Tripping off the Tongue
Tripping off of the Tongue
Text: James 3:1-12 13 September 2009
“Aesop, the philosopher of the Fables, was asked one day what was the most useful thing in the world. ‘The tongue,’ he replied. And what (they asked), is the most harmful thing in the world? ‘The tongue,’ he replied once more.”[1]
“I put my foot in my mouth.” Have you ever done it? There are few people who would claim they haven’t. A few years ago I was sharing a table with a group of people in the canteen of the university in Lampeter. I didn’t know who my table mates were, apart from one or two. There was one particular gentleman who had the look of a mad professor, replete with a wild grey beard. As the meal drew to a close one of my friends asked me if I was going to the lecture that evening. The title was peculiar and I bluntly stated that the lecture was going to be on some obscure adacemic hobby horse and I would probably give it a miss. No sooner were the words out of my mouth than it dawned on me that the ‘mad professor’ at my table was the fellow who was going to deliver the lecture. I was wishing the floor would open and swallow me up. I was so embarrassed that I ended up going to the lecture as a kind of penance. Contrary to my negative expectations, the lecture turned out to be extremely enjoyable. Nonetheless I’d sure put my foot in it.
Words trip off of the tongue so easily. Used well, words have the power to inspire people. Churchill was a word smith who galvanised the British people to throw themselves into the war effort. Martin Luther King used words to paint his dream for the future of Blacks in America. Barrack Obama used his remarkable rhetorical skill in inviting America to dare to dream of change. Words in the right mouth have the power to transform reality.
Words trip off of the tongue so easily. Though they can rouse people to the heights of aspiration they equally have the potential to warp and destroy. In its most extreme, Hitler’s propaganda machine convinced a nation to participate in or turn a blind eye to the systematic slaughter of the Jews. Less extreme and yet more common currently is the scaremongering of screaming tabloid headlines bashing on about the scandal of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. Words are used to stir up suspicion and cynicism towards political and medical institutions.
Words trip off of the tongue so easily. Words of encouragement fertilise a healthy self-esteem and nurture high achievement. Negative words lacerate the realisation of a person’s gifts or abilities. To be told you are ugly or stupid can linger for a life time. Being called fatty by school mates or having a teacher ridicule you in front of your class lodges deep in memory and affects the way we live in the present.
Words trip off of the tongue. We are talking about a person to a group of people. They are not there. We are complaining about them. We are making fun of them using them as the butt end of a joke. We get a laugh from our hearers. Suddenly we realise that the person we’ve been putting through the verbal shredder entered the room from behind us. How much did they hear?
Words matter. We often talk about a Freudian slip, an inadvertent mistake in speaking or writing. Freud recognised that these verbal mistakes reveal something deeper within our psyche about what we really think and want. In his letter James is keen to show that what we say shows us up for who we really are.
James begins his discussion about speaking with integrity by focusing on those who teach wisdom and understanding. The standard for teachers is very high. James reckons that most of those hearing his letter are not up to the mark. Teachers are judged by rigorous criteria. It makes sense that those whose job it is to enable people to become wise and possess knowledge that will enable them to live well must have mastery of themselves.
Everyone makes mistakes. It becomes clear that James is focusing on mistakes of speech. He believes that those who use words flawlessly have attained perfection. He seems to be saying that those who’ve learned to control their tongues qualify for being teachers. This makes sense in that the main tool of a teacher is words. Flawless speech is a sign of a person who has their whole life under control.
A teacher who hasn’t got control of their tongue can do a lot of damage. Instead of helping to progress their students along the pathway of wisdom they may direct them down a cul-de-sac of destruction. James is deeply concerned about words being put into action. For him there is grave danger presented by a teacher whose words are not matched by their behaviour.
Is the tongue really that important? How can such a small part body part have such a huge impact?
The tongue is no different from the bit in a horse’s mouth. The bit is a relatively small piece of kit in relation to the rest of the horse. A horse may be a powerful animal, yet in the hands of an experienced rider, a bit will persuade the horse to go in any direction she wants.
The tongue is no different from the rudder on a sailing ship. Have you ever seen a tall ship? Standing on the shore of Ayr harbour it filled me with awe to watch the sails fill with wind and glide over wave and swell. It takes a powerful wind to propel a ship and yet at the hands of the pilot the rudder - so small in proportion to the rest - steers the course…sets the direction.
The tongue is a small part of the anatomy. Despite its size it exercises a huge influence over a person’s life, not unlike a spark that sets a forest on fire.
Saskatchewan skies were dull grey and not a drop of rain. A hot summer created tinder dry forests of pines trees. Thunder and lightning storms without precipitation kindled a few trees which turned into the fury of a spreading blaze. Sometimes the fires were started by a cigarette end or the flying spark of BBQ. The fires raged and took little notice of the helicopters and planes spewing water and fire retardants. The vast tracts of land being consumed sent up billowing smoke which was blown southwards cloaking blue sky and sunshine from our view.
In the autumn in the days when farmers thought it was a good idea to burn the stubble from the crops I was sent out into the field to burn the windrows gathered up by the harrow bars. On one occasion it was a flax field and I was using a pitch fork to spread the fire along the rows. Flax burns quickly. A gust of wind whipped up and carried some of the straw over to the grasses and scrub bushes by the creek. Fear gripped my throat when I realised that the blaze was taking hold and the fire was racing down the creek towards the neighbour’s farm. It seemed an eternity as I worked alongside others to quell the fire with shovels of soil from the field. After it was all over I caught my breath, beading perspiration and shaking at the thought of the disaster we had narrowly averted.
Due to the difficult use of language in verse 6 it’s not easy to make sense of what James intended. What is clear is that the tongue seems to represent the sinful condition of human beings in the world. It is a spark in a forest of wickedness…a small blaze in a world of sin. The tongue pollutes our body…every part of our existence. The tongue has the power to determine the direction of our lives and what we become. The tongue is fuelled by the flames of hell…the place of punishment and destruction. Whatever James intended it is quite clear that the tongue sparks of enormous destruction.
It’s ironic that human beings can tame creatures of every description and yet they haven’t the ability to train their tongues. The tongue is wild and refuses to obey commands. The tongue is deadly poison, inflicting death dealing words.
The tongue is duplicitous. It has the capability of worshipping God whilst at the same time cursing other people whom God has made in his image. The mouth is a fountain of blessing and cursing. This is not the way it ought to be. How can a person praise God who created everything one minute and the next minute heap abuse on a person God has made?
James demonstrates that the double-dealing of the tongue is not right by offering two natural examples. A spring cannot produce fresh water today and salty water the next. It’s not unlike plants. Can a fig tree bear olives or a grapevine figs? It’s impossible. In the same way salt water cannot produce fresh water. The tongue that is abusive and double-dealing reveals that the speaker does not truly serve God. An evil heart produces evil words.
If you’re like me you might be wondering, “What hope is there for me?” If we state the bald truth we know that our tongues set our lives on fire. We pass on a titbit of gossip about someone. We declare our dislike for another when they are not present. We twist and bend the truth to save face or wriggle out of a difficult situation. One lie requires another lie to cover up the first. In the heat of an argument we say something that delivers a mortal blow to a relationship. We lose our patience and put the other person down. What hope is there for me…for you?
The good news is that what comes out of the mouth starts in the heart. Later in the chapter in verse 17, James tells us that wisdom comes from above. Our tongues are trained by the wisdom that is given by God’s grace. We will receive the gift of wisdom only as we draw near to God (4:8), cleansing our hands and purifying our hearts through confession, humbling ourselves before him.
Begin the day by praying that God would fill you with wisdom and keep you from saying things that destroy. At the end of the day reflect on the words that were a fresh water spring…words bearing the fruit of grace. Acknowledge where words were bitter and destructive and pray for forgiveness. Only as we open our beings to God who ‘gives all the more grace’ (v. 6) through the discipline of drawing near to him in prayer will our tongues be trained by grace in the way of love.
[1] Anthony P. Castle, Quotes and Anecdotes (Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk: Kevin Mayhew, revised and enlarged edition, 1994), 450.
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