If you can't say something nice...

Small things make big impacts

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from, God, our Father, and and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who loved you with his very life. Amen.

Remember the old animated movie, “Bambi?” The timeless classic about the happenings of a deer as it grows up in the forest. Bambi, as a fawn makes a friend with this little bunny named Thumper. I identified with this little bunny as a child. Always going around, getting into trouble. Always looking to eat dessert first, and speaking without thinking. I remember the scene where poor little Thumper said something he wasn’t supposed to say and mommy bunny comes along and says, “What did your father teach you?” and Thumper shuffles a bit and says, “If you can’t say something nice… don’t say nuffin at all”

So our text this morning is James 3. The book of James is probably the book of the Bible that makes me the most uncomfortable. When was the last time you just sat down and read it? It’s a pretty small book, only 5 short chapters, you could read it in an hour. But in it are a whole bunch of things that make you squirm in your chair.

There are verses that say, “faith without works is dead.” And if that weren’t enough, there is this whole long section about your tongue, about the words that you say, and like, it’s rough and it hits you like a ton of bricks.

James starts out talking about teachers, about pastors, people like me, who want to teach people about Jesus. He’s also talking about you as you teach about Jesus to your children and your family. James says, be careful. Words are important. You can do a lot of good with words, but also a lot of harm.

Then he lists several analogies to talk about it. Like, how big of a wildfire is set by something so small. Just think of the fires in California, or even up north. Right? I read that one fire, I think one in CA was started by a spark from a power line. Like the wind blew a branch too close to the pole, a spark jumped, and in next to no time there was a fire raging that consumed tens of thousands of acres. Such a small thing, one little spark, and a whole forest was destroyed.

He talks about horses. When we have the holiday kickoff parade downtown in the winter there’s been the horse drawn wagon rides. This farmer shows up with these massive draft horses, each weighing over 2000lbs. They stand taller than me at the shoulders. If the horse wanted to, it could do what it wanted. But a little bit of metal, the bit, put into its mouth, controls this massive beast. Something maybe weighing a pound. Maybe, controls the horse and allows us to enjoy a holiday ride.

It is a common thing in our world for something big to be controlled by something small.

But when it comes to us, as people, as a person, it’s hard to comprehend, and James words, make us uncomfortable. Because James says something that we all know too well, just like a spark can destroy a forest, likewise your tongue, your words can be destructive.

Martin Luther talks about this when he discusses the 8th commandment in the Large Catechism. This is what he says, “What concerns us all, this [the 8th] commandment forbids all sins of the tongue whereby we may injure or approach too closely to our neighbor. For to bear false witness is nothing else than a work of the tongue. Now, whatever is done with the tongue against a fellow-man God would have prohibited, whether it be false preachers with their doctrine and blasphemy, false judges and witnesses with their verdict, or outside of court by lying and evil-speaking.

Here belongs particularly the detestable, shameful vice of speaking behind a person’s back and slandering, to which the devil spurs us on, and of which there would be much to be said. For it is a common evil plague that every one prefers hearing evil to hearing good of his neighbor; and although we ourselves are so bad that we cannot suffer that any one should say anything bad about us, but every one would much rather that all the world should speak of him in terms of gold, yet we cannot bear that the best is spoken about others.”

Luther’s observation is spot on. We want people to only speak well of us. We we don’t like it when we find out about gossip about us. We don’t like rumors about us. We don’t like people saying negative or personal things, even if they’re true. Or in Luther’s words, we want speak to only speak gold about us.

But we don’t want to give the same treatment to others. We like to hear the gossip, to sip the tea as the kids say. We want to know the dirty little secrets about others to say, “did you hear about that guy, let me tell you what’s really going on.” And we speak garbage about others while demanding they speak gold about us.

A ship is controlled by a rudder, a horse by bridle, a fire by a spark, and a person by their tongue. Yet of all of these, the tongue is by far the hardest to manage.

So when James says, “out of the same mouth comes cursing and blessing” it hits home. It makes us uncomfortable because it shows us our hipocracy and our sinfulness. It shows you just how often you break the 8th commandment and use your words to harm others, even behind their backs.

In the words of Thumper, If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuffin at all.

Words indeed have a lasting impact. All of you can think of a hurtful word spoken to you or about you.

But hurtful words aren’t the only words that have lasting impacts.

You can use your tongue for good, you can use words to build up, to praise to steer the ship the right way, to use the horse for good! In the same way that you remember saying something bad about someone else, or having someone say something bad about you, you also have a memory of when someone spoke something encouraging or uplifting to you as well.

It could have been a parent, a teacher, an employer, a spouse, a friend. You remember the feeling, the experience of joy, of fulfilment, of pride and love, that someone would care to speak well of you.

God has made it so we can speak blessings! We can fight our sinful nature through the grace of God and use our words to speak blessings to other. In fact, God even asks us to do that! To encourage one another, to build on another up, yes with words of affirmation, yes by standing up for someone else’s reputation, but to encourage one another with the words about Christ.

Because the words that Jesus speaks truly have lasting impacts on our lives. When Jesus speaks words, they change everything. From the words spoken at creation which called for everything that is out of nothing, God’s words have a lasting impact.

And none more important, more transformative, than the words he speaks to you. The words he spoke to you when you were baptized into his name, when he welcomed you as his child. Where he washed away all your sins by taking them upon himself.

To the words he spoken to you this morning when he forgave you sins. And God promises to never remember your sins once he’s forgiven them. He won’t bring them up in conversation later, he won't hold them against you, he certainly won’t tell others about it. God’s words are used to change you, to forgive you, and to restore you.

And finally, he speaks to you words of hope and promise. Throughout scripture Jesus comes and speaks words of hope and promise. He promises you that he will never leave you. He promises you that you have a future in him in paradise, a place without sin, or gossip, without words spoken in anger, a place of peace. And he promises that he is coming back soon., bringing with him his new creation.

If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuffin at all. That’s a lot easier said then done. James today in his letter calls us to use our tongues for blessings, not for curses. And God shows us how to do that, how to speak words of encouragement, because that’s what he did for us in Christ.

Amen.