Sermon – Say What You Really Think
Proverbs 17:19-28; James 3:1-12
Farmville Presbyterian Church
9/15/24
We had a lovely time yesterday at Heart of Virginia yesterday. I’m going to guess that we had one of our best turnouts at the church tent since we had one of our biggest water giveaways. More than 350 water bottles found their way to the hands of our community friends, some new and some not so new. It was a good long day of talking and sharing and learning and meeting. We fellowshipped among ourselves working the tent from the church and with those who stopped by. Thank you, again, to everyone who helped. I am more convinced than ever that it is a worthwhile thing to do, even if we don’t see the kind of community impact that we might like. Being a part of the community is vital to our place here in Farmville. We need to always remind our neighbors that we care about them, and we need to remind ourselves how special it is to be in this community.
Of course, it was not just our tent and our church there. There was a big presence of all kinds of people walking up and down the street, talking, laughing, and carrying on. Here is the thing, though, there was no wildfire. There was no blazing inferno down the people-filled streets. In fact, it was a bit chilly for a good part of the day. This brings me to my point and why I am going on about it. There was all kinds of talking happening. Lots of tongues were up to all kinds of activity. Now, if we take James chapter 3 seriously, it sounds like there should have been fire up and down the street. James is mincing no words, pun intended. He is pulling back the curtain and giving it to us straight as if we are some of those Jewish Christians who received his letter nearly 2000 years ago. His language is some of the most severe in the Bible, and it is all about language – the power of the tongue, literally the power of our spoken words. Of course, this was in a day when the vast majority of people were illiterate. The only language most people could have used was spoken language. The tongue represented just that, what people say, and James is unpacking here what he really thinks about it. He is holding nothing back. No whitewashing here. Everyone who uses speech of any kind should be sweating a little bit, maybe a little more than a little bit. This goes double for teachers.
His logic is dramatic. You can lead an entire horse with a little bridle. An entire ship can be steered by a little rudder. You would think that something so small as a tongue could be just as useful for directing a person, but this is not the case. In fact, it is the opposite. The tongue is untamable, completely out of control – a blazing wildfire leading us astray. If James had only known about the internet.
When my early childhood hero of positive television, Fred Rogers (yes, Mr. Rogers of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood) went to testify before congress about the positive potential of television, he spoke of all of the creative potential of reaching young lives with instructional and edifying programming, the kinds of tv shows that you would be glad for your children to watch. In reality, so little of what’s on television is really appropriate for little people. So little is uplifting. So little is edifying. So little is positive. It is out there, but it is overshadowed by negative sensationalism and base humanity. This is even more for the internet. On Friday at the reopening of Madeline’s House, we listened to one of our Commonwealth’s Senators, Mark Warner, admit that sometimes he feels guilty for having made a considerable living from the cell phone industry when cell phones have had such a negative impact on the mental health of young people in particular. Language matters. How we use language matters more than we realize. We have an epidemic of negative words. And today, it is so much more than words, but it is all the ways we express ourselves.
God gave us tongues to bless, tongues to praise. Our language is supposed to be for good things, helpful things, godly things. It would be at asinine to imagine that we might curse God with those same tongues. It is beyond ridiculous to think how we might dishonor the same God who gave us expression with our expression. This, of course, is one of James’ points. We are so full of language, today all kinds of language and so many ways to speak. Even for people who feel well behind the technology edge and could not tell you the difference between a tweet, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, substacks, or Discord can communicate in ways that James’ people could not have dreamed. Our tongues are lightyears beyond where they were in the first century. So do you think what James has to say is more important or less so?
Jumping from speech to speech, post to post, or word to word, we can so easily turn love on and off. We can pull out compassion one moment and stow it away the next. We can end a call with understanding and patience and shoot off an email the next minute with resentment. In this political season, hateful rhetoric and conspiracy theories abound. We wade through the muck, and it is hard not to get dirty ourselves. Our language and communication is far more complex than we can even believe sometimes, but it all comes from our hearts. It all comes from what God has given us. You cannot have love spewing hate. You cannot set a fire with water.
Even though we did not observe any wildfires on the streets of Farmville yesterday, I have no doubt that there were some. This is because James is not speaking of literal fire but another especially pernicious one – gossip and rumors. Do you think anyone out there might have been engaged in gossip? Do you think anyone out there might have been sharing rumors? I’d say you could bet on that one. Yes, we live in a small town, but that kind of tongue wagging is not exclusive to small town life. Saying things that we do not KNOW are true is dangerous. Saying things that are HURTFUL is just evil. This is why James pulls out teachers.
It is one thing to be saying things that are wrong, malicious, or ignorant to the general public, it is another thing to say these things to people who are there to listen to you with minds and hearts that are especially malleable and easily swayed. You can imagine that this is a charge that deeply worries me in what I do. For some reason, some people take what ministers have to say pretty seriously, and I have been close to paranoid about offending people in the past. Interestingly, I am less so now, but that may be because I’m older and crankier.
Honestly, it is easy to imagine the importance of how people speak to the young and to those who are learning. Developmentally, there is so much going on in young minds. We need to nurture goodness and love and virtue. What is less obvious is how many other kinds of jobs might also involve guiding others in growth. James had no idea what a therapist might be or a minister, for that matter. There were no police, and even the world of teachers back then was far smaller. There was no pre-school or daycare. There were also no nursing homes or medical facilities. I already mentioned those who make programming on the internet and television. We have so many people around us influencing young minds, impressionable minds who are looking to us for models and permission. They look to us for guidance and truth. They look to us for how they might be one day, and they listen to our words.
We would love for their hearts to be ablaze with truth and love. We would love for their hearts to be full of godly warmth, compassion, and service. We would love for them to be on fire with God’s good news. Where will they get that spark? Will they get it from us? Will they hear us and believe in a God who is truly good? Will anyone hear us and get a strong sense of Christian love? Even though the tongue is untamable according to James, no one can make you say a thing that you do not want to. No one can make you post a thing that you do not want to. You may regret what you express, but every time we open our mouths, it is our choice. Speak carefully. Say what you really think in Christ. To God be the glory. Amen.