What if I said to you that you really strike me as a really dumb person, your superficial, incredibly gullible, a whiney, negative big baby, and beside that you have too big a nose and your outfit is downright tacky?
Would you be upset or hurt?
If I said it about someone else and you weren’t the subject, would it embarrass you or make you angry.
Why? – It’s only words.
It doesn’t change reality.
Haven’t you been told, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me?”
If you to worship, in a sanctuary, and someone let loose with a string of curse words?
Would that upset you? I mean it is only words.
Lets go the other way.
What if I someone came up to you and said.
“You really look great today. I just want to say that you are one of the most insightful people I know. I’m not sure where you get it from but you are clearly not only one of the most intelligent people I know but one of the wisest as well. Thank you for serving God in such a wonderful way.”
Both are just words – and whatever was negative or positive before are still the same.
Yet words are important, aren’t they?
They can be a powerful source of blessing or a destructive, hurtful reality.
The other day I was driving by Ardmore Methodist and glanced at their sign and their pastor is preaching on this same text today.
I would be willing to wager that at least 75% of churches that use the lectionary are referring to this scripture today.
The reason is that every pastor knows the destructive power of words to tear at the bonds of the church community.
Recall how scripture says: “How great a forest is set afire by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire.” It then talks about how every beast of the world can be trained but “no one can tame the tongue – a restless evil full of deadly poison.”
Some of you who are older remember the “McCarthy hearings” when this nation was almost torn apart and lives and careers were completely destroyed by words that were not based on any real substance.
Gossip, according to scripture, is one of the few verbal acts that can destroy your chance at entering the Kingdom of God.
It is not by accident that Jesus is called the Word of God.
There are some very volatile discussions taking place within the Christian community these days.
But if we understand the creative word of God that is still at work in our world, and that our words within the Body of Christ can be a blessing rather than a curse.
Then we can see this as an opportunity to experience the blessings of God in our lives more than ever.
Trust God, God is not through speaking through us and we have good news to proclaim.
