"Walking Through James: Part 3 - Steering the Ship" - James 3:1-12 (September 16, 2018)
/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.
It is not uncommon for Tricia and I to have Harry Potter movie marathons in our house. It is also not uncommon for me to frequently quote Harry Potter in my sermons. If you haven’t read the Harry Potter books or seen the movies, I commend them to you because they actually have some pretty decent theology in them.
A few days ago, Tricia and I were watching the last Harry Potter movie, the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. And in that movie, and in its corresponding book, there is a quote by Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore that perfectly sums up the theme of today’s passage from the Book of James:
“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic - capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”
Friends, I give you the Gospel of Albus Dumbledore. But long before J.K. Rowling penned these words in her fantasy series, the author of the Book of James gave voice to this truth. We’ve seen this theme before in our Ephesians sermon series last month and already in our current journey through James. But today’s passage gives a rich specificity to the importance of words and gives us two metaphors to speak of their power or, as Albus Dumbledore might say, their magic.
The first is a fitting metaphor for our part of the country: horses. Horses are large creatures and need to be directed by their riders. Therefore, a bridle is used which allows the rider to turn the head of the horse in whichever direction it wants. James suggests that the tongue is a bridle and its words can change the direction of the person.
But if that was not a grand enough metaphor, James gives us an even larger one: a ship. Look at ships, James says, 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.
The tongue is a small part of the body, small but mighty, and is capable of changing the course of history.
This past week marked the 17th anniversary of 9/11. Some of us remember when George W. Bush stood among the rubble of the World Trade Center and yelled into bullhorn saying “I hear you” to the first responders, uniting a nation wrecked with unimaginable grief.
Some of us remember the pivotal moment when Hillary Clinton stood before the United Nations in 1995 in China and declared that women’s rights are human rights.
Fewer among us remember when John F. Kennedy stood before Congress in 1961 and challenged this nation to put a man on the moon before the close of that decade.
Or what about when Martin Luther King, Jr. said I have a dream? Or when Billie Holiday sang the following lyrics:
Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic. But the magic works both ways. A ship’s rudder can steer one way, but it can also the other way.
We live in a time when the president of our country routinely speaks despicable and divisive words.
We live in a time when young children are committing suicide because of bullying words that cut to the core.
We live in a time when it has literally NEVER been easier to distribute words to a mass audience. With nothing more than a few seconds and the click of a button, I can pick up my phone and distribute words to thousands of people instantaneously. And while this technology can be and is used for good, too often we use it for our own selfish, destructive desires. As a human species, technology has progressed so quickly and I sometimes wonder if we’ve taken the time to stop, breathe, and ponder the responsibility that comes with it.
Friends, we do have a responsibility to use words wisely and kindly. Today’s passage begins with the following words: Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. This is a humbling statement especially for those of us who are in public positions of influence: pastors, teachers, politicians, and the like. This passage reminds me that, as a pastor, I am held to a higher accountability because an important part of my job is what I’m doing right now, standing before you, guided by the Holy Spirit, to bring y’all a word that I believe is faithful and true. As a preacher, words are my craft and I do my best to use them responsibly, creatively, and - hopefully - beautifully.
However, this opening verse should speak to all of us because all of us are teachers in one way or another; each of us has the capability to influence those around us with our words. Parents, you are teachers of our children in ways that surpass any teacher at school or any pastor at church. And, in other ways, ALL of you in this congregation are parents to the children at Beaumont Presbyterian Church. Just a few weeks ago, during the children’s moment, I had the children turn around and look at y’all and I asked y’all to wave back at them. I reminded the children that when they were baptized all the people who were waving at them promised to love them and teach them the ways of faith. In fact, at each baptism, the congregation is asked the following question in our presbyterian liturgy:
Do you, as members of the church of Jesus Christ,
promise to guide and nurture so and so
by word and deed,
with love and prayer?
Therefore, our sacrament of Baptism holds within it a promise that this congregation will use words to help teach and instruct children in the faith. As our recent Ephesians sermon series reminded us, we are all members of one another and it is our job to build up the Body of Christ together by using our tongues wisely.
But how can we do that? How can we resist the urge to follow the reckless rhetoric that seems to inundate us week in and week out?
Well, suffice it to say that that question is a more complex question than can be easily answered in a 10 minute sermon. However, I will leave y’all with this:
One of the alternate readings in the Revised Common Lectionary for today is an intriguing passage from the Book of Isaiah, chapter 50, verses 4-9. In it, it says the following: “The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens-- wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. The Lord GOD has opened my ear.”
The Lord GOD has opened my ear. I was sitting with one of my colleagues at my weekly lectionary group meeting at the Church of the Good Shepherd and he shared with us something that he once read in a sermon by the late, great Fred Craddock. He shared with us that the verb “opened,” in Hebrew, has a quite different connotation that what it is usually translated as. Instead, the verb “open” literally means “to dig out.” Therefore, in order to sustain the weary with a word, our ears must first be “dug out.” We metaphorically have to dig out the nonsense, dig out the division, dig out the lies. And, what’s more, we must depend on God to unclog our ears that are overwhelmed with a lot of deadly voices.
Frankly, we need this “Divine Drain-O” in order to speak faithfully the healing words of the Gospel. Our ears need maintenance in order to be dug out. Our ears need to listen to wisdom before our tongues can speak wisdom.
How do we dig out our ears? Well, I suppose the answer to that question is different for each of us. I suspect each of us knows a practice that is helpful to turn off the cacophony and listen to God’s voice. If you don’t know any practices then feel free to ask me or another congregant and let us share with one another what spiritual practices can help us in this journey.
I’ll briefly share with you a spiritual practice that I have to accomplish this. Sometimes when I’m sad or angry or feeling a bit ungracious, I’ll sit down at a piano and play the song that we’ve begun to sing at the end of communion services, “Glory to God.”
Glory to God, whose goodness shines on me;
And to the Son, whose grace has pardoned me;
and to the Spirit, whose love has set me free;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Amen.
When I hear those words, it helps me dig out the BS that needs to be thrown away. When I hear that God’s goodness shines on me, it reminds me that I’m called to speak words of goodness to others. When I hear that God has pardoned me, it reminds me that I’m called to speak words of pardon to others. When I hear that God has set me free, it reminds me that I’m called to speak words that help set others free. Those words have power, my friends.
So, remember that each of you is a ship. And, as soon as this service ends, you’re going to sail out into the world with your tongue as your rudder.
In the name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.