JIMMY'S WAR OF WORDS

Sermon Summary from May 1: “Jimmy’s War of Words” (Read James Chapter 3:1-10; 4:11-12)

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of name calling.  Words can be off-putting; or words can inspire you.  Can’t we have more of the latter.  Can’t we hear Churchill inspiring a nation to fight on and win, “We will never surrender.”  Can’t we hear Kennedy leading a nation to “put on man on the moon in this decade and return him safely to earth”? 

Unfortunately, words can harm.  James (Jimmy as I call him) warns us that the tongue is a fire that can set a whole forest ablaze (James 3:5-6).  A tongue can do harm.

John Wesley admonished us to  “First, do no harm.”  We can do harm with our words and once spoken can never be recalled.  I think that’s why Paul told us in Ephesians 4:29, “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths , but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that words give grace to those that hear.”  Let that be a reminder that even when we need to critique another, we need to use words gracefully or they will not be heard.

James concludes, “with [the tongue] we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made n the likeness of God.  From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.  By brothers and sisters this ought not be so.”

So what are we to do?  We can’t stop talking.  The antidote come from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  “Blessed are the pure in heart…” With a pure heart we see the world in a positive light.  We treat others with respect.  And before we speak, we listen to our conscience.  Stephen Covey teaches that between any stimulus that might make us respond inappropriately, is a space, a moment in which we can choose.  We can choose to respond gracefully.  We can choose to respond with respect.  We can choose to respond civility.  It may required sacrifice on our part, but we can choose.

One of my favorite authors is Stephen Carter, Yale law professor and  lay person.  In Civility he writes, “Civility is the sum of all the sacrifices we make for the sake of living together...The rules of civility are also the rules of morality.  It is morally proper to treat others with respect, and it is morally improper not to.”

Morally proper: First, (choose to) do no harm.  Next, “Do unto others as you would have then do unto you.”  Build others up with your words.  Show them grace.  Amen.