This week's author is the Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Minister of Communications and Technology for the Connecticut Conference, UCC.
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. 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. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
While on vacation this summer I visited Colonial Williamsburg, where my kids and I followed the "Revolutionary City" series of small dramatic programs. Actors played the roles of public officials, camp followers, slaves, soldiers, and citizens of every opinion, bringing to life some of the events, some of the ideas, and some of the yearnings that bubbled through Williamsburg in the years of the American Revolution.
During one of these short dramas, presented outdoors on the street without amplification, a visitor stepped up to the crowd and told a companion, "This is a waste of their energy" (referring to the actors playing their parts in the heat). "Nobody can hear them."
I itched to turn and hiss, "You'd have a better chance of hearing if you weren't talking."
Small things, says James, make a great difference in the world. Bits, rudders, small fires -- a discomfiting image this week, as the smoke rises from a 242 square mile area north of Los Angeles -- they all guide far out of proportion to their own size. And James is absolutely right: the most powerful of them all is the human tongue.
Before writing these words, James had clearly spent some time in a bad church meeting. It is small and cold comfort to observe that it is not just in the church that the tongue wreaks its destruction. Yet nothing seems to reveal the truth of James' assertion that the human tongue is "a restless evil, full of deadly poison," quite as starkly as a church fight. I've heard terrible personal attacks unmarred by truth; I've seen blazing anger in one pair of eyes and dreadful hurt in another; I've been the target of hard words and I've spoken them myself.
Part of me wants to linger in the "why." Why does it seem so much worse in the church? Is it because we know we are supposed to love one another and the contrast is too stark? Is it because faith is so near to the core of our being that it makes the issues more important and prompts us to argue more avidly? Or are we simply playing for power, trying to be big frogs in our small ponds? Do we equate our opinions with God's, thus making anyone who disagrees with us the enemy of faith and truth?
Rather than explain, James goes to the heart of it. He does not indulge in "why." "From the same mouth come blessing and cursing," he writes. "My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so."
Though he has said, "no one can tame the tongue," James' direction to us is clear: No matter how hard it is, tame the tongue. Make it bless. Do not let it curse. Let what comes from the human mouth be the water that quenches thirst, not the water that leaves the body more parched than it began. Speak the truth in love, by all means, but let "in love" be the small thing that guides.
It can be done. It's hard, but it can be done. I really wanted to tell that person off; my tongue was ready to light a blaze.
But I held it. I held my tongue. That's one fewer word of blame to echo around the world.
As today goes on, I'll see if I can't make it two.
Gracious and Holy One, you gave us this tongue to praise you and to encourage those who surround us on this journey through life. I confess my abuse of this wondrous freedom; I have used my tongue to abuse your creation, those made in your image. Forgive me, I pray, and strengthen my resolve to let my words fall only as blessing. Give me wisdom to examine my words before I speak, that I may speak truthfully and lovingly. Give me the character to offer apology and amends when I falter and fail; and when I do, give me the grace to forgive me my errors once again. Amen.
Please remember:
the friends and family of the Rev. Newell Bishop, pastor emeritus of the Congregational Church of North Stonington UCC, who died on Sept. 7;
the Rev. Dr. Kenneth J. Hoyt, pastor of the Middlebury Congregational Church UCC, who will be undergoing surgery for a kidney tumor this month;
the friends and family of the Rev. Dr. James E. Dittes, professor emeritus of Psychology of Religion at Yale Divinity School, who died on Aug. 24 at the age of 82;
our Conference Minister the Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree and her spouse, David, as he undergoes chemotherapy treatment for stomach cancer;
the Rev. M. J. Hinchliff, pastor of First Church of Christ, Congregational, UCC of East Haddam, who is being treated for breast cancer;
those whose homes are threatened by the fires in southern California, and especially the friends and family of the two firefighters lost;
the leaders of this nation, that they may meet the challenges of the day with insight, wisdom, and compassion;
those suffering due to the ongoing financial woes of the nation, be they struggling to meet an unaffordable mortgage, confronting the loss of a job, or working to find just resolutions to the crisis; and
those serving or living in war or conflict zones around the world, or where terrorists have struck, particularly in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia, and the Sudan.
To be added to the prayer list, please send an email to your Regional Minister or to webmaster@ctucc.org.
Bridgeport
United Cong'l Church of Bridgeport
P The Rev. Sara D. Smith
MM J. T. Michniewicz
Bridgewater
Bridgewater Cong'l Church, Inc.
P The Rev. Peter M. Hammond
MM Mr. Christopher K. Shay
CE Ms. Candy Smith
Bristol
First Cong'l Church
P The Rev. Kristen J. Kleiman
PE The Rev. Aubrey L. Murphy
Broad Brook
Broad Brook Cong'l Church, Inc.
P The Rev. Dr. Joseph M. Callahan
Brookfield
Cong'l Church of Brookfield
P The Rev. A. Bryn Smallwood-Garcia
PE The Rev. Minot S. Desmond
AP The Rev. Jennifer DeBisschop Whipple
CE Heather Berner
MM T. Sullivan
To read previous editions of the Spirit Calendar, visit:
http://www.ctucc.org/fido/spiritcalendar/
To learn more about or subscribe to the Spirit Calendar, visit:
http://www.ctucc.org/fido/
The Spirit Calendar: September 08, 2009 by Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Minister of Communications and Technology
