Our mouths get us into trouble. One of you said that to me the other day. You had opened your mouth to voice an opinion about something that should be done in the community where you live, and before you knew it, you were chairing the committee to get it done. Nobody had even noticed you were in the meeting until you spoke up, but after that, boom! Our mouths get us into trouble.
One of my old teachers used to admonish his students to make sure that when they stood up to speak, their brains were connected to their mouths. Apparently he had heard too many mindless messages and stupid sermons. We need to make sure that when we speak, our brains are connected to our mouths. Our mouths get us into trouble.
Sometimes the problem is not so much stupidity as it is that we, with our mouths, commit to more than we are really prepared to do. It’s easy, on the spur of the moment, to promise things. But when it comes to doing them, we disconnect.
Several weeks ago, when one of our seminary students was home, I took her out to lunch. Yolanda Sampson, that good girl, ordered a green salad; the pastor ordered burritos and enchiladas. As we attacked our respective lunches, Yolanda, staring at my waistline, asked me whether I am getting enough exercise. I brushed off the question with some comment about being too busy with spiritual things for that, but she wouldn’t let go. She lectured me about taking care of myself; she was kind enough to suggest that the church might need my services a little while longer, and that a corpse doesn’t make a very good pastor. She went on and on and on about exercise. And so, to get her off my case, I agreed. I admitted that typically I stay home on Fridays to prepare my sermon, and, yes, I could take a break on Fridays to do some vigorous walking around my neighborhood. She seemed satisfied, and I thought that was that.
I wish you could see my emails, every Friday since then. “Dr. Smith, do you remember what you promised me?” “Pastor, why are you at your computer and not out there exercising?” Yolanda discovered that there was a serious disconnect between what I said with my mouth and what I was really ready to do. The climax came this week, when she dealt with my most recent excuse and wrote, “All right, I am counting on you to step up to the plate and do what you promised to do.” I answered her, “Yolanda, stepping up to the plate is what got me in this condition in the first place.”
Our mouths get us into trouble. The mouth promises what the body does not deliver. Yet there is no other part of our anatomy that God asks for any more than this one. We are called to present our mouths as living sacrifices to God; we are called to use our mouths for justice, love, and witness.
There is one special kind of person in the Bible who can help us with this theme. The prophets. The prophets were forth-tellers – that’s what the word literally means – forth-tellers who felt a deep obligation to speak out on behalf of God and God’s kingdom. They were men and women who lived out their commitment to God’s reign, and who were not disconnected from the words they spoke. The prophets vigorously and effectively presented their mouths to God. I think we need to see how they did it. How do we present our mouths to God as living sacrifices, acceptable for His purposes? The prophets will show us that we do it by swallowing and spitting before we speak. Swallow, spit, then speak. Say those words with me: “swallow, spit, speak”. Swallow, spit, speak.
I
The strange but wonderful prophet Ezekiel gives us the first clue. You present your mouth to God by swallowing. By swallowing the word of God!
Ezekiel was one of the strangest characters in all of Biblical history. He saw visions, he dreamed dreams, he expressed himself in elaborate one-man dramas. Ezekiel got his start with a vision of an edible scroll. Swallow this, if you can:
Ezekiel 3:1-11
To paraphrase these words just a little, God says to Ezekiel, “You know, it’s not like I am sending you to teach people whose language you don’t speak. It’s not like I am sending you to somebody who isn’t going to know what you are talking about. I’m sending you to your own people. Share your witness right where you are, among your own friends and neighbors.” God does not always ask us to cross oceans and climb mountains to be missionaries; usually He calls to be missionaries in our own homes and communities. Only a few will He send overseas, and, even there, we’ve found out that a person who won’t be a missionary in his own neighborhood won’t be one in China or Brazil either. God is telling Ezekiel, “Do Kingdom work, right among his your own people”.
But God is also telling Ezekiel that we already know they will resist. They won’t listen. They will resist, Ezekiel, so let’s get that straight right up front. People don’t like to be told the truth, so they won’t hear you. So, friend Ezekiel, the way you prepare to confront a hostile and resistant world is, eat God’s word. Swallow God’s truth. Take in all you can get of God’s truth, so that you are equipped and prepared. The text says that Ezekiel is going to find out that people are hardheaded; that’s not my word, that’s the Bible’s word. Hardheaded. Stubborn. They push back. But Ezekiel, swallow this word and it will make you just as hardheaded, just as confident, just as certain as they are. “Eat this scroll – swallow it, gulp it down – and then go, speak to the house of Israel.”
How many times have you said, when you got into one of those over-the-back-fence discussions about religion, that you were afraid you didn’t know enough to discuss with people? How many times have you bought into one of those political discussions that touched on some moral issue, but you found yourself arguing some political party line, because you didn’t really have a Biblical or spiritual basis for your argument? How many times, when the missionaries of some other faith arrived at your front door, did you hurry them out because you were afraid they might know their position better than you know yours, and you didn’t want to be threatened? I keep hearing it said that the Mormons win more converts from Baptists than from any other group, because we Baptists say we believe their Bibles, but we don’t know what the Bible teaches!
If you want confidence about who you are, what you stand for, swallow God’s truth. Hunger for knowledge of God’s word. Thirst for the insights it contains. Consume everything you can get hold of in order to understand it. That’s what gives us confidence and boldness so that we can speak. We must swallow God’s truth before we can present our mouths as living sacrifices for His purposes.
Maybe we need to demonstrate what Ezekiel was talking about. Our ushers are coming now with something for you to swallow. I want you to take from these bags one – just one – only one – of what you find inside.
[DISTRIBUTION OF BAGS OF CANDY]
Now let’s taste and swallow. Tastes good, huh?! Sweet! You say you want more? Of course you do! A little is not enough. You want more. Ezekiel said that God’s word was sweet to the taste; he wanted more.
I had my Ezekiel experience when I was about seventeen years old. My very first job was as a delivery boy in a local pharmacy; and when there was a lull between deliveries, I would browse through the books on the bookstand. There I found books that stimulated me to think more deeply and explore more carefully the faith I had been mouthing. I bought them, I read them, I studied them. The sad thing is that I did not get this kind of information at my church. But I found out that once you begin to taste a little learning, it’s sweet and you want more. Ezekiel swallowed God’s word, and it was sweet to his taste. He wanted more.
I challenge you today to swallow the truth that is being offered to you in this church. Bible study, discipleship study, prayer study, training – we have it or we are working toward it. Without it, you will not only starve, but you will also be unable to present your witness to a hardheaded generation. Swallow it, however, and you will be satisfied, confident, ready to present your mouth. You will taste and share something “fresh from the word”.
[Sing “Morning Has Broken”, verse 1, p. 48]
II
However, it is true that for most of us, giving a credible witness is not just a matter of what we know. It is also a matter of how we feel. It’s not only an issue of the head; it’s also an issue of the heart. No matter how much we know, we just don’t have the guts to speak up for God or to do Kingdom work. It’s tough to take an unpopular stand. It’s tough to speak out against the prevailing opinion. We are afraid to speak our witness, no matter how much knowledge we have.
It must have been something like that for the young Isaiah. It was a crucial time in the Kingdom of Judah. The old king Uzziah had just died, and it was not clear what would be happening next. What would the new king be like? What policies would he pursue? Isaiah, privileged and educated, nonetheless must have wondered what this turn of events meant for him. You see, sometimes man and moment come together, like they did for Martin Luther King; sometimes the right man emerges to speak to the needs of the moment. But sometimes not; sometimes we miss our moment. Isaiah was afraid of missing his moment. But pay attention to what happened to Isaiah’s mouth:
Isaiah 6:1-8
A “live coal” touched Isaiah’s mouth and purged his lips! Isaiah got hurt; but the hurt helped him and made him ready. The pain healed him and prepared his mouth for courageous witness. If you are experiencing some pain, maybe about something you’ve said, then explore what it might mean to spit that out, to get rid of that, and to be cleansed.
Since, for many of us, our mouths and our brains are not connected, we do speak first and think later. We are quick to criticize, and only later think about how we might have spoken words of encouragement. We are quick to complain, and only later think about counting our blessings. We are quick to point out others’ sins, we are quick to crumble into carping criticism of the crimes and crevices of other Christians. Something needs to cure us; something painful that will make us want to spit and get rid of it.
A live coal touched Isaiah’s mouth. He spat out from the heat, but he was healed. One night we were eating leftovers at our house, and there was a little dab of couscous from the night before. I put it in the microwave and punched in plenty of time to warm it up. When I took my first bite, I quickly realized that I had overestimated. That stuff was not just hot; it was HOT! I spat out that bite in a hurry. Well, the next morning I had a dental appointment; my dentist took one look in my gaping cavern and said, “How did you burn the roof of your mouth? I need to use some disinfectant on that!” When I told him it was overheated couscous, he had to admit that that was the first time he had ever heard a story like that! In went the disinfectant; up went the pain again; but my mouth was cleansed.
Something painful will make us want to spit out what is wrong and be cleansed. If you have the habit of misrepresenting and misquoting other people, getting caught might hurt enough to stop that. If you feel the need to express your opinion on every thing that comes up, whether you know anything about it or not, getting challenged might hurt enough to stop that. If you take too much delight in hearing stories of others’ failures, failing yourself might hurt enough to stop that. God just may embarrass us enough to make us spit out our negative words, our gossipy spirits, and our taunting tones. Hot coals, hurting mouth, cleansed.
I thought about passing out hot coals this morning, but unfortunately they are still on board a train in Baltimore. However, I am going to pass around some tissue papers, as we are going to practice spitting and let God purge our lips. You will find a little clutch of tissues at the center aisle. Please take one and pass the rest down the pew.
[DISTRIBUTION OF TISSUES]
I want you to think of one situation where you’ve chosen to say an unkind, critical word, where you might have spoken a loving word. Would you, with me, spit that out into this tissue?
I want you to think of another time when you chose to pass on something gossipy, when you might have been silent. It was too juicy to keep, and you passed it on. Spit that out into this tissue!
I want you to think of yet another time when there was an opportunity to say a word for Christ, but you either said nothing or you turned it into something negative. Somebody snarled about churches, and you made it worse and ran down your own church in somebody else’s eyes. Spit that out into this tissue!
If we are going to present our mouths to God as living sacrifices, rendering spiritual worship and offering consistent witness, then we must first swallow God’s truth, hunger for it; and then we must spit out everything foul, everything harmful, everything negative, everything unworthy. Spit it out and, painful though it might be, receive God’s cleansing and God’s holiness. When we hurt a little and spit it out, He will make us holy:
[Singing “Holy, Holy, Holy”, verse 3, p. 2]
III
If we swallow and spit, then we are ready to speak. If we swallow God’s truth, like Ezekiel; and if we spit out unholy things, like Isaiah; then we will be ready to speak. Then we will present our mouths as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. Jeremiah certainly did. Jeremiah, the third of our great prophetic voices, tells us about his call:
Jeremiah 1:5-10
“You shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.” God has appointed us as His witnesses to speak for Kingdom purposes. He has given us this hour, this place, this community. He has appointed us. Jeremiah sensed that even before he was born, God had called him. Jeremiah tried to make an excuse – I am only a little boy. But God would have none of it. God empowered him to speak.
And God will have none of our excuses either. We are to be His witnesses. We are to speak for Him. We cannot plead ignorance; He has instructed us to swallow His truth. Swallow and then speak. Nor can we plead our sinfulness, our unreadiness; God sends us painful experiences, so that we can spit out the things that make us useless. Spit out sin, and then speak.
Swallow, spit, and speak; presenting our mouths. I pray for the day when Takoma Christians speak because we know our faith. When we have so swallowed knowledge that we can interpret wherever we are called to do so. Swallow, spit, and speak.
I pray for the day when Takoma Christians are not intimidated by their neighbors’ resistance, nor are they afraid that their neighbors know too much and will never give us a hearing. I pray for the day when we are simply not afraid of anything, because it has been once and for all dealt with, paid for by the blood of Christ. I pray for the day when we are so aware of our forgiveness that it will be no problem for us to swallow, spit, and speak.
I pray for the day when Takoma Christians will so care, in tender mercy for those who have fallen, whose hearts are broken – I pray for the day when we will build and plant, nurture and heal, love and love and love some more. I pray for the day when we shall do it all: swallow, spit, and speak.
[Invitation, “I Love to Tell the Story” p. 572]
