'Mind your language' - transcript of sermon All Saints Chebsey 13/09/15

Chebsey Benefice 13^th September 2015

James 3.1-12 & Mark 8.27-38

As I among friends this morning I would like to confess that I am living with a married woman whom I really love.

Her name is Jane and she is my wife!

It very easy to see how words spoken could be misheard and then if repeated incorrectly can easily cause an awful lot of trouble.

You may recall that old saying ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.’

It is a load of course rubbish, unless perhaps the ‘words’ are empty.

Words are powerful and can change things in a very dramatic way.

Think of the story of creation in Genesis.

‘God said’ or God spoke and the power of God’s word brought creation into being.

Couple that with the prologue to John’s Gospel – that great Christmass reading.

‘In the beginning was the one who is called the Word. The Word was with God and was truly God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. And with this Word, God created all things. Nothing was made without the Word.’

Words have power and James piles up the metaphors to try and help us to grasp what damage the tongue can do, albeit it is such a small part that makes up the human body.

So it is like the rudder of a ship or the bit in the mouth of a horse.  It gives direction and control.

Out of control it becomes a small spark that sets a whole forest ablaze. 

It is with our tongues that we bless or curse.

It is with our tongues that we speak words of peace and encouragement, or we speak words that are designed to cause harm, hurt or destruction.

I recently watch the film ‘Selma’ which is about Dr Martin Luther King. He is one among many whose words stirred the souls and passions that led to direct actions.

Those directions actions in turn led to the Administration passing a bill to allow African-Americans to vote without any molestation.

There are many more people we can think of who by their words spoken brought about great changes.

On the other side of the coin we think of Hitler. Whose words spawned hatred and violence and the subsequent death of millions.

Or even in our day those radical Muslim clerics who speak words of violence and destruction of the infidels.

Words are very powerful and the tongue needs to be brought under control.

Today of course we would add all forms of communication. 

I think ‘twitter’ was still something birds did back in the days James wrote this Epistle.

And apples and blackberries were something you ate.

Jesus is mindful of the power of words. How it is that words can be misheard and misinterpreted.

Take the word ‘Messiah’ – which to some degree we have become very familiar with and we have lost the power and significance of that word, especially to a 1^st century Jews.

We really don’t have the time to even begin to talk about what the word Messiah meant in the 1^st century.

Partly that is because there was no one fixed idea and several of the proposed ideas had peoples grouped around them.

For some the Messiah would come and be a warrior king and boot out the hated Romans and restore the Kingdom of Israel to its former glory.

For others the Messiah would be a great teacher and lead Israel in a new moral crusade.

There was not one fixed idea except perhaps the one overriding thought that when the Messiah came a new order would begin and Israel would be restored.

In Mark’s Gospel scholars have noted that Jesus in the early chapters is constantly telling people not to speak out about him. It is known as the Messiah Secrecy Motif.

Jesus was following an agenda he was setting – he didn’t want to pre-empt anything by being dragged off and proclaimed king or anything like that.

Mark 8.29 and Peter’s confession mark a watershed moment.

It is very hard for us to begin to even imagine what it must have been like for a good solid Jew like Peter to declare Jesus to be the Messiah.

The Messiah was the hope of the nation, spoken of by prophets, especially Isaiah, but also the Psalms.

The Messiah would lead a new exodus out of slavery and bondage to a new promised land. This was their hope and their dream and had been so for thousands of years.

As I said they didn’t all agree how exactly this was to come about, but for most Jews this was their heart longing and passionate prayer.

And immediately Peter makes this startling confession Jesus begins to speak about the kind of Messiah that he is.

Messiah Jesus will become the sacrificial lamb that inaugurates a new Passover and the beginning of a new exodus out of the bonds of slavery, sin and death.

This didn’t fit in with Peter’s perception of a Messiah and he is quick to tell Jesus 

so.

Jesus is also quick to respond and speaks to Peter sharply about how he has not understood the journey Jesus is taking and the kind of Messiah he is.

It is worth noting that just before Peter’s confession Jesus had healed someone of blindness. However this healing took mud and spittle and the man to be twice prayed for.  

Move on and look at the healing of blind Bartimaeus in chapter 10.

The pace is picking, the secret is out and the Word is being spoken openly – and now blindness is healed instantly.

No more groping around – seeing things dimly, with men like trees walking.

All is being revealed as the Messiah Jesus steps ever closer towards become the one true sacrifice offered for the sins of the whole world – not just Israel.

There would be a new Passover lamb sacrificed, there would be new exodus and there would be a new people of God.

James again - ‘with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the image of God.’

People of God – what are you offering to the world?

Today we are praising our Lord and our Heavenly Father – what are we going to do tomorrow.

What happens when somebody cuts you up on the road, or pushes in front of you in the supermarket queue? Or says something unkind to you – do you give back as good as you get?

Proverbs 15.1 says ‘A gentle answer turns away wrath.’

As those who are in the Messiah - the people of the Messiah how are we to be out and about in the world?

Jesus warned Peter not to say anything – in case people got the wrong idea and things spiraled out of control.

Now it is time to speak out with words and in our actions that Jesus, Messiah, King of King and Lord of Lords has brought the Kingdom of heaven to the realm of the earth.

Our task is to help make that a reality – to make real the Lord’s Prayer in our world, in our communities, in our own lives and in our churches.

Your Kingdom come, your will be done – on earth as it is in heaven. 

Those who are blind and beggarly like Bartimaeus need to know that there is now one who can help them see, one who opens up a whole new way of   living.

We are to be those who say as they did to Bartimaeus ‘Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.’

Our words have power and so let us take these words into the week ahead…

Take my voice and let me sing

Always only for my King

Take my lips and let them be

Filled with messages from Thee.

Amen