Proper 19 Year B 9/15/2024
Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 116:1-8; James 3:1-12; Mark 8:27-38
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
Of the estimated 800,000 words in the English language 300,000 are technical terms.
Many of the other words are proper names, places, and such.
Some are jargon and slang.
In the average dictionary there are around 170,000 words.
The average American person knows around 30,000 words and uses maybe 10,000 in everyday speech.
But a person only needs to use the right word in the right moment to change the whole course of a conversation or even a relationship.
This is what our passage from James is about.
James, the half-brother of Jesus, was the leader of the church in Jerusalem.
His letter is the only document that we have of his in the New Testament.
And it is full of wisdom and practical advice.
It has been nicknamed the Proverbs of the New Testament and it lives up to that reputation.
In our reading, James gives several metaphors and examples about the power of the tongue…
The power of one’s words.
What he says is so important and worth another reading.
So let’s do that…
We will take a further look at this reading from St. Jazmes…
this time from The Message paraphrase.
James writes:
A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse.
A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds.
A word out of your mouth may seem of no account,
but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!
These examples are not necessarily good or bad.
James is just suggesting that the tongue is powerful.
Just like a whole ship’s direction is controlled by a small rudder on the back of the boat.
In a similar way our lives, our direction in life, can be shaped and steered by the power of the tongue.
This can be positive or negative.
Someone that knows when to talk and when to listen might go far in life.
Someone who cannot control their unbridled tongue might learn some hard lessons in life.
I know that I have had to learn lessons in life because I couldn’t control the urge to say something when I shouldn’t have.
Alright, the next bit says this:
It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire.
A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that.
By our speech we can ruin the world,
turn harmony to chaos,
throw mud on a reputation,
send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it,
smoke right from the pit of hell.
Here James turns to the negative power of our speech.
Words are powerful.
The children’s rhyme:
Sticks and stones may break my bones
But words shall never hurt me.
Is simply a false advertisement.
Words have serious consequences…
And this has become more obvious with the advent of social media.
People have lost jobs over the words they have posted on the internet.
Our words matter…
They can set our world a blaze…
Bringing chaos…
Hurting people we love…
Destroying people’s lives.
A careless mouth follows the path of sin…
And the outcome of sin is to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10.11)
St. James then goes further.
He writes:
This is scary:
You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer.
With our tongues we bless God our Father;
with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image.
Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!
It is so true, right?
We sing and praise God our Father…
And then later turn around and gossip or slander others. It is a bit scary.
Finally, James writes a series of questions…
He says:
My friends, this can’t go on.
A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day and brackish the next,
does it?
Apple trees don’t bear strawberries, do they?
Raspberry bushes don’t bear apples, do they?
You’re not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?
Apparently, the letter of St. James was written to Christians who had problems with speaking with kindness.
However, if we look at the scriptures more fully,
we can see that St. James isn’t the only one concerned about the way people talk to one another.
St. Peter wrote in his first letter:
Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. (1 Peter 3.10)
St. Paul also wrote about the way we talk, he said:
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt,
so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossians 4.6)
Elsewhere he writes:
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths,
but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4.29)
The writer of Proverbs had a lot to say about the power of the tongue and the wisdom of using it carefully.
One example is in Proverbs 15 where it is written:
The soothing tongue is a tree of life,
but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit. (Proverbs 15.4)
I believe there is so much in the scriptures about the way we talk because we need to hear how important it is.
We don’t want to be people known for crushing spirits because of our harsh talk.
In fact, we should be slow to speak.
Consider carefully what we say.
St. James said it earlier in his letter, he wrote:
Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak… (James 1.19)
Often, silence is the friend for those of us with a quick mouth.
Publius, A Greek sage from the 2nd century said:
“I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.”
There is wisdom in that.
In our lesson today we would be wise to heed the caution of St. James in his letter.
To finish up the sermon this morning I want to note some positive ways speech is used in the Bible.
Some positive things about words.
One from the Old Testament and then the New Testament.
The first comes to us from the very first book of the bible…
In the very first chapter.
It is written:
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Genesis 1.3)
Words are powerful for tearing down.
But they are also powerful for building up.
God at the beginning of time spoke the universe into existence.
With words.
He created us, humans, in His image with words.
He created all that we see and know with words.
In the very beginning we have this understanding of the power of words…
St. John picks this up in the first chapter of his Gospel.
He writes:
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. (John 1.1)
John, of course, is referring to Jesus…
Calling him the Word.
This is to say that God’s message to the world is Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the Word of God.
And to understand this message we must look to see who Jesus is.
The Good News of God is in the person of Jesus Christ.
The message of the Gospel transforms our life and our being.
And its this good message, these good words of the Gospel of Jesus that we are to share in this world.
Using words to share the good news of Jesus.
The Gospel is the loving message that God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save sinners.
Jesus defeated sin and death through his sacrificial death and glorious resurrection.
And this is where words have great power once again.
The scriptures say:
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,”
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified,
and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10.9-10)
It is with the profession by faith that Jesus is Lord that we are justified of our sins.
Salvation comes through the spoken word.
God spoke his creation into existence with words.
God sent the message of love in Jesus Christ, who is the Word.
And through words we receive salvation in Christ by grace through faith.
And with words we share the good news of Jesus to the world around us.
Words are important.
They can build up and they can tear down.
They can cause damage and destruction…
And they can bring salvation to a lost and struggling world.
May we as the people of God heed this lesson today…
And use our words wisely, to build up people and to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
Amen.