciously processing them. Emotion trumps cognition." In another study, other researchers found that undecided voters became subliminally hung up on words used in negative political ads, even though they insisted that the ads had no effect on them - “a world of iniquity” indeed, all around us, pulling at our hearts, harming more than our persons but the body of Christ as a whole. In response, hear the helpful words of Henri Nouwen:

I wonder more and more if most of the words we use would be better left unspoken? We speak about the events of the world, but how often do we really change them for the better? We speak about people and their ways, but how often do our words do them or us any good? We speak about our ideas and feelings as if everyone were interested in them, but how often do we really feel understood or do we understand others? We speak a great deal about God and religion, but how often does it bring us or others to real insight? Sometimes it seems that our many words are more an expression of our doubt than our faith. It is as if we are not sure that God’s Spirit can touch the hearts of people: we have to help him out and, with many boastful words, to convince others of his power.

2.      My second point, is that while we might want to consider cutting our tongues out in response to James, we all know that its poison has seeped far deeper than that. In ancient physiology it was believed that an artery from one’s heart fed blood directly to the tongue.  So what should all of us who have poison tongues do? There is the danger and the trappings of a particular vision of piety which wants to understand James’ point as simply NOT doing something in order to change our hearts and tongues. A sort of “don’t do it or I’ll wash-your-mouth-out-with-soap kind of piety”. But I would like to suggest that the answer to healing our tongues is to use them – and the Psalms can clue us in here. My sense is that God’s antidote is to use your tongue but pray it – don’t say it.

I never would have thought my Sunday school lesson today would have saved my sermon but the Prayer class looked at the Psalms this week as guides for prayer which means we had to deal with Imprecatory Psalms or Cursing Psalms. Now, why would James bemoan “cursing” others when there are “cursing” Psalms? Imprecatory Psalms help us understand that the audience for our tongue matters. Often we are quite good at cleaning up our feelings in our prayers while we struggle with our words everywhere else. Perhaps, we have it backwards. Perhaps we should strive to take all our worst feelings and most harmful words to God. After all, what would be gossip when addressed to anyone else is petition when addressed to God. What would be a vengeful curse when spoken to someone (“Damn you”) can become a plea of helpless dependence when spoken directly to God (“I want to damn others but only you are a just judge.”) For many of us, our problem is that we reserve our tongues for the wrong audience, setting the world on fire one person at a time, with gossip and hateful speech. Our friends are kindling, but God – he’s flame retardant. You can throw all the matches you want into the streams of God’s mercy, into the river of life, where they will be received and extinguished.

In the presence of the Great Physician, maybe my most appropriate contribution we can make is to stick out our tongues and say, “Ahhhh.” It is only there and then that we will learn to see that the ones we would wish to curse are like us – sick in need of a physician. Only when we bring all of our poison to God and pour it out will we discover who we and others truly are – “For all of us make many mistakes,” “all of us are caught up a world or system of evil,” “all of us, in one way or another is chased by hell, James argues and it is only when we truly grasp those words in prayer that we will truly see others as those who are made in the likeness of God. So confess to bless. In the end, James’ point is that our tongues are fundamentally healed through our eyes  - the ability to see that human beings are human beings because they are “made in the likeness of God. To be a human being, James says, means that one is fundamentally and unalterably blessable! Republican, Democrat, Housed, Homeless, Good, Evil, Christian, Muslim to be the ultimate audience for our blessing. God help us.

3.      My third point, is Just a little bit can guide the mission, steer the church, and warm the world.  The tongue is certainly connected to our bodies – a veritable physical manifestation of our thoughts, our intentions, our feelings. James says that it reflects the whole person – we already know this. Think about how we describe people – loud, shy, talks to much, funny – all of this shaped by our speech, our words, our tongues. It’s easy to get lost in all of the analogies of this passage– bridle, rudder, and flame – and all the seemingly negative, hyperbolic rhetoric about mutated figs, brackish water, fires, even the fires of hell. BUT as I sat with the passage what also impressed me was the deeply important truth that such a small thing can steer the mission of this church, alter the environment of our home, determine the setting of our workplace, impact the course of our spiritual existence and others. I’m not wanting to discount the nature of the fight – it’s a serious one – carefully made plain by images aimed at grabbing our ear and silencing us or at least giving us pause. But underneath it all is also a simple acknowledgement that a "little bit" can guide, a "little rudder" can steer, a "little fire" can warm  - just a little.  So what does a little bit feel like? It feels like this: “The Lord be with you. And also with you.”; “I invite my young friends to come up here and join me.” “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”; “Lamb of God, have mercy on us.” “The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.” “I know we don’t agree but we are brothers and sisters.” “O dear, I’m sorry that I said this, please forgive me;” “Hey, I just wanted to call and check to see how you are doing.”It's words of worship, words of thanksgiving, words of forgiveness, words of help.

Let this place be your language school to help teach you how to practice forms of faithful speech to God and others and practice, practice, practice – the conjugations of kindness, the verb forms of praise, the personal pronouns of grace. If being a participating member of a society is reflected by one’s ability to speak the language, then let the words we speak every Sunday show what community you are a member of. Amen.