Proper 19B (Pentecost 17 2024)

Text: “The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.”— Isaiah 50:4

Within the last few years, I’ve heard several people from several different faiths essentially agree that if your God and your faith only ever affirm or reinforce your feelings and your values, then there’s a good chance that the god you’re worshipping is really yourself. Faith should force us to ask hard questions about ourselves. It should challenge us in real and significant ways. The words of James in our Epistle reading certainly do that. James certainly doesn’t pull any punches, so to speak, as he writes to the people of his own day.

I do love that this reading comes up at this time of year— the weeks leading up to the election. Election season is a time when you and I are unusually aware of all the falsehoods floating around. You’re more sensitive to it because you hear politicians making all sorts of promises on a daily basis. You’re more sensitive to it because you constantly hear candidates hurling horrible accusations at each other— accusations that are always at least half true, but rarely more than that.

If only you and I were as sensitive to sinful speech year round; If only you and I were sensitive to sinful speech in other areas of life; if only you and I were as sensitive to sinful speech in your own lives, as well. So often what you assert as your ‘right’, God calls sin.

Let’s review the eighth commandment: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not belie, betray, slander, or defame our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.

Meanwhile, you and I act like it is your right to complain, to grumble, to gossip, to pass around secret accusations…. It’s not just the politicians who are declared guilty by the eighth commandment. Complaints about your neighbor in Washington D.C. or in Lansing, complaints about your neighbor down the block, and complaints about your neighbor in the next pew— those leap from your lips and spread like wildfire. Where are those who defend their neighbor, speaking well of them, and put the best construction on everything?

Simply because God is your creator— for that reason, alone!— it is the duty of every creature to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. That should be doubly true within the Church— within the body of Christ. But what do you use your tongues for? Praise or cursing?

When unbelievers curse you, for example, you curse them back. You hardly hesitate. You return evil for evil. What were your Lord’s Words? “27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27–28). Are your ears closed to what He is trying to teach you? Does the body of Christ really not talk that way any longer?

Sadly, the way you talk about other believers can be even worse. If your brother or sister in Christ sins against you, what do you do? Do you defend them? Do you still speak well of them? Do you put the best construction on everything? Or do you make darn sure that everyone knows what he did to you? In fact, does it even need to be a sin for you to talk about your fellow believers? Often, all it takes is that person offending you in some way, doing something that you do not like or doing it in a way that you do not like.

Now, some may object: “But everything I’m saying is true.” That’s fine. It may very well be accurate. It is still sin. If you are talking about a person rather than talking to him then, even if what you are saying is completely true, what is coming out of your mouth is deadly poison. That is why your Lord commands you, “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you.” Let me say that again: If you are complaining about another person rather than talking to him, what is coming out of your mouth is deadly poison, even if it is completely true.

Regardless of who the gossip or grumbling is directed against, sins against the eighth commandment are anything but harmless. To paraphrase James: How great a congregation is set ablaze by such a small fire— by the tongue of a gossip or a grumbler. The whole body of Christ is stained by a single member, setting on fire the entire course of life. In the end, that tongue (and the one who can not tame it) are, themselves, set on fire by hell (James 3:5-6). Does that sound like the careless words you speak are harmless? The eighth commandment makes you liable to the fires of hell just like the other nine.

“Every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. …Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.” What sort of words are springing forth within the Church? Praise and thanksgiving or gossip and grumbling? …Blessing or cursing?

My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

These things ought not be so, first and foremost, because you and I are gathered around Jesus Christ. He gives Himself to you here. And He is the one that our text is talking about: “The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.” Those prophetic words are straight out of the mouth of Jesus, Himself.

You were liable to the fire of hell because the tongue that you should use to praise our God and Father you also use to curse men. But out of His mouth came praise; out of His mouth came forgiveness; out of His mouth came grace. Unlike you and I, He had every right to curse— to call down God’s judgement on people. And He would have been perfectly justified in that condemnation. And yet, instead, He spoke forgiveness and grace. Even as He was being lifted up on the cross to die, He prayed “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He defended His killers— even as they were killing Him. He put the best construction on their motives and He forgave when He had every right to condemn. He would have been perfectly justified in condemning them— not to mention condemning you. Instead, “13 Christ redeemed [you] from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for [you]—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus… [you] might receive the promised Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:13–14).

God Himself, who spoke and created all things, accepted the tongue of those who are taught so that He could sustain with a word him who is weary. As He hung on the cross, for example, still receiving mockery and disgrace, He remained silent. He remained silent until He heard the quiet plea of a dying man: “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” It was only then that His mouth was opened to say, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). In fact, to this day, Jesus gives you pastors to assure you of His grace as often as you come to Him, burdened and crushed under the weight of sin, confessing your guilt and shame.

He continues to speak that word to this very day: “I baptize you in my Name.” “I forgive you all your sins.” “Take and eat, this is my body given for you for the forgiveness of all your sins. Take and drink, this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.” Make no mistake— it is, in fact, Him talking. “Whoever hears you hears me,” He said (Luke 10:16). In the process, He not only forgives your sins, He gives you a tongue to praise God. If it was your duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him as your creator, what do you owe your Redeemer?

He not only took upon Himself your guilt for cursing others, He gives you a tongue to bless those who curse you and to pray for those who abuse you (Luke 6:27-28). James writes that the tongue stains the whole body with the poison that flows from it. But He has sanctified your tongue to no longer pour forth salt water, but to pour forth the pure water of prayer for your president, for your neighbor, for your brother or sister in Christ. He has sanctified you so that it is no longer gossip and grumbling which flow from your lips, but words of forgiveness and grace and a pure confession of true faith in Christ. Words of comfort. Words that sustain those who are weary— especially your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Today’s readings force us to ask hard questions about ourselves. They challenge us in real and significant ways. But they also assure you that the challenge has been met in Jesus Christ. “The Lord GOD has given [Him] the tongue of those who are taught, that [He might] know how to sustain [you] with [His] word….” May He awaken your ear, morning by morning, to be taught by that word and to rejoice in speaking it, as well.