Taming The Tongue
Stories
Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit
Series IV, Cycle B
Taming The Tongue
How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue -- a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (vv. 5b-8)
There are many lessons that are worth repeating. My start in ministry came as a youth minister. Before I started my preaching ministry, I had worked in four different churches. I had a lesson I taught to every youth group I led. First, I passed out a paper doll to each youth. Then I gave them instructions to say something cruel and degrading to the paper doll. They could say as little or as much as they wanted, but they had to participate.
Now, for each mean statement made to their paper doll, the youth were also instructed to rip the doll in some way. Some of the youth would say one or two bad things and their doll may be decapitated or missing their legs. But it never failed; there were always a few youth in every group that got caught up in the spirit of things. They had an endless supply of insults flying out of their mouths. They took great pleasure as they ripped their paper doll into a plethora of pieces. Their dolls had become a ticker tape parade.
After the group settled down, I would quietly bring out rolls of transparent tape. I instructed the youth to put their dolls back together. For each rip that was mended with tape, they had to say something nice to their dolls. Those who were only repairing decapitation found the task to be easy. But those with tiny little pieces had an obvious struggle.
After the tape surgery was performed, some of the dolls didn't show much damage. Others had holes where pieces were lost. Some had legs or arms that barely resembled the limbs they once were -- occasionally making ninety-degree angles that were inhuman.
The obvious lesson was that even though they had repaired the doll by saying something nice to counteract the cruel statements, the doll still wasn't the same as it was before. The damage was done. Saying something nice didn't completely undo the hurt and pain caused by saying degrading words. In fact, I always shared with the group that psychologists estimate that it takes five to seven positive statements to counteract just one negative one.
Indeed, as James wrote so long ago, as small as it is, the tongue can be such a dangerous fire that leads to horrendous destruction. We would do well to work on taming ours.
How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue -- a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (vv. 5b-8)
There are many lessons that are worth repeating. My start in ministry came as a youth minister. Before I started my preaching ministry, I had worked in four different churches. I had a lesson I taught to every youth group I led. First, I passed out a paper doll to each youth. Then I gave them instructions to say something cruel and degrading to the paper doll. They could say as little or as much as they wanted, but they had to participate.
Now, for each mean statement made to their paper doll, the youth were also instructed to rip the doll in some way. Some of the youth would say one or two bad things and their doll may be decapitated or missing their legs. But it never failed; there were always a few youth in every group that got caught up in the spirit of things. They had an endless supply of insults flying out of their mouths. They took great pleasure as they ripped their paper doll into a plethora of pieces. Their dolls had become a ticker tape parade.
After the group settled down, I would quietly bring out rolls of transparent tape. I instructed the youth to put their dolls back together. For each rip that was mended with tape, they had to say something nice to their dolls. Those who were only repairing decapitation found the task to be easy. But those with tiny little pieces had an obvious struggle.
After the tape surgery was performed, some of the dolls didn't show much damage. Others had holes where pieces were lost. Some had legs or arms that barely resembled the limbs they once were -- occasionally making ninety-degree angles that were inhuman.
The obvious lesson was that even though they had repaired the doll by saying something nice to counteract the cruel statements, the doll still wasn't the same as it was before. The damage was done. Saying something nice didn't completely undo the hurt and pain caused by saying degrading words. In fact, I always shared with the group that psychologists estimate that it takes five to seven positive statements to counteract just one negative one.
Indeed, as James wrote so long ago, as small as it is, the tongue can be such a dangerous fire that leads to horrendous destruction. We would do well to work on taming ours.
