Who Are You to Judge?

 

A sermon based on James 4:11-17

By Charles J. Tomlin, DMin;

October 24th, 2021, Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Series: The Book of James, 9/12

 

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

 12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?

 13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money."

 14 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

 15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that."

 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

 17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.

 (Jas. 4:11-5:1 NRS)

 

     When I was in college news came to several of us of the conversion of the very well-known and popular singer, BJ Thomas.   Thomas was one of those rare talents who could sing most anything, Pop, Country, R and B.  The first time I ever heard him on the radio, the song was ‘Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.’  It seems like I heard everyday for at least a year. 

      But BJ’s talent and fame led him to drug use, and he almost died.  But thanks to his loving wife, Gloria, who had just found the Lord,  BJ also became a Christian and through a life change and serious therapy, he  got off drugs and stayed off. Then, soon after,  BJ started singing Hymns and making  Christian records, with one of my favorite, his song of thankfulness to Jesus,  which goes, What a difference you made in my life.’  It’s a beautiful tribute of thanksgiving

     During those years,  after being saved from drug addiction, BJ began to travel the US, singing in churches.  He loved to sing gospel, hymns, and he still loved some of his old songs, and he would often attempt to sing a couple in churches.  But Thomas testifies today, still singing at age 76, that he stopped singing gospel music in churches because he was being booed by so-called Christians when he might occasionally sing one of his hit songs.  Now, he says, he only sings in the church of one of his pastor friends.  They don’t judge him like other Christians.

      It’s sad isn’t, that hear you have a man who is an incredible testimony to the power of grace and love, but he no longer sings in churches because they are too narrow-minded and judgmental.

      In today’s text from James, we return to one of James’ favorite topics, the dangers of the tongue.  This time the danger points specifically back  toward Christians who might think they now have been given the right or the responsibility to judge another human being.  To any Christian who would attempt to be judgmental, James asks point blank, ‘who are you to judge?’

 

WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE

       Let’s jump right into the middle of James’ question.  It’s probably one of the most quoted phrases in the Bible.   And when you stop to think about it, what James goes on to talk about is some pretty heavy stuff.   Here, James is particularly addressing  Christians.  He is saying that Christians should know better than to judge each other.  Only God is the lawgiver and only God is the judge.  .Only God makes the decision about salvation or destruction.  Who are you to judge, James implies, for one day you will stand before the judge too.   How could you ever think you could dare stand in God’s place?

     What James says, makes good, logical sense, doesn’t it?  We are not judges.  We are never fully informed.  We aren’t capable of judging fully or daily.  We are the ones who will be judged.  How can we ever pretend to be some else’s judge? 

      When I was a young pastor in Statesville,  I went to a meeting and the people there asked me to lead the new ‘Right To Life’ movement that was growing in the country. It was growing in response to the legalization of abortion.  Since abortions ended a life, I believed there were better choices.  That’s why I went to the meeting and decided to get involved.  I felt that Christians should promote life and stand up for the defenseless, as well as, help young women find help and make life-saving choices. 

          But I didn’t remain a leader in that movement very long, and do you know why?  Too many Christians wanted to stand back and judge rather than be compassionate workers for life, love and grace.  Instead of helping these young woman and providing ministries to assist them, most of those coming to the meetings wanted only to protest, condemn and change laws.

      People, even Christians too, at times,  jump too quickly on political bandwagons, criticizing and condemning, rather than doing what is caring and right.  On the same issue, a Sunday School class I was visiting quickly made verbal judgments against any who would dare go through with having an abortion.  Then suddenly when a young lady began crying, admitting she had an abortion before she became a Christian, they all staring consoling her.   I wondered why they couldn’t have been more compassionate to begin with.  Why can’t we speak up for what is right without being judgmental?  Why can’t we speak to what we are for rather than who we are against? 

         In another situation, I was having trying to teach my daughter a hard life-lesson, when a member of the church started scolding me.  I couldn’t believe that  this person didn’t  ask any questions, but made all kinds of assumptions.  She  didn’t really know me, nor did she know my daughter, but she already had all the answers.

          What James says about being judgmental reflects what Jesus also warned against, when he said near the end of his great sermon, ‘Judge not, lest you will be judged!   For the way you judge others, you will also be judged, measure for measure.  (Mat. 7:1-3). These are words we very much need to hear and heed in these days of political divisiveness and name calling.   These words of warning echo straight back to Jesus, are all over theBible, and go all the way back to the Old Testament law in Leviticus 19, verse 16, where the law warns,  You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

       The point here, as James interprets it too, is that when we judge we slander someone and in doing so we go against the law by presuming to be above the law and we become a judge and no longer a doer of the law. That’s very interesting point, isn’t it?  When we slander someone, claiming they are in the wrong, in doing this, we go wrong also.  We go wrong not because what we are saying isn’t right, but we are wrong because our focus should be on doing the law ourselves and loving our neighbor, rather than becoming a judge over them.

                

 

 

WHOEVER SPEAKS … AGAINST ANOTHER

This most illogical practice of being judgmental is underscored in everything James says.  In fact, James implies that when we speak against another person, we are the ones participating in evil, even more than they are.  Did you catch that?  While someone may be doing something wrong, by becoming their judge we end up doing evil.  Why would James say something like that?

Well, James gives us two reasons:   By judging others we are not submitting to the most important law, which is to love our neighbor.   Secondly, to become judge over another is wrong because only God, the one who gave the law, can rightfully be the proper judge.  This brings us to something very important.  We still need the law, and we still need good, fair and just judgment too.  But what we don’t need to do ourselves, is to play God or presume we are better than others, even when someone is in the wrong.  We are still sinners too, remember?

       The English author, C. S. Lewis, in one of his books, points out that when people become Christians, if they are not careful, their sinning often shifts from the outward, visible sins of lying, cheating, stealing, cursing and swearing, to the more inward, hidden, non-apparent invisible ones ... and among them he lists "a critical spirit" ... a spirit of judgmentalism.  In fact, Lewis  points out that this is the sin more commonly committed by church people.  So prevalent is it in churchly circles, that it is sometimes labeled "Christian cruelty.".  It’s as if we think we can fix the world by judging it. 

      It is best Lewis says, to ‘abstain from thinking about other people's faults, unless your duties as a teacher or parent make it necessary to think about them. Whenever the thoughts come unnecessarily into one's mind, why not simply shove them away? And think of one's own faults instead?  For there, with God's help, one can do something. Of all the awkward people in your house or your job there is only one whom you can improve very much... The job has to be tackled some day: and every day we put it off will make it harder to begin.’ (From God in the Dock, pp. 154).

In churches and communities today, especially in these where judgmentalism has become a kind of public self-righteousness in our current climate of political correctness, as Christians we need to renew our commitment to love, compassion and positive acts of mercy and place our emphasis upon being the hands and feet of Jesus.  After all, Scripture teaches us that ‘they will know we are Christians by our love’ not by our good judgment (John 13:35).

          I realize I’ve told this story to you before, but because it happened to me, I have to keep telling it.  Years ago, I attended a wedding in south Statesville and the minister did the most peculiar thing.  He had memorized the ceremony.  I immediately took it as being arrogance and showing off, and when he stumbled on a couple of lines, I smiled in my self, saying ‘serves him right for trying to display how smart he thinks he is.   But then, near the end of the ceremony, as he turned a certain way, I realized he was blind.  Then, I felt horrible because in judging him I ended up bringing judgment upon myself. 

Later, as I reflected what I did, I came to realize that this is just how short-sighted most human judgment toward others is and why we shouldn’t try to be a judge.  We never know what other people are going through and we never know enough to be a fair judge of any one, including ourselves.  That’s why James says we shouldn’t speak, nor even think evil of another.  It is our responsibility to do what is right ourselves and not to take it upon ourselves to become anyone’s judge.      

   

YOU OUGHT TO SAY

      So, what are we to say and do when we clearly see another in the wrong?   Well, James doesn’t move to specifically address that.  Instead, he remind us just how limited we humans are when it comes to having any kind of full knowledge of almost anything.  Since we can’t really guarantee knowing anything —- what will or will not happen tomorrow—-who are we to be any kind of fair or just judge.  Our lives are only like a vapor in the wind.  We most surely aren’t God, but we rely completely upon God.

       Based upon our real limitations, both physical and spiritual, we shouldn’t boast about anything; not what we will do tomorrow or what we did today or yesterday either, for that matter.  Recall the very well-known musical about the little red-haired orphan Annie, where she sings about Tomorrow:

The sun will come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow there will be sun

And then the  refrain goes:

Tomorrow, tomorrow.  It''s almost tomorrow.   It''s only a day away.

These very optimistic words and our hearts are really attracted to them and lifted up by these words.  This expresses the very popular and comforting idea that there is always going to be more time, a second chance and that somehow the door of life will always remain open and that things are always going to work out just right. Tomorrow is going to be there, if we can just wait until tomorrow.

But as beautiful as this is, and as much as we want to believe it, it's really a lie.  It''s all wrong, because tomorrow may not come.  If you test these words up against someone dying in a hospice home, you can understand.   This is why Proverbs 21:8 gives us true wisdom, "Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth."  James echoes this wisdom, reminding us how are most certainly not assured of tomorrow. We're also not assured of the circumstances we will face.  While we can always be assured of God''s goodness and grace, we're not assured of tomorrow or what it will bring. Life can be very brief.  Life can be unpredictable.  We''d better not presume on time or on God, on the offer of God''s salvation, on the mercy of God, or on the leniency of God.  They are there, now, but do not make assumptions.  There is no promise about tomorrow, or the next second for that matter.

So, what James implies here is whether we  judging or boasting about what we think we know, we should just do the right thing we kn  to do now.   That’s the perspective a right-seeing and right-thinking Christian ought to have.  For if we we know anything at all about what is right and we still don’t do it, James says, that’s the kind of sin we should be correcting within us, rather than speaking against what is wrong in another.  

Again, how James concludes is quite arresting: Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin. This goes straight back to Jesus when he said For why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but you can’t see the log in your own eye…’,  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye. Matt. 7:4-5).   In the strongest terms too, James says that the sin of omitting what we know we should do but don’t do, is far worse than the sin of having by done something wrong. 

Yes, this is very serious talk, but remember,  James isn’t standing in judgment over us either.  James is not condemning, but he is commending us to God who is the holy, all-knowing, and righteous judge.  Make no mistake, God will get it right.  In fact, God already has got it right when judged the world at the cross of Jesus the Christ.  At the cross, we discover fully that we are sinners, but that God offers us or forgiveness and a future through the perfect redemptive judgement of his son.  Jesus is the one who reveals our sins, but also and convinces us of the truth that can set us free for life and for hope.  This great truth is not only based upon John 3:16, but it also includes John 3:17, which says:  Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.    Today is the day to find, know and share salvation, not to judgment.   Today is the day.   Love is the way.  Jesus is God’s love, made flesh.  Amen.

God Gives Grace To the Humble

 A sermon based on James 4: 1-10

By Charles J. Tomlin, DMin;

October 17th, 2021, Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Series: The Book of James, 8/12

 

 

NRS James 4:1 Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?

 2 You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask.

 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

 4 Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

 5 Or do you suppose that it is for nothing that the scripture says, "God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"?

 6 But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

 9 Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection.

 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt (Jas. 4:1-10 NRS)

 

Believe it or not, a war once started over a pig.  It happened back in 1859, on San Juan Island, a chunk of land located between the mainland United States and Vancouver Island in Canada.  There was an argument over a slaughtered hog and it lead to a full-scale conflict between the United States and Great Britain.

At the time, the island was home to American settlers and British employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and both parties had laid claim to its fertile soil.  The first and only shots, of what later came to be called the Pig War, came on June 15, when an American farmer named Lyman Cutlar gunned down a British-owned black boar after he discovered the animal rooting through his potato patch. The ensuing argument over the dead hog increased tensions between the two groups of settlers, and Cutlar was eventually threatened with arrest.

After the Americans reported the incident to the military, the U.S. Army dispatched Captain George Pickett—later a Confederate general during the Civil War—to San Juan with a small complement of troops. Pickett upped the ante by declaring the whole island U.S. property.  The British responded by sending a fleet of heavily armed naval vessels to the coastline. An absurd standoff ensued, and the situation remained on a knife-edge for several agonizing weeks.

The two nations would finally negotiate a deal allowing for joint military occupation of San Juan Island in October 1859, ending the Pig War as a bloodless stalemate—except for the loss of one very unfortunate pig.

 

CONFLICTS AND DISPUTES AMONG YOU

Why do we fight against others?  Why do we humans have conflicts with each other?  Why do we go to war and kill one another in such destructive ways?  Why do humans sometimes even kill for the thrill of it —-when even wild animals don’t?

Back in 1992, in Los Angeles, Cailf., Rodney King (the George Floyd who wasn’t killed) was stopped by police and ordered to get out of the car. The LA  Police Department officers then kicked him repeatedly and beat him with batons for a reported 15 minutes.  A bystander recorded the whole thing.  More than than a dozen cops stood by, watching and commenting on the beating. King's injuries resulted in skull fractures, broken bones and teeth, and permanent brain damage too.

After the police officers were acquitted of their crimes , in less than 3 hours after the verdict, riots broke out.  Rioters set fires, looted and destroyed stores, retail shops and fast food restaurants. Light-skinned motorists — both white and Latino — were targeted and some were pulled out of their cars and beaten as revenge.

In response to the unrest, Rodney King himself was asked to appear on Television and he made an unforgettable, emotional plea to the rioters.  He said, ‘People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids? … It’s just not right. It’s not right. It’s not, it’s not going to change anything. We’ll, we’ll get our justice … Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to work it out.’

In our text today, James answers ‘why’ we humans often don’t get along.   He says the reason is that there is already a conflict going on inside of ourselves.  This inner conflict comes from our inner desires and the struggle in our own souls..  In saying this, Jame’s point is clear, and even modern behavioral science would agree.  Those conflicts we often have with others many times has much more to do with us than it has to do with what’s going on with them.

Now, let’s think deeper about this for a moment.  Think of some of the many conflicts going on in our world today.  How about political division and conflict?  How about Religious conflict—-not just other religions but within our own no Christian fellowships.  Also  think about social, racial, and economic conflicts too.  These conflicts happen in our world, James says, because of what’s wrong in us.  What can James be talking about?

Through the years, as a pastor,, I’ve had a few people get angry and attempt to fight against me,  I didn’t even see it coming, either.  I’ve seen other pastors having the same kinds of experiences with people.  It can come with the job.  For example, in my first church,  the pastor before me had someone leave a note on the pulpit saying that he was a pig.  In another church, the previous pastor warned me not to go to that church as pastor, because, he said, ‘the devil was in the church’.  From what I’ve seen, the devil has been at work in all the churches where I’ve been pastor.  Where else would the devil be working than trying to disrupt the very people who could be, and often are, doing the most good.

I’ve know many situations, where major, life-changing conflicts happened without any necessary reason at all.  They just happened and simple differences became major disagreements that ended in major conflicts which ended up hurting good  people and damaging good churches and hurting their witness to. God’s love in the the world.,

Years ago, I took a seminar in conflict management, as it especially related to churches.  One of the major ‘take always’ from that seminar is being expressed right here in what James is saying.  According to the best research, conflict normally has more to do with what’s is has happened to people in their past than what is actually happening in the present moment.  Things, like anger and hurt can sit around in us for years, until something opens the door and lets it out.

James also says that much of the conflicts going on inside of us have to do with inner cravings, inner desires, but then he moves on to say this has to do with misplaced trust.  This trust has been misplaced  in our own ability to control and command our own outcomes.  As James puts it,  we stop asking God for what we need, and start insisting on what we want.  Since what we want may be prevented by others, we demand and will fight to have it.’

Now, there is a lot of drama going on in this text just like goes on in our own world.   James even lists some as human struggles which result in murder, coveting, and disputes..   Then, he surprisingly links this conflict as a result of not praying—-failing to pray about the matter and not asking God for what we want or what we need,

Is this really the source of human conflicts—-a refusal or neglect in talking to God?   James could be on to something here, don’t you think?  I doubt that many people have prayed and sincerely asked God to help them and then proceeded to fight with another person.  While prayer doesn’t give us what we want or change our situation, sincere prayer changes us and who we are.  It changes us because when pray, our relationship with God determines who we are, not what we do or don’t have.

 

FRIENDSHIP WITH THE WORLD

Prayer changes us because when we pray, our friendship with God develops and this becomes a friendship that defines everything in our lives. 

In his discussion, James has already named Abraham as a friend of God (2:23).   Abraham was called God’s friend because he believed and trusted God in a way that the relationship defined every aspect of Abraham’s life.   And because of this trust, Scripture says that God credited and considered Abraham as righteous before him.  In other words, by trusting God, Abraham became the kind of person who was trustworthy and true.

The opposite of developing friendship with God,  James says, is when we have a friendship .with the world.  Worldliness lies at the root of human conflict, James’ says you can’t be friends with the world and also be friends with God at the same time.  In fact, in the strongest language possible, James says that when live as friends of the world we become enemies of God.  That’s very powerful language, but what does it mean?

The point James is making here is that when we are not right with God -- when our friendship with Him is blurred because of our friendship with the world—we start wanting the wrong things, or we don't ask God for what we really need, or we ask Him for good things but we are asking with a wrong purpose and motive in mind.   In other words, we pray for things, even good things, but we pray with the intention of using them for our own gain and selfish pleasure.

Maxie Dunnam, who used to be president of Asbury Seminary, once told of a man who was boasting to an evangelist about the fact that God had given him a new Cadillac, "I prayed to the Lord, And I gave Him 10% of my income, and he blessed me with a new Cadillac"

"Is that right", the evangelist asked.

"Oh yes sir" the man responded. "I gave the Lord 10% of everything I

 made and prayed for a new Cadillac and the Lord came through. Ain't that wonderful?"

The evangelist was very pointed in his response: "That's interesting", he said. "You prayed to God, and He gave you a Cadillac. But when His own son prayed to Him, God gave Him an ugly Cross on which to die.

When you hear this, you realize there’s something contradictory about asking God to give you a Cadillac when we are to ask for the things only God can give---hope, humility, and a loving heart.  It's one thing to be in need of transportation and pray that your needs will be met, but it’s  something else entirely to ask for what you don’t need and neglect what you do.   

The "lusts" that war within us reduce our prayers to selfishness and cause us to try to use God, rather than giving ourselves to be used by Him.   In other words, when we become friends with the world we begin to care less and less about being friends with this God who calls us to think about others too, and not only ourselves.

One phrase that should especially capture our attention here is beautiful statement in verse 5 which says; "He yearns jealously over the spirit which he has made to dwell in us".   In this, James is remembering the first of the Ten Commandments: "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3) and he is also recalling the phrase in the second Commandment which says, "For I the Lord your God am a jealous God." (Exodus 20:5).   By telling us how jealous God means that to the contrary of wanting to be our enemy, we make ourselves an enemy of God by friendship with the world. 

The ‘world’ James means here isn’t the natural world, but it’s the human tendency to be pulled downward rather than upward.  It’s also the tendency to be pulled inward toward yourself, rather than moving outward toward others.  Finally, it’s the tendency to be controlled by the lesser, lower and negative forces in life, rather than to be motivated by the greater, higher, and positive forces that can move us forward, upward and toward each other, rather than pulling and tearing us apart.   

We know all too well how that can unfortunately happen in human relationships, when people are pulled in different directions and their relationships suffers and will eventually fail.  The same thing can happen spiritual, when we give less and less attention to building our relationship with God.

Many years ago, the late British pastoral scholar spoke of the necessity of maintaining a personal ‘friendship’ with God, explaining how friendship with God is a ‘gift’ that can transform us because revealed the Father who wants to be our ‘friend’, just like Abraham was God’s friend.  Most interestingly, Weatherhead also spoke of how our friendship with God grows and increases as we befriend others in our lives.   In other words, God draws nearer to us, as we draw nearer to others.

(See, http://pmoser.sites.luc.edu/idolanon/TransformingFriend.html#10.

DRAW NEAR TO GOD…

Now, as we come to the conclusion of James’ discussion, he offers his solution to human conflict.   Interestingly, James doesn’t start by saying we we move closer to the people we’re in conflict with, but James says we first need to move closer to God.   It is our friendship with God that enables us to work through our conflicts with each other. 

 Now, of course this is a controversial idea since many see religion as the problem, not the solution.  In other words, many see religion as a fuel for human conflicts.  But while it may be true that religious differences can fuel conflict, when you look closer, you understand it is only a certain kind of religion.  

True religious faith should bring hope of reconciliation and peacefulness.  As someone has said, the great problem isn’t the differences among religions, but it’s that many people aren’t true to the understanding of faith they have.  All the major religions of the world promote peace, hope, faithfulness and human reconciliation, but all their extremes don’t.

So, here’s James point.  When you draw closer to God, especially the truth of God revealed in Jesus Christ, it becomes much more difficult to be in conflict with others.  Why is this true?    It’s not difficult to understand.  But James spells it out for us anyway:  When you humble yourself before God, submitting yourself to God’s purposes, while admitting that you too are a sinner---acknowledging how you aren’t always right and certainly aren’t perfect; when you draw close to God in this way, understanding that God gives you grace---anyway, you encounter the love can reshape you, remake you and motivate you to respect and care for others who may offend you, just like your own sins have offended God. 

Now, that’s a very human way of putting it.   The main point is that when we get close to God, then God comes close to us, and we realize we are in his presence, fully, completely; with nothing hidden, and God loves us as we are, and offers us grace, YOUR perspective on everything and everyone changes.  Suddenly, you are no longer obsessed with ‘who’ that other person is---with whom you have such negative, and ill feelings---and now, your obsession is with the knowledge and presence of a loving, forgiving, and graceful God.

          So, here is the main point, once more.  Let James’ own words in verses 7 and 8 map out a path forward for anyone stuck in human conflict with another human being: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double minded."

Erma Bombeck, the great advice giver, once gave this very interesting advice: "Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died".  Her point reminds us that everybody who says they are a good doctor can really help keep you alive.   In the book, The Experts Speak, by Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky you read example after example, some two thousand of them, of just wrong, the so-called experts can be.

For instance, Gary Cooper said, after turning down the role of Rhett Butler, which was then given to Clark Gable, "GONE WITH THE WIND" is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history.   Then he added, I’m just glad it will be Clark Gable who is falling flat on his face and me."

The manager of the Grand Old Opry who listened to Elvis Presley sing gave him this advice: "You are not going anywhere, Son. You ought to go back to driving a truck."

Here’s a different kind:  If you look up the word uranium in a 1930 dictionary, you will find this definition: "a white metallic substance with no apparent value." 

Let's don't be misled or confused by the experts out there--religious or non-religious.   Here, James gives us knowledge for life:  "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."  Follow this, and you will find yourself living in peace, both in yourself and with others.    Amen.

The Tongue Is a Fire

A sermon based on James 3: 1-12

By Charles J. Tomlin, DMin;

October 3rd, 2021, Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Series: The Book of James, 6/12

 

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

 ² For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle.

 ³ If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies.

 ⁴ Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.

 ⁵ So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!

 ⁶ And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell.

 ⁷ For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species,

 ⁸ but no one can tame the tongue-- a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

 ⁹ With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God.

 ¹⁰ From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.

 ¹¹ Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water?

 ¹² Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.

 (Jas. 3:1-12 NRS)

 

     My Father was a Sunday School teacher.   He taught the old men’s class, old style.  He lectured for about 45 minutes non-stop.  The men loved his teaching.  His class was the largest in the church.  It was even larger than my first church. 

    Even thought my dad taught for many years, in everyday life he was very quiet in normal conversation.  He was mostly a listener.  So, I once asked him why.  ‘Dad, why don’t you talk more than you do?     His answer to me was simply this.  ‘Son, in Scripture it says that we will give an account of every single word.’

      That was all he said.  I’ve thought about his answer many times throughout my life. My father lived his life weighing every thing he ever said.   

 

Small Member, Yet it Boasts

     This most practical section in the book of James calls God’s people to responsible speech.  James does this by reminding us just how powerful human words can be.  He does this with two examples; a horse’s bridle and a ship’s rudder.  Both examples point to small objects that have great impacts on larger objects to which they are connected.  The small bit in the horse’s mouth guides a large horse, and the small rudder guides a large ship. They are small but control the direction of the larger objects.

 

As far as anatomy goes, the tongue doesn’t take up much space.  Still,  James says it is like a horse’s bridle or a ship’s rudder human words have a great influence on where things end up.   Politico News, wrote that after former President Donald Trump realized how his own words caused an attack on the capital, which he said he did not intend, Mr. Trump, who normally loved the limelight, became silent, as Politico reported, ‘the most press-hungry president went dark’.  ‘It’s one of the few times Trump has sensed the enormity of the situation,’. an aide said (Politico.com,  1/11/21. 

 

Words matter.  But It’s clear that James’ warning about the great power of the small tongue is especially meant for teachers, but his warning applies to all of us.  We are social creatures.  We talk.  We communicate our feelings with words.  We plan things with words.  We express ourselves with words.  Our words declare our intentions and portray who we are and where we are going with our actions.

 

Today, it’s not only the spoken word that is so powerful, but also the written word.  We might have free speech, but no speech is free to say whatever it wants.   We all know of lives ruined by gossip, lies or hurtful speech.  Words can’t break bones, directly, but they do break hearts and souls too and they can motivate people to break bones, or as we witnessed in Washington last January, the President’s words motivated others to believe lies, create their own form of reality, and to destroy sacred property and threaten human lives.      

 

Set on Fire By Hell

This is why James also speaks not only of the power of the tongue but also of the potential destructiveness of the tongue.  James wants his readers to clearly understand just how dangerous careless words can be. 

 

His example is a spark that sets a fire.  We really don’t dare imagine how destructive a fire can be, do we?  But this isn’t just any fire, it’s hellfire, eternal, unending and spiritual fire.  You can rebuild if you survive a physical fire, but what hellfire burns can’t be recovered.  It can’t be unset nor can the damage be undone or rebuilt.

 

When I was a child, my mother had a sister-in-law’s brother who couldn’t  stop drinking and smoking.  When you mix the two you’ve got what James means by hellfire.  That relative ended his earthly life in that kind of fire, too drunk to smoke, he dropped the cigarette and was burned alive. 

 

But James fire is even worst.   It’s not physical, but emotional, spiritual, and it’s eternal too.  Once this fire is set loose, it can’t be stopped.  There was once a barn fire in North Iredell happened to drive by one night.  Unfortunately a neighbor of mine was in that barn and could not get out.  When the blaze was reported, which could be seen for miles, it was too hot to approach and could not be put out.  All the firemen could do was allow it to burn.  It was all so very sad and tragic.  That’s the kind of unredeemable destructiveness James saw in the power of a negative, hurtful tongue.  It is like a fire that burns all that is good ‘beyond all recognition’.

A popular series of movies has been the Lethal Weapon series. You might remember that in the series Mel Gibson played a semi-unbalanced police officer named Riggs. Riggs is a capable detective but occasionally he goes berserk and mentally flips out. He's called a lethal weapon because you never know when he's going to go off. 

Each of us has the potential to become a "lethal weapon." We possess within ourselves a weapon against which there is no insurance that you can take out to recover from it. This very lethal weapon allows us to engage in moral hit-and-run tactics. With our tongue we can sabotage of helpless victims. Anyone we lash out against can end up in great danger. We can kill spiritually, socially, and even physically.

The tongue is deadly and destructive. No age group is untouched, no character immune, and no life safe from it. This lethal weapon is called ‘gossip’.  You’ve heard children say glibly, ‘words will never hurt me’. Don’t believe that for a minute. Words can hurt.  The Bible, rather correctly, has much to say about misusing our speech.  James says the tongue is difficult to tame and named it "a restless evil, full of deadly poison." 

This Ought Not Be So…

The aim of James is hot, however to silence us, but he believes                          we should and can do better with our speech.  We can do better because both cursing and blessing comes through the same tongues. If we can do one, we should be able to do the other.  This is why there is not only a judgement here, but also a challenge.

 

The challenge of this text is the blessing we can give each other with our tongues.  In the opening pages of the Bible brings the world into being with words.  We create ‘worlds’ with our tongues.  Think of the difference of growing up in a home filled with encouraging words rather than negativity and anger.  Words set the tone of who we are and how we relate to each other.

 

The church, that is the body of Christ should using our tongues to speak good gossip — not bad.  When was the last time you “told” on someone who unexpectedly offered some gracious act on your behalf?”What if instead of wailing about the rude driver who cut you off you witnessed about the young woman who held the door open at the market for an older person?

*Why don’t you mention how many times a certain person has done something nice and never said a word?

*What if instead of pointing your finger at someone you thanked them for what they were doing in the community?

*Instead of complaining about the weather, how about calling attention to the beauty of God’s creation in this world?

“Good gossip” is what the Body of Christ is called to pass around.

We are the community charged with ushering in the Kingdom of God, not grumbling and complaining about the world.

I’m following Len Sweet with three stories as we close.  Sweet tells of the painting by the French painter Emile Renouf (1845-94) who painted a marvelous picture in 1881 called “The Helping Hand.” It depicts an old fisherman seated in a boat with a little girl beside him, perhaps his granddaughter, both their hands on a huge oar.  Here is the link to the picture: http://s394.photobucket.com/albums/pp23/ketig/?action=view&current=EmileRenouf.jpg&

The old fisherman looks at the little girl fondly and admiringly. Apparently he has told her that she may assist him in rowing the boat. From her face you can see she feels as though she is doing a great share of the task. But you can also tell from the fisherman’s strong, muscular arms who is really propelling the boat through the waves.

God grants us the favor of guiding the ship of Zion through the high seas, going on mission in a world where people are dying and drowning.  We are privileged to do so, but we must never forget who is really the one at the oars. We cannot perform our mission on our own strength, but only as God works in and through us. When we forget the source of our power, we start to faint and get weary. We must remember that the word is not our words, but God speaking through us. We have a whole different kind of fire in our tongues.  If your tongue is set on fire by the Holy Spirit, the gates of hell will tremble. 

Now, the other two stories.  There is so much negativity in the speech of our world today, so I think about how James’ environs a different way of using our tongues with two ‘Shep’ stories.

2012 is the 70th anniversary of the death of Shep, the faithful sheepdog who waited 6 years at a train station for his dead master to return.

The dog’s vigil began in 1936 when Shep watched baggage men load the casket carrying his master, a shepherd, onto a train. From then until Shep died, the dog met each of the four daily Great Northern Railway passenger trains that arrived in this central Montana town called Fort Benton, hoping his master would be on the train. The station employees took care of Shep, nicknamed “Forever Faithful,” and he lived in and around the station, becoming well known to everyone who passed through. The vigil ended in 1942, when Shep’s paws, which were on the track to feel the vibrations of the arriving train, slipped and Shep fell beneath the arriving train.

A bronze sculpture of Shep, with his front paws on the rail, was unveiled in Fort Benton in 1994. Here it is: http://www.montanapets.org/fortbenton/index.html

The second Shep story is one that many of you will already have heard of. Wisconsin resident John Unger rescued Shep when he was just an 8-month puppy. Shep is now 19 years old, and has arthritis so bad that the dog has trouble sleeping. So every night John Unger takes his hurting dog in his arms, walks into Lake Superior, and lulls him to sleep by cradling him in his arms. A photographer friend of Unger’s decided to capture the relationship between the man and his dog down by the water and posted it to her Facebook wall. Here is the picture of the two of them, John rocking Shep to sleep in the warm, buoyant waters of Lake Superior:

http://now.msn.com/john‑unger‑rocks‑his‑dog‑to‑sleep‑on‑lake‑superior

The look on the dog’s face says it all. Or the look on John Unger’s face.

I don’t know about you, but I feel like my soul just took a bath after these two stories and images. And that’s exactly what James is telling Christian this morning: Don’t pull each other down, cradle each other with compassion and forgiveness.

In a world of nastiness and negativity— why can’t we treat each with positivity in this other way?  Why can’t the ‘fire’ in our tongue be a holy, wholly, other kind of positive fire?  Amen.