"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me … "
So goes the children's line, probably most often used by a child who is being mocked as sort of a defensive shield against the hurtful words coming their way. There is great power in words and they can indeed scar as deeply as any stick or stone. The first part of this morning's reading from James talks of the extraordinary power of the tongue … or of words. "Every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue – a restless evil, full of deadly poison."
And, a few lines later: "From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing."
Once uttered, whether for good or ill, words take on a life of their own. Words are like toothpaste squeezed out of the tube … once the toothpaste is squeezed out, it can't be put back in. So it is with words, they can never be taken back. One can never tell what bits of words will stick. History is full of sayings, uttered by persons who had no idea their quotes would be repeated through the years. We have heard the quotes of Senator Ted Kennedy often remembered over the past several days. I wonder if he had any idea through his years that people would be quoting lines he spoke at his brother Robert's funeral, most notably about his brother's character: "My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it."
And we all have our private memories of words that have come our way, both for good and ill. How many of you can still remember something a teacher in elementary school told you? How has it affected your life, shaped it? Was it a line that helped or hindered you?
You may know of Richard Allen. Allen was a preacher at what is now Old St. George United Methodist Church in Philadelphia. He was qualified to preach at the first Methodist conference held in this country in 1784. For a time this Philadelphia congregation was integrated. After a while, however, the white members attempted to segregate the black members into the balcony. One day while kneeling at the altar in prayer, white trustees attempted to force Allen to the back of the church. Allen responded by saying to them: "Wait until the prayer is over, and I will trouble you no more."
The black parishioners left the Methodist Church and Allen became a founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Richard Allen's story intersects with our readings this morning for yet another part of his place in history. In the summer of 1793 Philadelphia was hit with an epidemic of yellow fever. Accounts vary about how many died … somewhere between 3 and 5 thousand in a city of 55,000. During the height of the epidemic most who could leave the city had left, leaving it without a governing body, and leaving the sick and dying to care for themselves. After leaving St. George's church, Richard Allen formed the Free African Society. During the summer of 1793 it was the Free African Society that offered themselves, saying: "sensible that it was our duty to do all the good we could to our fellow mortals."
(An American Plague, Jim Murray. Clarion Books 2003. p. 50) Members of the society cared for the ill, cleaned their homes, shopped for food, and took care of other family members. They were the only group in the city to volunteer in this way. And what do you think they got for their efforts? Words … words that criticized, words that attacked, words that blamed … words that led to members of the Free African Society being both verbally and physically abused as they went about their ministry to the sick and dying. In the aftermath of the plague, the war of words continued with a particularly vicious attack on the Free African Society by Mathew Carey. In his book, "A Short Account of the Malignant Fever", Carey wrote of the black nurses: "The great demand for nurses afforded an opportunity for imposition which was eagerly seized by some of the vilest of blacks. They extorted two, three, four, even five dollars a night for attendance, which would have been well paid by a single dollar. Some of them were even detected in plundering the houses of the sick."
(An American Plague, Jim Murray. Clarion Books 2003. page 117)
The power of words … it might seem as if we are backtracking a bit this morning by talking about words. We have been talking the past two weeks about action, about putting our money where our mouth is … how talking about faith is useless if we aren't also living our faith. The difference is that for the first two chapters James has been talking about those who give a good speech about their faith life but have nothing to show for it. Today, in the third chapter, James moves to talking about some specific ways one should be living out their faith … one of those ways being to watch your tongues. Jesus had some strong words on the subject. In Mark 7, Jesus and the disciples are chastised by the Pharisees for not following the ritual purity laws. Jesus says to them: "Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile."
Early Methodism required that every member of the newly formed church be a part of a class meeting. At those weekly meetings one's faith life was examined … the state of one's soul was lifted up and members of the class were called to be accountable for living out the General Rules of the Society: First, do no harm; second, do all the good you can; and third, attend to the ordinances of God. Each of those rules came with specific examples of how they were to be lived out. The first rule, do no harm, came with specifics regarding speech:
"The taking of the name of God in vain … Fighting, quarrelling, brawling … returning evil for evil, railing for railing; the using many words in buying or selling … Uncharitable or unprofitable conversation; particularly speaking evil of magistrates or ministers."
Class members were accountable to one another in living out these rules in very concrete ways. It was not enough to profess a belief, one had to live that belief out … and how one spoke to and about others was a critical component of faithful living.
More than anything else this third chapter of James calls us to move to a place where we consistently mirror the love of God through our speech … to be attentive to the effect our words will have on the hearer. In the coming days your challenge as the children of God is found in filtering everything you do through the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit that works within you. How will you use your words for the power of good? Where do you need to speak loudly and clearly when there is injustice? In what ways do you need to make amends for words that have hurt another?
The good news, the promise of living in such away is found in the closing words of our text: "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace."
Go back to the UMC Red Bank home page.