Pentecost 17
– Series B – Proper 19 (September 16, 2018)
“With Great
Power Comes Great Responsibility” (James 3:1-12)
INI
“With great power comes great responsibility.” So says Uncle Ben. No, not the Uncle Ben of rice product fame. I’m talking about Peter Parker’s uncle. Peter Parker, also known as Spiderman. Ben told Peter that now famous axiom after
Peter began to discover his “Spidey-powers.”
“With great power comes great
responsibility.” That goes for pastor
and teachers in God’s Church, too, because, as James tells us, they “will be
judged with greater strictness.” They have no power of their own ... only the authority of God's Word. It’s important
to get things right when it comes to teaching God’s Word. We need to know the truth well, teach it correctly,
and measure our words carefully so we don’t steer anyone off the right path.
But this is not just for pastors and
teachers. We all need to measure our
words carefully. We have the power of
God’s Word on our lips, too … the power of the Gospel to forgive and to convert
dead hearts. And yet we stumble in our
words. From the same mouth that carries
the blessings of the Gospel comes cursing.
We all stumble in many ways, James says.
There are no perfect people. No
one is able to bridle their whole body, much less that tiny little organ called
the tongue.
James makes the point that there are many small
things that control big things. A tiny
bit can control a horse. A small rudder
controls a huge ship. What other
examples would James use today if he had lived in the 21st
century? Perhaps James might write about
computer programs and how one bad line of code can cause a serious error or
failure in an otherwise large program.
James was also well aware of what a tiny spark can
do in a forest, just like we experienced here earlier this summer. One little spark started the fires to the north
and east of us. Soon, thousands of acres
were engulfed in hellish flames, causing destruction and death. The effects spread well beyond the burn zone,
with ash and smoke for thousands of miles.
And James says, “the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining
the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by
hell.”
The words that come from our tongue have lingering
effects. Gossip and slander. Bullying.
Insults. Condescension. Hurtful, angry words. They can be like a knife that stabs. They can feel like a hand that reaches in and
rips your soul out and throws it on the ground to be stomped on and
ground it into the dust. The tongue is a
restless evil … it doesn’t stop until it gets what it wants. It is a deadly poison … it is a soul destroying
evil, both for the one who misuses their tongue, and for the one who is on the receiving
end. This is deadly in families and in
congregations as the effects spread like smoke from a wildfire; even after
the fire has been put out, the effects linger for days. And it is set on fire by hell … the source of
this evil really is the devil himself. He
loves to cause mayhem, distress, despair, and division. Where we see this, we know Satan is at work.
The Israelites had been given great power: the
very presence of God in their midst and his wonder working to rescue them from
Egypt, bring them through the Red Sea, through the wilderness, and settle them
in the Promised Land. And with great
power came great responsibility: to be a light to the Nations, to witness to
the mercy and compassion of Yahweh. But they were rebellious. They turned away from the Lord. They used their tongues to complain and gripe
against the Lord’s gifts to them. They
used their tongues to worship and praise other gods rather than the one true
God. They used their tongues to curse
the prophets whom God had sent to call them to repentance. And so, God scattered them and sent them off
into exile in Babylon. The prophet
Isaiah foretold this and spoke of the abandonment and loneliness they would
face when God would send them off into a foreign land, away from the land of
promise, away from the temple where God promised that his very real presence
would dwell.
But here in our text, Isaiah says “The Lord God
has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may sustain with a word
him who is weary.” Is Isaiah talking
about himself? No, he seems to be
talking about someone else who is to come.
Someone unique. Someone very
different from the prophets. Bible
scholars over the years have called this section in Isaiah 50 one of Isaiah’s
Servant Songs. Several times, Isaiah speaks
of this great Servant of the Lord who is to come, who would rescue Israel from
their sins. Isaiah gives us another clue
about who this Servant is: “I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks
to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.” Sounds like Jesus. Because it is Jesus.
Jesus had the tongue of those who are
taught … one who had been instructed in the Word of God. Yes, even Jesus – although he was God in the flesh
– still had to grow up and learn the Scriptures. It was clear that he had a keen insight into
those Scriptures as a child. Remember
the account of his experience as a 12 year old in the temple and how the
teachers were amazed at his wisdom.
Isaiah goes on and has the Servant say, “The Lord
God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious.” Jesus also listened carefully to his Father’s
instruction. He was never rebellious, never
stumbled, but he was in word and deed perfect in every way. With great power came great responsibility …
and Jesus used both his power and responsibility to serve you with his very own
life.
Jesus faced both the lash of the whip and the lash
of the tongues of his opponents. Yet he
set his face like flint, even well before the cross. Luke 9:51 says, “When the days drew near for
him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” A face like flint. Rock-steady.
Determined to fulfill his destiny in Jerusalem to die for you and me, to
pay the price for all our sins, including the sins of our tongues.
With his tongue, he sustains with a word those who
are weary …
… Weary from guilt over the way we have misused
our tongues, and he says, “I forgive you.”
… Weary from the way we have been beaten down by
the tongue lashing of others, when you have felt disgraced and spit upon, and
he says, “I love you, no matter what anyone else says to you. You are baptized. You are mine. You are precious to me. You are the apple of my eye.”
The Lord helps you … therefore you
have not been disgraced. Therefore, you
can set your face like flint against the devil as he uses the words of others to
tear you down and tear you apart. You are vindicated by the Servant Jesus who
suffered for you.
With great power comes great responsibility. Not to respond with more hurtful words, but to
respond with the power of a renewed heart and the power of a forgiven, cleansed
tongue. A new heart that God has made
into a fresh spring from which comes words that seek not to harm, but to help …
not to hurt, but to heal … words that seek to encourage, to edify, and to
bless.
INI
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