Fork-Tongued Christians

James 3

First Presbyterian Church, Clarksville and Harmony Presbyterian Church

Ordinary 25

September 23, 2012

The Reverend Dr. Robert Wm Lowry

Standing in the wise man’s home as he translates the writing on the medallion Sallah tells his partner, “you know Indy, some secrets were not meant to be disturbed.”  Predictably, not long after the warning is issued the protagonist ignores the warning and disturbs the secret thereby wreaking the chaos that inevitably ensues.  Thus begins, the climactic adventure of Indiana Jones, Raider of the Lost Ark.

Good advice for archaeologists is good advice for preachers unearthing the text of the book of James.  Some things are better left undisturbed.

In fact, James issues his own warning to those who would seek to glean meaning from the text and share their insights.  “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness,”  says the writer of the book of James.

By the time this book is being written, the church is moving from its earliest infancy into a more cohesive whole.  It was a long way from the church we know today, but it was far from the meandering diaspora to whom Paul wrote.  And the message of the gospel has begun to take on great influence both within and without the community.  James realizes that the words of the Gospel have great power and in the hands of sinful people, that power can too easily be misused. 

Perhaps, the writer seems to propose, it is better to leave it unsaid than to speak in error

The book of James is as theologically fascinating as it is infuriating.  On the one hand is the instinct, my instinct at least, to throw it out with the bathwater.  To reject it out of hand like Luther because of one or two offending passages.  That is of course what many people do.  Throw out the whole thing because of one or two disagreeable parts. 

That might not be such a bad idea.  This is indeed a dangerous text.  It is easy to misuse this text…to pull particular passages and reduce them to contemporary warnings against behaviours deemed problematic in the church.  Perhaps the wisest course really is Luther’s; just rip the damn thing out and save the church from itself.  After all, there is no shortage of voices in the church today that look for little more than bumper sticker theology and easy answers to faith’s tough questions.

The irony of these temptations is that wisdom literature, which James is to some extent, calls on us to resist simple answers and simplistic solutions and instead calls on us to think carefully and act virtuously in complex situations.

This third chapter of the text is James’ exposition on the final element of faithful living he shared in chapter one.  We heard them a couple of weeks ago.  The three marks of true religion, as James defines them for us, are 1)care for orphans and widows which is shown in giving hospitality and care to those in need, 2) keeping oneself unstained by the world; the call to live the Christian message as well as speak it- to make our doing match our believing, and 3) bridle your tongue before God or the practice of restraint and thoughtfulness in Christian speech.

The act of speech as a Christian practice is, for James, made all the more important by his conviction that “the tongue is a fire” capable of casting light in the darkness or setting the whole cycle of nature ablaze.

Simply, put words matter. 

Words carry greater capacity to care and to curse than any other human action.  Words change the world.  A few well-chosen words spoken at the right time, in the right place to the right audience can change the course of human history.  What would the world be like without:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident”…

or,  “four score and seven years ago;”

or, “free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last;”

or, “for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son.”

Words matter.

Words can and have and will change history.

Nonetheless, we are frequently careless and pay little attention to the words we use.  There is a Greek word, adiaphora that means things indifferent.  It is a word to describe things that just don’t matter or that are not worthy of our full attention

When we speak without thinking, when we fail to use compassion and sensitivity in our language, we treat words as though they were adiaphora; things indifferent.  We fail to recognize that the words we choose and the words we use have enormous impact on us and on our world.

Understanding the power of words and language and comprehending that they are anything but indifferent is the wisdom James’ seeks to impart.  In this troublesome book of his, James writes about the Christian life and what it means.  And I think part of the reason it may be so hard for us to read is that its truth is hard for us to bear.

There are two images of language in James both represented by the tongue.  James says that the tongue is both a blessing and a curse; an instrument of praise and sin.

He is certainly right that the tongue, the instrument of our speaking, can be used as a blessing.  The teacher, according to James, uses the gift of language for blessing when giving praise to God.  We praise God when we remember each other in prayer, when we lift our voices in song, when we affirm those who are learning.  We bless God when we read words of scripture. Calling our children by name, welcoming a stranger and speaking the truth in love all are ways that our tongues bless God. 

Certainly the words of Jesus are a blessing.  The great commission of Christ to the church is one of blessed speech.  In fact it is the words of Christ- his spoken command- that brings the mission of the church into being.  Christ calls on us to go therefore and baptize the nations and make disciples.  We make disciples by living and teaching the word of God.  When we use the word of God to welcome and receive into fellowship those who would put their trust in God, we use the gift of language as blessing. 

Words of welcome, love, hope, peace and unity are blessings and, according to James, because the power of the tongue, the power of speech, is what it is, these blessings are all the greater for having been spoken- said- proclaimed.

Of course, the tongue can also be a curse.

Now when we think of cursing we generally think of one of two things, either foul language or casting a curse, a spell on someone- giving them the evil eye etc.

James’ recollection of God’s wisdom is somewhat different.  According to James the curse of the tongue is everything that is not praise of God.

Gossip;

Slander or speaking ill of another;

Disrespect;

Degradation;

Bullying;

All are acts of cursing rather than blessing.

James understands human nature enough to know that it is not so easy as to leave it there.  After all, it is pretty easy to rationalize yourself out of those categories.

Gossip is just another word for news

It isn’t speaking ill if it is true

Disrespect breeds disrespect- you reap what you sow

And perhaps the most insidious contemporary rationale for a cursed tongue; it is not bullying if I do it to show my love for God.

However we may try to rationalize it; whatever justification we attempt to adopt for it, speaking with a cursed tongue is speaking with a cursed tongue.  Like so many things, the words we say inform  much of how we live in the world.  James reminds us that using a cursed tongue is not just about speaking.

·         The tongue curses when we value only our own words and fail to listen to our neighbors.

·         The tongue curses when we will only converse or associate with those who agree with us and speak like we do.

·         The tongue curses when it is used to bow before power rather than speak for those without it.

·         The tongue curses when our words are used to break down rather than to build up any part of the body of Christ

Our words matter a great deal and anything we say that harms the body of Christ is, James says, a curse.

That is tough medicine.

I have to confess that at this point in the sermon, I thought about asking the choir to break into a chorus of “Just a Spoon Full of Sugar Makes the Medicine Go Down!” 

As wisdom literature so often does, James’ writing paints a rather grim picture of our capacity to be forked tongued; capable of speaking words of praise and words of awful curse.

How then can we speak…at all?  If sin causes us to speak with a cursed tongue, wouldn’t it be better if we never opened our mouths at all?  After all we are Presbyterians and if there is one thing we Presbyterians have down pat it is a pretty well developed sense of our own human sinfulness.  “We all sin and fall short of the glory of God” is stamped on our foreheads!  How then can we utter a single word if we are so sinful?  Isn’t everything we say going to end up being a curse?

Perhaps the lesson we take away from James is that we should just keep our mouths closed.  Silence, it turns out, truly is golden.  Better safe than sorry!

That would be a possible conclusion if we read vss. 4-5 or 8 in isolation.  If we were to cherry pick the text, there would certainly be an argument to be made about silence.

When we take in the whole of the text, the whole of what James is writing to us, we see that it is not refraining from speech but restraint and care in speech that James wants.

We are called on by God and by Christ to lift our voices and sing and pray and speak the truth of God in the language of God.   

And God’s is a language of love and care.

God’s is a language of grace and hope.

God’s is a language of inclusion and embrace.

What James tells us is not to hold our cursed tongues and shut our cursed mouths, but to learn to speak out of the other side; to silence the sinful voice that resides in each of us and begin to speak in the language of the Gospel; the language of the love of God; the language of the hope of Christ.

If, James tells us, we dedicate our tongues to speaking the language of God, our actions will follow and we will indeed become a blessing.  That is the heart of the wisdom of James; knowing that we have the capacity to speak words that bless and words that curse and learning to speak the former while we silence the latter.

Not too long ago, I finally saw the final Harry Potter movie. 

In it, Dumbledore, the wise headmaster of the wizard school, is speaking with Harry at the emotional climax of the movie and says to his young charge, “you know, Harry, I think words are the greatest magic we have, for with them you can do great good or great evil.”

Dumbledore is right. 

James is right.

Jesus speaking with his disciples was right.

Words are truly the most powerful tool we have for doing both good and evil and ours is a world in need of hearing a good word today.

So, my fellow forked tongued Christians,  lift up your voice and sing the blessing of God; speak the language of the Good News and don’t stop until it gets through.

            In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.