Your words create worlds.
This week was our second Sunday in our new series, “Seasons and Sequence,” where as a church we are being guided by the Lectionary, a grouping and sequence of verses at the center of a myriad of Christian faith traditions. This series is here to help us, as a church, to grow in the same direction with the same verses as a spiritual discipline.
Our verse this week is a spicy one. Going right at the root of who we are as human beings, James challenges us with a perspective towards our mouths that is challenging and admittedly, not very hopeful.
We get promised that we cannot tame our mouths. We see that even though all of creation is tame-able, our mouth are less apt to follow directions. People have tamed wild bulls, but our mouth? Forget about it.
And so we are faced with a conundrum as followers of Jesus— are we to just write off what comes out of our mouth as something we cannot change? Well the write of James also challenges us there— our mouth is made to praise God and yet it also curses human beings who are reflections of God’s image.
“Siblings, this shouldn’t be so!”
So we are stuck.
But what if we didn’t see our mouth as a root of the problem, but rather an indicator of the problem?
I talked about how one time I rented vans as a youth pastor. The vans were a wreck. It rained inside of the vans, they stunk, they didn’t drive well— it was not a good experience. When we arrived to dropped these clunkers off, we found black tape covering every single indicator light warning us that the van was a clunker. Check engine, oil light, maintenance required, all the greats were telling us— “don’t drive this van!”
Matthew 15:18 tells us that our mouths are the reflections of our souls. That our mouths are what show the world what is on the inside of us.
Like an indicator light— when we are fountains of saltwater, harming everyone around us, we are hearing the indicator life of our lives. When our words are unkind, cutting, when we forget that every person is a reflection of God’s own image we are showing that our heart needs work.
We are in need of an oil change.
Routine maintenance required.
So just for this week, just pay attention to your mouth. Don’t try and tame it— you can’t. Instead, listen to what your mouth is saying. What maintenance is needed? What needs to shift or change?
Quit trying to tame the wild animal and instead offer it up to God as the indicator that it is. Listen to the warning lights and hand that over to God. Stand in amazement as the humility of admitting your faults to the God that loves you begins to change the very fabric of who you are.
The thing is, those vans we rented were not irredeemable. They just needed some love and care.
I don’t care what sort of unkind word shot out of your mouth this week. You are not irredeemable. Your just need some love and care. Luckily, we serve the Great Mechanic (or Physician, depends on your translation ;)).
So listen.
Be honest.
And offer to God all of your humility as a living sacrifice.
Glory to God.
Amen.
