Sermon
"Necessitas a conocer una persona muchos anos antes de matrimonio."
"It is necessary to know a person many years before marriage."
At least that's what I hoped that I said to the little old man who asked me to marry him one day as we chatted in the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza.
I met him as I was going to the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library. The Civic Center Plaza is a fairly colorful place at all times of the day and night. I talk to people who approach me if they don't look frightening. This man looked old, lost, friendly, disheveled, and out of place – which is saying a lot for the Civic Center Plaza. He was speaking only broken Spanish, maybe even a related language that I couldn't discern, and he was carrying a well used spiral notebook. Looking in his notebook before every sentence, we had a short chat using my forever-ago 4 year high school Spanish vocabulary. He was not lost. His wife was lost. Oh, he lost his wife. She died? Oh, he's looking for his wife? But didn't he just say that she died? Oh, he's looking for A wife?! Will I be his wife! Uh, no. Why?! Why? Um, well, necessitas a conocer una persona muchos anos antes de matrimonia!
It seems to me that if you're going to speak to someone, you might want to speak the same language. There's no telling how many other marriage proposals I may have missed.
Not knowing the national language is only one way that our tongues get us into trouble. It seems that James feels that the tongue is the cause of our most sinful ways. He calls the tongue, --a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” “The tongue is a fire.” “It stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is set on fire by hell! And no one can tame it!
With our tongues we both praise God and slander our brothers and sisters made in the likeness of God. We both bless and curse. James calls that unnatural. After all, natural things, like a spring is either fresh water, or brackish water. A fig tree yields figs, not olives or grapes. And a grapevine yields grapes, not figs. Salt water does not yield fresh water. So how are we humans supposed to behave with this tongue of ours that seems to be able to produce so much variety. How do we learn to tame our tongue?
With a bridle. It doesn't take much. Just a small bit in a horse's mouth will guide the entire horse. Just a small tugboat can guide the largest of ships. Just a small rudder can guide a large boat. And in a vision we in the west can picture so very well, such a large fire can come from such a small flame. And those who teach – well they're the worst. Teachers, preachers, writers, musicians, poets, anyone with a social media account – because we have listeners. James makes it a point to discuss this use of the tongue. Many times the letters and books that are in our Bible were originally written in a more formal language not read by most, or written to illiterate audiences who would have the letters read to them. So for James, those who had the power of the tongue held most of the power and therefore potential for harm with their words.
This is the fourth week that we have discussed scripture from the letter of James. All of his cautions to his audience have to do with how to live better in community by first changing the lives of individuals. We discussed what it means to live wisely; then we discussed how to wear the armor of God, not for offense and attacking others but as a way to remain unstained by the world. And last week we discussed the importance of not showing partiality for one over another. Discerning differences, yes, but not valuing people more or less based on the differences. And today the subject is what we say and how we speak.
Our tongue doesn't just get us into trouble all by itself. Some thoughtful, adult, smart people work hard to craft painful, hurtful, hateful crippling speech. Think of politicians. Think of angry parents, siblings, family members. Letters to the editor. Facebook posts. Twitter rants.
If we look closely at the times when speech has been the cause of some of the greatest harm, it's not the tongue that needed to be bridled, but something else. Fear. Insecurity. Anger. Grief. Loss. Those may be reasons, but not excuses. Another reason for those nasty tongues? Meanness. James would call it evil. “—a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
Fortunately we humans also have an equal, as a matter of fact, not just equal, but greater-than power within us to use our tongues for beauty. For praise. For prayer. For poetry. Lyrics. Stories. For descriptions of nature, of color, of lines, descriptions of dance, or music. For descriptions of God! For singing. For tales of love.
Think of the words in our bulletin today. There are formal and informal prayers, there are ritual words of confession and assurance, and scripted words as ancient as our earliest faith in the words of institution said at the table. There are the words around prayer, “Lord in your Mercy, Hear our prayer.” And the Lord's prayer. There are the words we say at home. “I love you.” “You make me happy.” Maybe also things like “Go to your room!” And what should be every day words. Please. Thank you. How can I help? Are you okay? What do you need?
“According to Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Mark Robert Waldman, words can literally change your brain. In their book, Words Can Change Your Brain, they write: “a single word has the power to influence the expression of genes that regulate physical and emotional stress.”
Positive words, such as “peace” and “love,” can alter the expression of genes, strengthening areas in our frontal lobes and promoting the brain's cognitive functioning. They propel the motivational centers of the brain into action, according to the authors, and build resiliency. Conversely, hostile language can disrupt specific genes that play a key part in the production of neurochemicals that protect us from stress. However, a single negative word can increase the activity in our amygdala (the fear center of the brain). This releases dozens of stress-producing hormones and neurotransmitters, which in turn interrupts our brains' functioning. (This is especially with regard to logic, reason, and language.) “Angry words send alarm messages through the brain, and they partially shut down the logic-and-reasoning centers located in the frontal lobes,” write Newberg and Waldman.”1
Hannah Scerri, writing about the psychology of words, writes, “Words aren't simply a vessel of language; they have the power to create emotions and set the context. It's not merely what you want to say, but what message underpins your words.”2
When James reminds us just how difficult it is to reign in our tongues, and how important it is to do so, we are reminded again of the importance of community to James. If our language has the power to create emotions and even set the context based on our tone and our descriptions, then speaking to one other person has an effect on that person. In community then, where we are speaking to more than one person, that same effect is multiplied not just by the number of people there, but by the number of interpretations of what was said, etc. You can imagine the outrageous mathematics that would take place if we decided to add up just how many ways our words affected those around us.
I was playing a game of telephone once with a group of adults at a workshop about communication. Clearly, we were trying to show how just passing the same message through 10 people would change that one simple message. The interesting thing about this particular time though was the affect we had on the context. I was about fifth in line to send a simple boring message like, “The clown sat on the fire engine.” I really had no idea what was said to me. But before I could pass it on to the sixth person in line, something about it struck me as ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS, and I could not stop laughing! Every time I tried to gather myself and whisper something in the next person's ear, I would practically snort laugh through my nose! By the time we were done, the sentence ended up goofy as you might expect, but since it wasn't ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS to anyone, everyone was just confused. There wasn't even the normal “Ha ha” about how the sentence got turned around. My inability to stop laughing set the expectations high that it would end up being very funny. Everyone in line then, who didn't laugh, was just more and more confused, waiting for the joke. My behavior, not just my words, set the context for the message.
Now imagine that in a room full of people trying to have a normal or serious conversation. Imagine the mis-interpretations that would come up. Then take away the visual – the facial expression of someone confused; the facial expression and body language of someone being sarcastic. Put it in an email. Now limit it to 40 characters and put it on Twitter. Of course then our actual tongues are not being used, but the message is the same – reign in those words! Be careful!
Love one another! Love your neighbor as you love yourself, without asking “who is my neighbor?” Care for the poor. Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Visit the prisoner. Welcome the stranger. Our branch of the Presbyterian Church, the PC(USA) has declared itself a Matthew 25 denomination to do those very things. Presbyteries are declaring themselves Matthew 25 presbyteries. And churches are declaring themselves Matthew 25 churches to do those very things.
1 Corinthians, Ephesians 6, 1 Thessalonians 5, all give us together, the old Anglican Blessing found still in our Book of Common Worship, and repeated together at the end of every worship service here at Bethany. In that blessing which you are saying in your heads now, a collection of attitudes, behaviors and instructions for living a Christ-like life are listed.
This letter from James isn't telling us anything new. But maybe today's text from James is reminding us about why we take on the power of those words by speaking them aloud, in and with and for each other. By claiming the power of community, we find that we can become the faithful people that we proclaim to be.
May it be so.
Amen.
_________________