God’s Rule of Life: Are You Listening Now?
weeks, I try to classify and describe this book. Maybe it is a letter, some say not. Maybe it is prophecy, some say not. Maybe it is wisdom literature – the only wisdom book in the new testament – some say not. Maybe it’s prophecy or even eschatology or apocalyptic – maybe not. Even with all the disagreement, we do know what it IS – Listen to the living Word in scripture from
James 3:1-12
3 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 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. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
God’s Rule of Life: Are You Listening Now?
Teachers, we are on notice! Everyone who has ever been taught anything, please stand up as you are able and remain standing. Those of you who are teachers in a school please sit down – these days we know you deserve a rest! How about those who have ever taught Sunday school or an adult study? – elders in charge of teaching, look around for your next recruits! Those who have taught people a skill at work, trade or in the home? (If needed- Really – you have never shown anyone how to do anything? Be seated.) The point here is that this text applies to all of us. We are all teachers – some formally by call, as a profession, but all of us in our intentional and unintentional actions and words. We teach and build or tear down those around us and the world we live in.
Two key motifs are at play in the rough words we have heard from scripture this morning. They involve wisdom and words. We heard from Proverbs first in the rough prophecy - demands from Lady Wisdom. The second is from James who also wrote a letter in the style of wisdom with imagery from nature to warn us of the danger of words used to harm. The irony is not lost that Wisdom warns “Give heed to my reproof, I will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you.” and James is teaching and using words to warn about the power of those words.
Dare we speak? Do we all take vows of silence? Our tongues, despite the pessimism we seem to find in James, and our Words in and of themselves are not evil. It is in how our tongues and words are used. What type of speech do we employ? For as our standing and sitting implied, we are all intricately tied to the words we use. So much so, that we create or tear down our reality, what we make of the world and even our self-definitions, we make these with the words we use. We can’t get rid of words completely for verse nine reminds us ‘we are made in the image of God’, and our God uses words.
Look to Genesis 1 (NRSV). “1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” God continues to create the world – to build it by speaking it into creation with words and after creating calling each creation by naming it, then giving humans dominion over all creatures. As James references – beasts, birds, reptiles and sea creatures, humans have tamed.
James shows us the power of the words building pictures in metaphors to describe the word ‘tongue’ - beginning with the example of one beast that humans have tamed. He starts with a bridle fit into a horse’s mouth that allows us, weak and puny compared to a large horse, to guide the direction and even demand feats horse might delight in but also to steer them where they may not otherwise choose to go. A bridle can be a partnership or a grueling punishment. The tongue too is small but mighty and can lead gently or with coercion and force in unwanted directions. Do your words gently agree on a direction with others as you use them? Or do they harshly yank others to the course you wish to take? Look to the comments on a social media post or the reactions to a news story. We can quickly see agendas and completely different worlds built with tongues in little small snippets, some gently trying to convince, others lambasting and lashing out.
James next steps to the word picture of the tongue as a rudder. I envision this as a more hidden ‘tongue’ whose power is even larger but is not as obvious sitting beneath the waters, often under the very craft it is steering. Ships glide sailing on mighty winds, but the giant boats can be turned for good or ill by the pilot’s hand through relatively small rudders. James eloquently throws in the words – the ships are turned by the will of the pilot and boasting rudders. Small tongues in boast reset our course in life turning on our will and often not in accord with the will of God. Do our tongues follow the path we have determined, boasting when our power wins out? Or do we give voice to others and listen to the direction their words softly call us to, maybe God speaking through the least. Whose words shape your course, set your path?
James’ imagery grows in strength moving to fire that begins with one small spark but can set the whole world ablaze. Many of the fires that ravage our nation what seems like every summer now start with a small cigarette or inadvertent little campfire not tended with enough care and then bursting out of control to run rampant for weeks even months. James latches on to this imagery to embrace the destructive forces that can reset the cycle of nature moving from a ship to a force of the cosmos calling to mind the flames of a burning sun or star and words misused; a tongue stains our whole body, our being, redefines our very selves ignited by hell. Fire moves to the level of systems that our words over time build up. Do our words continue to add bricks to walls, policies and systems that hurt and rip apart relationships with God’s beloved children? When should we use the power of the flame for works of the Holy Spirit instead - purifying and building up others, rewriting unjust laws?
I’ve always been struck by the Holy Spirit imagined both as a tender dove, a whispering wind, or flames. The flames gently flicker, or they too can rage like a cosmic blast. The fires of the Holy Spirit were with us at the beginning of the church. Remember the imagery of flames sitting on the heads of each person. Listen carefully to Act 2 (NRSV) “3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”
A tongue of fire uses the exact same imagery from Pentecost, the birth of the church, where our words and tongues of flames rather than destroy were forces of unification and amazement with all able to understand and the Holy Spirit drawing us together. James’ imagery deftly weaves together pictures in our minds calling on memory, experience and holy words setting before us the world words build for us.
The Word is after all where the world began: John 1(NRSV) “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This word is different though – it is not our words but the logos. Logos is the Greek for ‘Word’. Oxford Languages defines Logos as, “the Word of God, or principle of divine reason and creative order, identified in the Gospel of John with the second person of the Trinity incarnate in Jesus Christ.” So, when I say listen for the living Word before I read scripture, it is a loaded statement. We are listening to God speaking words to us in words written in scripture. We are listening through the Holy Spirit sent to us by the Word, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, the Word, Logos counters the forces that James sees as a “restless evil, full of deadly poison.” Perhaps this is why I struggle with James. Words have the power to tear down but they also build up, create. Sit with the tension though. Listen to the warning James has built with his words. James in his words of wisdom and Proverbs are shouting for our attention to listen. What are they trying to teach us?
The words from Proverbs 1 are not soft or gentle and remind me of the Bible thumping evangelist on a stump screaming and haranguing the crowd at a ball game or other street gathering. We shuffle past quickly, avoid eye contact at all costs. We probably would label this lady, our words might light fire in judgment. She is after all a ‘harpy’ to be ignored, haranguing us. This is Wisdom – the lady we assume is pontificating in the street? It sets us back listening to the harsh words, but it got our attention. My Wednesday class asked, “Surely I wasn’t using that scripture from Proverbs?” The Psalm option instead they insisted throughout the week with its words of nature soothed our souls. Yet even though lady Wisdom upsets our norms and calls us out, it is fitting to think why the end of that text bothers us? Words do have power to hurt, and this sounds like words that would abandon us. Lady Wisdom laughs like a bully at us. She will not answer when disaster strikes. This is the danger of pulling texts out of a whole. Time does prevent the whole from being looked at now but, listen to a few more of the words from Proverbs 2 (NRSV):
My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you, 2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 3 if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding;… 5 then you will understand… and find the knowledge of God. 6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; 7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly, 8 guarding the paths of justice.”
Maybe it is no mistake that James, the one who writes words warning us of the power of words, weaves together all of these genres using words in a new way to truly show the potential and power of a word. James and Lady Wisdom beseech us to listen to grow in wisdom. Wisdom wants to pour thoughts into us to make God’s words known. James despairs that the way we use words will violate the law and instead of drawing us into Wisdom and closer to God will bring desolation and a rein of hatred.
The words we use daily show the world who we are. So too do the words we use to remember. Are they words of hope or words of despair? What world are you building – does it look like the Kingdom of God more and more or one man boasts of? What path is your ship being steered toward?
As we remember the tragic events on yesterday’s 20th anniversary of 9-11, remember God’s creation is not done, our words have the power of the Holy Spirit to build the world. How are you using that amazing power of your tongue? What world do our words build? Do we build laws out of fear to keep out others who look different, do we build consequences and judgement, do we build bigger walls, do we see only the giant hole in the ground? Former President George Bush remembered us reaching out instinctively to neighbors and mourns that our words are now of anger and resentment. Yes, there is so much pain in this day, but remember the hope, the resurrection hope.
I beg you - build a world on hope. Build a world where our words shine in the darkness like the lights shining forth in the darkness, remembering two buildings, a world pointing to the good that was still holding us together on that infamous day. Build a community with words honoring those who gave their lives to save others, with words of the loving gestures of community come together, with a patriotism that returned dignity to those huddling in fear?
Colossians 3:16 (NRSV)16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.
James may be pessimistic, but he rightly weaves words together as a master teacher. According to Martha Moore-Keish, “For James, the word (logos) of God, law (nomos), and wisdom (sophia) are nearly interchangeable terms, and God implants/imparts this word in order that we, the readers, might not just hear but also do it.”
Word, wisdom, and law intertwined, require intentionality of us working together to the point where they are one. They demand compassion and following the royal law to love our neighbors as ourselves. Listen to the words of others, don’t lash out with your own. Taming our tongues, naming with integrity and love, and directing/ordering our lives with words – this is what it is all about. Our words create our world and define who we are. What are you teaching with your words? Are you listening to Wisdom and James? Rather than fanning the flames of the fire of evil, will you harness your tongue building a world through wisdom, hope, and compassion through the fire of the Holy Spirit? Amen.
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