Anthony: Let’s, for the sake of time, transition to our next passage of the month. It’s James 3:1-12. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 19 in Ordinary Time, which is on September 15.
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will face stricter judgment.2For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is mature,able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle.3If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies.4Or look at ships: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.5So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a such a small fire!6And 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 life, and is itself set on fire by hell.7For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species,8but no one can tame the tongue—a restlessevil, full of deadly poison.9With it we bless the Lordand Father, and with it we curse people, made in the likeness of God.10From the same mouth comes a blessing and a curse. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.11Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water?12Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
David, you’re a teacher who uses your tongue as an attempt to communicate divine truth. No pressure, but this text is holding you and the rest of us to account. So what would you like to share with the pastors, teachers, and church leaders listening to this conversation?
David: Oh, I think we might just skip over that one if that’s all right with you.
Anthony: No, you’re not getting off that easy.
David: Yeah, sure. Yeah, it did frighten me once when I was reading about the spiritual gifts that all of the spiritual gifts actually involve the use of the tongue. Even if you say the gift of healing, you speak something.
There’s a very profound passage, this. Because I think sometimes, we think it’s just the things we do, but everything we do is preceded by things we say. And it is an extraordinary thing that the things that have hurt me the most are not the things that happened to me physically, but the things that have been said to me.
And I’ve broken bones, I’ve had a broken back, I’ve done all those things and I count them as not significant compared to the things that have been said to me. And I got to say, to much shame, the things that I have said have done more damage than anything else I’ve ever done.
I can’t look at this passage and say, you got that one sorted. It’s a constant struggle. And again, we’re not meant to condemn ourselves over this, but at the same time, it does hold us to account. And so, whenever we read a passage like this, it is really easy to take this and then feel all despondent because we’ve failed or whatever.
But again, I go back to the fact that every single person, every major character in the Bible has failed at this point as well, says things they wish they hadn’t done, things they wish they hadn’t done. And the more you read the Bible, the more that becomes apparent too.
I’ve just been reading the book of Samuel lately (sorry, 1 and 2 Samuel) and just looking at the life of David and of Saul and all of it — it was a hot mess that was going on there.
And I look at that and yet I see the transformation that takes place of someone like David, or Paul or Peter or any of the characters. And there is a transforming work that takes place. And the outworking of that is our words.
So yeah, that’s a tough passage to preach. And I do take that very seriously when I say I realized that I’m going to be judged more harshly than someone who’s not a preacher. And yeah, that’s a concern. And again, I know that people will be perhaps even listening to this and saying how’s this got anything to do with the grace of God? Where’s this coming from?
And I guess I’d be saying, again, the grace of God has a long-term effect. It changes your life. But again, it’s a slow-motion miracle. And one of the ways you can see that some of the miracles take place is the way you speak. I was reading the Didache some time ago and it struck me that the Didache is very much like the book of James.
And when you see what was taking place in the church, and the church was really persecuted there in those early days, and it was under a lot of pressure. The way that the early church spoke, the words they said, the way they conducted themselves in the world, really did challenge the world. In fact, part of the reason they got persecuted was because of the way they acted and blessing those who curse you. That’s one of the hardest things in the world to do.
And again, I’ve found this difficult in my own life, but I cannot tell you how many pastoral conversations I’ve had with people saying, this person did this bad thing to me. What am I meant to do? And then you go back to the scriptures and say, what did Jesus say to do with those who curse you? You bless them, forgive those who sin against you. And it’s very straightforward, basic teaching, yet it’s nearly the hardest thing in the world to do to forgive someone who’s genuinely and powerfully hurt you.
And yet, there it is! It comes from the mouth, it’s the words you say, it starts with that. Bless those who curse you. And there’s something very powerful that gets released, I think, when a person does actually put this into action with their words, because those words produce other actions, but with an ongoing and rolling effect.
Anthony: Go ahead.
David: Yeah, go on. Go on.
Anthony: I was going to say earlier, you had talked about, okay, where’s the grace in this pericope because it seems like it’s a difficult teaching. But as we think Christologically, James is telling us to bless those who curse you. And all we have to do is look at Jesus on the cross.
He was being ridiculed, being mocked, being killed, being murdered, unrighteously. And yet, his words are, Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.
And yet in the face of these words that we’re doing anything but bringing life, we can look at our Lord and see, like a good teacher or a good coach, he’s not asking us to do something that he himself, in his own person, hasn’t already done, right?
And so, all we have to do is look at the life and words of Jesus to see it lived out.
David: Exactly. The picture here of a rudder and of a small spark that can set a whole forest on fire, they’re good ways of looking at it because not only is that true in a negative sense, but it’s also true in a positive sense. If you reverse the order of that and you bring blessing where there’s been cursing, it can produce huge amount of good at the same time.
I think there’s a place for talking on both sides of that, talking about the blessing that comes from speaking well and of the curse that comes from speaking poorly. Both of those are relevant. But yeah, it’s a very confronting passage, the whole of James. I’ve got to say, you read it and you go, yeah, I’ve got work to do.
Anthony: Yes, there’s no other way to walk away from it.
So, speaking of that work, let’s get practical. Especially in a divided world here in the U.S., we have a national election coming up later this year. And, as I skim through social media and talk to people, I know there’s a lot of cursing going on as we project our pain onto other people who are made in the image and likeness of God.
Do you have anything to say — you’ve already touched on it, but any practical words of wisdom based on this text and how we can bridle the tongue and speak words of life versus words of curse?
David: Yeah, it’s definitely since social media has become a thing that the level of cursing going on just seems to have gone completely off the charts.
I heard somebody quip that the source of all evil is the comments in YouTube rather than the love of money. But we have a YouTube channel, and it’s amazing, even from Christians, some of the words that you get. It can be very disheartening.
So, I guess, practically just taking the straight teaching of James here and then contrasting what evil words can do. Again, I would reiterate, evil words can be more damaging than what can be done with a fist or with violence, even though that’s evil. That’s got its own thing going but there’s something extraordinarily powerful in words.
People talk about toxic masculinity, for instance, and how men can be violent and so on. I’ve seen the other side of that; I’ve seen toxic femininity, which can be all just done with words and doing character assassinations and so on. Yeah, none of us are above this. This is something that if we are under the grace of God, and we realize that we’ve been blessed, it changes your heart. It changes your perception of people, your perception of the world, and most cursing comes out of defensiveness or tribalism. And when you’re in the kingdom of God, that defensiveness disappears and evaporates, and your tribalism, it’s no longer necessary.
And yes, I am aware of this division that’s not only taking place in the United States, it seems to be happening right across the West. There’s this polarization between the left and the right. And yet, when I look at Jesus, he was neither on the left or the right. People would say, who would Jesus vote for? And you can’t answer that question because you can’t describe Jesus on the political spectrum. He’s coming from a completely different place. And if we are in the kingdom of God, we ought to be coming from a completely different place as well and representing that kingdom.
That kingdom is not of this earth. It is for this earth, and it is on this earth, but it hasn’t emerged from the earth. It has come from above, from the Father of heavenly lights, and it’s a different kingdom. It cannot be rated on the left or the right, or it’s not centrist, it’s not right, it’s not left. It’s completely other, it’s another kingdom. And the people of God ought to be from that other kingdom, and not just be considered left or right or centrist or whatever it is.
But we’ve got something better to say. We’ve got a different kingdom, a kingdom which is above socialism and above capitalism and above democracy and above all, any -ism you can think of. The kingdom of God’s above it and the people of God speak in a different kind of a language. And I believe that’s the kind of thing that James is saying.
Yet keeping in mind that the warning is there. And when we do fail, which we do, we stumble — anyone who can control their tongue is of course, perfect and we’re less than perfect. But we continue to get up, receive the gift of grace, the forgiveness of God and move on. But in that space, we have the power and the capacity to experience that grace and it gets inside of you.
Again, the slow-motion miracle takes place, and it changes the way we speak.
Anthony: Yeah. Yeah. Amen. Those are good words and I think timely words that you’ve just spoken. And given the text, that’s what we’re looking for: words that are fitly spoken.
