September 13, 2009

2009 09 13

Git ‘R Dun—Watch Your Mouth

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Psalm 12:1-6

James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38

This past week we remembered the eighth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon.  The events of that day are indelibly etched in my heart and my mind.  That morning, we had a chapel service at Asbury unlike any other we had had before.  We prayed like we hadn’t prayed before.  Throughout the day, everyone kept their radios and televisions on to see if there were any more details or information about the attacks.  The images we saw that day were indescribable.

As the day went on, people around this country, in fear and disbelief, wanted answers.  Who did this?  How could they have done it?  And for God’s sake, why?  Why would someone or some group of people find it even remotely logical to slam airplanes into the towers and the Pentagon?  Before we could get answers to any of these questions, I suspect that most of us began to ask ourselves new questions.  What’s next?  Are the attacks over?  Are there more planes still flying, waiting to crash into something else?  Are we safe?  What is going on here?

Just a few hours after the attacks, President Bush addressed our nation from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.  These are his words:  I want to reassure the American people that the full resources of the federal government are working to assist local authorities to save lives and to help the victims of these attacks. Make no mistake: The United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts.

I've been in regular contact with the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, the national security team and my Cabinet.  We have taken all appropriate security precautions to protect the American people. Our military at home and around the world is on high alert status, and we have taken the necessary security precautions to continue the functions of your government.

We have been in touch with the leaders of Congress and with world leaders to assure them that we will do whatever is necessary to protect America and Americans.

I ask the American people to join me in saying a thanks for all the folks who have been fighting hard to rescue our fellow citizens and to join me in saying a prayer for the victims and their families.

The resolve of our great nation is being tested.  But make no mistake: We will show the world that we will pass this test. God bless.

I remember that speech that day.  Like many of you, I was pretty angry.  However, I was not concerned about the continuation and function of our nation’s government.  I had no doubts that our nation's military was doing all it could to protect us, here and abroad.  I wanted to know if we were going to find out who did this…to us.  Again, I remember this specific speech.  I knew just from listening, that it was probably an unwritten, spur-of-the-moment, passion-filled statement.  It is not very often that an American president tells the world, that we are going to hunt people down and punish them. 

The president’s words reflected what most of us were feeling that day.  That speech may have done much to soothe our broken hearts at that time.  However, these words and that passion may have taken us down a path in terms of a war and domestic policies that over time have become less and less popular.  But that is exactly what words can do.  You may not realize this, but our words are powerful.  Our words can lead us to places we might not want to be.  It is why we need to watch our mouths.

Take a look at Mark 8:27-38.  This was one of our lectionary selections for this morning.  Jesus asked the disciples who did the people think he was.  Maybe John the Baptist.  Maybe Elijah.  Maybe a prophet.  Jesus asked the disciples who THEY thought he was.  Peter answered, "You are the Christ."

In verse 31, Jesus told the disciples that he must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.  Peter took Jesus aside to rebuke him.  But Jesus rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." ³⁴ Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Peter’s mouth had gotten him into trouble.  Peter boldly proclaimed that Jesus is the messiah…the Christ.  But his actions and his words, rebuking Jesus…telling Jesus to remain quiet, contradict his supposed faith.  Peter had his own interests at heart…and not the things of God.  Therein lie his trouble…and ours as well.

James 3 talks about taming the tongue.  And to be honest with you, James 3 scares me.  It should scare anyone who is willing to teach and to lead in the church.  ¹ Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.  Ouch!  If you are a pastor…if you teach Sunday school, work with the youth group, or teach the children…by our words and our actions, we will be judged more strictly.  Anyone who leads in the church must be sure that his or her words are right and righteous.  The stakes are high for those whom we teach and for us as well.

² We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.  I think that James might be teasing us.  By the standard he gives us, who here can claim that they have kept their entire body in check?  Who here can claim to be the perfect man or woman?   It is not just the teachers, but all of us who will stand in judgment for our words.

A horse is guided by the bit in its mouth.  A boat is steered by a small rudder.  ^{James 3:5} Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  I know that each of us has been there before.  Your friend says that he can do 25 pushups.  So you say, “well, I can do 50!”  And you are feeling pretty confident about yourself.  Then you friend says, “all right, let’s see it!”  You know that you are in trouble.  You just bit off more than you can chew.  That tiny spark of pride just set your world on fire. 

But James doesn’t stop there.  The tongue is more than just a spark.  ⁶ The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. ⁷ All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, ⁸ but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

Our mouths do not just get ourselves in trouble.  Our words can be flat-out destructive.  If we make a grand boast, we just embarrass ourselves.  But often our words are pointed, that is they are aimed at others.  They are weapons meant to hurt, damage, and destroy.  They often come from our mouths with the intent of piercing the other person’s heart.  They are more dangerous than an arrow, more lethal than a bullet, and more destructive than a crashing airplane.  Every animal on the earth can be overcome and tamed, but we cannot tame the tongue.  We think that we control our mouths, but they control us.

⁹ With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.

Ouch.  How easily we forget.  We forget how God has created this other person in HIS image.  The person next to you., your co-worker, you next door neighbor…each of these are the handiwork of our Lord.  And with our mouths, we attempt to bring down and destroy what God has created.  We praise God, and we curse men, sometimes even in the same breath!  This simply should not be.  Why?

¹¹ Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? ¹² My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

It is not our mouths that really get us into trouble.  It is what comes before.  It is our hearts that drive our tongues.  It is darkness within us that quickly becomes darkness outside us.  You cannot have a pure clean, clean heart that spews out dark destructive words.  The heart drives the tongue.    But if we cannot tame the tongue, what can we do?  Listen to Isaiah.

^{Isaiah 50:4} The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.

If we are going to watch our mouths, the first thing we have to do is shut them.  When we feel the temptation to disparage someone, the need to tear someone down, the desire to wreak some verbal vengeance on someone, we need to shut our mouths.  Peter didn’t know when to speak and when to keep his mouth shut.  That is the first piece of advice we need to heed. 

The second is to listen.  Isaiah’s words did not tear down the deserving, but sustained and strengthened the weary.  Why?  Because he listened.  His ear was wakened to the Lord, and Isaiah listened.  Seeking the Lord and listening to him, brings light into the darkness and fills our hearts with his love…and that love overcomes all things.

When we boast, we bring glory to ourselves.  When we curse, we tear down others.  But when we listen for that small still voice of the Lord, speaking to us and in us.  Then he can speak through us.  He can speak though us.  Are you listening to him?  Or are you too busy talking?   Let’s take a moment to listen, and let’s give him our hearts.