Can you imagine - - if - - instead of LOOKING at- - BUMPERSTICKERS and

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1 1 Cat Got Your Tongue Proverbs 1:20-33; James 3:1-12 Rev. David Hutchinson Sunday, September 13, 2015 Can you imagine - - if - - instead of LOOKING at- - BUMPERSTICKERS and BILLBOARDS - - instead of READING them we had to LISTEN to all those words?! I mean - - if - the cars driving past with bumper stickers - and the things we pass like billboards - - were all SAYING those things. / Out loud. / Crying out - - their - - supposed words of wisdom - - in the streets Do you think - - people would be MORE - selective about what they put out there if we they KNEW we had to LISTEN to all of it? OR - - do you think it would be WORSE? I wonder if it would quiet things down. OR - - would it would PUSH - what we call road rage - - to even new heights? There IS something to be said for - - thinking - - before we speak. Yes? If you re like me - - many times you can t come up with a good COMEBACK on the spot. / But on your way home - it hits you - when it s too late. / And - sometimes I m GREATFUL - that it didn t come to me on the spot. / Grateful I didn t BLURT it out. / And - - once in a while - - I DO - - just blurt things out. There s an annoying pair of bumper stickers that sort of makes my point. / One - - is a comeback for the - other. / The FIRST bumper sticker says: In the event of the RAPTURE - - this car will be EMPTY. / The other bumper sticker: In the event of the rapture - - can I have your CAR? You wonder - how long it took to think THAT up.

2 2 Of course there s the chrome fish - - and the chrome Darwin reptile - - and the chrome spaceship - - and the chrome eating chrome - escalation - thing And - there s those awful distracting LIGHTED billboards. There s lots of SKIN - - mostly female. There s - - Political Party Preferences. You name it - - there it is - crying out - - in the streets. Is it any wonder we can t hear WISDOM - - crying out too - - in the midst of it all? Do you ever wonder - about - - how to respond? Do you ever wonder - - what GOD wants you to DO - - about whatever it is what God wants you to DO about some THING or other but didn t feel like - - you have a CLEAR answer? How would God respond to these billboards and bumper stickers? Maybe the Bible doesn t really seem - to address the situation - directly. Or - Christians - friends - theologians - experts they disagree. And you get to the point where - - as the preacher and teacher Ronald Allen says you re about ready to toss a coin!! But THEN - - right then - - imagine that then - - you run into someone who is a GREAT help. / Who is she? She didn t give you - the answer OUTRIGHT. / But she pointed you - in the right direction. / She helped you SORT through things And you realized - - she had been there all along. Trying to get your attention. Crying out to you too in the streets.

3 3 It s like you ve known her - all your life. She is from the town - you re from. And she is from - - EVERYONE S town. Who is this universal woman? This wise woman? Proverbs tells us - - her name is - - wisdom. Proverbs tells us - - that God MADE wisdom - - in the beginning. Wisdom is everywhere - - and through all creation. Wisdom - is revealed by God - - if we just open our ears. And at the beginning of Proverbs - - wisdom - - is personified - - as a woman - - represented as a PERSON and she is CRYING out to us - in the streets trying to get our attention in the midst of everything ELSE. In the midst of - all that s there - - that CALLS to us - - to DESIRE it. Desire me (whisper) / / And the WISDOM - - in all of this - - is that WHAT we DESIRE - or WANT is CONNECTED to what we come to KNOW - and who we become. It turns out that it ACTUALLY is important to our spiritual lives and to our souls WHAT we seek after - - in the streets. It will make us - - in its image!! But it s not JUST - - what we HEAR - - that s important. What we say is too!! What we hear and listen to IS - the word from the Old Testament - and Proverbs. But the word from the New Testament letter - from James is that it is ALSO important - - what we SAY.

4 4 Here we go - - with words again But this time - - instead of what we HEAR it s what we SAY. James uses several images for our TONGUES - - as the instrument of SPEECH. / He says that a LITTLE - - BIT - - the thing that fits into a horse s mouth - - that little thing - - can control the direction of the horse. If you ve ever ridden a horse - - you know that you DO have to know what to DO with the REIGNS - - connected to the BIT. / But - - in the hands of a skilled rider - - it s AMAZING - - what a little TUG can do. A RUDDER - - on a boat - - can ALSO make big changes in the direction of the boat - - by just little shifts - in position. And like a rudder - - and like a bit - - so is the tongue. What we SAY Little words. That matter. They can bless - - and they can curse. Words are DANGEROUS. They can hurt people. / They can hurt us. If words are as powerful as James says - - it makes you almost want to - - not say anything. / My reaction - - sometimes - - to these texts is - - cat s got my tongue. Silence. And - - maybe - - at first - - that s ok. But the thing is OUT of our silence - - has to come some word. Our whole calling - - as Christians - - leads to speaking. To proclamation. / To witness. To telling other people about what God has done.

5 5 About God s love. About God s -- offer of forgiveness. For - - everyone. Wherever they are from. About - - being RAISED up - - like Jesus. We can t - - just STAY - - silent. The professor - - Henry Mitchell - - wrote about the simple words - - of a country preacher - - to his wife - - while she was in the hospital: She was hovering - - close to death. When - - we are near death - - what s really important - comes into focus. What we - - SAY - - or don t say - to each other is SO important. So back to what this professor wrote. His wife Ella - - was in the hospital. And she was visited - - by a country preacher - a man they knew. He was not highly educated. / Didn t have degrees from Universities. Didn t know about pulmonary embolism. He only knew - that she had been confined to bed - - was discouraged - - felt helpless - - depressed - - and near death. And - - she hadn t been able to sleep. He held Ella s hand. / Told her the story of a missionary - - helpless - discouraged - - alone at night - - in a highly improbable - jungle. / Finally - as the story went - the missionary decided - to sleep. To sleep - even in the presence of wild animals.

6 6 His prayer was, Lord, I have read - that you keepeth Israel - - and neither slumber - nor sleep. / Well - - I guess there s no point in BOTH of us stayin awake. And he slept - in peace - and safety. And God kept watch. / Well - Ella was blessed by the story - - and by the gentle wisdom - of this simple - faithful man. / Her spirit improved - - almost immediately. / She slept well. / There was marked PHYSICAL progress in a few days. / Ella s husband - - the professor - - who wrote the story confesses, I marveled at the wisdom of that man - - compared to my supposed - - specialization - - in clinical depression. Our words are powerful but we HAVE to speak. Who do YOU say Jesus is? Who do WE say? Who do WE say Jesus is? And therefore - - who are WE? There s the story of a mother and her boy - - SHE had stopped going to church - - not taught her son much about her faith - - one day she decided to go BACK to church. They went to a Catholic church. / That s where she had been raised. Her five year old son - - looked up at the crucifix. Jesus statue - - on a cross. What s that man doing, mom? / / / What s that man doing? It s not an easy question to answer. / But it is central to us. To be ready to answer - - one way or the other...

7 7 Jesus Christ means that God is not just up in heaven. / Jesus Christ is in the world. / Lived through the pain you know in your life. / Knows what it is like to die. / Felt the temptations - - we ve felt. / Saw the billboards and bumper stickers or whatever the equivalent was - in his day. / And in the MIDST of all that - - and FROM all that rose to life - - and promises us life. I know what he did for me: I know about lots of things - - that have made me - - really angry. Things about the church. Things about the world. Injustice and pain - just FRUSTRATING things. Even stuff about ME - - that I didn t like. And - none of it - went away. But it doesn t have - the last word now. The last word - - belongs to Jesus Christ. And that s not about some billboard slogan - - that s from the heart. That s - - who I say - - Jesus is. Anyway it s the best I can do today That s what I say. What do YOU say?