-1- Sermon (9/16/18, James 3: 1-12): As many of you know, my father is a retired Reformed Church Minister. As such, a few years after my ordination,

Transcription

1 -1- Sermon (9/16/18, James 3: 1-12): As many of you know, my father is a retired Reformed Church Minister. As such, a few years after my ordination, I asked him if preaching ever gets any easier. He thought for a moment and then replied, In some ways, I think it does but overall it continues to be quite a challenge. It wasn t exactly the answer I was hoping for. Now, after doing this for quite a while myself, I think I better understand what my Dad meant. While experience has taught me much about the unique challenges of preaching, there remains much about it that is quite demanding and intimidating. It s one of the reasons I appreciate the preaching conference I attend every year for my Continuing Education requirement. In some ways it s like a giant support group a gathering of hundreds of Pastors who share the common challenge of trying to come up with something interesting to say every week, even in the whirlwind of so many other things that tend to come at us. It is no easy task. Many of the speakers are sensitive to this. They are aware of our thirst to learn how to do it better. There s also a pastoral element to their presentations as they remind us we re not alone when it comes to the struggle of preaching and doing church. Preaching, a presenter once said at a conference several years ago, is like giving birth on Sunday only to find out your pregnant again on Monday. I have yet to hear a one liner that describes it better. A Preacher s tools are limited. Basically, all we have are words. As such, sometimes the odds feel stacked against us in this high-tech, multimedia age where information is disseminated in smaller and smaller soundbites. How do we compete? To add insult to injury, words are tricky, hard to tame, difficult to control, challenging to shape into vivid revelations of what we are trying to communicate. Words have a way of taking on a life of their own once they re released into the air. They are unpredictable and can have surprising, even unintended results. There are so many dynamics that are involved in the creation of the sermon the challenge of being faithful to the Biblical text, even when the text is tough to hear; the challenge of being interesting; the challenge of

2 -2- finding a good balance between being pastoral and nudging, often at the same time. The very first person I preach to, when working on a sermon, is myself. Sometimes the words hit me in the gut and sometimes they make me soar. Many times, it all happens simultaneously. The ache is always deep to find ways to communicate the same progression when standing up here. Words are powerful things. A good preacher knows that wordsmithing can be dangerous work. It s like working with dynamite. If handled poorly, the results can be disastrous. Words can also create entirely new worlds that never existed before. Consider the story, The Wizard of Oz. Its words have become part of our cultural language. We share a common understanding of a place called Oz where there are munchkins (no not the donut kind!), and wicked witches, and good witches, a yellow brick road, a scarecrow looking for a brain, a tin man who wants a heart, a lion who wants courage, and a Wizard who isn t quite as magical as many assumed. An entirely new world created by words alone words that were sweated over, written and rewritten who knows how many times. Words that were subjected to the anvil and hammer of its author s imaginative determination to give birth to something new. Words are powerful. They can trigger wars. They can also trigger peace. They can cut deep. They can also be a powerful balm that restores and renews. They can stir up a crowd into a violent frenzy. They can also inspire a crowd to do great things. They can escalate a situation that has already gone awry. They can also dramatically deescalate a situation that is close to exploding. A preacher s words must somehow communicate the holy to God s Beloved, making it accessible, imaginative, inspiring, challenging, while also respecting the mysterious otherness of God. I still find it a very scary process every week. About mid-week there are many times when I wonder if there are any words left in me. As Barbara Brown Taylor once described it, the words become like dead ants on a page you move them around with a pencil, trying to stir life from

3 -3- them, but nothing happens. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters are the opening words of today s text from James s letter. Wow! James is not helping! I m sure glad no one has ever invited him to the Preaching Conference I go to! It s not exactly a statement that inspires and cheers one on. It s not exactly what I want to hear when I m already finding it difficult to get the ants on the page to move. Some have suggested that maybe James is referring to anyone in a leadership position and, as hard as it is to hear, he has a point, especially for those leaders who don t take seriously just how powerful words can be. When one s audience is wide and one s position of influence is great, there is a need for a special respect of words; a thoughtful maturity which keeps one s emotions reasonably tethered. Forest fires begin with a tiny spark, James says. In the blink of an eye, it takes off - consuming, spreading, destroying, leaving devastation and tears in its wake. We ve seen vivid examples of a forest fire s fury in recent years. A man makes a trip to a store, never imagining that his wife and grand-children, which he left behind, would soon be in danger. There was no indication of a threat. Yet, a fast-moving wave of flames crept up quickly on the house and before the man could get back, his wife and grand-children were gone. Words can be like that fast moving, destructive, powerful. In the blink of an eye they can create great danger. I think the many mediums we use these days have only exacerbated this danger. One evening, I received a text with some very sad news. Someone in our congregation had just died. It was easy to tell that the one who sent it was hurting. I tried to respond to the text quickly, without using my glasses. That was my first mistake. Somehow a totally inappropriate emoji snuck into my text. I scrambled to delete it but instead I pressed send. How do I take it back! I yelled. I was so upset. I could only imagine the recipient s reaction. What a total jerk! they must think! I immediately sent another text apologizing for my blunder. Thankfully, the person on the other end was very understanding and forgiving.

4 -4- It s a horrible thing what words can do once spoken they can never be taken back. Things said in the heat of a moment are forever out there. Unintended remarks released into the air cannot be retrieved. Impulsive responses said in the midst of weariness and/or despair can forever haunt us. How many nights have we lied awake, gazing at a ceiling, regretting the grave error of what our tongues have done? How many times have we wished for a do over? Too many to count, right? It is amazing how quickly a tiny spark can turn into a roaring fire. We try to douse it, to beat it down with a towel, to smother it but, with shocking quickness, it becomes more than we can handle. For those of you who have taken my Pastor s Class, you probably remember my use of the call of Isaiah to demonstrate the rhythm of our worship services. In it, the author relates how an angel of the Lord redeems the sins of Isaiah by touching his lips with a live coal. As gruesome as that sounds, it s an image filled with important symbolism. For one, we wonder why the angel touches Isaiah s lips, of all places! Well, if you re anything like me, I usually explain, it s my lips, my tongue that tends to get me into the most trouble! I have a little plaque right next to my office door that I see almost every time I exit. It says, Dear Lord, please put your arm around my shoulders and your hand over my mouth. Amen. As James reminds us, it s amazing what this tiny little body part, our tongues, can do. It s so small. So seemingly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Yet, it can set a forest ablaze. It can move mountains or destroy villages. It can build up or tear down. Think about it, James says, to tame a horse we put a bit in their mouth and the horse s entire body is kept in check. No matter how big and powerful a ship might be, without a rudder it s a ship that lacks direction which could very well lead to its destruction. That is the power of the tongue. We all make mistakes with the tongue, admits James - even teachers, even leaders, even preachers, even James. No one is exempt from the dangerous exploits of the tongue. Humility is an important companion when it comes to the tongue s use.

5 -5- Yet, we can do better, is the hope I think James is trying to convey. We can be better than we think we can be. As James said in the first chapter, we can demonstrate that faith is not just about what we believe but also about how we use our tongues, our words, our responses. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger James wrote. It s far from easy, but when caught in a tense conversation, we can choose to try to de-escalate the situation with our words rather than escalate it with our impulses. Doing such encourages dialogue rather than adding fuel to an already dangerous fire. It s far from easy, but when tempted to demonize another behind their back or by using Twitter, or Facebook, or some other social media platform, we could choose instead to talk to them directly in the hope that what is broken might be fixed. We could also choose to use our words wisely, carefully, thoughtfully, gracefully, and with humility, making room for grace, even when the conversation is difficult. It s far from easy, but when tempted to criticize it might be helpful to first consider what it s like to walk in the other s shoes. It s far from easy, but it s amazing what can happen when we choose to seek ways to bless with our tongues instead of ways to destroy and defeat the other with our tongues. We all make mistakes words are like that. Sometimes mistakes are even made when we had no intention of making them. When this happens, there is God s reliable grace. Even so, because we are people of faith, because we know that God s promise to be with us is reliable, there is always room for us to do better, even when it comes to the great exploits of the tongue. To God alone be all the glory! Amen.

6 -6- Congregational Prayers and Lord s Prayer: Leader: The Lord be with you. People: And also with you. Leader: Let us pray Gracious and loving God, we come to you this morning mindful of the power of words and how we underappreciate their influence. We have seen firsthand, the damage our tongues can cause when we do not use them wisely. We ask your forgiveness when words have flowed from our mouths unfiltered-filled with the passion of anger, frustration, weariness, or hate. We ask for your mercy upon us and those whom we have wounded with our words. We pray for our leaders, asking that you might help them to use their words wisely and carefully. Give them an awareness of the power words have to either destroy or build up, harm or comfort, convict or forgive, trigger violence or restore calm. We pray for our communities and the words we use when we disagree. Help us to listen with understanding knowing how easily words can be misconstrued. Help us to speak with care, acknowledging how wounding our words can be when we don t. Help us to speak with honest respectfulness in the hope that hard problems might find good solutions. We pray for those times when words are used to manipulate, deceive, or over simplify. We especially consider words that are used to miscommunicate the holiness of who you are. Words that try to simplify that which resists easy explanations. Words that turn your words into clubs intended to harm and beat others into submission. We all make mistakes, O God, especially when it comes to the exploits of our tongues. Grant us the confidence of your grace and the courage to admit when we are wrong. We also pray for your care, O Lord, of those who have been victimized by words that harm and are misused. We pray this day for those who long for a word of kindness,

7 -7- understanding, sympathy, or remembrance. Enable us, O God, to be the ones who speak such words. We pray this day for those who are ill, weary, frustrated and angry. We pray for the weak, the frail, the forgotten, the hungry, and the homeless. We pray for the frightened, the broken, and the longing. We especially remember in our prayers those whom we now name in our silence or aloud All: We ask this in Jesus name who taught us to pray Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.