Taming the Tongue (James 3.1-12) 9-12-2021

One of the things that I picked up from my father is a condition that we in the Milam household called “Foot in Mouth Disease”. It is a special condition that calls for careful consideration before one speaks. If not taken seriously, one ends up in an embarrassing situation where one’s words are, to put is mildly, wished to be taken back and never said. My dad did this all the time. He would talk about how dry a piece of fried chicken was at a church social only to find out to his chagrin that the person to whom he was speaking was the spouse of the one who made the chicken. I too have done the same thing. I once complained about a teacher only to realize to my horror that in the group that I was speaking was her daughter. So, one can imagine the uncomfortable and sometimes humorous situations that our “disease” would take us.

James picks up a new thread with this week’s text. In this text he is speaking about the tongue and the various ways that it can and will lead us into sticky situations and just what is to be done about it.

In the very first verse we are told that not many should become teachers. This because those who teach will be judged with greater strictness than those who do not teach. Why? Because teachers have a great power over those whom they teach. They are sources of authority and therefore those listening are more inclined to believe those things being said to them. How many of us remember a teacher in school who had such charisma and such a personality that whatever they said was thought to be the “gospel truth”? And then one finds out that what they had been told was not true, far from it. How devastating to those whom this teacher had such sway over. Would they ever trust another who had the words that they believed? Most likely not. And so it is with those who are teaching in the church. Whether it be a Sunday School teacher, a Bible study leader, or even the preacher, those people have an aura of authority because they are the teacher and they have the power of words. And the power of words is quite powerful indeed.

But there is a point that James makes. He says that all of us make many mistakes. He does not, however, say what we would say at the end of this statement which would be “and that is ok”. The reason that he would not say this is because it is not ok to make many mistakes sometimes. There are those who do not make mistakes and they are considered perfect. Now, this does not mean that they are sinless. Rather they are considered more mature in their faith and that they follow the teaching that James makes earlier in the letter that they are slow to speak, quick to listen and slow to anger. In doing so they control their bodies with a bridle.

James is wisdom literature, meaning that there is teaching for how one is to live and takes its illustrations from nature rather than being a systematic theology of the teachings about God and how to worship. And he begins by telling them about how horses are controlled by a bit. A bit is a little thing that fits in the mouth of horse the allows the rider to control this large animal. It is a piece that tells the horse the way the rider wishes to go. Or to put it in more modern terms, think of the bit as a steering wheeling. In comparison to the rest of the car, the steering wheel is insignificant in size. But in terms of how it works, it is very much a powerful piece of equipment. It allows us to turn to a car, a machine that is as large as or more than a horse, in the direction that we want with very little effort.

Or think of a ship. James would have been in awe of the sailing ship of the golden age of sea power. He would have said, “See, this vessel is powered by the wind in its sails but it can be steered by one man with a small (in comparison with the rest of the vessel) rudder and moves it in the way that the pilot wishes it to go.” To put it into more modern terms, think of an aircraft carrier. This monstrous behemoth is a small city on the sea. And yet when it needs to be turned, a rudder that this small in comparison can turn the entire ship around to go in a different direction.

The point that James is making with these illustrations is that the tongue, which is small, can make big boasts. It can claim to doing things that are far beyond what has been done by the body. It can claim that what has been done by a team of people was done all by oneself. It can claim that great exploits have been done when only minor exploits have been achieved. Like the bit and the rudder, the tongue, something small that seems insignificant, can control the whole body and lead it in ways that it should not go.

Have you ever seen the Saturday Evening Post cover with the Norman Rockwell painting known as the Chain of Gossip? In this painting there is a woman who tells another woman a juicy piece of gossip about someone else. Well, of course this is too good to pass up, so the neighbor tells another neighbor, who then tells another and the whole thing goes in a chain. That is, until the person whom the gossip is about hears of it and confronts the woman. Or think of the wildfires out west. Most are started by something small, a campfire or even a spark from a campfire. And yet those small things can turn millions of acres into a burnt wasteland. Entire towns can be erased from the map by these fires and it will take years for the landscape to recover. That is the power of the tongue. It can spread gossip or anything like a wildfire and leave lasting scars.

Another example of the tongue setting things on fire can be found in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. There Marc Antony makes a speech that, when he is finished, the entire city is in a riot over the death of the man about whom he said he came to bury but not to praise. But after the speech he says to let the mischief do its work. Again, the tongue sets fire when the words are used to inflame.

It is the last part of the text for today that James brings to a climax. He claims that the tongue cannot be tamed and that it is full of poison and evil. With that same tongue we often praise and bless God and then turn around and curse those who are made in the image of God. This is seen most vividly in our political landscape. There are many who will bless the God that they have not seen (and that is fine. We are called to do that.) and then will curse and belittle the person whom they can see that is again made in the image of God. This is where the rhyme sticks stones may break my bones comes to the full fruit of its not being true. Wayne Watson has a lyric in one of his songs that says “Sticks and stones may break my bones, words will break my heart.” And it is true. Words can leave lasting scars that take a great deal of time to heal. James says that blessings and cursing from the same mouth should not be so. There should not be the cursing of one made in the image of God if one is a child of God no matter what the person has done.

In the end James again uses natural illustrations. He asks if a spring can bring forth both fresh and brackish water, or can a fig tree grow olives or a grapevine figs, or can salt water turn into fresh water. The answer to all these questions is, of course, no. The spring must bring forth only fresh or brackish water. There is no division here. There must be good or bad. The same with the tree and the vine. They must yield the fruit that they were designed to yield. And when fresh water meets salt water it becomes salty, therefore saltwater cannot produce fresh water. So, the tongue cannot produce both good and bad. There is to be no division. We must have one or the other in our lives with our tongues.

The tongue is such a little thing but it causes such distress. Think of all the problems that have been caused because of a careless word. Relationships that have been damaged or destroyed. Jobs lost. Wars begun. All because of the tiny tongue and gets us into trouble. It is this very thing about which James warns us. He lets us know in uncertain terms that the tongue will get us into all sorts of trouble and that it is the spiritually mature person who follows the advice of speaking slowing and listening quickly. For those persons the tongue does not cause them issues.

But what about the rest of us, the ones for whom the tongue still causes problems? Magrey R. DeVega writes a top ten list of the things that the tongue does that we must guard against:

10. Slander and Lies: should be easy to take care of since it is in the ten commandments as not bearing false witness. But it is hard.

9. Gossip: again, we should be better about this. We often can disguise gossip in our prayer request as we will request prayer and then wait for someone to ask just what is going on. See Norman Rockwell for what happens there.

8. Insults: the words that cause harm and leave bruises and scars that last a long time.

7. Grumbling and complaining: We should be people of Joy and hope not people whose words and actions suck the very joy and life out of those around us.

6. Speaking rashly: Slow to speak and quick to listen. Hear someone out and find out what they have to say. Hear to listen not hear to respond.

5. Cursing: out language is a window to the purity of our own hearts. When we cross the line of cursing then others may think that we are nonbelieving or anything less that followers of Christ.

4. Not Using Encouraging words: How often do we put our needs and wants before others? Yet we are called to uphold one another and to make sure that we bear one another’s burdens.

3. Not practicing patience: this is one that I have trouble with. Too often we let our emotions take control and we say something that had we practiced patience we would never have said.

2.Hypocrisy: Too much talk, not enough action, what James was talking about in chapter 2. There is an old saying that goes like this, “Your walk talks, and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.” What is your talk saying?

1. Not speaking the truth in love: “This hurts me to say this, but…” is often said before we say something hurtful to someone else. And sometimes the truth will hurt and sometimes will cost us, but when said in love it will benefit all involved.

Taming the tongue takes a lot of work. But we are not called to do it on our own. James would have said that we must call on the God whom we bless to help us to not curse those made in God’s image. When we call on God to help us, we gain wisdom from above and that wisdom brings about fruits that will bring about a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace. Let us use our tongues for peace so that we will know peace. Amen.