Words are Powerful

A committee is an interesting entity, probably because they are made up of people. The blessing and bane of a committee are the members show variety in their backgrounds, personalities, and aptitudes. That truly is a strength, but it can be exasperating as some committee efforts work themselves out. I once heard the jibe, “God so loved the world that he did not send a committee.

I observe with admiration group members who think much and say little. (I covet their ways.) We don’t hear from them for long stretches, but when they do speak up, we are glad they did; there is value and clarity in their words. With age, I have moved slowly in that direction, but I am still in the half of the population that speaks up to begin the process of thinking about something. I once said, partly kidding, that I was afraid I had “No-Unspoken-Thought-Syndrome.” And he added, without skipping a beat, “You surely realize the acronym for that: NUTS.”

It has not escaped anyone’s notice that words are powerful both for good or ill. When we get to church this Sunday, we will listen to the lessons for the day from Holy Scripture.  We will hear from the psalm that those who reside in the holy presence of God, speak the truth from their hearts. There is no guile upon such a person’s tongue. They heap no toxic loathing upon their neighbor. What a healthy taming of the tongue!

Psalm 15

1          Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle? *
who may abide upon your holy hill?

2          Whoever leads a blameless life and does what is right, *
who speaks the truth from his heart.

3          There is no guile upon his tongue;
he does no evil to his friend; *
he does not heap contempt upon his neighbor.

Is anyone going to conform to this standard, perfectly? No one can, but it certainly is the goal of people building their relationship with God. A section of the Epistle of James has a pointed lesson on this too. He uses the word “religion.” This is a good word, despite what popular modern thought is doing to it. (Oh, it is in the Collect of the Day too.) I see the root “lig” in there, which I am sure is tied to the word ligare, to join, link, or attach. Ligaments in the body attach muscle to bone. True religion is classically understood to mean the linking of human and divine. I am in favor of such a link.

In this passage from James, pay attention to the rightful observance of the perfect law of liberty: doing, not merely hearing. Notice especially the attention we are to give to taming the tongue.

But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing. If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1:25-27)

So it seems we are all better off and our religion is true if we hear, think, do, and speak what is good. We shall, this week, also have a chance to look at what Moses urges in the book of Deuteronomy. We will hear Moses appealing to the people, Israel, to hear and observe, to understand and heed the laws that God is giving them to internalize and do. We will also hear Jesus delineate between empty hypocrisy, and those who work diligently so that good comes from them. The notion is that good can come forth from us bless and purify, but that things can come out that can defile, pollute, and contaminate us. It takes an effort. We can be distracted from that effort if we worry about how others are messing up and use our words and thoughts to criticize them.

I hear Jesus say, it is what comes out that defiles us. Oh, dear. My mother was right, I really do need to watch what I say. It is important to think before we speak and act. James is right, our tongue is small compared to the rest of us but it is powerful. Like the small rudder of a ship turns the whole vessel; our tongue is great in its effect. A small flame can start the destruction of a whole forest. The tongue is such a flame, with which we can bless or curse, tear down or build up. The committee is back from their deliberations. Some talked a lot, some very little, but they have decided, we should be very thoughtful about what we say.