Today we’re going to talk about a swift
ferocious animal, a rudder, a blazing fire, and a world of iniquity, which according
to James is the tongue. As Christians we need to look at the way in which we
use our tongues to see if it is God-pleasing. We can use our tongues for good
or ill.Since the tongue is like a wild animal it must be bridled. We need to take it through a process of taming. (My mother thought a bar of soap was very useful in this endeavor.) This taming can be a long, laborious process. It can seem like we take two steps forward and one step back. Peter was a person for whom it seemed to take forever to learn to control his tongue. In our Gospel for today we see him rebuking Jesus for suggesting that he had to go to the cross and be killed, and rise again.
Peter forgot the principle that we have 2 ears, but only one mouth and so we should use them in that proportion. For this bit of scolding Peter received the injunction, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things." That’s what can happen when we let our tongues control us rather than the other way around.
The lesson we learn from this is to not be so outspoken, but to have open ears ourselves and to obey what we hear God calling us to do no matter what his plan for our lives is. Things can be said in a moment that we may regret for a life-time, so we should follow that good advice someone probably has given us at some point in our lives to think before we speak. I remember a sign that said, "Engage brain before opening mouth." If this makes good sense from a worldly standpoint, how much more should it make looking at it from God’s perspective of wanting the best for each one of us, and wanting us to act lovingly toward others.
When we consciously open our ears before we speak, we will have a greater possibility of giving our words substantial content. In other words we won’t say nothing--the double negative intended. Have you ever been around someone who prattled on about nothing? It can get to be annoying after a while. It’s like the story of the farmer and the politician. "A farmer in West Texas came home after listening to a politician talking at a political rally. His wife asked him, "Who spoke?" The farmer said, "Our Mayor." "Oh really?" his wife said, "What did he talk about?" The farmer shook his head and said, "He never got around to telling us."" Let’s remember to make sure our words have real meaning and not "talk to hear ourselves talk," as my grandmother would say.
This is especially important since our tongues are the guides of our bodies. James tells us they act like the rudder on a ship. Even though a rudder is a relatively small part of the entire structure, it has great influence. The same is true of the tongue. We do use people’s speech to judge them, don’t we? The entire plot of My Fair Lady is built around the idea that by changing the way a person talks you can change other people’s perceptions of them, and even change their own. It doesn’t take much bad talking to ruin someone’s opinions about us. For example, I assume that Gov. Busch’s little microphone slip up cost him a few percentage points in the polls.
That is because the tongue is an indicator of the character of a person. A couple of weeks ago our Gospel quoted Jesus as saying, "It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart that evil intentions come." And how do we know what is in the heart of a person but by what comes out of the mouth?
James tells us that our tongues can be a world of iniquity. What comes out of our mouths can be unpleasant, unprofitable or unattractive--in other words--ugly. We can set people’s lives on fire and burn them to the ground, leaving smoldering ashes in the wake of our words. We can do this through lewdness or saying unkind, untrue, or treacherous things. Christians don’t want that to be characteristic of us. We want to represent our Lord well and we can’t do that if what we say is unpleasing to God.
We therefore should refrain from using expletives, or curses. This is a direct assault on the second commandment. James reminds us that tongues that were created to produce blessings should not be used also for cursing.
We have looked at the negative aspects of the tongue and its uses, so now we should look at the positive. Our tongues can be used for teaching and telling the Gospel message that God loves us and sent the Son to die in our place. We can also tell the world that we were created to sing God’s praises.
We are blessed by God to be able to communicate with others and so not to be lonely. We should, therefore engage in open communication with one another. If we are seriously committed to this, we won’t give in to the temptation to come home from work and plop down on the couch incommunicado all evening, nor will we sit in front of the T.V. giving all our attention to it rather than making the effort to converse with others.
We will truly listen to what our partner is saying, and then we’ll use our tongues for pleasant conversation. We’ll refrain from grunting through and then complaining that nobody told us about that, because we really weren’t paying attention. This will also keep us from discovering that Jr. has taken the car and won’t be back from Fort Lauderdale with his friends for a week simply because we were too busy to contribute more to the conversation than a grunt which he assumed meant okay when he asked if he could. And it will enable us not to end up like this man. "When asked the reason that his wife had left him, the man replied "She said she was leaving because I didn't listen to her. At least, I think that's what she said, I'm not sure.""
After we have listened we will respond by saying things which are nice and necessary. Someone once suggested that before we pass on a juicy little tidbit of information about another person we ask, "Is it true, is it kind, is it necessary?" If it fails any of these tests it’s probably best to keep it to ourselves. That way bad things won’t be passed around and the ones with good news will have the joy of sharing their good news.
We can, however brighten others’ days by saying our own good things. We are a good news people in a bad news world. We can bring hope and joy to people who are hurting by pointing them to that One who has the power to handle all our problems and who gives us peace in the midst of them.
To do this we can say things that are useful and uplifting. We want people to experience God’s unconditional love and be unbound from sin and its negative influences in their lives. We want to be those people others are glad to see coming and sad to see going rather than the other way around.
Therefore we will try to say only things that are edifying--things that build up rather than tear down. By our positive expressions and expressiveness we will be enriching the lives of others and our own in the process.
Our goal in life is to be an example of godliness for those around us by imitating Jesus. We will accomplish that goal as we look to God to tame our tongues, as we aren’t so outspoken but have open ears, as we won’t use empty words saying nothing, as we allow godly speech to guide our lives, as we won’t allow our conversations to be purposely ugly and unpleasant, nor tainted with expletives. We will tell others about God’s love for everyone, we will openly communicate, speak what is necessary, bear good news, say things that are useful, and be edifying in our speech so that others are built up and experience God’s care through us. Remember that this is a life-long process, but that God can direct and empower us to use our tongues for his glory and loving purposes in the world. May God grant each of us the will to use our tongues for good and not for ill.