I read an article several years ago about a married couple who hadn’t
spoken to each other for over ten years! They had a noisy argument and just
quit all conversation after that. When asked what the original fight was about,
the wife said, “I don’t know. We haven’t talked about
it!”
Well, that’s a bit extreme, but we could all learn this simple advice:
“Never say anything that doesn’t improve on silence.” Words
are powerful and speech can do terrible damage to a person. “Sticks and
stones may break my bones,” but words can leave lasting injury. Words can
also encourage, uplift, and heal. They did an experiment with houseplants
several years ago. Compliments and baby talk produced strong, healthy plants,
but the ones they cursed withered! A friend referred me to the website of a
researcher who would speak to water, then freeze it and examine the ice
crystals under a microscope. Amazingly, the crystals from water addressed
harshly were malformed while the water addressed kindly formed beautiful
crystals. I don’t know about the science and I hope the study
wasn’t government funded, but I do know the effect words have on people
because I have seen it and felt it for myself.
My words today are about words. Have you been listening to the admonitions from
the book of James we have read over the last few weeks?
“You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen,
slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19).
“If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but
deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless” (James 1:26).
“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
2:14-17).
“Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the
whole body in check with a bridle” (James 3:2).
Martin Luther called James “an epistle of straw” in comparison to
other New Testament books and complained “it has no evangelical matter
about it.” He even wanted to cut it from the Bible! But I like James.
James is a very practical book of simple instruction on church life. He has
thoughts to share on the way we treat rich and poor, with special warnings for
the rich. He offers words about true wisdom and genuine religion, advice on
controlling desires, instructions on how to get along with each other and how
to correct the wayward. He encourages us
to pray. But more than anything else James wants to say “Watch your
words!”
He compares the tongue to the bridle of a horse and the rudder of a ship, a
small thing that makes a big difference. He says:
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.” (James 3:5-6).
You get the feeling James got burned himself somewhere along the way because he
takes speech seriously doesn’t he? Has no use for idle words? He compares
the tongue to a mighty wind (he must have known some preachers!) to a raging
forest fire, to a lethal toxin, to a wild beast. He says:
“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. (James 3:6-10).
In taking speech so seriously James stands well within our biblical tradition.
The Bible doesn’t take words lightly, either. How does God create the
world in Genesis? With words. What gives the prophets
authority to speak? “The Word of the Lord came unto me…” God
says through Isaiah: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and
do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth
and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the
eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to
me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the
thing for which I sent it” (Isa 55:9-10). No
idle words from God, y’all! And we are called to be bearers of that
Divine word: “As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: my
spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not
depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your children, or out of the
mouths of your children's children, says the Lord, from now on and forever.”
(Isaiah 59:21-24).
The New Testament carries this to the most practical level in the way we
communicate with each other and the world. We are told not to gossip, not to
slander, not to lie, not to waste words, not to wrangle over words, not to
curse one another. We are told to speak the truth in love, to be ready to
defend the hope that is within us, but with gentleness and kindness because, as
Marshall MacLuan observed, “The medium is the
message.” You can’t bless by cursing or speak love with hateful
words. John Jewell notes the power of speech is one way we are created in the
image of God. Like God we have the power with words to curse or to bless
– but the people of Christ are called to bless! “When slandered, we
speak kindly,” says the apostle Paul (1 Cor 4:13).
“Let your speech always be gracious,” says Colossians,
“seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer
everyone” (
James urges us to live by God’s words, not just to talk the talk but to
walk the walk as well. “Be doers of the word and not hearers only”
he says (James 1:22). But that means choosing the right words first, hearing
the word of God. And he recognizes that speech itself is an act of consequence,
an event on its own with important effects. As Francis of Assissi
said, “Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary use words.” But
you certainly don’t want your words to contradict the gospel!
That’s why James says with the Bible, in so many ways, “Watch your
words.”
But surprisingly this isn’t a sermon about James. It’s a sermon
about Mark. Most scholars agree the turning point of Mark’s gospel is
Peter’s confession. Jesus is walking along with the disciples when he
asks, “Who do people say I am?” An important question, one we are
still trying to answer in our time. But why does he ask? Is he still working
out his identity for himself? Or does he wonder if he’s getting through?
They answer, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still
others, one of the prophets.” Ah! He is connecting. He has their
attention. But they still don’t get it. “But who do you say I
am?” Jesus asks. An even more important question, the
defining question of our spiritual identity. Finally, what others say
isn’t so important. That’s so much speculation and scuttlebutt,
academic philosophizing or disinterested coffee talk, if you will. What finally
matters is what you believe.
Jesus thinks surely his closest followers must have a clue. And they do! Peter
answers for them all. “You are the Messiah!” he blurts. He gets it!
Jesus is the One God promised long ago. Jesus is the One they have waited so
long to see. Jesus is the One who will lead them in the way God wants them to
go. Jesus is the One!
And then a surprise. Jesus sternly orders them not to
share this with anybody. Don’t tell anyone?! What kind of outreach plan
is that? (One it seems the church has used over and over with limited
effectiveness!) Then he begins to teach them that he, the Messiah, “must
undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and
the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31).
He says this right out loud. “Wait a minute,” Peter thinks.
“That’s not what I meant! That’s not what we’ve been
expecting. And that will never sell. We won’t build any mega churches
with that. People aren’t going to flock to the stadium or switch on their
televisions or buy our books to listen to suffering, rejection, and death, even
if you throw in the part about resurrection. People want riches and happy talk,
affirmation and promises of victory over their enemies.” So he pulls
Jesus aside and tells him to cut the suffering stuff.
“Get behind me Satan!” Jesus shouts, again right out loud in front
of the disciples. “Watch your words, for you are setting your mind not on
divine things but on human things” (Mark 8:33). Jesus hasn’t
encountered Satan in this gospel since the temptations in the wilderness right
after his baptism, but this is Satan tempting him again. Now he calls the whole
crowd of tag-alongs to join the disciples so he can
tell them all: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny
themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save
their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the
sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the
whole world and forfeit their life?” (Mark 8:34-36).
This is the heart of Mark’s message. In Mark Peter is not the first to
recognize who Jesus is. The wind and the waves accept his authority (Mark
6:51). The unclean spirit cries “What have you to do with us, Jesus of
Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of
God,” and Jesus silences him (Mark 1:24-25). In Mark Jesus keeps telling
people not to spread the word about him, not to tell everybody about his
healing miracles. And why?
Because it isn’t enough to say “Jesus is the Messiah. It
isn’t enough to confess he is your Messiah. It isn’t enough to cry
out to the world “Jesus is Lord!” You have to understand what the
word means. Your inner life must have some coherence with your outer life. You have
to make your walk match your talk.
Silly isn’t it, how we are always trying to mess with God’s
business by telling Jesus what kind of Messiah we he’s got to be? We want
to be Christians with empty words. We want Jesus to be our Messiah, sure, but
for most of us that means getting him to serve our desires, not that we will
serve his desires, or take up his mission, or be the people he wants us to be.
It certainly doesn’t mean we will lay our lives on the line and follow
his ways even to death because we believe the life he offers is the only one
worth living, the only way that leads through death to resurrection. A lot of
people carry the name of Christ, but they take the Lord’s name in vain,
with their speech, with their behavior. But in this story, Jesus is saying,
“Watch your words! If you are going to say I am your Messiah, it means
what I say it means, not whatever you want it to mean. If you say I am the
Messiah, it means you will be a certain kind of persons, do a certain kind of
work, follow a particular path as my agents in this
world. It means you will deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow
me.”
It’s not about being perfect, certainly not about being a sanctimonious
holy talker afflicted with what Lynna Williams calls
“Jesus Jaw.” It’s about being Christ like, loving, gentle,
strong. There are lots of examples of people who have walked the talk that
Jesus is the Messiah, spectacular, historical examples, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, or Mother Teresa. But there
are plenty of quieter, lesser known examples, too. We have some right here
among us.
Fred Craddock tells of the time his home preacher announced his sermon title
for the coming Sunday: “The Member of This Church I Would Most Like to
See in Hell.” Imagine that in the local paper, up on the church marquee.
They had a huge crowd that Sunday, people who had never even been there before
along with a few nervous looking church members. The boys in the sixth grade
Sunday School class crowded together in the back pew
anxious to hear who it would be. Finally, when he called out the name –
he did call out the name – it was their Sunday School
teacher! And they said, “Yeah!” But then the preacher explained the
reason he had chosen her as the one he would most like to see in hell was
because she was such a saint, within two weeks all hell would be converted. Not what they were expecting, but you know, it’s true.
And that’s what it means to walk the talk, to confess with your words and
with your life that Jesus is your Messiah. Because God sends us into the hell
of this world to bring light and life and love, to bless in every way we can
the people we meet, with our words, with our deeds. Isn’t what it means
to follow Jesus? Isn’t what it means to be the church, to be Christians?
What do you say?
May we pray?
As your Spirit moved across the waters of chaos and created the universe, O
God, move across our lives today and create your people. As you spoke and
brought into being what you called good, let us speak
and create only good. Put your word in out hearts and on our lips. Put your
love in our hearts and on our lips, and in our every deed. And we will be
Christians – “little Christs”
– continuing his work in the world and following him into full and
everlasting life that gives life along the way. Because we dare to confess
Jesus is our Messiah, we pray in his name. Amen.
Rev. Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa