James 3:1-12 (CEB)
My brothers and sisters, not many of you should become
teachers, because we know that we teachers will be judged more strictly. We all
make mistakes often, but those who don’t make mistakes with their words have
reached full maturity. Like a bridled horse, they can control themselves
entirely. When we bridle horses and put bits in their mouths to lead them
wherever we want, we can control their whole bodies.
Consider ships: They are so large that strong winds are
needed to drive them. But pilots direct their ships wherever they want with a
little rudder. In the same way, even though the tongue is a small part of the
body, it boasts wildly.
Think about this: A small flame can set a whole forest on
fire. The tongue is a small flame of fire, a world of evil at work in us. It
contaminates our entire lives. Because of it, the circle of life is set on
fire. The tongue itself is set on fire by the flames of hell.
People can tame and already have tamed every kind of animal,
bird, reptile, and fish. No one can tame the tongue, though. It is a restless
evil, full of deadly poison. With it we both bless the Lord and Father and
curse human beings made in God’s likeness. Blessing and cursing come from the
same mouth. My brothers and sisters, it just shouldn’t be this way!
Both fresh water and salt water don’t come from the same
spring, do they? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree produce olives? Can a
grapevine produce figs? Of course not, and fresh water doesn’t flow from a
saltwater spring either.
In March of 1862, the publication The Christian Recorder, shared in a publication for the first time,
what they called an old adage and one I am willing to bet most of us are pretty
familiar.
Sticks and
stones will break your bones
But
names will never hurt you
Unfortunately, many of us, over our lives have learned just
how untrue that statement is --- as we have been wounded greatly by others
words.
Yehuda Berg, former director of the Kabbalah Centre once
said:
“Words are singularly the most
powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force
constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of
despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to
hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.”
This has been one of the most challenging sermons that I
have ever worked on.
The rhetoric that comes from politicians of both stripes has
become so uncivil and downright hurtful, and the last thing that I want to do
is turn this into a bashing of anyone.
But I would highly suggest that you take a look at the
statement that came out of the National Cathedral in Washington DC this past
week. Almost every news outlet covered
the story except for a few, that often seem to miss these kinds of stories.
I encourage you just to Google it.
Quoting from the pastors from The National Cathedral: “We
have come to accept a level of insult and abuse in political discourse that
violates each person’s sacred identity as a child of God,”
Declaring “the time for silence is over,” the statement
continues: “What will it take for us all to say, with one voice, that we have
had enough? The question is less about the president’s sense of decency, but of
ours.”
There are certain Facebook pages that I avoid because they seem
to want to encourage belittling of each other.
And, quite
frankly, I have had enough
Words are powerful
And words can be used to hurt or they can be used to heal.
And as I read the news this morning --- two senseless mass
shootings --- one in El Paso, and the other just down the road in Dayton.
One has to wonder when WE will say
this culture of destruction must come to an end --- and we accept the price
that it will cost to truly follow the Christ and put an end to this madness
It was Abraham Joshua Heschel who said:
“Few are
guilty, but all are responsible”
Chew on those WORDS for a few moments.
I am not going to focus on the negative aspect of our words
--- each of you could probably come up here and give a testimony on how words
have hurt, or maybe even devastated you --- I know I could.
"But what good is that?", as James asked us last
week.
So let's look at ways that we can put our faith in Jesus ---
who teaches us to love God completely and to love others --- let's look at ways
we can live our faith out through our words.
Johnny attended a business training that was conducted by
Ken Blanchard and Barbara Glands that was given to 3,000 front line workers of
grocery stores and retail outlets across the country.
They talked about the power of words and how what you say
really does make a difference in people’s lives.
A month after the event, Barbara said she got a call from a
guy named Johnny, who was at the training.
Johnny told her, “I’m nineteen
years old. I have Downs Syndrome. I work as a bagger at a grocery store. I went
back to the store and I didn’t know how to apply your statements. I liked your
talk but I didn’t know what to do with it. I went home and talked with my dad
and got an idea. My dad and I sat down at the computer and every day we come up
with a statement that is affirming of people, that’s encouraging. If I can’t
find one in a little quote book, I’ll make it up. We’ll type it up six
different times on the computer. I print off fifty sheets and cut all of them.”
So he has three hundred of these quotes.
Then, every night, Johnny signs each one of them personally.
The next day at the grocery store he puts this stack right
by where he bags the groceries.
He gets
everyone’s groceries bagged up.
Then on the last sack he puts the
quote of the day, the encouraging word.
He makes sure he looks them in the
eye and says,
“I put something very special for
you in this sack. I hope it will brighten your day.”
Johnny does this --- every --- single --- day.
Barbara said after about a month she got a phone call from
the manager of that grocery store. He said,
“Barbara I can’t believe it. Something
really amazing is beginning to happen. I was walking around the store and I
noticed while we had lots of checkers at the checkout line, there was almost no
one there but maybe one or two people. The line where Johnny was doing the bagging
went all the way back to the frozen food section.”
He continued,
“I would tell them over the
intercom that there were other lines you could move over to. I would walk down
the line and tell people there were other lines open. People would just look
and say, ‘No, we’ll wait because we want Johnny’s encouraging word for the
day.’
One woman came by and grabbed the
supervisor. She said, ‘I used to only come to the grocery store once a week or
once every other week. Now I come by almost every day. I buy something just so
I can get Johnny’s encouraging word for the day.’”
After about a month had passed, the store manager again called
Barbara and said,
“It’s changing our entire culture
of our store. Even in the floral department when a flower was broken they used
to just throw it away. Now they walk out into the lines, on their own
initiative, they pin it onto elderly women or young girls. They brighten their
day.”
Every day we are given the opportunity to be a positive
influence in the world.
Now I am not telling you that we shouldn't call out those
who are speaking vile and hurtful words --- I think we must --- but we need to
figure out a way to do it in a positive way.
More than anything else we need to celebrate our commonality
We are letting others divide us
Think of what would happen instead of saying someone whom we
disagree on a position is unpatriotic, we looked and celebrated the way we both
love our country in our own special ways.
Choosing to be positive requires a conscious choice ---
every moment of every day.
At the end of every Rotary Club meeting we would say the
four way test --- i still remember it even thought I haven't been a Rotarian
for a number of years.
Is it the
TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to
all concerned?
Will it build
GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be
BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
We need to be conscious of the choice we have to share a kind
word rather than a divisive one.
So ask yourself
·
what can I say to encourage that person today
·
What can I say to affirm them in some way and
help them to realize how important and special they are to God?
Parker Palmer shares a great story.
It actually comes from Carter Hayward, the great womanist
theologian. She shares
Once there was a wise old woman who
lived in a small village. The children of the village were puzzled by her—her
wisdom, her gentleness, her strength. One day, several of the older children
decided to fool her. No one could be as wise as everyone said she was, and they
set out to prove it. So they found a baby bird. One of the boys cupped it in
his hands and said to his friend, ‘We’ll ask her whether the bird I have in my
hands is dead or alive. If she says it is dead, I will open my hands and let it
fly always. If she says it’s alive, I’ll crush it and she’ll see that it’s
dead.’ So they went to the woman and presented her with this puzzle. ‘Old
woman,’ the little boy asked, ‘the bird in my hands, is it dead or alive?’ The
old woman became very still, studied the boy’s hands, then looked carefully
into his eyes. ‘It’s in your hands,’ she said.”
Thursday night I had the privilege of attending the closing
celebration of Project Transformation.
153 kids participated
285 persons
volunteered
Over 3,000
books were read
And most impressively of all, 99%
of the kids, avoided the summer slid in their reading abilities
The theme book this summer is one of my all-time favorites, The
Lorax, and I want to end by quoting from that great 20th century theologian
--- Dr Seuss
"Unless someone like you cares
a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
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