A Spark, A Rudder, And A Tongue (3-21-2021)

A Spark, a Rudder, and a Tongue 3-21-21 James 3:4-6 “And a tiny rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot wants it to go, even though the winds are strong. So also the tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do. A great forest can be set on fire by one tiny spark. And the tongue is a flame of fire.” I remember the first time I really took to heart chapter 3 of James. As I have said before, he nailed me on my language. That first time James soaked into my soul was about 4 years ago, but James has a message I still need to hear. Let me give you a little background. I grew up in a working a class community, Pasadena, Texas. Pasadena is to Texas as Nazareth was to Lower Galilee. A modern day Nathanael might ask can anything good come out of Pasadena? It was there I learned the roughhewn slang and obscenities of my classmates who cursed one another regularly. In Pasadena I also learned to play football, to throw, catch and hit a hardball. AND I learned to act out my anger and be proud of it. Cursing got coupled with anger. And this unholy union still haunts me today. Therefore, when James says “the tongue is a flame of fire, full of wickedness, and it poisons every part of the body,” (v.6) I know exactly what he means. James tells of a spark that can start a fire. So you might say the spark in my life was struck in Pasadena when I was a kid. James was trying to demonstrate how a little thing, the tongue can do great damage – like the spark that starts a raging fire. Then he used another image to bring home the point, the relatively small rudder of a big ship is controlled by ship’s captain or pilot. But captains are not born captains, they have to learn how to guide that ship and then they have to practice using their minds to apply their knowledge to navigate the ship. The Sunday school lesson for today is full of wisdom. This statement is typical: “True wisdom is found in the proper attitude of the heart.” (p. 19) I think the point is that the tongue is controlled by the mind of the person. In verses 7 and 8 James contrasts animals that can be trained and humans that cannot be trained when it comes to taming the tongue. I disagree with James but only very slightly. We are trained every day. We learn from mass media, and the printed word, but especially from the example of others. For instance I have never heard my neighbor Paul speak a curse word. I asked him why and he says his mother told him and his siblings that if they said naughty words she would wash their mouths out with soap and she even did so to him once. And once was all it took. He still remembers the experience. But we learn the good stuff by example too. I learned lots of good stuff from my parents. And I know many good Christian men and women who do not curse. Their good example provides a sharp but wonderful teaching to this old Pasadena boy. As is true of so many sinful attitudes and behaviors, it is only by the grace of God that they can be mastered. I have come to that conclusion. And I have realized that this is yet another thing that I must surrender to Jesus. I must beg for the grace of the Holy Spirit. My neighbor Paul told me that the Holy Spirit will help me and he prayed fervently for me early last week. I was moved by his prayer and grateful that God had sent him and his wife into our lives. It is Saint James who really confronted overt expressions of anger. And what I discovered was that by attacking these bad verbal habits I also was attacking my anger and the expectations, the shoulds and shouldn’ts that caused that anger. Thoughts, attitudes and behavior are strongly connected. Language, of course consists of words. The mouth and the tongue form words. And our Sunday School lessons says: “Words have an ability to get inside you. Evil or hateful words, once spoken burrow deeply into the soul, spreading a poison and threatening spiritual life.” Children or even adults who are labelled or stigmatized sometimes carry those negative impressions their whole lives. I know a woman who was told by an English teacher early in her college career that she couldn’t write. It took decades before her husband and friends could convince her that she was an excellent writer and speaker. And of course, we know how harmful bullying language can hurt young people, even leading some of them to do harm to themselves. What are the benefits of speaking more peacefully and without anger? A peaceful voice, and calm, wellconsidered words are like seeds. At the end of chapter 3 James says: “…those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness.” (v. 18) It is a small dogwood seed that grows into a beautiful flowering tree. And in verse 17 James says: “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure and full of quiet gentleness.” It is that quiet gentleness to which I aspire. And if taming my tongue leads me in that direction, then that would be great. It is well worth the effort. It is well worth whatever treasured grace God is able to burrow and plant in my soul. At the end of chapter three are passages that do not get as much attention as the ones I cited earlier about the dangers of bad speech, but I think they are equally if not more important. The Sunday school lessons says the following: “Speech and the attitude that ought to prevail in the church, and everywhere else, should promote the principle of servant hood, the opposite of competition, this attitude is one by which people devote themselves to the success of others.” (p. 19 – Bible Scholar) The fruit of this approach is peace. If it is peace that you want, then adopt an attitude of humility and service, as well as language devoid of anger, jealousy, envy, and revenge. And then you will get what the words of a famous song praises, “Peace is flowing like a river, flowing out of you and me, flowing out into the desert, setting all the captives free.” Song by Carey Landry I really like this song and I think one reason is that sometimes I feel like a captive of my bad speech habits and I want to be freed of them. Dear Lord, set this captive free. So, to summarize, what James is trying to teach us is that bad language is caused by something small - the tongue – but just like a captain or pilot uses his mind to know which way to turn the wheel and thus turn the rudder that controls the direction of a large ship, so a person’s mind, by their thoughts and attitudes control the tongue and how it moves to say things – good or bad. And a person’s thoughts and attitudes are learned when members of society pass on their culture to them. Then that person makes a decision, acts of their own free will to use their mouths and voice for good or evil. But the final and most important thing is that it takes the grace of God to bring about a massive change in someone’s ingrained behavior, like cursing and other things. Questions and Challenges • • • • • Who do you know in your life that is a peacemaker? How are you a peacemaker? Have you ever had a habit for which you called on God and his grace to conquer? How has your language brought unneeded conflict in your life? What aspect of your language needs changing? How can you change it? Looking at angry words you have spoken how did those words and that speech proceed from an attitude? Prayer Jesus, help me to be more conscious of my language that needs changing and my thoughts, feelings, and attitudes that are behind my language problems. Thank you Lord for all of the wonderful people in my life who are examples of Christians who control their tongues. Father, bless your children who have learned temperance in their language and who practice humility and love in their lives. We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ our precious Lord and Savior. Amen.