May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

 

It’s just over a month since I last stood in this pulpit to preach, Sunday September 3^rd to be precise, so, what’s that, 6 weeks ago. Now, I wonder how many of you have any recollection at all about what I said? I don’t normally put you on the spot like that because, of course, I assume that my sermons are pretty ethereal things that pass before you before drifting away on the mists of time. But I’m interested now for two reasons. The first is that your remembering the sermon was one of the points of that sermon and the second is that it was the first sermon in our series on the epistle of James and today is a continuation.

 

Well, I’ll let you off the hook and remind you about Sunday 3rd September. I preached about the simplicity of the epistle of James. You may remember I referred to a wonderfully simple sermon that I had listened to in Ireland from a missionary priest during the summer and linked that to the simplicity of James messages; his homilies on life and how it should be lived if we are truly filled with God’s grace and following the teachings of Jesus.

 

You may recall that I focussed on a single one of those simple messages from James, namely that we should be doers of the word and not merely hearers and that the test of my sermon was whether I had made any difference to what you did after you left church on Sunday 3rd September. Now don’t worry, I’m not going to ask for any public confessions about what you’ve all been up to since then, I’ll leave that with you and God to sort out but what I will ask is that you keep that simple opening message of James’s firmly in your mind this week as you again listen to the Word of God.

 

Remember what James said to us in Chapter 1, be doers of the word and not merely hearers. So as we reflect on some more of James’s teaching this week, the test, once again, will be, are we merely hearing the words or are we going to do something about them as we leave this church.

 

So, suitably reminded and chastened, we may proceed on our explorations of the Epistle of James and we now find that we have progressed on to Chapter 3 and the part that Dennis read to us today which is the first part of that chapter, verses 1 to 12. I should warn you at this point that those of you who were relieved by the fact that I had not been in this pulpit for 6 weeks will be equally disappointed by the news that I’m back again next week for the 10 o’clock Communion to cover the rest of Chapter 3 so this is part 1 of 2!

 

So what has James to say to us this week in his pithy and direct style? Well, he has two messages for us; one that could really be directed at me and others like me and one that applies to all of us. The first message is a fairly helpful shot across the bows for all of us who have the temerity to stand up here to preach and teach. Let me remind you what Dennis read to us at the start of the passage:-

“Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly”

 

Well – maybe I should stop now, before I get myself in any more trouble. James is pretty uncompromising here and puts pressure onto anyone who feels themselves qualified to teach the word of God. The penalties for a teacher who leads people astray is going to be a lot harder than that for those who are led. I tend to preface my preaching with David’s words from Psalm 19 when I say “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you Lord, our strength and our redeemer”. James causes me to reflect on this statement far more than I normally would and to really test whether I am true to those words.

 

But what of the other message that James has for all of us this week? Well I want to come back to that in a moment because it is the key message for us to focus on, to take away and to act upon. But first, let me digress for a minute or two and tell you about an experience that befell us as a family last week that leads into that second message.

 

Over the last couple of winters we have moaned at great length about our fireplace and its inadequacies.. It’s not that it smokes, more that it is not terribly effective at heating up the living room unless it’s blazing furiously and expensively. We’ve debated what to do about this for some time and have toyed with buying a log-burning stove to put into the fireplace.

 

We were encouraged in this direction by warming ourselves at the Verity hearth where they have a wonderful beast made by Clearview Stoves in Shropshire. We were so impressed by this that we persuaded Elaine’s brother to fit one in his house and that has also been a great success, so this summer we decided to take the plunge and put one in our living room.

 

We decided to go for a model that fitted into our existing fireplace opening rather than one that stood on the hearth and this was duly fitted about 3 months ago. We then had the frustration of looking at this splendid addition during the warm weather while we waited in eager anticipation for winter to come so that we could enjoy cosy nights around our new hearth. Well, the last few weeks have been cold and so with great ceremony we started using the stove and, I’m pleased to report, it has been excellent.

 

Excellent that is, except for one small problem, which was that, Elaine thought it smelled very slightly smoky. I dismissed this in my usual offhand way and told her that it was simply the paint baking on, as we had been told in the showroom. So, last week, I was away in Japan and on Monday night, with our two eldest at Young Christians, Elaine lit the stove and Patrick, our youngest settled down in front of it to watch television while Elaine was on the telephone in the kitchen.

 

After a while, Patrick appeared to tell Elaine that the smoky smell was worse. Elaine waved him away, telling him that it was just the paint. A few minutes later he reappeared now much more agitated and dragged Elaine off the telephone to come and look. Sure enough, the smoky smell was worse. In fact there were great waves of smoke billowing out from every crack in the fireplace brickwork and filling the living room and the rest of the house.

 

Elaine realised that this was more than the paint baking and quickly rang 999. For those of you who have never done this and have worried about how long the fire brigade would take to get to you if you needed them then be reassured. A fire engine with 10 firemen and a following car with 4 more were quickly despatched from Tarporley and had arrived within 5 minutes. A second engine with a further 10 firemen were despatched from Nantwich and arrived just as the first lot had everything under control. Much to Elaine’s embarrassment both engines arrived to attend our smoke filled living room with blue lights flashing and sirens blaring therefore attracting quite a good crowd.

 

The problem was rapidly assessed by the firemen, attired by the way in full regalia with boots and helmets. We have a large wooden mantelshelf made from a thick oak beam. They felt that the brickwork behind the shelf had deteriorated, exposing the beam to the heat from the flue and that the beam had ignited inside the chimney breast. They removed the offending beam and, sure enough that was the problem, which was thus easily solved.

 

Elaine then set to on the longest job of the evening, which was making the 14 remaining firemen cups of tea. She also had to put up with some amused banter from her friends on the topic of her entertaining 14 firemen when I was the other side of the world. So we could look back on the incident with a smile and with some amusement. I won’t have such a smile when I come to pay the bill to have the mantle rebuilt but that can’t be helped. The thing that struck us both on reflection was not what had happened but what might have happened.

 

The beam ignited at 8 o’clock in the evening when there were people around to spot it straight away. If it had caught fire at midnight when everyone was in bed and had been left untended then the consequences could have been much worse. The old saying that it only takes a spark to start a blaze is so true and we could now have been reflecting on it ruefully. I’m sure everyone remembers from history classes at school, learning about the Great Fire of London and how it started with a small fire in a bakers shop in Ludding Lane and then spread to almost destroy the capital city.

 

James uses this same analogy to catch our attention in the second of his key messages to us in Chapter 3 of his epistle. He describes how one small spark can set fire to a great forest and compares this to, of all things, the tongue. The tongue, says James is a small part of the body but it makes great boasts.

 

The tongue, he says, is also a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

 

Strong stuff. James goes on to describe how, in effect, we tend to operate in life with forked tongues. Our forked tongues attempt to say two things. We attempt to praise God on the one side and curse men on the other. These same men who are made in God’s likeness. James tells us in his usual plain and simple language that this just can’t work. How can praise and cursing come out of the same mouth? How can we stand up on a Sunday morning and sing beautiful praises to God and then leave the church and use the same tongue to gossip and slander behind someone’s back?

 

Our tongues, like the spark that lights the blaze, can with one or two evil words destroy someone’s whole life forever. How on earth could we possibly contemplate using our tongues to hurt someone with malicious gossip and rumour and then still hold our heads up the following Sunday and use those same tongues to mouth the precious words of the Creed? This cannot work. One or other of these uses for our tongues must go. As James says, fresh water and salt water cannot flow from the same spring. A fig tree cannot bear olives or a grapevine, figs. So, in the same way, our tongues cannot be used for good and evil together.

 

Good old James. No compromise again. No beating around the bush and pontificating here. No analysis or thinking time  - just a clear instruction to once again do something for our faith. We have to make a choice. Are our tongues to be the instrument of the devil here on earth to be used to hurt and maim others? Or are they the instruments of God, instruments of praise and goodness. It’s a simple choice and there can be no compromise. Is your tongue an instrument of praise or a weapon of destruction?

 

It has been said that some people have such a problem with their tongue that they only open their mouths to change feet. I know that I’ve probably talked my way into trouble with others far more often than I’ve talked my way out. I’m part of the crowd that James is speaking to, maybe you are too. We’ve all seen the impact of gossip and malicious talk. We’ve all seen that the tongue can cut as effectively as any knife. We’ve no cause to dismiss James’s message in this village or in this church. So what can we do about it. James is strong on the problem but not too expansive on the solution.

 

Or is he? For a good clue to the answer, we need to take a sneak preview at next weeks reading, the one that follows this. Verse 13 is not only a good introductory verse for next weeks passage it is also a very effective end for this week. It reads as follows:-

 

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom.”

 

So here lies the answer to our problem with our tongues. If we are wise and understanding of the ways of God then it will show through our good life and deeds (not words) done in humility (not with boasting and bragging attached). If you truly seek God’s wisdom then he will lead you to live a quiet, peace loving life which is characterized by actions (not words) done in humility. Christians must live by actions. Sounds familiar? Of course it is – back to James Chapter 1 “Be doers of the word not merely hearers”.

 

Actions are what God is looking for not thoughtful reflection and theoretical debate. God wants us to change – away from evil and towards him. If we are to keep control of our wayward tongues we must focus on our deeds, our lifestyle, our actions more than on what we say. We need to let the cat get our tongue sometimes. Rather than criticize someone for doing wrong why not quietly and humbly through our actions show them the right way. Rather than respond to a spiteful comment with another in exchange, why not turn the other cheek or return with words of love?

 

Actions not only speak louder than words, they also speak more effectively and more accurately. Don’t talk about it - do it. Christians are often accused of being all talk and no action. We can disprove that one if we take James’s advice. So let’s not allow our tongues be the spark that ignites the next blazing row at home, in the village or in this church. Instead, let’s give our tongues a rest and do some good.

 

 

Tom Crotty