From Chinese Whispers To A Whisper That A Different Way Might Be Possible

This sermon was preached on 15th Septemeber 2024 - first in the morning at St Barnabas Church Northolt and then in the evening at All saints Church High Wycombe at their "Led by the Spirit" service. It is on the James 3 reading taken from the lectionary for 24th sunday in ordinary time year B.

You will need enough copies of a "thank you" notelet for everyone in the congregation.

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[Play 1st audio clip: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0258wf0 from Saturday Live “Bottle of wine / escaped dog / ill on ferry” ]

Kerrie and I just got home last night from a week’s holiday in Paris. We did all the things tourists are meant to do. We went up the Eifel Tower, We went to the Champs Elyse , to Verseilles, to the Louvre, to the magnificent Cathedral of Notre Dame…. Except that we didn’t go into the magnificent Cathedral of Notre Dame, because it was all fenced off. In 2019 a spark from a piece welding machinary involved in some restoration work caught on the woodwork. No one was watching - and within moments the whole interior of this 850 year old Cathedral was engulfed in fire - hundreds of years worth of architectural treasures destroyed in a fire thst burnt uncontrollably for hours.

Think of the wild fires that have spread across Greece and Italy in recent summers often started by a walker dropping a tiny cigarette end yet which burn down swathes of countryside, houses and villages - or think of the Great Fire of London - started when a bakers oven overheated and burnt first one building and then the entire city down - in Sixteen hundred and sixty six, London burnt like a packet of sticks.

"How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! 6And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell.7For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species," - This very week in news there was a story about pigeons being trained to fly guided missiles! (1)

“7For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, 8but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”

Three pastors from a small community began getting together to form a kind of support group. After several weeks of building trust in one another, they began to share some of their darkest secrets. The Roman Catholic priest confessed to his problem with gambling and how he would sometimes lose his concentration in a sermon when he looked down at the offering plates. The Baptist pastor admitted to his vice of Bourbon and smoking Cigars and noted his fears of being found out by his congregation. The Lutheran pastor quickly confessed, "I’m an uncontrollable gossip, and I can’t wait to get out of here!" (2)

The first way that the tiny tongue can cause damage is through gossip. the Greek word for gossip is Psithuristis. It has a hissing,snake-like,venomous sound to it. That is what Gossip is like. (3)

[Do a Game of chinese whispers in the congregation - see how a phrase is distorted as it goes from one end of the church to another]

Gossip often involves spreading stories that have some degree of truth - but don’t tell the whole truth. As people share them they spread an aura of negativity. Bad stuff is exagerated and good stuff is forgotten. Because people expect to hear bad stuff about the person, they then pay more heed to more juicy gossip that feeds that preconception - Psithuristis!

Or look at the politicians saying how "evil" their opponents. Why is it that no one today says "My opponent is an honourable person. I'm sure they want the best for this country. But I'm opposing them because I believe how ever good their intentions their policy is wrong and it will make this country a worse place. No instead man of them just say "my opponent is basically the devil from Hell"

Then there are Rumours - or to todays phrase “fakenews”. On 29 July this year (2024) in a Nursery in Southport during a Taylor swift themed dance yoga class- a mentally ill knife attacker killed 3 girls, 8 other children and 2 adults were injured.

Someone in Pakistan of all places - on a website called “Chanel3news” - made up a story that the attacker was a Muslim assylum seeker who recently entered the country on a small boat. It appears they did this entirely “for laughs”. Their website was designed to look like a proper news site - some prominent far right people in this country re-tweeted the story - which was then was widely spread by far right accounts and russian bots on twitter - and led to riots across the country. Not just in Southport because across the country for over a week. v5-6 “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! .And the tongue is a fire.”