Title: “Is This Thing On?”
Text: James 3:1-12 (1-2)
Thesis: When we have the mind of Christ, our words reflect the life of Christ within us.
Introduction
We should always assume these three things:
• “The mic is always hot and the camera is always rolling.”
I never cease to be amazed when I hear sound clips and see video clips of people saying and doing amazingly irresponsible things… apparently thinking no one is listening or watching when in fact everything we say and do can go viral in a moment’s time.
This week the cameras were rolling when Hungarian camerawoman Petra Laszlo was filming Syrian Immigrants fleeing from the police in southern Hungary. She was filmed deliberately kicking and tripping the immigrants. At one point she tripped a man carrying a small child and sent him sprawling. The camera caught her kicking two children who ran by. Had she known she was on camera she might have behaved differently but as it was she was nabbed red-handed, so to speak, and promptly fired by her news agency.
I recently read a little sarcastic barb, “You have zero privacy. Get over it!” It’s true.
• “We can’t afford to have a breaking point.”
Given the reality of zero privacy it is imperative that people be vigilant about what we say and do… especially in an unguarded moment.
ESPN reporter Britt McHenry was caught on the security camera in a towing company lobby as she took the towing company receptionist to task. Ms. McHenry was obviously weary and disheveled and did not like the fact that her car had been towed. Despite being told that she was on camera Ms. McHenry held little back. McHenry later posted an apology on Twitter, saying she allowed her emotions to get away from her during a stressful situation.
On the roughly one-minute long video that was captured by a surveillance camera, McHenry says to an employee at a register: "I'm in the news, sweetheart. I will (expletive) sue this place." The employee tells McHenry she's being recorded, but it doesn't stop her from continuing her rant.
"That's why I have a degree and you don't," she says. "I wouldn't work at a scumbag place like this. Makes my skin crawl even being here." Then she went on to say, "Maybe if I was missing some teeth they would hire me, huh?"
The employee apparently says something about McHenry's hair and the color of her roots. McHenry sasses back, saying, "Oh, like yours, 'cause they look so stunning, 'cause I'm on television and you're in a (expletive) trailer, honey. Lose some weight, baby girl." The mic is always hot and the camera is always rolling!
• “We are always representing somebody.”
I saw a cute blurb painted on the back of a semi recently that said, “If You See This Vehicle Drive In An Unsafe Manner, Please Don’t Call Us, It Increases Our Insurance Rates.” Truck drivers represent the trucking companies they drive for.
One of the biggest faux pas a church can make is to distribute bumper stickers that say, “Follow Me to First Covenant Church.” The inevitable end is that the church office answering machine fills up with angry rants about the lousy drivers at First Covenant Church.
I am an advocate of living out your faith in the marketplace and the public arena. But when we do that we need to be aware that we are being watched.
I think it might be nice if we were to put the fish symbol on the front of our cars rather than the back so that when we are in traffic anyone merging into the flow would check out their rearview mirrors and see the fish and think, “Ah… the nice Christian will joyfully let me squeeze in.
But the Christian fish on the back of our cars poses a problem. When Christians boasting their Christian fish symbols pull boneheaded traffic moves the end result is the people following are shouting, “Stinking Christians!”
As Christians, we are always representing someone or something… the camera is always running and the mic is always hot.
I wonder if we were to consciously go about bringing a higher standard to our words and our conduct if we might not need to worry if the cameras are rolling or if the mic is hot.
I. The Power of Perfection, James 3:1-2
…if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. James 3:1-2
Our text begins with an admonition regarding those who assume the role of teacher. Those who provide counsel or give guidance or teach others have a serious responsibility to be “spot on” so to speak. The text says the teacher will be judged more strictly. The inference is that the teacher’s life and teachings must be consistent and true. It is a sobering reminder to make sure the way you live and what you say does not mislead or dissuade anyone from the faith.
Moving to verse 2 we find there are two truths to consider:
The first truth is this:
A. We all slip up, 3:2a
“Indeed, we all make many mistakes.” James 3:2a
When I read the word “mistakes” I wondered what was being inferred. What is a mistake? Several translations state, “We all stumble…” William Barclay states, “We all slip up…”
Stumbling or slipping up is not something we set out to do. Stumbling or slipping up is not a deliberate act (unless you are planning to cash in on someone’s liability insurance). However, despite the fact that a slip up is not deliberate does not make it any less a slip up. Commentators say that to stumble or slip up in this case means the slipping or stumbling has moral significance. In other words it is still a sinful attitude, spoken word or act.
In his appearance on the NBC Tonight Show Friday Jimmy Fallon asked Donald Trump if he ever apologizes. Trump quickly responded, “Apologizing is a great thing but you have to be wrong. I will apologize sometime in the hopefully distant future if I’m ever wrong.”
(I assume he was playing the consummate showman and spoke in jest.) However Scripture is pretty clear on the “everyone slips up” or “everyone stumbles” or “everyone sins” thing. Romans 8:23 could not be more clear in stating, “All or everyone has sinned; we all have fallen short of the glory of God or God’s glorious standard.”
There is no court on earth, or, for that matter heaven, to whom we may petition to be exempted from being among the “all” or “everyone” who has sinned. We all slip up!
The second truth expands on the first:
B. We all slip up in what we say, 3:2b
“If we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and able to control ourselves in every way.” James 3:2b
It seems that of all the ways we are likely to slip up it is with the tongue… the words we speak. In fact the text states, “If we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and able to control ourselves in every way.” In other words, the tongue is the most difficult thing about us to control. Our tongues are seemingly unmanageable.
We served a church where there was a lady who was so wonderful in so many ways but “never a thought entered her head that did not come out of her mouth.” She had no “caution light.” Her emotional intelligence was severely lacking. She could not or did not bother to read situations or the expressions on people’s faces. She just blurted out whatever she thought. It was not an endearing quality. At times I would pull her aside when she had hurt someone with her words and suggest that her comments were rude and hurtful to which she would always reply, “Everyone knows I speak my mind.” In her mind she thought that as long as everyone knew she was rude and thoughtless at times her rudeness and thoughtlessness was somehow excusable. She had the power to become a more thoughtful person but chose to not bother.
Though couched in somewhat doubtful language, the thought that if we mustered the power to control our tongues, we would have the power to control ourselves in every area, intriguing. Verse 2 says, “…if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and control ourselves in every other way.” IF!
Christina Ricci is an actress who starred in Casper, The Addam’s Family and most recently the Lizzie Borden Chronicles. As a teenager she struggled with weight and self-image issues and all that goes with being a Hollywood role model. In an interview in which she was asked about the pressure of being a role model she said: “Personally, I think I'm a good role model. But that's 'cause I have a different view of what a role model should be. I think role models should be extremely flawed, so then people who are striving, don't have to strive for perfection.” (David Lipsky, "Nice and Naughty," Rolling Stone (12-9-99), p.52)
In other words, at that point in her life she had decided that being a good role meant being a flawed role model so those who looked up to her, would not feel compelled to strive for perfection. I understand that she was speaking in the context of body image and did not want younger admirers to feel like they had to have perfect completions, perfect hair and perfect bodies. We get that…
However, that kind of reasoning can also be an excuse to make no effort toward self-improvement. “It is to say, “I am hideous and therefore I choose to embrace my hideousness and what you see is what you get… live with it.” That is to say, “I cannot control my tongue and therefore I cannot control any other area in my life, so I surrender. I give up. I will neither attempt on my own nor will I seek God’s help in getting control over my tongue.”
When I read this text I see the possibility of becoming better at controlling my tongue.
The challenge of perfection will either ignite or extinguish your passion for controlling your tongue… The fact that we may not be perfectly god-like ought not to deter us from striving to be god-like.
Jesus challenged his followers in Matthew 5:48 to “be perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.”
Every year on the first Saturday in December, 2,500 of the most brilliant college students in North America take what may be the hardest math test in the world—the Putnam Competition. Although there are only twelve questions, the test lasts six hours. And although these are the best and brainiest young minds our country has to offer, the median score on last year's test was one point out of a possible 120. (Lev Grossman, "Crunching the Numbers," Time (12-23-02), p. 51)
The fact that those brilliant students know going in that they will not score 120 out of 120 and may even only score 1 out of 120, does not keep them from bringing their best to the competition.
In Galatians Paul gives us some insight into how we may move toward god-likeness in our speech.
Apparently the Christians at the church in Galatia were not faring well despite trying very hard to be good Christians. He wrote, “After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own effort?” Galatians 3:8 It’s a problem if we are working the angle of our own effort.
In the creation story we read of how God created us in his image. We are created to be in the image of God. We are created to be godlike. In Romans 8:28-29 we see that it is God’s will that we be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Godliness or Christlikeness is out there as an ideal. And so we, like the Christians at Galatia, are either tempted to give up on godliness as a lost cause or try very hard in our own efforts to be perfect.
There is another way we may think of perfection and it is not by way of human effort.
Conclusion
When our grandchildren were little Bonnie and I put up child-safety gates on the stairways in our home so the grandkids would not take a header down the basement steps or take a tumble while trying to climb to the upstairs. The gates were stored away a long time ago but the hardware to attach the gates was still in place so Bonnie asked me to take off the hardware. When I installed the hardware I used Philips screws so I needed a Philips screwdriver to remove the screws. That eliminated a bunch of tools on my workbench. Ratchets, sockets, box or open-end wrenches and channel-locks need not apply. The need was narrowed down to a Philips head screwdriver. This one was neither too big nor too small… it was just right and fit perfectly so each screw was removed quickly and easily.
That particular Philips screwdriver was perfectly fitted to do the job it was designed to do. In my hands it was the perfect tool for removing the hardware.
I understand that being called a “tool” is not necessarily all that complimentary. But if we think of perfection as being a perfect tool… perfectly made to do what we are designed to do in the hands of God, ideally, we could be perfect in speech and conduct.
In Colossians Paul included a greeting from Epaphras, who was a member of the church at Colosse. He wrote, “Epaphras always prays earnestly for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident that you are following the whole will of God.” Colossians 4:12
Certainly when we are living in the will of God there is the potential for becoming better…
When we are following the whole will of God and obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives we are most assuredly living into saying and doing the perfect will of God.
Our motivation for controlling our tongues is more than being aware of hot mics and rolling cameras… it is ultimately about becoming more and more like Jesus.
