Foundry UMC DC: Sunday Sermons
Religion & Spirituality:Christianity
Watch Your Mouth; A reflection shared by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC, September 16, 2018, the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. “Activate” series. Text: James 3:1-12
Watch Your Mouth
A reflection shared by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC, September 16, 2018, the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. “Activate” series.
Text: James 3:1-2
A man went to his rabbi with a question. “Rabbi, I understand almost all of the law. I understand the commandment not to kill. I understand the commandment not to steal. What I don’t understand is why there is a commandment against slandering the neighbor.”
The rabbi looked at the man and said, “I will give you an answer, but first I have a task for you. I would like you to gather a sack of feathers and place a single feather on the doorstep of each house in the village. When you have finished, return for your answer.”
The man did as told and soon returned to the rabbi to announce that the task was complete. “Now, Rabbi, give me the answer to my question. Why is it wrong to insult or gossip about my neighbor?”
“Ah,” the rabbi said, “One more thing. I want you to go back and collect all the feathers before I give you the answer.”
“But Rabbi,” the man protested, “the feathers will be impossible to collect. The wind will have blown them away.”
“So it is with the lies and ugly things we say about others.” The rabbi said. “They can never be retrieved. They are like feathers in the wind.”
This parable illustrates the wisdom we receive from James today: words, once spoken, are just out there, floating where they will, without any chance of being taken back. And words can do great harm. The old child’s rhyme lies when it says “sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” The smallest, careless word can be like a small spark that starts a destructive fire. What can be hurt or destroyed by our words? Feelings, relationships, confidence, trust, peace, and joy—all of these things are laid waste in the path of thoughtless slander or careless conjecture or cruel teasing or hateful speech. Words “activate” things—either for good or ill. We bless or curse with the words we speak.
When we are hurt or angry or exhausted it’s hard to hold our tongue. Words sometimes just flow. I’m an extrovert who needs to talk to process things…the struggle is real. If I’m not careful, that can be used as an excuse for thoughtless speech. Then there’s “venting,” a common codeword for running our mouth. Who doesn’t love a good “vent?” And there are ways this can be a “healthy” practice. We truly need safe spaces and confidential conversations in which we can process difficult experiences or frustrating relationships. But we also need to take great care in where and how and with whom we speak about things that can do harm. We need to take great care that our offering “safe space” for others to “vent” isn’t simply fulfillment of a need to be in on whatever gossip and drama is available.
Our world is full of harmful words, careless words, bullying words, disrespectful and dehumanizing words—splashed across every kind of media and infiltrating all the places we are. My hope and prayer is that Foundry can be a community in which we seek a different way—that when we cross the threshold of this place and engage in relationship with one another, we will practice with one another a different economy of speech. And it will be practice. We won’t always get it right…
But what if we intentionally tried to let our words be measured, fair, and shared in appropriate ways and places; to take a breath and take thought before speaking—especially before speaking about someone; what if we intentionally tried to engage in direct conversation with a person with whom we may have an issue, seeing that person as worthy of such respect. And when we speak words that hurt, as we inevitably will, what if we were willing to ask for forgiveness; and when words have hurt us, to be willing to extend grace.
May our words be firefighters rather than fire starters. May our words activate compassion and hope rather than conflict and anxiety… Pray that God will grant you grace that your words be for blessing and not for curse. Amen.
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