All of Us Make Many Mistakes

Sermon for Proper 19 B (RCL), Offered by Nathan Ferrell at Church of the Holy Spirit, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville, NJ

Texts: Proverbs 1:20-33; Psalm 19; James 3:1-12; Mark 8:27-38

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

There’s an old Irish story about a traveling preacher who visited a village where, in one of the large houses, a young girl lay seriously ill. Her parents asked the preacher to come and visit her. And so he came, knelt next to the young girl’s bed, and prayed. After a minute, he stood up and the traveling priest then said to the parents, “Now the girl will start to recover.”

Well, one of the girl’s uncles was there. He was a skeptic about spiritual matters, and he pinned all of his hopes on medicines. And so he scoffed at the priest, “How can a few words make a sick person well?!”

To the uncle’s surprise, the preacher turned to him, his eyes blazing with fury. “You understand nothing,” the priest shouted. “You are an ignorant fool.”

The uncle was greatly offended at this rudeness. His face went all red, and he began to shake with anger and to sweat. But then the preacher’s face broke into a smile. “Listen,” he said, “when just a few words can make a grown man like you all hot and angry, why do you doubt the power of a few words to make a young girl well?” (Celtic Parables, by Robert Van De Weyer, 1998, p. 83).

Today is our time, my brothers and sisters, to reflect together upon the power of the tongue to bring healing and to inflict harm. The Letter of James teaches us about the power of just a few words. This is heavy exhortation, a strong teaching about the dangers of uncontrolled speech. The images presented here are striking: “the tongue is a fire”, “it stains the whole body”; the tongue is “a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”

But there is no need for us to get lost in the many images and metaphors employed here by the epistle, for the meaning is clear as the blue sky in winter: our tongue is to be used for blessing and not for cursing, for healing and not for harming.

What we learn here about speaking is true of every good gift that God has given to us. Every gift has a purpose and a power, and this power can be misused for evil, or it can be controlled and used for its intended good purpose. Think of the gift of food, how it is so good and yet how food can also be misused and so can cause great harm. Think of alcohol, how it is a wonderful gift and yet how it’s misuse can do so much damage. Think of the gift of science, how it yields so many wonderful blessings and yet how it can also be used to create weapons of mass murder.

The same principle is true of the tongue, the power of human speech, but it is more immediate and direct. We have the ability to use our words for great good, to build up, to encourage, to teach, to give praise and thanks. But we also can use this gift of speech to do great harm, to tear down, to destroy, to cut and bite and lash with our tongue.

Consistently throughout the Bible, God teaches the faithful to take great care with how they speak.

From the Letter to the Ephesians, we are given perhaps the clearest and most direct teaching on how God wishes us to speak. Ephesians 4:29 says: “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).

Imagine for a moment such a world, imagine living in such a community where everyone speaks the truth in love, where everyone has the goal of using their words to build others up, where we all limit our words to what is useful.

My household seems to be a great place to see where the opposite happens all the time. If you haven’t noticed lately, most children continually hurt each other with their words, and my children in particular seem intent on becoming masters of this craft. You know what children say to each other on the playground: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” I have no idea who started that saying, but nothing could be farther than the truth. Words can hurt. Words can leave scars on the heart that can last far longer than scars on the skin.

I heard someone comment on the radio this week about his years of lobbying the FCC to ban the use of the word “retard” from radio and television, because he believes that it is an intolerable insult to people with disabilities. While I commend his zeal and his desire to protect the vulnerable from harm, this man unfortunately fails to realize that what matters in speech is intent, not content. Any word can be used as a verbal weapon to inflict harm. If that is the intention of the speaker, then which word is used does not matter.

You have no idea how often I admonish my children about their words.

“You need to think before you speak!” I can’t tell you how many times I have said that to my children. Think before you speak, not after.

Unfortunately, we as a society are infected by a kind of terrible virus that makes mockery of our language. Yes, we suffer from verbal diarrhea. I think you know what I mean. It seems that many people today are compelled to publish every single thought that enters their mind. The worst instance of this, I think, is the Twitter phenomenon. Do we really need to hear and read what everyone in the world is doing at every minute?

I believe that it is important to let your words be few, and let each one have meaning.
As a wise man once said: “It does not require many words to speak the truth” (Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce.)

We do well, my friends, when we are careful with our words. Not only do they have great power when applied to others, but they also reveal many things about ourselves.

Do you remember just a few weeks back, when we heard our Lord teach us about the connection between the heart and the words that we speak? “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart” (Matthew 15:18). This is the truth about our words. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).

The Lord also gave us this stern warning: “By your words you will be justified; and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:37).

But we must not rush to think that everything in our relationship with God relies upon our words. Actions always supersede words. Just last week, James spoke clearly to this fact. “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” (James 2:15-16). Nice sounding words alone mean nothing, if they are not flowing from a heart of compassion that is moved to act.

Both our words AND our actions are faithful signs of what is on the inside. And in the final analysis, I believe that the familiar saying is true: actions speak louder than words.

I enjoy the realism, the practicality of this Letter of James. “For all of us make many mistakes.” So this epistle teaches, and so we all know to be true.

But remember this, my friends: the goal of our journey here on earth is to live life to the fullest, to experience abundant life in Christ: a life where our heart is renewed afresh every day by the love of God. When our hearts are so filled with agape love, then our mouths will naturally speak forth with praise and blessing.

Then we will live as the fulfillment of the prayer of the Psalmist, for then the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts will always be acceptable in the sight of the Lord, our strength and our redeemer. And that is a good way to live. Amen.