St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
Proper 19/Year B ▪ September 12, 2021
Proverbs 1:20-33; Psalm 19; James 3:1-12; Mark 8:27-38
Think about a time when you were caught off guard by a hurtful comment spoken to you. Did you immediately respond with a matching zinger? Obliterate the enemy with your response? Or did you choose another path—perhaps a delayed response, after some thought, or silence? Perhaps conflict has found you in an email or a text. With less and less face-to-face and voice-to-voice communication, it is easy to let the keyboard or the texting tongue lash out without the responsibility of measuring, or even caring about, the potential collateral damage of one’s typed words.
When technology removes the human factor, the evils of the tongue, in its many forms, are boundless. While social media tries to tame the language of its users, and shield people from the harm of others’ words, such actions are reactive. Once the words are out there, they cannot be taken back. Growing up, most of us were told that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” It is true that sticks and stones wielded to cause harm can break human bones. It is also true that words wielded by the human tongue, or typed into emails and texts, can, and often do, assault the soul. Our epistle writer, James, could not have imagined that the evils of the human tongue being wielded through its modern-day surrogates—the keyboard and the smartphone. How does the Christian respond to the evils of others’ tongues while taming the innate dangers of their own?
James’ letter was written to Jews scattered outside Palestine. It is a timely admonition for all human beings who possess the double-minded sword, called the human tongue—a small member of the body capable of cursing and blessing; starting wars and offering peace; breaking a person’s spirit and building up another’s confidence; mobilizing behaviors of mass destruction and behaviors of mass restoration. James is particularly interested in the relationship of the untamable tongue and the Christian community that exists to speak life and wholeness, not death and brokenness.
Last week, I said that there are few things alienate human beings more than the inability to communicate, in regards to the deaf, mute man. James’ message today underscores that few things alienate human beings more than the ability to communicate. Christians must not be fooled into thinking that the tainted human will can tame the tongue without divine help. As James perceives it, the tongue is an anomaly of nature in that it unnaturally yields forth, from the same mouth, curses and blessings. He says that it is such an anomaly that we can simply look at nature and see that fig trees do not yield olives; grapevines do not yield figs; and salt water (brackish water) cannot yield fresh water.
For Christians, the challenge is to reject the double-mindedness of loyalty to the things of this world and loyalty to Christ while living in this world. Just as the tongue uses one mouth, from which competing expressions flow, so too, does the Christian live in this one temporal world, through which competing behaviors are brought forth. Such double-mindedness does not happen in nature, and yet this double-mindedness exists within the human’s nature. James says that this ought not be so. Those who are made in the likeness of God ought not reflect the curses and lies of Satan, for in doing so, the brackish water is introduced into the fresh water, and what pours fourth is defiled and impure. For James, this is a black and white issue; grey is impossible.
In our gospel passage in the eighth chapter of Mark, Jesus asked his disciples a question for which their answer could not be grey. “Who do people say that I am,” said Jesus. The disciples informed him that people thought that he could be one of the great prophets—Elijah, John the Baptist, or one of the other prophets.
When Jesus asked a second time, Peter, in that moment, spoke with clarity, “You are the Messiah.” Shortly, after Peter’s unwavering confession, he rebuked Jesus for teaching them about his impending suffering and death. Same Peter, same mouth, same tongue, yet set on the human things and not on the divine things.
The last section of the gospel passage (verses 34-38) is the text used for the Feast of the Martyrs of Japan. 424 years ago, six Franciscan friars and 20 of their converts, including a 12-year-old boy, were crucified at Nagasaki for refusing to use their human tongues to renounce Christ. I am reminded of the martyrs, across two millenia, who through their faith, trained their tongues to proclaim everlasting life—even as they were persecuted and put to death.
Jesus said, “Those who are ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in glory of this Father with the holy angels” (Mk v. 38). The death of those silenced martyrs, at the hand of their enemies, only amplified the collective tongue of the Church—the church that bears witness that, through Christ, death does not win, and that death is not the final answer. The Christian martyrs were not ashamed of Jesus’ words, and we ought not be either.
The martyrs’ voices are our voices in this adulterous and sinful generation, and we must not be ashamed to use the power of our Church’s prophetic tongue for the highest good—to call attention to, and speak against, unjust systems that systemically harm and oppress people socially, economically, and environmentally. When we use our tongues to praise God from whom all blessings flow, we are reminded that by our tongues, we are used by God to increase the unceasing flow of God’s blessings in this world. We should not be ashamed to use the power of the Church’s prophetic tongue to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ, who is the source of life eternal, the pure and undefiled living water from which all are invited to drink.
When we become members of Christ’s body, our human tongues become trainable, and are directed toward the ways of God, in the way that a bridle, is used to control a horse. So that through the proclaimed Word that the excluded are included; the broken are healed; and the spiritually walking dead are given life.
As James said, a small fire can set a great forest ablaze, and the tongue is a fire. Let us use our tongues, baptized in Christ, to set ablaze this great forest of this world, and may that holy fire rage throughout this world with the love of God and setting hearts on fire for Christ’s sake.
Amen.
