The Harvest of Righteousness – June 16, 2024

Old Testament, James 3:1-18
June 16, 2024

Last week, we read from the second chapter of James.  That’s the place where he related our faith to the good works that we do.  Do you remember?  He said, “What does it ‘profit’ if we have one without the other.  Those two things – what we believe and what we do – go hand in hand.  And he said, (in so many words) “If we don’t live as God’s people, who is anybody going to know that we are God’s people?”

As I reminded you then, James was always practical like that!  Yes, he wrote about faith and spirituality, but he always brought in the practical aspects of whatever subject he was writing about.

Well, today I’m having us move on to Chapter 3.  And yeah, I gave you the verse numbers in the bulletin.  But that was just a sneaky way of saying, “We’re reading the whole chapter!”  (But have no fear!  I did not violate the “20 verse rule of thumb!”)

This chapter is all about our tongues and the words that we say.  And as I begin, I am reminded of the great philosopher who once said – and I think James would agree with this – “Our words are like toothpaste.  Once you squeeze it out of the tube, it’s almost impossible to put it back in there.”  Our words are like that.  Once they come out of our mouths, it’s almost impossible to take them back.  Or as another person said, “Once something is said, it’s hard to ‘unsay’ it!”

Think about that.  Do we not sometimes say things that we wish we could “unsay?”  Sometimes it’s something dumb!  Sometimes I say something to someone that I’ve forgotten I already told them.  Does that ever happen to you?  Does it make you feel dumb like it does me?  And sometimes I realize that in mid-sentence.  And there’s a little voice going off in the back of my head.  And it’s saying, “You’ve already told this person this.”

Or sometimes I answer what I thought they asked, but I really didn’t hear them right.  And sometimes I realize that in mid-sentence!  And there’s that little voice again!  “Wait!  Wait!  That’s not what he was saying!”  That’s why listening is so important.  In fact, as my mother used to say, “Listening is so important, that God gave you two ears, but only one mouth!”

And of course, sometimes what we’d like to unsay is something that’s unkind or even hurtful.  And that’s some of the worst stuff we say that we can’t unsay!  And often that’s something that haunts us later.  But sometimes we realize even that kind of thing in mid-sentence!  And the voice says, “What am I saying to this person?!”

That’s why it’s important to remember another thing my mom used to say.  She would say, “Always be sure to have your brain in gear before you put your mouth in motion.”  Now, I was just a kid when she said it, and I didn’t really know what it meant.  But I do now!  And I think we all do!  “Always be sure to have your brain in gear before you put your mouth in motion.”  In other words, think before you speak. 

And that reminded me of a great acronym I gave you once before, years ago.  Maybe you remember this.  Before you speak, THINK!  And that word “think” is the acronym.  Ask this about what you are about to say.  Is it “True?” (That’s the “T” in Think.)  Is it “Helpful?”  Is it “Important” to say?  Is it “Necessary” to say?” (I want to come back to that one!)  And finally, is it “Kind.”  I first heard that 30 years ago – at least.  And I’ve rarely said it where somebody wasn’t writing it down.  It’s that good!  Is what you’re about to say, True, Helpful, Important, Necessary, and Kind.

And “Necessary” is the one I wanted to highlight.  I’ve said before, that I’ve known people who proudly say, “I’m the kind of person who just says what’s ever on my mind!”  They wear that like a badge of honor!  And when I hear someone say that, I try to say – very carefully – “You know, that’s not always a good thing!”

We need to choose our words carefully.  And we need to choose carefully when we should say something, and when maybe we should not – even if it is on our mind.  Is it necessary to say it?  We Christians have a word for that.  The word is “discernment.”  Do you know that word?  It simply means we are to think about what we say, and we are to choose or to “discern” whether or not we should say it.  We are to think about that toothpaste.  Once it’s out of that tube…

That’s what James is telling us today.  He starts by saying, “Not everybody should be teachers.  For those who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”  That’s’ interesting.  If you think about it, teachers do have a great influence over those they are teaching.  And because of that, they have a greater responsibility to take care in what they say.  And believe me, I’m well aware that the same can be said of preachers.  Maybe even more so!  We have a great responsibility!  And we have to be very careful with our words!

It’s a sobering thing that James couples that with the thought that “we all make many mistakes.  And if anyone makes no mistakes in what they say, they are perfect.”  And I believe that’s hyperbole!  That’s an exaggeration to make a point.  The assumption in that statement is that “nobody is perfect.”  And people with greater influence can make many mistakes to more people.

But teacher or preacher or not, we all make mistakes.  We all say things we’d like to unsay.  And James takes us from there, and he then launches into this idea of the “taming of the tongue.”  That’s what the paragraph heading says in my Bible.  And that means a lot of what we’ve been saying here – choosing words carefully, listening, using our brains, and being “discerning.”  THINK!

James makes some great comparisons here.  He observes that we guide horses – big animals – using small bits in their mouths.  We guide huge ships with relatively small rudders.  And if he had known it at the time, he would have said the same about airplanes.  And the point was that the tongue is a small thing, but can affect big things, even our whole personality!  “With it,” he says, “we can bless our Lord and Father, and with it we can also curse people.”  It’s all the same tongue!  It’s all the same physical mechanics.

All of that leads into his closing, which is again, very practical.  He brings the idea of wisdom into this.  And let me say that wisdom is using our learning and intelligence in a very practical way.  He asks, “Who is wise and understanding among you?”  And James talks about those who are wise in what he calls a “worldly way” – and that means people are wise so they can advance themselves in the world.  But then he calls for us to be wise in what he describes as “the wisdom from above,” or we might say “Godly wisdom.”  And that “Wisdom from above,” he says, “is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without uncertainty or insincerity.”

Those, he says, are the kind of things we should be striving to achieve with our words!  God wants us to seek to be pure, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without uncertainty or insincerity.”  If you really want to be following all of this, it you really care about being careful with how you use your words, that’s a good list!  (It’s almost as good as the acronym THINK!)

And so the result of all this, is what I chose as the title of my sermon for today.  It’s what James calls “The harvest of righteousness.”  He says, “And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

Think of that as a conclusion to everything we’ve said here today, and everything James was saying in this third chapter.  Do we do that with our words?  Do we seek that “harvest of righteousness?”  Does what we say sow peace in others?  I challenge you as we go from this place today to think about that “harvest of righteousness” in all you say.  And think about the toothpaste…

Prayer

Eternal God, help us to seek your wisdom.  Teach us to think carefully and choose carefully what we say.  May the words we use help rather than hurt.  May the words we say sow peace in others.  For we pray in our Savior’s name, Amen.