Bible Text: James 3. 1-12 | Preacher: Barry Richardson | A sermon for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost
I thought today we might concentrate on some practicalities by looking at the James reading in the light of the times in which we live.

Last week, Helen reminded us of the relationship between faith and works. She made the fundamental point that they are two sides of the same coin. This coin consists firstly, of an active faith in the reality of our relationship with God, and, secondly, us growing in this relationship through the way we live our every-day lives. Belief leads to action – action deepens belief.

In James’ time, speech was, for most people, the only means of communication. There were letters but these were rare. Things today are quite different. Now we also speak via emails, SMSes, Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and so on: So all you laptop, smartphone, and iPad users – sit up and take notice – James’ message is for you too.

The passage opens by reminding us that speech in all its forms is a wonderful gift. Speech has changed the world: For good and for bad. We can think of great speakers like Churchill rallying England against invasion, but we also have to think of Hitler’s equally stirring speeches leading his countrymen down a disastrous path for them and for many others. Speech can be a life changer – for good or bad. James, for example, picks one area where speech has power; teaching. The consequences that can follow from teaching others, whether in general society, or in the church, can be devastatingly good or devastatingly bad.

I thought we might have a show of hands at this point. How many of us have had a positive, life-changing experience because of what someone has said to us. Maybe something said by a preacher, a school teacher; or just a quiet word from someone we know.

Now how many of us have had a bad, maybe life-changing experience from what someone has said to them?

And a third question. How many have had a really good or a really bad experience from a digital message or conversation.

James highlights the challenges we face with speech when he says in verse two that we all make mistakes in our speech. There is a huge variety of ways we mess up. We can tell lies or half-truths, we can make exaggerated or dishonest reports about people; we can boast, curse, use vulgarities; backbite, bully or flatter. I think we can all recognise some of these in our own lives. They can be spoken but many of them can be found widely in the electronic media. Here they can be devastating as they move with the speed of light around the world.

James emphasises the power of speech by using several images. He says, for example, that it is like a fire. Just a little fire can reduce a forest, or even towns to ashes. Once our words are out we cannot control what effect they will have.

And because we are all so prone to offend in this way, James says that it is a great accomplishment for us, if we are able, to bridle or control our tongues, that is, our speech. This is one way you can tell how you are going spiritually – look at how well you control your unruly tongue.

And if you are able to keep your tongue under control, then according to James you would have no problem keeping your entire body under control as well! By this he means that the tongue is actually the most difficult part of the body to control. James goes on to say that we can tame wild animals but we find it impossible to control all our speech.

This brings us back to the relationship between faith and works.

As James says in verse 12 – can the fig tree bear olives? Or a grape vine, figs? The answer is of course, no. The only way to change the fruit of a tree is to change the nature of the tree itself. In the same manner, the only way to change our speech is to have our hearts repaired and sustained by God. After God starts the process, we can effectively join in the partnership. One of the noticeable signs of change that we will be led to, is changes in our speech. It will be increasingly marked by integrity, honesty, truthfulness, godliness, gentleness and love. Jesus said, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good; and an evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil: for it is out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6. 45).

If we make it a habit to live under the influence of the Holy Spirit then we will learn the disciplines to tame an unruly tongue and keep it under control.

However, in modern parlance, what we need are some effective quality control measures. Anything that does not pass the quality control inspection should not be allowed to get said, either verbally or electronically. Here are four things we need to watch out for and train ourselves to do, with God’s help.

Firstly, be truthful:
Remember we stand as God’s witnesses in all we say and do in our post-Christian world. Terrible things have been done under the cover of the church, and our society is watching every one of us to see if we confirm their worst fears about Christian lives. We cannot be careless in speaking, lest we say something that is untrue, or that is not entirely true, or that misrepresents or misquotes someone. Be careful, before hitting the send button on your device, get into the habit of asking yourself; Did that really happen? Did she really say that? What was the context of it? Don’t be too quick to say things you are not 100 percent sure about.

If we want people to take us seriously when we talk about faith matters, they must trust us, and they will judge our trustworthiness by what we say in every-day speech and only then listen seriously to what we say about our faith experience.

First, be truthful.

Secondly, be loving:
Speaking the truth in love, makes it real and gentle, not cold, hard and legalistic. It will enlighten and encourage others, and that is the kind of influence we want to have in our various communities.

Being loving in what we say must be applied, not only in what we say to others, but also in what we say about others. Without love, whatever we say about others becomes malicious gossip, even if it is true. This is one of the worst things about social media – it brings everyone’s dirty linen into the public arena. Is this a loving thing to do? An old but good rule to follow is this, “If you have nothing good to say about someone, then it is better to say nothing about them.” Again we should think before pushing the send button on our mouths or our devices.

So secondly, be loving.

Thirdly, be sincere:
To be sincere is to be free from pretence, to be the same in reality as in appearance. In relation to speech, being sincere is to mean what we say, and to say what we mean. Whatever we say to others should be consistent with what we think about them, without being unloving toward them.

Whenever we talk to people, they should have no cause to suspect that there is some secret agenda behind what we are saying. Trust is the foundation of our witness; hypocrites are quickly detected and never trusted.

So thirdly, be sincere.

Fourthly, be reverent:
As James points out we use our tongues both to praise God and to curse. This misuse of God’s name can be deliberate or trivial but in either event, God’s reality is diminished for us and for those that hear it. We must be careful not to treat God’s name as something of no value, and so empty it of all its significance. We would all probably agree that using God’s name in a profanity is unacceptable but we can also use it in a trivial way. Do we use the everyday abbreviation ‘OMG’ in messages? For the older ones amongst us did we use the abbreviation ‘TGIF’? A trivial use but further diminishing of the respect for God in the world.

And so, fourthly be reverent.

In what we say then, no matter the media, we have an awesome responsibility. The problem is that our speech is so powerful and so untameable. However, with the support of the Spirit of God in our lives we can learn to discipline our behaviour. At the same time our speech provides us with an excellent quality control system as to our growth in our faith journey; we just have to get into the habit of re-reading what we are about to send, whether it is by mouth or device, before we push the button. We must be aware of our constant need to control the tongue, and be careful to ensure that everything we say and write is truthful, loving, sincere and reverent.

We must never forget our speech is the basis on which most of those we deal will decide if we are trustworthy and therefore worthy of a hearing on matters of a faith to live by.