Physical Fitness For The Soul
Sermon
Together In Christ
Sermons and Prayers For the Christian Year
Americans of all ages are on a physical fitness craze and many people are paying a great deal of attention to their waistlines. They worry endlessly about their weight and want their bodies to be just the right size. If your name is not Michael Jackson, it seems the fastest way to earn a fortune in this country is to write a new diet book. The next-fastest way is to open an aerobic dancing studio or an exercise club.
Today I speak about another part of the body which also must be physically fit: the tongue. It's a small thing, the tongue, a humble piece of anatomy which doesn't receive much attention. No one has figured out a way yet to make money off the tongue by selling health or beauty aids for it. It's just there. We exercise it every time we open our mouths to speak, but we rarely think about how we use it.
When was the last time you thought about the condition of your tongue? Is it physically fit and under control, or is it loose and flabby due to undisciplined use? People will work hard and even punish themselves to shape up their waistlines, but this is only physical fitness for the body. We ought to be infinitely more concerned with shaping up and disciplining our tongues, since this is physical fitness for the soul.
You ask, "What does my tongue have to do with my soul?" Jesus made the connection very plain when He said: "I tell you, on the day of judgment you must render account for every careless word you utter; for by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned" (Matthew 12:36-37).
The words we say are extremely important to God, but they often are rather unimportant to us. We say, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." We say, "Talk is cheap" - meaning that words don't count for much. Someone who is "just a talker" is someone we ought not take too seriously.
When our words offend someone else, we act as if they are to blame for being offended: "Why are you getting so upset? I was only kidding! It's just an expression!" In other words, "You shouldn't be hurt by what I just said; it's only words."
We write words of justice in our national documents; they are preserved for public view in national shrines. They speak of all people being endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, including the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But we as a nation don't really expect to live by those great documents. "It's only words."
Of course, there is no such thing as "only words" and it is quite wrong to dismiss words as "mere talk."
Sometimes it is not only wrong but tragic. I have a book at home called Mein Kampf, written by Adolf Hitler years before he came to power in Germany. In that book, Hitler all but announced everything he planned to do. He forespoke his intention to conquer Europe and was very frank in his statements about the Jews. His words were overwhelmingly evil and few people had the courage to believe that he meant what he said.
The man who translated this edition of Mein Kampf wrote an introduction to it which said something that was burned into my mind the moment I read it. He said that in this age of mass communications, the best way to conceal your real intentions is to give them the broadest possible publicity. Think about that. In this age of mass media, the best way to keep a secret is to tell the whole world! Hitler did it and this says something disturbing to us about a world which places so little value on words.
The Bible attaches great importance to words, even if we do not. If I counted correctly the other day, Scripture mentions the tongue some 143 times. One of these is our text from James: "The tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature and set on fire by hell. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!"
This is fundamentally true. Words can be a fire and when people are ready to hear hateful, inflammatory words, they become the dry kindling which spreads the fire beyond anyone's control.
Centuries ago in Salem, Massachusetts, the words, "She's a witch!", spoken by a superstitious minister (Samuel Sewell), unleashed a fire of madness which consumed a whole town. Decades ago in Washington, D.C., the words, "He's a communist! spoken by a Senator from Wisconsin (Joseph McCarthy), unleashed another form of madness which consumed a whole nation.
Once a word is spoken by someone, it is beyond anyone's control. It is out there in the world with a power of its own. And even if no one knows whose tongue set the first spark, God holds us responsible for the damage we cause with words, just as the unknown person who carelessly drops a lighted match is ultimately responsible when a huge forest fire burns out of control.
The Bible also says, in various places, that words are like a sharp razor, a sharp arrow and a sword. Words can be weapons which cut far deeper than any weapons of iron or steel. When your skin is cut by a knife, the pain will pass away and the scar will heal in time. But when you are cut in your innermost parts by a word, the pain may never go away and you might carry the scar in your soul to your grave. How often do people spend the rest of their lives together without love or warmth because the scars never healed from words spoken in anger many years before?
Yes, words are important and paying no attention to words can lead to tragedy. Words can be a fire, spreading destruction far beyond anyone's control. Words can be a weapon and they have a life of their own once they are spoken.
But words do one more thing: they reveal something deep and intimate about the people who speak them. When you open your mouth to speak, you are exposing yourself more profoundly than if you took off all your clothes on a busy city street.
When someone speaks words of bigotry, she reveals herself as an ignorant, hate-filled person. When someone says he will do something but consistently fails to show up and do it, he reveals himself as someone who is unreliable. When people take the Lord's name in vain or swear against God, they reveal themselves as people who detest the Lord God Almighty. There are all kinds of ways in which we expose our inner nature by the words we speak.
I remember well a man I last saw back in 1968. I can still recall his name and every detail about the way he looked. He happens to be a world-famous explorer and adventurer ... and a long-time friend of the family.
He came to visit shortly after the presidential candidate,
Senator Robert Kennedy, was killed. After the usual small talk,
I was shocked to hear him say: "I'm glad Bobby was shot.
I never liked the Kennedys and I think we're all better off with
him dead. I hope they get his brother, Teddy, too."
Now, this man did many great and exciting things in his life and I saw recently where he won some prestigious awards for his contributions to science and charity. But I don't remember him for any of those things. I remember him only as a man whose words cut through me like a knife, a man with so ugly a hatred inside him that he wished someone dead whose politics he did not like.
This morning I am speaking of spiritual anatomy; I am trying to share with you how important our words are in the mind of God, especially our negative words. But the Bible really says that the tongue is a double-edged instrument. If words can destroy, they can also save. Indeed, God Himself is a Word which can save. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). God's Word in Scripture can grab people and change them in a way which no other force on earth can do.
So the tongue is not just a negative instrument in the Bible. Yes, Scripture calls the tongue a fire and a sword, but the Bible also calls the tongue a "tree of life" (Proverbs 15:4). Again, Proverbs says, "The mouth of a righteous person is a well of life. The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them" (10:11; 12:5).
It is a blessing to see how a word can be just as powerful in building up as in tearing down. When you visit someone in the hospital, you pray that God will give you the right word to say. When God does give you that word, you see how much good a word can do. When you praise a child for a job well done and her face lights up with joy, again, you see how much good a word can do.
Sometimes the right word can even lift up a whole nation, as when Franklin Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Think what those few words did for a nation locked in the long night of economic collapse.
Or think about what Winston Churchill's words did for England during the darkest hours of World War II: "We shall go on to the end, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall never surrender. We will carry on the struggle until, in God's good time, the new world with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the old." Those words were nothing less than a life raft thrown to a nation which felt itself drowning under the tidal wave of German planes and bombs.
Concerning our use of words, our text in James offers a profoundly realistic picture of ourselves: "For we all make many mistakes, and anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing."
No one is perfect and no one has perfect control of his tongue. But even when it is difficult to control, we must try.
We all know people about whom it is very hard to find a good word to say. We all have felt that hot anger rise within us, an unrighteous anger which pours forth poison from our mouths. But James is offering here a prescription for spiritual health. He says the tongue is like the rudder of a ship at sea; the rudder may be very small, but it controls the direction of even the largest ship. In the same way, the tongue is like a small bit placed in a horse's mouth which makes the horse obey its rider.
This is James' program of physical fitness for the soul. Tame your tongue, he says, and your whole body will follow in goodness and righteousness. If your tongue can be cleansed, your whole soul can be cleansed, because what comes out of your mouth is but a reflection of the spirit within.
What a difference our words can make! How important it is, when we speak, to say words to one another of power and peace! It is literally true that words can be death or life, a cursing or a blessing. We don't want our words to tear down, we want to build up when we speak. So, let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to God and a blessing to others, today and always. Amen
Pastoral Prayer
O Heavenly God, Lord of Lords, Your ears are full of the hate-filled cries and pain-filled screams of Your suffering children. Your ears are full of the threats we issue against one another and the rough answers we give to the entreaties of the poor. The words of our mouths and the lamentations of our spirits reach up to the heavens.
Ever-loving God, hear also our quiet declarations of faith. Hear even our most meager witnesses of love. When we care for one another, hear in our voices and deeds our praises for You. When we build up one another in confidence and truth, hear in our words our trust in Your purposes. Make us a people whose quiet acts of love and courage speak loudly to the world around us. Make us a community where the still, small voice of Your Holy Word is the only sound to be heard. We ask all this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen
Today I speak about another part of the body which also must be physically fit: the tongue. It's a small thing, the tongue, a humble piece of anatomy which doesn't receive much attention. No one has figured out a way yet to make money off the tongue by selling health or beauty aids for it. It's just there. We exercise it every time we open our mouths to speak, but we rarely think about how we use it.
When was the last time you thought about the condition of your tongue? Is it physically fit and under control, or is it loose and flabby due to undisciplined use? People will work hard and even punish themselves to shape up their waistlines, but this is only physical fitness for the body. We ought to be infinitely more concerned with shaping up and disciplining our tongues, since this is physical fitness for the soul.
You ask, "What does my tongue have to do with my soul?" Jesus made the connection very plain when He said: "I tell you, on the day of judgment you must render account for every careless word you utter; for by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned" (Matthew 12:36-37).
The words we say are extremely important to God, but they often are rather unimportant to us. We say, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." We say, "Talk is cheap" - meaning that words don't count for much. Someone who is "just a talker" is someone we ought not take too seriously.
When our words offend someone else, we act as if they are to blame for being offended: "Why are you getting so upset? I was only kidding! It's just an expression!" In other words, "You shouldn't be hurt by what I just said; it's only words."
We write words of justice in our national documents; they are preserved for public view in national shrines. They speak of all people being endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, including the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But we as a nation don't really expect to live by those great documents. "It's only words."
Of course, there is no such thing as "only words" and it is quite wrong to dismiss words as "mere talk."
Sometimes it is not only wrong but tragic. I have a book at home called Mein Kampf, written by Adolf Hitler years before he came to power in Germany. In that book, Hitler all but announced everything he planned to do. He forespoke his intention to conquer Europe and was very frank in his statements about the Jews. His words were overwhelmingly evil and few people had the courage to believe that he meant what he said.
The man who translated this edition of Mein Kampf wrote an introduction to it which said something that was burned into my mind the moment I read it. He said that in this age of mass communications, the best way to conceal your real intentions is to give them the broadest possible publicity. Think about that. In this age of mass media, the best way to keep a secret is to tell the whole world! Hitler did it and this says something disturbing to us about a world which places so little value on words.
The Bible attaches great importance to words, even if we do not. If I counted correctly the other day, Scripture mentions the tongue some 143 times. One of these is our text from James: "The tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature and set on fire by hell. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!"
This is fundamentally true. Words can be a fire and when people are ready to hear hateful, inflammatory words, they become the dry kindling which spreads the fire beyond anyone's control.
Centuries ago in Salem, Massachusetts, the words, "She's a witch!", spoken by a superstitious minister (Samuel Sewell), unleashed a fire of madness which consumed a whole town. Decades ago in Washington, D.C., the words, "He's a communist! spoken by a Senator from Wisconsin (Joseph McCarthy), unleashed another form of madness which consumed a whole nation.
Once a word is spoken by someone, it is beyond anyone's control. It is out there in the world with a power of its own. And even if no one knows whose tongue set the first spark, God holds us responsible for the damage we cause with words, just as the unknown person who carelessly drops a lighted match is ultimately responsible when a huge forest fire burns out of control.
The Bible also says, in various places, that words are like a sharp razor, a sharp arrow and a sword. Words can be weapons which cut far deeper than any weapons of iron or steel. When your skin is cut by a knife, the pain will pass away and the scar will heal in time. But when you are cut in your innermost parts by a word, the pain may never go away and you might carry the scar in your soul to your grave. How often do people spend the rest of their lives together without love or warmth because the scars never healed from words spoken in anger many years before?
Yes, words are important and paying no attention to words can lead to tragedy. Words can be a fire, spreading destruction far beyond anyone's control. Words can be a weapon and they have a life of their own once they are spoken.
But words do one more thing: they reveal something deep and intimate about the people who speak them. When you open your mouth to speak, you are exposing yourself more profoundly than if you took off all your clothes on a busy city street.
When someone speaks words of bigotry, she reveals herself as an ignorant, hate-filled person. When someone says he will do something but consistently fails to show up and do it, he reveals himself as someone who is unreliable. When people take the Lord's name in vain or swear against God, they reveal themselves as people who detest the Lord God Almighty. There are all kinds of ways in which we expose our inner nature by the words we speak.
I remember well a man I last saw back in 1968. I can still recall his name and every detail about the way he looked. He happens to be a world-famous explorer and adventurer ... and a long-time friend of the family.
He came to visit shortly after the presidential candidate,
Senator Robert Kennedy, was killed. After the usual small talk,
I was shocked to hear him say: "I'm glad Bobby was shot.
I never liked the Kennedys and I think we're all better off with
him dead. I hope they get his brother, Teddy, too."
Now, this man did many great and exciting things in his life and I saw recently where he won some prestigious awards for his contributions to science and charity. But I don't remember him for any of those things. I remember him only as a man whose words cut through me like a knife, a man with so ugly a hatred inside him that he wished someone dead whose politics he did not like.
This morning I am speaking of spiritual anatomy; I am trying to share with you how important our words are in the mind of God, especially our negative words. But the Bible really says that the tongue is a double-edged instrument. If words can destroy, they can also save. Indeed, God Himself is a Word which can save. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). God's Word in Scripture can grab people and change them in a way which no other force on earth can do.
So the tongue is not just a negative instrument in the Bible. Yes, Scripture calls the tongue a fire and a sword, but the Bible also calls the tongue a "tree of life" (Proverbs 15:4). Again, Proverbs says, "The mouth of a righteous person is a well of life. The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them" (10:11; 12:5).
It is a blessing to see how a word can be just as powerful in building up as in tearing down. When you visit someone in the hospital, you pray that God will give you the right word to say. When God does give you that word, you see how much good a word can do. When you praise a child for a job well done and her face lights up with joy, again, you see how much good a word can do.
Sometimes the right word can even lift up a whole nation, as when Franklin Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Think what those few words did for a nation locked in the long night of economic collapse.
Or think about what Winston Churchill's words did for England during the darkest hours of World War II: "We shall go on to the end, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall never surrender. We will carry on the struggle until, in God's good time, the new world with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the old." Those words were nothing less than a life raft thrown to a nation which felt itself drowning under the tidal wave of German planes and bombs.
Concerning our use of words, our text in James offers a profoundly realistic picture of ourselves: "For we all make many mistakes, and anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing."
No one is perfect and no one has perfect control of his tongue. But even when it is difficult to control, we must try.
We all know people about whom it is very hard to find a good word to say. We all have felt that hot anger rise within us, an unrighteous anger which pours forth poison from our mouths. But James is offering here a prescription for spiritual health. He says the tongue is like the rudder of a ship at sea; the rudder may be very small, but it controls the direction of even the largest ship. In the same way, the tongue is like a small bit placed in a horse's mouth which makes the horse obey its rider.
This is James' program of physical fitness for the soul. Tame your tongue, he says, and your whole body will follow in goodness and righteousness. If your tongue can be cleansed, your whole soul can be cleansed, because what comes out of your mouth is but a reflection of the spirit within.
What a difference our words can make! How important it is, when we speak, to say words to one another of power and peace! It is literally true that words can be death or life, a cursing or a blessing. We don't want our words to tear down, we want to build up when we speak. So, let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to God and a blessing to others, today and always. Amen
Pastoral Prayer
O Heavenly God, Lord of Lords, Your ears are full of the hate-filled cries and pain-filled screams of Your suffering children. Your ears are full of the threats we issue against one another and the rough answers we give to the entreaties of the poor. The words of our mouths and the lamentations of our spirits reach up to the heavens.
Ever-loving God, hear also our quiet declarations of faith. Hear even our most meager witnesses of love. When we care for one another, hear in our voices and deeds our praises for You. When we build up one another in confidence and truth, hear in our words our trust in Your purposes. Make us a people whose quiet acts of love and courage speak loudly to the world around us. Make us a community where the still, small voice of Your Holy Word is the only sound to be heard. We ask all this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen
