James 3:1-12

Today James tells us perhaps the most obvious fact in the world.  Words have power.  Indeed let me say it again.  Our words have power!

Today James wants us to do more than to recognize the obvious.  James wants us to pay attention to the obvious.  Both how we speak and what we have to say has tremendous power to heal or to destroy.  As tiny as the human tongue is, it can be a lethal weapon or a skilled tool for building people up and even restoring them.

James reminds us that we Christians are not our own.  We belong to God.  We have been purchased at great cost on Calvary’s tree.  God’s Son Jesus has died to free us from sin, death, and the power of the devil.  Baptized into His death and resurrection, we are children of God whose gratitude for all that God has done, is doing, and will do should fill our mouths with thanks, praise, adoration, and encouragement.

First …An Admonition to Christian Teachers

A famous German Lutheran bishop was asked once to describe what it meant to be a bishop.  He said that a bishop’s job was not to be a theological innovator.  The bishop’s job was to see that the Christian faith was accurately and adequately communicated to the next generation.  A bishop is supposed to pass along the faith.

Clearly this bishop took to heart James’ admonition in today’s first verse: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”  On the Day of Judgment when we stand before the Lord Jesus to give an account of our lives, those who teach the Christian faith will be judged more strictly than the rank and file Christian. 

A friend from seminary was a very bright student who had received an expensive and outstanding education at an Ivy League college and a foreign divinity school.  Before being ordained as a Lutheran pastor, he had to take some classes at a Lutheran seminary and serve as an assistant under a seasoned pastor.  Early on the pastor asked this bright young man what he was reading.  My friend replied that he was reading Buddhist theology.

The older pastor responded: “Well, then, might I assume that you have read all of Luther’s works.”  My friend said no.  “Well, then, might I assume that you have all 38 volumes of the early church fathers.”  My friend said no.  “Well, then, might I assume that you have read the works of…” and he named off a number of the more famous Lutheran theologians.  Again my friend said no.

The older pastor replied: “Well, then, you don’t have time to be reading Buddhist theology or any other world religions.  You aren’t well read enough in the major works of Christian theology.”

The older pastor also took to heart James’ admonition to Christian teachers.  If you can’t accurately and adequately pass along the faith of the previous generations, then you really are going to have a problem on the last day.

Sadly, many of today’s Christian teachers are more interested in reinventing the Christian faith or even teaching the heresies and affirming the sexual practices that the early Church rejected.  And, on the last day, those that have taught false doctrine and have promoted wrong practices will answer for having perverted the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the name of innovation and inclusivity.

Second…An Admonition to Parents

In Luther’s Large Catechism, he writes movingly about the parental role: “To fatherhood and motherhood God has given the special distinction, above all estates that are beneath it, that he commands us not simply to love our parents but also to honor them” (Tappert edition, 379:103).

Luther continues: “If God’s Word and will are placed first and observed, nothing ought to be considered more important than the will and word of our parents, provided that these, too, are subordinated to obedience toward God and are not set into opposition to the preceding commandments” (Tappert, 381:116).

Parents are powerful people.  With their lives and with their words, parents can shape the lives of their children to be godly, good, and faithful people.  At the same time, the sins of the fathers and the mothers are passed along to the next several generations through the example of their lives and by the wounds inflicted through their words.  Parents can create healthy, happy, and loving people.  They can also destroy their children before they ever have a chance to live.

Many years ago I knew a couple that were what they call in Alcoholics Anonymous “upstanding drunks.”  They were highly respected in the community, but they were functional and severe alcoholics.  Throughout the husband’s distinguished career as an Army officer, the wife and he had made it a cherished practice to spend the late afternoon and early evening at the officer’s club.  Everyone thought they were wonderful people except their children.  The children knew what they were like at home.

Theirs was a gamey marriage.  They played mind games with each other.  They were experts at sarcasm and character assassination.  And, because alcoholism is a fatal and progressive disease, it got worse.  Their children were the casualties of their sick and evil ways.  Oh, they all went to church regularly, but it didn’t affect their lives a bit.

One night their youngest son was awakened from his sleep at two in the morning by his raging drunk father.  The man said to his son: “You are a non-entity.  You don’t exist.  You don’t matter.”

A few years later the young man died while shooting up heroin recreationally, as they say.  He did not know the people that he was with; they were just the source of the drugs.  They left his body in the back seat of a rental car to be found a day later.

Thirdly…A Word to Spouses

Some of us grow up to be rescuers.  We learn how to rescue from the families that raised us.  We seem to be attracted to people that are more wounded than us.  But, as I say often to young people, you can’t change another human being.  If you think you are going to rescue someone by marrying them, it’s not going to work.  And, if you have children, they will be wounded greatly by the dysfunction in their parent’s marriage.

Some of the healthiest people I knew grew up in very sick families.  But they decided, through the grace of God, that they were going to live differently than the way they were raised.  These are people that immerse themselves in the world of the Bible and in the life of the Church, and learn the difference between sick religion and genuine Christianity.  These are people that have spent a lot of time being re-parented by a godly Christian therapist.  These are people that have surrounded themselves with good role models and who are willing to be lifelong learners – especially about marriage and parenting.  They know from Scripture that marriage can be a gracious partnership, as Paul teaches in Ephesians 5.  They know from Scripture that parenting can be marked by grace and mercy along with godly discipline.

Christian marriage counselor Gary Smalley has said that each spouse ought to greet the day with wonder that God has given our spouse to us.  He has said that our first words to each other could be: “I get to wake up next to you.”  It is a privilege and an honor to have this person as our spouse.

Another marriage counselor has said that it’s so important how we treat one another the first five minutes that we are together later in the day after we have been apart: greeting each other with a smile and a kiss; telling each other that we missed one another; perhaps surprising one another with a small token of our love; asking how we can help; and, perhaps, even giving one another just enough space to change clothes.

One couple that had been married almost fifty years told me that they had always sat down to have a cup of coffee together at the end of the work day.  Their children were told that was Mom and Dad’s time.  Another couple who were married more than forty years told me that they had always had a date every week of their marriage – even when they didn’t have much money.  They did a kid swap with another couple from church just so they could spend 2-3 hours each week nurturing their marriage.

With our words and with our actions, we tell our spouse that she or he is precious, lovable, and valuable – a greatly treasured gift from God’s gracious hand.  With our words and actions, we can kill our marriages slowly and wreak havoc on the lives of our children.  James warns us: “How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!”  Our tongues can be one of God’s best tools for blessing the lives of those closest to us.  Our tongues can also sound like they were formed in the pits of hell.  Spouses take heed.

Fourthly…A Word of Grace and Encouragement

James tells the truth about himself and us in verse 2 today: “…we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.”

God’s Son Jesus is both God and human.  For that reason, He is the only perfect person that has ever lived.  He is the first-born from the dead.  He is the pioneer of a whole new creation. 

Do you remember how Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 6: “Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (v. 17).

When we have been buried with Christ Jesus in the washing of Holy Baptism, we have died to sin.  We have died to the old ways.  And that death of the old sinner in each of us should be repeated daily through confession and forgiveness.  Otherwise, we will be like those that talk a good talk but whose words are undercut by ungodly actions.

The Lord Jesus did not die on the cross to leave us in bondage to evil, to leave us unchanged, to leave us in what one hymn writer called “sin’s dread sway.”  Martin Luther described it this way in his Small Catechism: “All this He has done that I may be His own, live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness” (Apostles’ Creed, 2nd Article).

We are making a sham of the Christian faith if we say that God’s grace in Jesus Christ makes no difference in our lives.  When we are convinced that we are lost and condemned creatures unable to save ourselves but only by God’s grace and mercy in Jesus Christ are we saved, then grace works.  Grace changes us.  It lifts the burden of our sin.  It sets the prisoner free.  It makes of us a brand new creation.  Now we don’t belong to ourselves.  We belong to God.  As beloved daughters and sons, we are filled with praise, thanksgiving, adoration, and encouragement, because we know God is so good!

If you have lived very long, you know what it is to be ashamed of the things that you have said and done.  Anyone that isn’t ashamed of words and deeds that have wounded and perhaps crippled another person probably needs an exorcism.  The lack of empathy for those that one has hurt is a form of evil that is awfully hard to remove.  But that’s not many of us.  Most of us don’t just say we’re sorry.  We feel deep pain over the pain that we have caused others.  And we want to take responsibility for our actions.  We want to make amends.  Those that can’t do that and don’t want to do that – we do best to commend to God’s mercy and sometimes to the state or federal penal system.

One older pastor used to tell the story of a woman that he visited in a hospital.  She said: “I never knew how sick I was until I got better.”  That’s how it is with God’s grace.  When we know that God’s Son Jesus has died for our sins, we can admit that we need Him to take away our sins and set us free to be the people God created us to be.

A Few Final Words

I have known people that have hardly ever had an unspoken thought.  Needless to say, you can be sure that there are those in their lives that have suffered greatly because of that inability to bridle the tongue like one puts a bit in a horse’s mouth.

The Holy Spirit is here today to plant this Word in our hearts and minds and most of all in our mouths.  If you are one that loves to gossip, if you are one that has learned to complain from the queen or king of gripers (your Mom or Dad), if you are one that has seen all too often the pain on the face of a family member because of what you said, then make this the centerpiece of your daily prayer life.  The Holy Spirit can change you!

Pray like this: “Come, Holy Spirit, bridle my tongue.  Put a bit in my mouth and guide my speech this day.  Fill my words and deeds with praise, thanksgiving, adoration, and encouragement that I may bless and not curse.  Make me yours today.  Amen.”

Samuel D. Zumwalt is the Pastor at St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wilmington, North Carolina