A sermon delivered on September 15, 2024, by the Rev. Patrick H Wrisley, D.Min.
This morning, James is cutting to the chase about what can destroy either a person or the Christian community itself. In today’s text, James teaches us that words can bind people together or tear them apart. Words have the power to bring healing, or they can cause damaging pain. James is asking members of the church to measure our words in the light of the Royal Law which is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.[1]
Words matter to God. In Genesis, we learn how in the inky, chaotic blackness of the void of nothingness, God spoke and the result of God speaking the Word, the act of Creation took place. In the New Testament Genesis account in the Gospel of John, John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”[2]
Words matter.
Think for a moment about words you have heard throughout your life and how they affected you. I am 64 years old, and I can still remember crystal-clear words spoken by my second-grade teacher, Mrs. Smith; I guess that would put me at seven years old. I was a shy and insecure kid, and I distinctly remember the day she called me up in class to work out a math problem on the chalkboard. Sitting behind her desk she declared, “Fat Pat, come on up and here and work this out.” I had always been a pudgy kid and teased about my weight. I was very self-conscious about it and when my teacher called me to the board that morning, any sliver of self-esteem I had was ripped out right in front of all my classmates who were chuckling at her comment. Her words haunt me these 54 years later.
Words matter. Words have weight. Words have power. Jesus so believed this that he made a point to tell his disciples in Matthew that at the fulfillment of time when we each stand before God, we will have to give an accounting for every careless, thoughtless word we utter in our life![3]
Listen to what James the Just, Jesus’ brother, says about the power of words we so often carelessly toss about with one another. Listen to the Word of the Lord from James 3.1-12.
James 3:1-12
3.1 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 come 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.[4]
James’ words were originally addressing those who were in leadership and teaching positions of the Church. James realized the power of a teacher’s words can influence so much and so many. I learned this lesson from Mrs. Smith in second grade! Those who are leaders and teachers in a community of faith have a responsibility placed upon them to care for the community under their watch; the challenge was the early Church had a plethora of lousy non-orthodox teachers who ignored the Royal Law of God; the faith leaders were not loving one’s neighbor as much as they loved themselves and the ways of the world.
Yet, though he is talking to teachers and leaders of the faith community, James is also writing to the gathered Church; the words apply to all those in the worshiping fellowship. So, what can we learn from James’ words about building up the community of faith? Just as Rotary International has its Four-Way Test, I propose our text today highlights for you and me a Four-Way Test we can use as a template to filter the words we use. These four questions can help train us to be more mindful of our words and how they affect others.
Test number one: Do the words I use bind people together or do they divide and tear down? James reminds us of the tongue’s power by comparing it to a horse bridle or a ship’s rudder. For those of you who boat or fly, you are familiar with a rudder’s trim tab. A trim tab is a small rudder on the rudder itself that helps the ship stabilize and navigate smoothly. Airplane wings have them, too. Friends, our tongue is a trim tab that directs the words emerging from our hearts. Are they words that stabilize or do they destabilize? Our tongues and words either direct the flow of our Christly movement gracefully in the world, or, they can fan into flames the world’s hellish tendencies. Christly movement brings people together. Christly movement brings reconciliation. Christly words bind the community together with a common purpose and expression of the love of God. Christly words bring stability and peace.
In contrast to Christly words, James speaks of words that destabilize and set the fires of anger, hate, and disunity. Hellish words are words that unravel communities. Our culture’s propensity to use ill-spoken words destroys the soul of a person to whom they are directed towards. Careless words are words that divide families, businesses, schools, churches, and communities. Just ask Springfield, Ohio mayor, Rob Rue, who has laments, “We’re hurting” as careless words have shut down two schools, and a college, caused an evacuation of city hall, and the local department of transportation facility all because of bomb threats based on careless words.[5] Friends, words matter. The first filter of our three-way test is to ask, “Do the words I use bind people together or do my words divide and tear down?”
Test number two: Do the words I use heal or do they cause pain and damage? Parents, think about how you argue with your spouse. In a fit of passionate anger, one of you blurts out to your spouse, “I hate you!” only to have your child in the next room hear it. What is a child to make of that comment? When you uttered it, you really did not mean it, but it just came out of your mouth because you were angry; the problem is young kids don’t always understand that. And children of all ages, what do you think it does to a parent when they hear you yell at them in a moment of rage, “I hate you!”? For those of us on social media, how do the words and articles we post and how we comment impact others who either posted or are reading them? The words our young people are using on social media can be vicious and have caused some of their peers to take their own lives from the shame they received. Words matter.
Our scripture says words can’t be tamed or subdued. Unlike animals that can be kept behind the bars of a cage, words are not bound by anything with locks or doors; and yet, they slyly, seductively weave through any opening of the ear that hears them. Words have no boundaries and neither can they be contained. James says in verse 6 that words have the power to soil a person’s reputation and life as a baby will inevitably soil their diaper. He tells us that words have the power to set on fire the cycle of nature and burn it all down. James is reminding us words can be instigators that can burn down and level an entire community. Words have power, beloved. Words matter. Do our words bring healing, or do they burn down and divide?
Test number three: Do our words show God’s character or the world’s? In James 2.8, we read about the Royal Law and that Royal Law reveals God’s character. The essence of God’s character is best described as active love looking for a recipient. In contrast, the world’s way of operating is built upon the notion that the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many. The world’s character declares everyone for him or herself! The world’s character pulls and tears other people down to get ahead. The world’s character screams that those with the power are the best and most deserving!
Some years ago, folks in Orlando, Florida began losing sleep over the fact some yahoo let his pet Cobra escape the house into the suburban neighborhood. Vast amounts of police resources were poured into hunting this 8-foot reptile because its venom is strong enough to kill 19 people. James tells us today that our words can either bless or curse and he uses same word used to describe the poisonous venom that comes from a snake bite. There are far too many snakes in the world, my beloved, and there are far too many venomous snake bites happening in the Church of Jesus Christ.
The Church of Jesus Christ is a microcosm of culture in that it shows both what God dreams to happen with the bestowal of love on worthy and unworthy recipients alike; it’s also a microcosm of culture because it is made up of broken people like you and me who are hell-bent on hurting one another with snide remarks, or venomous backroom or parking lot grumbling or gossip. The deal is though, friends, the Church is the re-presentation of the Kingdom, the Presence of God, in the world; as such Church, we need to be vigilant in trying to harness the unharnessable – nasty words, gossip and innuendo.
The last piece of the church’s four-way test for using words is obvious: Is it true? Beloved, the second essence of God’s character is Truth as Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the life.” In contrast, Jesus says in John 8 while speaking to his detractors says,
44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Lies, my beloved, are a cancer in both a Christian’s life and in the life of the Church.
The harnessing of our words requires constant vigilance on our part. This is why we need this four-way test. This is why we need the help of these four filters every time we open our mouths.
So, consider this week and notice whether your words unite people and spirits, or do they divide and crush?
Do they bring healing and refreshment, or do they cause pain or a person’s spiritual and social death?
Are they words that show the character of God’s Royal Law of love or do our words show the destructive cacophonous den our culture is promoting?
Are they true?
The Spirit of Understanding bring clarity to my words and our hearts and minds. Amen.
patrick h wrisley 