September 15, 2024 James 3:1-12
So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.
Yesterday, I attended the Pitt-WVU football game, the Backyard Brawl. Besides being a great game, it sticks in my mind because of all the words hurled back and forth by the Pitt and West Virginia fans. Now I’m not going to repeat any of those words from this pulpit, but I’m sure you get the idea. What I was struck by was not just that people get angry about football but that the words themselves have so much power. Words thrown out by a fan from one team had the power to enrage someone from the other side, who then threw out some choice words of their own. We say “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” but we all know that words really do have power.
In our Epistle reading, James warns about this power that words can have. He’s talking about the sins we commit just through our words. In our confession at Communion, we ask for God’s forgiveness for sins “in thought, word, and deed.” Thoughts are obvious- things like anger, hatred, jealousy, and so on. Deeds, of course, are anything we actually do- hurting others, stealing, and so on. And then there’s this third category- ways we sin against God and our neighbor through our words.
What are some of them? It might be easier to remember the ways that other people have sinned against us through their words. Maybe there was a time when someone erupted in anger and yelled at you, saying unkind or untrue things just to make you feel bad. Or maybe gossip- whispering words about someone else, rumors that are fun to tell but come back to hurt someone else or their reputation. One big way we sin with words is lying- everyone has been on the receiving end of some lie that eventually came out.
And when we remember the times we’ve been sinned against through words, the next step is to imagine all the ways we have sinned against other people in our own words. The times we have lied to others, or gossiped about others, or burst out with an angry insult or belittling remark because we were frustrated. Maybe you can remember specific instances of this. But for each of us, there are others that we can’t remember but someone else can- a hateful thing I said years ago, that I’ve forgotten about, but someone else still remembers. The tongue, as James tells us, is a fire, and it burns up people and relationships.
That’s not the full story, of course. We can do good things with our words, too- we can give compliments and support and show our love. I bet you can also remember times when someone has taken the time to really listen to you and then offer back a few well-chosen words, words that stuck with you. The same tongue that spits out insults can also build up our friends and family, or reach out to a stranger with a kind greeting.
So the tongue is powerful, for good or evil. But James goes further. It’s not just that we can help or harm with our words, make someone else have a good day or a bad one. It’s that our words shape us. Our tongues govern us. We usually think it’s the other way around. If I’m a good person, I’ll say good things; if I’m rude or arrogant or dishonest, then I’ll say rude or arrogant or dishonest things. But James is very preceptive. “If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies,” he says. “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. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.”
James uses these two metaphors, using a bit to guide a horse and a rudder to guide a ship, to tell us how powerful the tongue really is. It’s not that we control our tongues and what we say; what we say has a way of controlling us, just like the little rudder steers the whole ship. If, for example, you begin insulting people, pretty quickly you will find that everyone you meet has flaws that you can insult. If you begin gossiping, pretty soon you will find that it comes as naturally to you as breathing. And most of all, if you begin telling one lie, pretty soon you will find lying easier than telling the truth. What we say becomes what we do and who we are.
And it works for good, too. If you make it a habit to tell the truth, you will become a more truthful person. If you make it a habit to say thank you, you will become a more thankful person. So, at the most basic level, James is giving us very sound advice. Steer your ship in the right direction! Guide your horse in the right direction! Say kind and loving and honest things, not hateful, dishonest ones, and you will become a kinder and more honest person.
But there is more. Because it is not so easy to tame the tongue; indeed, if James is to be believed, it isn’t possible. “For every species of beast can be tamed,” he assures us, “but no one can tame the tongue- a restless evil. 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.” James isn’t just telling us what to do, giving us advice. He’s just stating a fact. He’s telling us what we all do. We all say one thing now and another thing later. We all put on a good show, make a good effort, at saying the good things, but sooner or later we give in. Sooner or later we curse someone made in God’s image because they made us very, very angry. Or we tell the truth until, sooner or later, some little lie is just too tempting. With a good bit or a good rudder, you can ride or sail exactly where you want to go, but our tongues don’t work that well. We’re inconstant- we say yes and no, we say one thing and do another. We can’t steer our tongues as easily as the rudder of a ship. We wish we could, but we can’t.
“My brothers and sisters,” James laments, “this ought not to be so.” This ought not to be so, but it is. Our words get away from us, turn into habits, turn us into people we ought not to be. And the problem is really even worse when we look around us, because everyone’s stuck in this same boat. I use my words to hurt someone else, and then they go and use their words on someone else, and so on. We make promises we can’t keep- have you ever heard that something is “just words,” with the implication that this means it isn’t really true? James is right to call the tongue a fire, the way our words get loose and start burning, and who can put it out?
My friends, the good news is that we are not the only ones who have words. We are not the only ones who speak. There is someone else who speaks, if we can just listen. Someone who speaks goodness and love, not just part of the time, like us, but all the time. Someone who speaks the truth, whose words never fall empty to the ground but really do what they say. Someone who’s life and words really match, who promises and delivers, who speaks good news.
God speaks. The first thing God does in the Bible is speak- “let there be light.” God created the whole world by his Word and called it good. And God goes on speaking, through prophets and apostles, to the sinful and broken and suffering world. God speaks life and peace and forgiveness. The Bible is full of God’s good words, good promises of salvation to a world that needs to hear.
But God does not speak in the way we speak. Our words are sometimes good and sometimes bad, sometimes true and sometimes false. But God’s Word is always good and always true. And in Jesus Christ, God’s good and loving Word became a human being, the Word made flesh, faithful and true. Jesus Christ is the good Word of God to us. He is, if you like, God’s personal message to humanity, made a human being like us. God’s Word to us in our language, so we can hear and believe it. And he is alive, speaking today, in this church. He speaks to you. He says “I am your Savior. You are forgiven, loved, healed, freed.”
These are not empty words, unreliable words. They are God’s Word. So, when you hear God’s Word this morning, you can believe it. When you hear “Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins,” you can believe that all your sins are forgiven. When you hear “the body of Christ,” you can believe that this is the body of Christ, given for you. Jesus is not yes and no, good and bad, sometimes and sometimes not. He is always Yes, always Good, always True. And he is here, and he is speaking!
Amen.
