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.
......................................................................
[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.”
Even during Great fire of london - as actual flames spread across london from a single spark, rumours spread even faster claiming that it was the French or the Dutch who had deliberately started the fire…Rumours that turned out (like the ones in Southport) to be entirely untrue - it was an accident in a baker’s shop.
Then there is the stuff we say to people’s faces - the cruel words with which we tear each other down - “no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. …… with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God.”
“You are worthless” “You’re such a loser.”“You always….” “You never…” “You’re pathetic…” “You can’t do anything right”. “Oh there’s no point you applying for that job - you’re not good enough” A teacher at school. A spouse. A parent. A child. A boss. A so called friend. The words that are said can leave permanent scars.
Gossip. Rumour. Put downs. It’s terrible when we see that in Gossipin a toxix workplace - or rumours leading to the riots in Southport - Or in someone still damaged as an adult by what a teacher said to them as a child. Gossip. Rumour. Put downs.
Now here is the really shocking part -
v8-9 “no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God.”
Its not just “them” who do this bad stuff with their tongues. Its “us” - its Christians. St James is writing this in his letter because it is a problem being faced by the people he is writing to.
We can not just put people down with the usual sort of cruel words about how “you’re not good enough” but we can add a theological twist to the knife: “you weren’t healed because you don’t have enough faith” or “God blessed me with riches and new mercedes because of my faith” (so what does that say about you when you are struggling financially?)
We can slag off people in our own church or spread gossip or rumours about them. We can especially say nasty and cruel things about other Christians who belong to other “tribes” than us.
There has been some research (3) that has shown that the times of great out pourings of the Holy Spirit have been times when Christians of different backgrounds instead of saying terrible things about each other have come together in unity. Take Azuza Street in 1906 when in a highly divided America black and white Christians prayed together- and it led to gifts of tongues and prophecies that was the start of the Pentecostal movement. Or take the 1960s an 70s when Catholics and Protestants who for centuries had not talked to one another began to pray together, and we saw speaking in tongues and words of knowledge and people resting in the Spirit happen not just in Pentecostalism but in mainstream churches - that we know as the Charismatic movement.
St James is facing problems of dangers of the misuse of the tongue in the community he is writing which may well be the church in Jerusalem. But if we go right back to the beginning in the church of Jerusalem as we read in Acts 2:44-47 “ All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” Indeed on one single -”day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.” (acts 2:42-43). This is what happens when instead of Gossip and rumour and cruel words we have love and sharing and caring
[ play Audio 2 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0225r7b from Saturday live “An off duty police officer / jam tart . help with an injury”]
Does anyone knows where these little stories and the ones I played at the beginning of the sermon come from?
[take suggestions]
They are a feature from the Saturday live programme on Saturday mornings on BBC Radio 4- started by Rev Richard Coles when he was on the show. Every week people phone in to say thank you to someone for something big or small that they never got a chance to say thank you for face to face. Usually someone they don’t even know the name of. I believe Rev Richard Coles started this feature because he was a Christian. He knew the power of positive words (in this case thanking people) to make the world a better place.
St James writes “From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, THIS OUGHT NOT TO BE SO” Like a bit being put in the mouth of a horse to tame it - we need to let God do the impossible and tame our tongue. As the angel said to Our Lady in Luke 1:37 “nothing is impossible for God”
We need to “down” the cruel words and “big up” the good words. Pray for grace so that you stop and think before you say something about your fellow Christian that is unhelpful or unnecessary or unkind. After all if we can’t get it right in Church how on earth will we get it right outside church?
And don’t worry - St James remind us in verse 2-3 “all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect”- we will get it wrong. But even if sometimes we will slip into the bad habit of saying negative words - we can work on it by saying positive words.
I saw a lovely tweet on X the other week where someone retweeted their previous week saying “I was wrong about this - I apologise for spreading this when it was not true”. That’s a really powerful thing to do.
When St Paul is talking about spiritual gifts - alongside speaking in tongues and healing - he also mentions the gift of encouragement (Romans 12:7). Indeed the patron saint of this Church is St Barnabas - whose nickname literally meant “son of encouragement”. I remember a wonderful lady called Tricia at a previous church who was so good at encouraging other people - and it really did bring the best out of them. We hear the negative words “you’re not good enough” “its your fault” “you always mess up” - echoing around inside us - and we really need some people to speak positive words of encouragement. Because those negative words come from the Father of lies - the devil. As St John of the Cross said “Where there is no love, put love -- and you will find love.” Think how not just this church but all churches can be changed if we share words of encouragement.
And one particular type of word of encouragement is thanks - thanking people - perhaps for something long ago where they never realised the difference they made.Like on the radio programme. That is why have given each one of you thank you notelet. On it I want you write a quick thank you to someone - it can be for something big or something small.
And when you get home I want you to post it to them.
(1) https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/ig-nobel-prize-questions-8ngbfrj98
(2) Sermon on this site by Lutheran Pastor Klaus Mehrl
(3) ibid
(4) Unpublished research by Bishop John Finney et al.
